Lajos Stockler
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Lajos Stöckler (21 January 1897 – 1 June 1960) was a Hungarian Jewish industrialist, who served as a member of the Third and Fourth Jewish Councils which were established following the German invasion of Hungary.[1] During the Szálasi fascist regime,[2] he became de facto head of the Jewish Council of Budapest which administered the Budapest Ghetto. As one of the leaders of the Neologue Jewish community during the World War II, he remains a controversial figure in Hungarian Jewry's history.[3] [4][5]
Biography
Early life
Stöckler was born as the son of Adolf Stöckler and Johanna (Janka), née Steiner. He was married to Magdolna Török, and together they were the parents of sons Gábor (1929) and György (1932).
In 1914, at the age of 17, Stöckler was drafted to the Imperial and Royal Army and fought in the World War I. Stöckler was promoted as a 2nd lieutenant / Military-Major (Hungarian: hadnagy) and sent to the Eastern Front, where he was captured and interned as a prisoner of war in a camp in Irbit, Russia.[6]
In 1930, Stöckler started his own lace-making business with significant financial support from his father-in-law, Béla Török. The lace factory was equipped with English machinery, and due to the significant investment, it operated 24 hours a day at its peak, with approximately 20 employees. The factory was located at 34 Kender utca in Józsefváros (8th district of Budapest; now Aurora utca) later became the family's place of hiding during the Arrow Cross' reign of terror until the building was damaged by Allied bombs. The business was later nationalized but quickly closed, with all property and equipment having been seized by the Communist government.
During the Holocaust
When the Arrow Cross Party took power on 15 October 1944, Samu Stern at first remained the nominal head of the Jewish Council of Budapest albeit in hiding, and during this precarious period Stöckler stepped into leadership roles[2] vacated by others who were in hiding or had fled such as Rezső Kasztner.[7] "He [Stöckler] soon emerged as a gadfly on the council challenging the secrecy with which the top leaders conducted their deliberations and reached decisions for which the entire council were to be made responsible for. He [later] summarised his opposition to the triumvirate in his condemnatory sworn testimony to State Police."[8]
Stöckler and family also deviated from the other members of the Jewish Council of Budapest by refusing to take advantage of the opportunity offered by Regent Miklós Horthy' exemption policies and continued to wear the yellow star in solidarity with the Jewish masses.[8] He is recognized for working tirelessly[8] in his role as the Jewish community's head of the Budapest Ghetto and alongside Raoul Wallenberg on an almost certain daily basis.[9][10]
Post-war life
After the war, he represented Hungarian Jewry both domestically and internationally[11] at the World Jewish Congress, having become President of the Pest Israelite Congregation and the National Office of Hungarian Israelites, as well as head of the National Representation of Hungarian Israelites, forcefully set up by the pro-Soviet regime.[12][13]
In 1948 Stöckler was awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary.[14]
Throughout spring of 1947 he began to publish his memoirs as a series titled ‘Before the Ghetto – under the Ghetto’ in the Hungarian Jewish Weekly Newspaper 'Uj Elet' (New Life). While 7 editions[15] were published the memoir series was abruptly ended without explanation.
On 16 January 1953, Stöckler was arrested[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]alongside co-accused of Miksa Domonkos[8] [16] and László Benedek[12][26] in relation to fabricated charges of allegedly murdering Raoul Wallenberg[12] with Károly Szabó and Pál Szalai[27] as witnesses. All the men were brutally tortured as part interrogations by the State Protection Authority (ÁVH) to extract forced "confessions".[28]
Stöckler was tried in a series of show trials[12] by the Budapest Military Court and the Military Supreme Court. While the implausible charge of Raoul Wallenberg's murder was ultimately abandoned, Stöckler was convicted[12] of foreign currency charges, persistent disloyalty, and unfit to participate in public affairs. He was ultimately sentenced to 5,5 years in prison and fifty percent of his assets were confiscated as penalty.[29] He was subjected to torture and deprivation throughout the period of his incarceration across various ÁVH prisons and then Kőbánya State Prison until his conditional release in December 1954. He received a pardon and was officially "liberated" on 16 January 1955.[29] A subsequent retrial was requested by prosecutors and the Supreme Court of the Hungarian People's Republic acquitted Stöckler (and co-accused) of all charges "in the absence of a crime"[30] on 30 November 1956. All previous judgments and punishments were subsequently repealed.[29]
With significant assistance from international aid agencies HIAS, ADJC and FAJWS (Federation Australian Jewish Welfare Societies), Stöckler emigrated Hungary with wife and mother in-law and arrived in Vienna on 31 May 1957. They arrived in Sydney,[12] Australia in September 1957 and were reunited with both sons. He died shortly thereafter in 1960. [1][31]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 EHRI - European Holocaust Research Infrastructure, Magdalena Sedlicka (2014). "JMP Person list for Jewish Communities Guide". EHRI Portal.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Schmidt, Maria (1990). Kollaboráció vagy kooperáció? A Budapesti Zsidó Tanács [Collaboration or Cooperation? The Jewish Council of Budapest] (in Hungarian). Minerva. ISBN 963-223-438-3.CS1 maint: Unrecognized language (link) Search this book on
- ↑ Meyer, Peter (2012). Jews in the Soviet satellites. Literary Licensing, LLC. ISBN 978-1258390815. Search this book on
- ↑ Dombi, Gabor (2025-06-23). "Class Enemies – Jewish Victims of the 1951 Budapest Deportation" (PDF). National Remembrance Committee (Nemzeti Emlékezet Bizottsága). Budapest (published 2020). Class Enemies – Jewish Victims of the 1951 Budapest Deportation: 51.
- ↑ Magyar Nemzet 03 June 1947 The democratic community party of the Jewish unity organized a flag-raising rally at the City Theater on Sunday. With this, the religious community election struggle began. The huge theater was packed with interested people. Zionist leaflet throwers tried to disrupt the rally. But that didn't work out. Lajos Stockler stated "According to him, the leadership of the religious community cannot afford the luxury of fighting for particular interests when it has to solve the crucial problems of the Jewish university. You cannot deny the results achieved in two years, the reconstruction of Jewish institutions, but you cannot occupy them with a Trojan horse either. He asked them to honor the honest work they had done in the past years"
- ↑ "Pesti Napló (Buda)Pest Daily". 21 Feb 1917. p. 11.
- ↑ "Notice: Sunday, November 21, at 4:30 p.m., the Hungarian Jewish community will hold a joint public meeting in the great hall of the Royal Revü Theater (Erzsébet krt. 31.) regarding the situation of Palestine and European Jewry. Speakers: Lajos Stöckler, president of the National Office of the Israelis". Magyar Nemzet 24 Nov 1945.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Braham, Randolph L. (1981). The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. Vol. 1–2. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-04496-8. Search this book on
- ↑ Ember, Maria (2000). Wallenberg Budapesten [Wallenberg in Budapest] (in Hungarian). Hungary: Városháza. p. 45. ISBN 9639170151.CS1 maint: Unrecognized language (link) Search this book on
- ↑ Letter to Raoul Wallenberg and the Official Extract of the Wallenberg Commemoration Gathering of the Jewish Community of Pest on June 21, 1945 Raoul Wallenberg; Miksa Domonkos; Lajos Stöckler
- ↑ Magyar Nemzet 16 Apr 1946 reported on the front page of the major Parisian magazine Droit et Liberté, it reports the conversation that Endre Sós had on behalf of the paper with Lajos Stöckler, the president of the National Office of Hungarian Israelites, about the fate of Hungarian Jews.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 12.5 Szabó, Róbert (2025). "Anti-Zionism in the show trials in Rákosi era Hungary (1948–1953)". Journal of Modern Jewish Studies. 24: 24–49. doi:10.1080/14725886.2024.2381637 – via Taylor & Francis.
- ↑ "New Problems Loom in Hungary". The Jewish News of Northern California. 1947-07-01. p. 2.
- ↑ "Hungarian Gazette - Official Gazette, June 1948". Hungarian Gazette - Official Gazette. 1948-06-06 / 125-126 (June 1948 125/126). June 1948 – via Arcanum Newspapers.
- ↑ Stöckler, Lajos (1947). "Gettó Előtt - Gettó alatt" [‘Before the Ghetto - under the Ghetto’]. Uj Élet (English: New Life) (22.01.1947, 30.01.1947, 06.02.1947, 13.02.1947, 20.02.1947, 06.03.1947, 17.04.1947 ed.).
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Ember, Maria (1992). Ránk akarták kenni (Translation: They wanted to smear it on us). Héttorony Publishing House, 116 p. + 24 pages of image and document appendix. ISBN 978-9637855412. Search this book on
- ↑ A.A.P (Australian Associated Press) (1953-01-18). "Hungarian Jewish Leader Arrested As Purge Spreads". The Sunday Herald. Australia. pp. Front Page (Cover).
- ↑ "Red Purge of Hungary's Jews Now". The Argus. Melbourne (Australia). 1953-01-19. pp. Front Page (Cover).
- ↑ A.P (Associated Press). "Hungarian Jews End Relief Aid (JOINT / AJDC ends Hungarian relief operations, & arrest of Stöckler Lajos)". The Daily Mirror. Australia. p. 12. Unknown parameter
|orig-date=ignored (help) - ↑ "Budapest announced arrest of Stockler Lajos". Radio Free Europe. 1953-01-20. pp. Encrypted Telex.
- ↑ "Israel to Denounce Russia at U.N". The Hebrew Standard of Australasia. 1953-01-16. pp. Front Page (Cover).
- ↑ "Statement of the World Federation of Hungarian Jews on the Stöckler case". Az Ember (Hungarian) Political Weekly. 1953-01-24.
- ↑ "World Spotlight - Accusing Fingers in the Russian Satellites". The Sunday Herald. 1953-01-25.
- ↑ "Program for Pogrom - BUDAPEST. Hungarian police arrested Lajos Stoeckler, leader of the Hungarian Jewish community". TIME - The Weekly Newsmagazine. 1953-01-26. p. 30.
- ↑ CIA Report 30 April 1953 (Approved for release 2003/09/03 CIA-RDP80-00809A000700220318-0) including radio reports of Lajos’ arrest as part of the Communist “purge of Jews in Hungary” and the accusation he was a “Nazi-Gestapo agent” and expressly carves out Zionism as exempt from the USSR anti-semitism laws.
- ↑ Szabó, Tamás (2012-05-01). "The "murder" of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg - A planned 1953 show trial" (PDF). Hungarian Electronic Library (Hereinafter: MEK) is the first, best-known and most visited online content service of the Hungarian National Museum Public Collection Center National Széchényi Library – via Magyar Elektronikus Könyvtár ((Hungarian Electronic Library (hereinafter: MEK)).
- ↑ Korányi, Erwin K. (2006). Dreams and Tears: Chronicle of a Life. General Store Publishing House. pp. 89–90. ISBN 978-1-897113-47-9. Search this book on
- ↑ Interview with István Domonkos Archived 2007-10-23 at the Wayback Machine, son of Miksa Domonkos who died after the show trial preparations (in Hungarian)
- ↑ 29.0 29.1 29.2 HM HIM Military History Archives, Budapest Metropolitan Archives. Detainee's file number is HU_BFL_XXV_101_b_2_24543. Budapest Military Court sentenced him in the first instance under number 0024/1954 and Military Supreme Court sentenced him in the second instance under number 0039/1954.
- ↑ Final Judgement - The Supreme Court of the Hungarian People's Republic dated 30 November 1956. Cat. 1.00102 /1956-HM HIM c/- Military History Archives
- ↑ "Stockler Lajos". Holocaust Documentation Center and Memorial Collection Public Foundation. Retrieved June 16, 2025.
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