Travels with teddy

Teddy bear with movable arms and legs. Judy Solomon (nee Baneth) received the bear as a gift from her aunt, Jozsefa Fruchter. She remembers taking it with her when her family left Hungary in 1944. It travelled with her through Germany and the DP Camp in Leipheim (near Munich), to Haifa, Israel, where the family lived after the war, and finally to Sydney.

Judy was born 20 August 1942 in Budapest, to Jacov Béla Baneth and Klara (nee Soor). When Judy was about 10 months old, Jacov was taken away to do forced labour (Zwangsarbeit) in a camp in the Soviet Union. In 1944 he was released back to the ghetto where Judy, her mother and maternal grandmother had been living. In 1944, the family secured permits from Raoul Wallenberg to leave Hungary and began travelling with no planned destination. Judy remembers at one point sleeping in a castle in Austria. They were eventually found by US soldiers and taken by truck to a DP camp in Leipheim.

The family stayed in the DP camp from 1945-1948. Judy was very young, so has few memories of the time. They lived in a tiny room in a three-story house with a garden. Judy attended a kindergarten in the camp. With very few possessions after escaping Hungary, the family received parcels from the Jewish community in the United States. Judy remembers her father being very busy in the camp with an official role in the camp administration. He organized a soccer team that played at nearby camps. Jacov had a knack for languages; he spoke German, Hungarian, and English (he taught himself from a book before leaving Hungary), and later he picked up some Russian (from the guards) and Hebrew.

The family immigrated to Israel just after independence was declared in 1948 and lived there for 9 years. When Judy was 16, they decided to come to Australia, where Klara had relatives, arriving 19 March 1957.