HONORING MENAHEM HAYYIM SCHMELZER * 6 the Mishnah, and the siddur ; the tutor also supervised and assisted with their homework . World War II disrupted the Schmelzers’ relatively peaceful life . In 1941, Ferenc Schmelzer was pressed into forced labor . Menahem, along with his mother and brother, were moved to a ghetto by the Hungarian gendarmes, and were later deported — as were most Jews living outside of Budapest . The three Schmelzers were among the lucky few who were sent to Strasshof, an Austrian labor camp, rather than to Auschwitz ; they thus survived the war . Margit Schmelzer was greatly respected by those who were in the Strasshof camp with her . Her peers noted her courage and unfailing courtesy in the face of terrible conditions, as well as her devotion to raising her two sons while under dire circumstances . Ferenc Schmelzer also survived the war, although ill, emaciated, and terribly weakened by his four years of forced labor . Menahem describes this period vividly in his...
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