György was born March 28, 1934 in Budapest, Hungary. He was the only child of middle class Jewish parents. György’s father, Istvan, was an engineer responsible for producing hydraulic grape presses for wineries. His mother, Margit, worked as a legal secretary. The Pick family could trace its history in the Austro-Hungarian Empire back to the early 1700s. They had many close relatives in the city.
In the 1930s, Hungary’s authoritarian government pushed the country into close alignment with Nazi Germany. Hitler’s speeches were broadcast on the radio. Even though György could not understand German, he was disturbed by the anger he heard in the dictator’s voice. Hungary’s anti-Jewish laws were passed between 1938 and 1941. Modeled after Germany’s Nuremberg Laws, they defined Jews in racial terms, excluded Jews from various professions, and severely restricted their participation in economic life. As a result, György's father lost his job. Margit was able to continue working as a legal secretary in the law firm of her uncle, Dr. Pal Kornhauser.
World War II began when Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. In 1940, Hungary officially allied itself with the Axis powers. György’s father was conscripted into a labor battalion. He was sent to the newly-annexed territory of Subcarpathian Rus (part of interwar Czechoslovakia and present-day Ukraine). There, he was forced to build roads for the military. He was released after three months, but was again conscripted in 1943 and 1944. György attended school until March 1944, when German troops occupied Hungary.
In mid-May 1944, the Hungarian authorities, in coordination with the German Security Police, began to systematically deport Hungarian Jews. In less than two months, nearly 440,000 Jews were deported. Most were sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center. Thousands were also sent to the border with Austria to dig military trenches. By the end of July 1944, the only Jewish community left in Hungary was that of Budapest, the capital.
In June, the Picks had to move into special buildings marked with yellow stars, along with other Jews in the capital. All of their belongings were confiscated. That October, the Hungarian fascists, known as the Arrow Cross Party, took power. They began to target the remaining Jews. They sent some on forced marches toward concentration camps and executed others. György’s family hid in a vacant building disguised as a uniform factory. A month later, they, along with the 160 to 170 Jews hiding there, were discovered. At the age of 10, György was placed in a Swiss Red Cross protected orphanage with 500 other children. He soon escaped and returned to his family. After the war, György learned that the children who had remained in the orphanage were killed. Two weeks after this incident, the Picks were sent to the Budapest ghetto. György’s family lived in a building with no water or electricity. The building also housed a number of elderly people from a senior care home. During air raids, everyone living in the building went to the basement for shelter. György and his family remained there during the final siege of the city.
In January, 1945, Soviet troops liberated the ghetto. Approximately 130 of György’s relatives had been killed at Auschwitz-Birkenau, including Margit’s uncle, Dr. Pal Kornhauser. After the war, György remained in Hungary, where he earned a degree in engineering. In 1956, he participated in the Hungarian Revolution against the Soviet-backed Communist government. Once the Soviets crushed the revolution, he fled the country and came to the United States as a political refugee. He earned his Ph.D. in 1965, and then worked for the United States Navy as an aerospace engineer until his retirement in 1995. He and his wife, Leticia Flores Pick, live in Arlington, Virginia.
Why I Volunteer
I regard my volunteering in the US Holocaust Memorial Museum as an important mission. Being a survivor I represent a direct witness and link to the Holocaust for those who visit the Museum. Over the past 29 years I have encountered many people whose visits became more meaningful after they found out that I was a survivor. That fact made the Museum experience for them more real. I enjoy meeting, teaching, and helping people better understand why it is important to visit our institution.