BARNA KISS
Hungarian Rescuer

Photograph of Barna Kiss in front of his Queens NY home, 1985
Barna Kiss was an officer in the Hungarian Army at the outbreak of World War II. In 1942 he was given command of one of three slave labor battalions, each comprised of 214 Jewish men, all marching 1500 miles to the Russian front. His orders were to work the Jews to death.

Instead Kiss looked after the Jews making sure that their feet were bathed each day and that the sick had medical attention. All 214 men in his battalion survived while those in the accompanying battalions died. The commanders of the other battalions were later hanged as war criminals.

Photograph

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