Ara Jeretzian was born in Constantinople in 1918, one of five children, and soon moved with his family to Hungary after they fled the ongoing anti-Armenian violence in the Ottoman Empire. In the 1930s, he joined the youth movement of Hungary’s Fascist Arrow Cross Party, but resigned once the persecution of Jews began. He later became a tailor.
In March 1944, Nazi Germany occupied Budapest, and the city’s Jews were subjected to a curfew, forced into the ghetto, and marked for deportation to death camps in Poland. Jeretzian, whose family had lived through the Genocide of Armenians three decades earlier, quickly recognized the parallels and felt a moral obligation to act.
That fall, as the Soviet army approached Budapest, Jeretzian, just 26 years old, was appointed commander of civil defense in the city’s 6th district. Using his old military uniform and official position, he secured approval to establish a new hospital for the wounded, arguing that the city’s existing hospitals could no longer cope. Together with Hungarian-Jewish psychiatrist Ferenc Völgyesi, he opened a clinic in the basement of 1 Zichy Jeno Street, which became both a hospital and a refuge for those being persecuted by the Nazis.
Jeretzian moved into the basement hospital with several loyal associates and helped staff it with highly skilled professionals. Anyone being hunted by the Nazis could find shelter there, whether as a patient or a member of the staff. He procured false papers, official documents, medical equipment, and food, and even used forged letters and stolen government seals to protect those hiding inside.
The clinic provided free medical care to district residents and was later turned into a full-fledged military hospital during the siege of Budapest in November 1944. Its reputation and importance helped shield it from deeper scrutiny, even as reports circulated that Jews were being hidden there. In total, Jeretzian helped save 440 Jews, including 40 doctors and their families.
After the city was overtaken by the Soviet army on February 13, 1945, Jeretzian was arrested and spent about six months in Soviet custody before eventually being freed. In the early 1960s, he moved to Vienna and remained in contact with very few of the people he had saved.
In 1981, Ara George Jeretzian became the first of more than 20 Armenians to be recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations, an honor given to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. He died in 2010 at the age of 92.
This story was published by Jerusalemite-Armenian Kegham Balian on X, with further information from the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative.
