Fallible protection Schutzbrief: Swedish Red Cross protection pass

Vera Seder (nee Gardos) was born in Budapest, Hungary on 7 November 1934 to Laszlo and Ilona. For the better part of the war, the Gardos family managed to live peaceably at 21 Szemere Street. However, a few months before her tenth birthday in 1944, Laszlo was arrested and sent to Taksony. He managed to send Vera a birthday card, which was the last time she ever heard from him.

Vera and Ilona moved into a house paid for by the Swedish Red Cross, but they were soon evicted and deported to the Jewish ghetto in Budapest. They tried to stay out of sight and quiet, often hiding in a bunker. On 21 December 1944, Ilona was arrested while trying to visit her parents. She was taken to the banks of the river Danube and shot.

Vera managed to find her way to her grandparents and her cousin Lorant, with whom she lived through to the end of the war and afterwards.

This Schutz pass was issued in 1944 to “Mr and Mrs Lorant Kiss” and daughter Vera. Ilona paid an exorbitant price for this protection pass, asking her cousin Lorant to "stand in" as the father figure in order for the family to secure the papers. The pass allowed Ilona and Vera to move into a crowded Swedish Red Cross safe-house with a number of other Jewish families. However, the protection was not infallible and in mid-November 1944 they were evicted and incarcerated in the Budapest ghetto.