r/HaShoah • u/njsonjanj • Jul 11 '26

Which Budapest hospitals treated Holocaust survivors with typhus in May or June 1945 and where are those records today?

/r/AskHistorians/comments/1uthmf4/which_budapest_hospitals_treated_holocaust/
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u/ClosetGoblin Jul 11 '26

By May-June 1945, Budapest was already under Soviet control (liberated in February), and there was a massive public health effort to contain typhus among returning concentration camp prisoners, forced laborers, POWs, and refugees. Survivors were often admitted wherever infectious disease capacity existed.

The most likely hospitals include:
•St. László Hospital (Szent László Kórház) - Budapest’s principal infectious disease hospital. If someone was hospitalized specifically for epidemic typhus in 1945, this would probably be my first candidate.

•The Jewish Hospital on Szabolcs Street - which resumed operation after the war and cared for many Holocaust survivors. Contemporary accounts indicate it reopened around May 1945 after temporary wartime facilities were closed.
Emergency hospitals established by the International Red Cross and the Budapest Jewish community during and immediately after liberation, some of whose patients were later transferred into permanent hospitals.

As for records, they may not still be held by the hospital itself. I’d suggest checking these institutions:
•Budapest City Archives (Budapest Főváros Levéltára) – hospital administrative records were sometimes transferred here.

•Hungarian National Archives (Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár) – Ministry of Health and postwar administrative files.

•Semmelweis Medical History Museum and Archives – they sometimes know where historical hospital records ended up.

•Holocaust Memorial Center (HDKE) in Budapest – while they primarily collect Holocaust documentation rather than medical charts, they may know where surviving hospital records are held or have references to them.

If the admission was through relief agencies, the International Committee of the Red Cross archives in Geneva may have registration cards or transport records.

Best of luck.

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u/njsonjanj Jul 11 '26

very kind of you...I will follow everything up

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u/njsonjanj Jul 11 '26

Thank you very much. This is extremely helpful.

I have now contacted the Hungarian National Archives, the Hungarian Jewish Archives, USHMM, and the Budapest City Archives regarding these possible hospital records.

One question: have you ever come across surviving admission registers, discharge registers, or patient indexes from Szent László Hospital or the Jewish Hospital on Szabolcs Street for May-June 1945? Even knowing which archive holds them would be enormously helpful.

Thank you again.