Fr. Mihaly Kiss, SDB, "Righteous among the Nations"

Fr. Mihaly Kiss, SDB, Posthumously awarded Righteous among the Nations by Israel’s Yad Vashem

(ANS – Budapest – December 21, 2022) – A posthumous Righteous among the Nations medal has been awarded to Fr. Mihaly Kiss, SDB, who hid Jewish youths in the Salesian house in Old Buda during the Holocaust. The award was presented by Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjen and Israel’s ambassador to Budapest, Yakov Hadas-Handelsman, to the Salesian provincial, Fr. Janos Andrasfalvy, on December 8 in Budapest.

There were 100 guests present, among them also the papal nuncio to Hungary, Abp. Michael Wallace Banach; Shlomo Koves, chief rabbi of the Association of Hungarian Jewish Communities; the ambassadors of Switzerland, Sweden, and Poland, members of the Salesian Family in Hungary, including a past pupil who is a member of the Parliament, and some other members of Parliament.

The character of Fr. Mihaly Kiss, Salesian director of the house of Obuda (1940-1946), was presented by the former provincial and former director of Obuda, Fr. Bela Abaham, by historian and museologist Judit B. Varga, and by Fr. Andrasfalvy.

In his welcome speech, Mr. Semjen stressed that the Holocaust showed not only unbridled evil in its stark reality, but also the power of human greatness. “We must remember all those who, as Christians, risked their lives to save people,” said the Deputy Prime Minister. Mr. Semjen also said that the memory of the Holocaust was not simply a reminder of the most senseless and terrible act of the 20th century and of humanity, but a point of reference that still defines the identity of the people of Europe today.

Ambassador Hadas-Handelsman said that the Righteous among the Nations medal is the highest expression of gratitude from the Jewish people and the State of Israel for the humanity and courage of non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews.

“Mihaly Kiss truly deserves the recognition for his extraordinary courage in helping Jewish children, hiding them from their persecutors in the chapel of the Salesians’ monastery in Old Buda, and risking his own life in the process,” said the ambassador.

He noted that Fr. Kiss’s being a priest makes his actions all the more significant, given the interreligious relations at the time.

Fr. Andrasfalvy emphasized in his welcome speech that the life of Fr. Kiss is a particularly important example for the Hungarian Salesians. He recalled that Fr. Kiss, as the head of the Obuda community during the Arrow Cross regime (October 1944-March 1945), took multiple people of Jewish background into the monastery, saving their lives.

On their way to the brickyard collection point, several Jews “jumped” into the chapel, which was always open. When the Arrow Cross troops found out that the Salesians were hiding Jewish youths, they raided the house, dragged away the children they found there, shot them, and dumped their bodies into the Danube, he said.

Fr. Kiss and his companions were repeatedly beaten and tortured by the Arrow Cross, which probably contributed to the priest’s early death.

Fr. Andrasfalvy also stated that Fr. Kiss was the third Hungarian Salesian to receive the Righteous among the Nations award.

The former provincial, Fr. Abraham, recalled that Fr. Kiss was born on September 7, 1891, in Gyorszentmarton. In 1906, he entered the Salesians as a novice; he was ordained in Krakow in 1916. He worked as director of the house in Rakospalota, then became head of the Salesian school in Nyergesujfalu. Starting in 1940, he was director in Obuda. His diary, which he kept from autumn 1944 to early 1945, is an important memoir that shows the greatness of its author and contains poignant descriptions of the horrors of war and the atrocities of the Arrow Cross.

Fr. Abraham noted that the Salesian Congregation was dissolved under Communism, but their documents, including Fr. Kiss’s diary, were accidentally left behind. Someone had taken them to the archives, where no one dared touch them during the decades of Communism; they were returned to the Salesians after the fall of the Communist regime.

Source: NeoKohn