Talking with angels - Documents

Born on 9 May1929 in Budapest, she was 15 years old when she found refuge in Katalin with her mother and her aunt. Until June 1944 she was attending Klara Ipari Iskola, the school where Fr. Paul Klinda was a teacher. It was he who had the idea of setting up a military uniform workshop in Katalin to hide Jewish women.

Excerpts from her testimony collected in 2009 by Yad Vashem for the recognition of Gitta Mallasz as Righteous Among the Nations:

“We worked there. Everyone who could had to bring a sewing-machine. My mother had one at home, and it was brought to Katalin.
We were sitting in the workroom, lines of five women and other rive and so on. It was a huge room and lots of shirts for the army had to be sewn. Some women taught the others to use the sewing-machines. And so, it could be done very professionally... There was a fantastic spiritual atmosphere in this factory. We overdid the number of shirts we'd been given to make, and then we started to sing, all of us. And really doing it in speed and we enjoyed it... it was as if you would go to the cinema, right in the midst of the horrible times that we had.”

Beyond the historical facts, this testimony brought to life, more than 60 years later, the extraordinary atmosphere in Katalin, where joy was palpable despite the danger that loomed over them. She had discovered the source of that joy:

“I was also a member of a small group of girls: Marianne Littkei, Eva Rosenberg, and Marianne Fränkel – so we, the 4 of us, we used to go around the garden – it was a huge garden – and looking between the bushes for Lili, Hanna and Gitta. They met in Gitta's Little house. And once Lili got us from the back. She looked at us and said: "Now, you want to hear the story ? Sit down. I will tell you. But never again you go into the bushes to look for us!" In fact, it was a spiritual moment that they shared.
From there, whenever we felt like, we just knocked the door and asked if we could meditate with them. Sometimes they said: "No, children, we are busy, stay out". But somehow during the week, it developed into better human relationship. And we started, teenager girls, sort of looking for the trio of women into bushes. That was our main conversation, other than boys. That's another one! It shows that horrible things happening, and life goes on. And young people make it go.”