Jump to content

Draft:Lajos Stockler

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  • Comment: Still fails WP:ANYBIO, requires significant coverage in multiple independent verifiable secondary sources. Dan arndt (talk) 06:24, 1 November 2024 (UTC)

Stöckler Lajos, was born 21 January 1897, and son of Adolf & Johanna (also shortened Janka or Hani) née Steiner. He was husband to Magdolna (shortened ‘Manci’) née Török and together they were the parents of Gabor and György.

Lajos was an industrialist, and member of the Third and Fourth Jewish Councils. During the Szálasi fascist regime, he became de facto head of the Jewish Council and one of the leaders of the “large” ghetto of Budapest and a controversial[1] figure in Hungarian Jewry’s history.

During the most precarious period, Lajos stepped into leadership roles vacated by others who had either fled or were in hiding. He soon emerged as a gadfly (stirrer) on the council challenging the secrecy with which the top leaders conducted their deliberations and reached decisions for which the entire council were to be made responsible for. He [later] summarised his opposition to the triumvirate in his condemnatory sworn testimony to State Police.[2]

Lajos and family also deviated from the other members of the council by refusing to take advantage of the opportunity offered by the Regents’ exemption policies and continued to wear the yellow star in solidarity with the Jewish masses. He is recognised for working tirelessly in his role as head of the Budapest ghetto.

After the war, he became President of the Pest Israelite Congregation and the National Office of Hungarian Israelites, and head of the National Representation of Hungarian Israelites, forcefully set up by the soviet regime.

In January 1953, he was arrested on fabricated charges of murdering Raoul Wallenberg in 1945; and brutally tortured. He was convicted, but released in early 1954. In 1956 he emigrated to Australia.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Jews in the Soviet satellites by Peter Meyer
  2. ^ The Politics of Genocide Randolph L. Braham