Appendix 3

Protocol II of 22 May 1882, 1:15 A.M. in Nagyfalu.
Interrogation by the Examining Magistrate Bary.

"Did you know the daughter, Esther, of Frau Johann Solymosi? If so, what did she look like?"
"I knew Esther Solymosi by sight, but I only knew that she was the daughter of Mrs. Solymosi. The other daughter, Sophie, I knew well. The younger sister I only knew by sight, she looked almost like the older sister, only she was smaller."
"How was Esther dressed at the time and did she have something in her hand when she came in?"
"She had a worn-out white scarf on her head, a red scarf at her neck and she was wearing a light-colored jacket and a blue skirt. She had an old yellow scarf in her hand; my father asked her where she had been and what she was carrying in the scarf, and she said that she had been in the Kohlmayer arcade where Frau Andreas Huri, whom she was working for, had sent her to get paint."
"Did your parents know Esther?"
"They knew her, because they spoke to her then by name, and I also knew that she was called Esther; until then I only knew that she was the daughter of Mrs. Solymosi and was Sophie's sister and that she was working for Mrs. Huri."
"What happened with Esther on the Saturday on which she came into your father's apartment?"
"At my father's request she took the candlesticks from the table and put them on the chest, after she got up on a chair."
"Who was in the room at the time?"
"My father, my mother, my little Geschwister [= siblings, which would be an unlikely term for English speakers to use to indicate their own collective brother/s and/or sister/s, but it is a very common noun in German] Samu and Rószi and I."
"What happened with Esther next?"
"After she had put the five candlesticks on top of the chest, a Jewish beggar came in, who had already come to us the day before (427) with two women beggars and a two- to three-year-old boy, and they were all staying with us till Sunday. What the beggar's name was I don't know, I only know that he came from Lök and was tall, had a black beard and was tan: he said to Esther that she should go with him into the synagogue and when she refused, he grabbed her by the hand and led her out of our apartment."

"Did you and your parents follow the beggar?"
"My parents stayed in the room, but I went after the beggar and saw how he went into the synagogue with Esther. After a while I heard screaming in the synagogue, I heard three or four cries for help, just like if someone had called out: 'Help, people!' Then I ran to the synagogue door but this was locked; now I looked through the keyhole, and since the key wasn't in the hole, I saw that Esther was lying on the floor in her slip while her clothes were on the table. The foreign ritual-slaughterers from Téglás and Tarczal and the beggar were holding the girl pressed to the floor and our present ritual-slaughterer Salomon Schwarz was cutting her in the neck with a knife that was somewhat longer and much broader than a regular table knife [6]

He made a cut in her neck, and then the two foreign schächter and the beggar lifted the girl up, but Salomon Schwarz held two bloody bowls, one after the other, under her head, in them the blood was flowing, which they poured into a large pan. Then they dressed the girl again. While they were dressing the girl, four other Jews came out of the inner part of the synagogue: Samuel Lustig, Abraham Braun, Lazar Weißstein, and Adolf Junger and stood around the body of the girl. Now I went back to the room and told my parents what I'd seen. They had just sat down at the table and begun eating; when I started to tell them about it, my mother said to me that I should be quiet."
"Did you still go back then into the synagogue?"
"No, I ate with my parents at noon, until after about an hour, when the Jewish beggar came out of the synagogue and said to me that I should lock the door. I went out and saw how the schächter from Téglás and Tarczal and Salomon Schwarz were leaving. I found the key in the window of the hall, and without looking into the inner part of the synagogue, I came back out and locked the outer door. In the hall I didn't see the body of Esther any longer, nor did I see any traces of blood any more."
"Where then did you carry the key?"
"Into the room and hung it on a nail."
"How long did the key hang there?"
"Until five in the afternoon, then I opened the door again; at first, (428) the three schächter and the former schächter Emanuel Taub, Hermann Rodenberg, and Jacob Süßmann came. Later, several more came, whose names I can no longer recall."
"Where was the body of Esther hidden?"
"That, I don't know"
"Why didn't you tell all this at your first interrogation?"
"I was afraid that my father would kick me out of the house then."
"What made you make a confession yesterday, when you came to Nagyfalu with the Security Commissar and another gentleman? Did anyone threaten you or force you to do this?"
"No one threatened me, no one forced me, and I spoke the truth out of my own free will, and just as I've now told it."

Read, certified, and signed.
Moritz Scharf      Joseph Bary, Examining Magistrate

Copyright 2001 by R. Belser. Reproduction in whole or in part without express written permission of the translator is not permitted. All rights reserved.