During the Second World War, there were a huge number of people who were executed for
their religious beliefs or their heritage.
The Nazis and pro-Nazi groups persecuted millions of people, and many were stolen from their
homes and were deported to concentration camps.
The conflict was the deadliest in world history, and the toll on civilian life was much greater
than the military cost to life.
Millions were killed, and still today many of the stories of people slaughtered by the
Germans remain untold.
There was no holding back, as even the most peaceful people were rounded up and many nuns
and monks, and even priests were executed in their congregations, or inside of concentration
camps such as Dachau.
It was a horrific time of persecution, and one woman who was executed for her actions
in trying to save a number of people from their deaths was Sara Salkahazi.
She was a Hungarian Catholic religious sister, who on the banks of the River Danube, was
shot by members of a pro-Nazi Hungarian group.
Join us today as we look at the horrific execution of the Nun that saved 100s from death.
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Sara Salkahazi was born in Kassa which is now found in Slovakia, on the 11th May 1899.
Her mother and father owned a hotel there which was named after the family, and they
were of German origin.
However tragedy hit Sara at a young age as when she was two her father died.
She was described as ‘a tomboy with a strong will and a mind of her own,’ and after completing
her schooling she earned a degree as an elementary school teacher.
But despite this, she then went to work as a book binder and an apprentice.
She had many other jobs and even worked inside a military shop.
Then she became a journalist, and she worked for and edited the official paper of the National
Christian Socialist Party of Czechoslovakia, and at this time she was not entirely religious.
She would later find her calling, but at the time she even outright denied God and she
could have been considered to have been atheist.
She did get engaged also at one point to a man, however she ended this engagement rather
quickly.
But then at some point, Sara’s religious ideas changed.
She would later join the Sisters of Social Service, which had been founded by Margit
Slachta in 1912.
This was a Roman Catholic religious group of women from Hungary, and they paid special
devotion to the Holy Spirit.
The nuns promoted worker’s rights and the well being of women and their children, and
the founder was inspired by the issues in society and the economy following the First
World War, as thousands of people were living in poverty and in terrible conditions as the
conflict ripped through Europe.
Hungary itself had lost around 60% of it’s territory, and Slachta and her members would
dedicate themselves to God by vows, and they involved themselves in the daily struggles
of the poor.
They wore simply grey suits, and their aim was to help as many people as they could,
and they provided charity to the poor, and they founded schools to train social workers,
and led many different women’s movements.
But Sara at the time was not the most pious woman, and at first they refused to accept
the journalist who was a chain smoker, but in 1929 she joined their congregation, and
the following year she took vows.
Her first assignment in the order was at the Catholic Charities Office where she supervised
charity work, and also managed the religious bookstore, and she even published leaflets
and propaganda for the group.
The Catholic Bishop’s conference of Slovakia requested that Sara organise all the various
Catholic women’s groups to become the National Catholic Women’s association, which then
established the National Girls Movement.
Sara Salkahazi became a director of this movement, and she was behind the building of the first
Hungarian college for working women.
However at the time across Europe, there was a huge wave of antisemitism and pro-Nazi beliefs
sweeping across Europe and many different countries.
The same was said to be happening in Hungary, and Sara to protest against the rising Nazi
ideology, changed her last name slightly to make it sound more Hungarian and less German.
She continued to work even as the Second World War broke out, and she opened homes for working
girls, and continued to organise training courses for women.
She even managed to write her own play, and she was a woman who’s unbelievable energy
made many very weary.
Some of the sisters thought she was trying to attract attention to herself, but this
was not the case.
Many believed that she was not entirely devoted, and they refused to allow her to renew her
temporary vows, and she even considered leaving at one point.
She was not allowed to make her vows permanent, but she continued to live the life of a Sister
anyway, and she even considered going to join the Hungarian Benedictines in Brazil, however
the Second World War would get in the way.
As the Second World War rampaged through different countries, in Hungary they became a member
of the Axis powers and found themselves allied with Fascist Italy and also Nazi Germany.
They relied on the two to pull itself out of depression, but many across Hungary possessed
the same ideology and beliefs that the Nazis had.
There was mass persecution, and by the end of the war between 450,000 and 600,000 Hungarian
Jews had been killed, with many being sent to Nazi concentration camps to face their
death.
Sara would open up during the war The working girls homes, and int these she would provide
safe haven and refuge for Jews who were being persecuted by the Hungarian Nazi Party.
In 1943, she managed to smuggle a Jewish refugee from Slovakia disguised in the sister’s
habit, and the women’s son also was smuggled to safety.
They were taken from the sister’s house in Kassa to Budapest where they were housed
temporarily.
The Gestapo were weary of the women inside of the religious order, and they did search
the house a number of times as they believed they were hiding Jews.
But Sara continued to hide and smuggle Jews to safety, and it’s believed that around
100 people were helped by her, and by her actions.
She was the sister responsible for a House, and she made a pledge to God that she was
willing to also sacrifice herself to the Gestapo and the Germans, to make sure that the other
sisters were not harmed during the war.
So she was willing to die to save her other women.
However the house that Sara was working inside of was eventually betrayed.
She was sheltering more Jews, however one day the house was stormed by members of the
Pro-Nazi Arrow Cross Party.
At the time, Sara was not in the house, and the Jews were arrested and rounded up.
Sara heard that her house had been raided, and she could have fled for her own safety,
however she did not and she decided to return.
But despite this, she was then arrested also and she was gathered along with the people
she had saved.
On the 27th December 1944, on the banks of the Danube River, Sara was gathered with four
Jewish women and a Christian co-worker who had been helping her.
She was stood opposite a group of Hungarian executioners who were stood armed with their
rifles.
On the banks of the River that was flowing, the firing squad were then given the order
to fire, and they quickly fired into Sara Salkahazi and the other women that were there.
Their execution had not been planned, it was quickly and hastily arranged and there had
been no trial.
Sara had been indiscriminately mown down by the hail of bullets by the Pro-Nazi captors,
and her body would never be recovered.
It’s assumed that it was pushed into the river, along with the other people’s she
was executed with.
Sara would later be beatified by Pope Benedict XVI, and It was said ‘She was willing to
assume risks for the Persecuted, in days of great fear.
Her martyrdom is still topical and presents the foundations of our humanity.’
There are calls also for her to become a saint, and a Rabbi would say how, ‘I know from
personal experience how dangerous and heroic it was in those times to help Jews and save
them from death.
Originating in her faith, she kept the commandment of love until death.’
Another writer stated, ‘"The honor bestowed by Pope Benedict XVI on Sister Sara Salkahazi
for risking and eventually giving her life to save Jews in peril is an important statement
by the church.
It is unfortunate that there were not more individuals like Sister Sara, but her example
must be held up to demonstrate how lives can be saved when good people take action to confront
evil."
Sara Salkahzi’s motto was ‘Here I am, send me,’ and over the years during the
Second World War she tried to save as many people as she could from persecution and evil.
She was a woman who was defiant in her beliefs and ideas, and she would try to do what was
best for human kind in the face of one of the most oppressive regimes the world has
ever seen.
Her actions were brilliant and remarkable, and her story is one which deserves to be
remembered.
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