John Dobai

John Dobai was born 1934 in Budapest. Both parents – Zoltan and Jonka - came from Jewish families who had changed their Jewish names to Hungarian sounding names. But John grew up not knowing that he was Jewish as his family was very well assimilated and he was even baptised Roman Catholic and an altar boy. His parents who were passionate about sports met at a rowing club. His father had served in WW I and had been a prisoner of war in Russia. When he returned to Hungary he started working in a bank and benefited from his various language skills. In 1941 when Hungary declared war on the Soviet Union he was first called up but then demobilised because of being Jewish (similar race laws to Nuremberg laws were introduced) and detained at a labour camp. As the camp was run by Hungarian army John’s father described the conditions as sufferable. 

When in March 1944 the German army invaded Hungary circumstances for the Hungarian Jews changed immediately. John and his mother had to leave their flat and move into a villa with many other Jewish families and wear the yellow star. And when correspondence with her siblings outside Budapest became impossible she understood that there was a serious imminent danger. She got false papers and took John into the countryside where it was organised for him to be hidden first with a peasant family and then in a children’s home. He had to return to his mother when he got sick but learnt later that a couples of days after his leaving the Jewish children had been shot by either Hungarians or Germans. However one day he and his mother with other Jews were marched to the station in Budapest but on the way some events made allowed them to escape and they started hiding in an abandoned block of flats. His father – when the labour camp was dissolved – found them there. Following a rumour he obtained papers placing him and his family under the protection of Sweden (organised by Raoul Wallenberg) and they hid in a Swedish owned house where they awaited the arrival of the Red Army (the siege of Budapest began in December 1944). They found another apartment to hide and waited for the end of the war and John remembers not being able to leave the house and the permanent suffering from hunger. 

After life returning to normal John attended a famous boarding school in Sárospatak. Two of his father’s friends had emigrated to the UK before the war and helped the father to find work and organising the trip (via Prague and then plane to Northolt). The whole family adapted well to life in Tynemouth. John attended boarding school. His mother stayed in contact with her mother and siblings in Hungary and Yugoslavia. In 1953 the parents opened a boarding house in Tynemouth where people came to enjoy their holidays. When his father had to change jobs they moved to London. John studied chemistry at Durham university and became a technical manager in a paint factory. Later business travel brought him to Eastern European countries where he still feels a cultural connection. He has taken his daughters and grandchildren to Hungary for them to understand his background. He has not experienced anti-Semitism in the UK but thinks due his early experiences he is very sensitive to discrimination and unfairness in general. He identifies as British European and cultural Jewish and is speaks for the Holocaust Educational Trust. His message to future generations is to fight discrimination where you encounter it.