Olga Kay lit one of six torches at the State Opening Ceremony of Holocaust Remembrance Day at Yad Vashem in 2022 Olga Kay (née Czik) was born in 1926 in the town of Ujfeherto was supported by her father Eliyahu's shoe store the family was deported to the village of Simapuszta I took a small bundle: clothes and some jewelry when enough people were concentrated there we were taken on foot to the Nyíregyháza ghetto Olga and her family were deported in cattle cars to Auschwitz "When we were at the border my father said we are going to die.' He took the jewelry we had and threw it in a bucket full of feces so that the Germans would not find it." most of the family was taken straight to the gas chambers and murdered there Among the victims were Olga's parents Eliyahu and Lea; her sister Margaret and Margaret's daughter Suzie; and her older sister Bella's son Asher Olga and her sister Eva underwent a selection: "We were taken to a room with other women where we were stripped and shaved from head to toe," and then were sent to work in Auschwitz they were sent to the Kaufering concentration camp in Germany The Russian prisoners were taken to bunkers and the Jewish girls were taken to another building Olga and Eva were transferred to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp There was no time to go to the outside toilets we did not talk to each other about what was going to happen on 15 April 1945 – I remember his face – a soldier came through the door and said we were liberated I fell and crawled on my knees and came back without food." Olga's sisters Adele and Bori survived in the Ravensbrück camp Olga and Bella were taken to Sweden to recuperate where Olga met her husband and started a family my first thought was: This is my victory over Hitler Olga and her family followed their daughter to live in Israel five grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren The Yad Vashem website had recently undergone a major upgrade The page you are looking for has apparently been moved We are therefore redirecting you to what we hope will be a useful landing page For any questions/clarifications/problems, please contact: webmaster@yadvashem.org.il there was a small Hungarian village that was very proud of its sour cherries tall cherry trees lined the streets and provided welcome shade in the summertime When communism came to Hungary after World War II the government introduced big collective farms and Hungarian scientists had to decide which cherries the farms should grow "They hired some breeders to go around to all the villages and collect varieties," says Amy Iezzoni a cherry breeder at Michigan State University Those would go to these big cooperative farms." Újfehértó's trees won this beauty contest. Hungarian fruit experts gave them a name — Újfehértói Fürtös, which means "Bunched of Újfehértó" — and distributed cuttings to orchards across the country. It became Hungary's most widely planted type of sour cherry — and we should tell you, the people of Eastern Europe are passionate about sour cherries These Balaton tart cherry trees at Michigan State University's Clarksville Research Station are descendants of trees in Újfehértó just like we have wine tastings," says Iezzoni This Hungarian cherry is different from America's dominant sour cherry more suited to picking by hand and eating fresh One day in the early 1980s, Iezzoni arrived in Hungary and saw Újfehértói Fürtös for the first time. She was on a voyage of sour cherry discovery, collecting pollen and cuttings from orchards and scientific research institutes. As I described in a story last week she's using some of these collections in her breeding program so that they're less vulnerable to Michigan's occasional late spring freeze But Iezzoni also wondered if Americans could "become familiar with a totally different kind of cherry." So she hatched a plan to introduce this particular Hungarian variety into the United States "I asked the Hungarians what we should name it; Újfehértói Fürtös doesn't work," says Iezzoni They wanted a name with some link to Hungary about the only thing an American can pronounce is Lake Balaton," Iezzoni continues "So we named it after Lake Balaton." (Lake Balaton is nowhere near the village of Újfehértó; the lake lies in the western corner of Hungary; the village is far to the east Michigan State University and scientific institutes in Hungary jointly released the Balaton variety in 1998 Many Michigan cherry farmers are growing it, and in summer, you can find Balaton cherries at farmers markets across Michigan. Trees are available for sale from half a dozen commercial nurseries It's split between the Enterprise for Fruit Growing and the Fruit Station back at the cherry's home Become an NPR sponsor By Mike Knowles2024-08-05T17:31:00+01:00 change may be coming to parts of the apple business in Hungary and consolidation of supply means the country’s fresh apple trade has a bright future As in most of central and eastern Europe’s former communist countries Hungary’s apple growers have tended to focus far more on the processing sector as much as two-thirds of the national crop is turned into apple juice concentrate more of those growers have managed to invest in better-performing varieties which means they can target the higher-value fresh market Hail nets now cover around 10-15 per cent of Hungary’s 22,000ha of apple production and this has been instrumental in saving those crops from summer hail storms Other equipment has also played a vital role for example wind machines to combat spring frosts Hungary’s fresh apple offer has gradually expanded coalescing around a smaller number of producer organisations (POs) with access to better-performing cultivars and the technical wherewithal to guarantee supply to modern retail chains – among them Spar Hail nets and wind turbines like the ones on this orchard in Újfehértó have made a big difference to growers’ fortunes there were big POs with big apple orchards,” says Ferenc Takács (seen in the main picture above) a research scientist at the Fruitculture Research Institute of the University of Debrecen and one of the country’s most experienced apple industry experts the political upheaval that led to the fall of communism in 1990 precipitated a sudden removal of state structures – including government ownership of all commercial apple orchards – that previously held so much of Hungary’s agricultural economy together “We produced close to one million tonnes per year back then,” Takács recalls every member of the PO took their fields back from the government At the moment we can produce half a million tonnes per year but in 2018 we produced close to 800,000 tonnes export-focused marketing approach was negligible And while today Hungary exports very little of its apples it does appear to have reclaimed some level of coordination and commercial solidarity among its thousands of growers which is too much when you compare it with the situation in Poland or Italy,” Takács suggests there are five or six huge and very important ones With the help of subsidies from the EU and the Hungarian government high-tech orchards have sprung up in the last ten to 15 years Takács reckons more than 3,000 hectares have been converted in the last decade Újfehértó is in the north-eastern county of Szabolcs-Szatmar-Bereg which produces more than 60 per cent of Hungary’s apples And it’s not just the structural aspects of those orchards that have been altered The apples themselves were ripe for improvement “When we started to plan these new modern orchards there is a wide range of popular new Gala clones like Schnico Red as are new Jonagold clones like Red Jonaprince Takács believes this is a smart move on the part of growers and one which will lock in new value and eventually convince buyers to pay more “I think the market always needs new types of apple,” he argues “It’s a good marketing tool to enhance the consumption.” For growers who do invest in new varieties the pressure to secure better returns is intense Whether or not they do depends largely on the producer organisations themselves who must balance the supermarkets’ desire to set attractive prices for their shoppers – sometimes via low-price promotions – and the need to cover the cost of production Hungary’s apple growers are quietly confident ahead of their 2024/25 season means some balance could return to what was previously a one-sided commercial equation He concludes: “I think if we are able to manage the market situation smartly Prognosfruit, the annual meeting of apple and pear industry leaders, takes place on 7-9 August 2025 in Budapest. More details at prognosfruit.eu Site powered by Webvision Cloud Several wagons of a freight train derailed between Hajdúhadház and Újfehértó Train traffic is suspended on this section due to technical rescue Mávinform reported on the railway company’s website this morning MÁV said that the restoration of the track section will take several days It will probably take several days to restore the railway track after the accident of a freight train derailed between Hajdúhadház and Újfehértó, said the head of the Debrecen regional directorate of MÁV Zrt Attila Hadnagy said that nine of the 35 wagons of a freight train carrying iron ore from Záhony via Hegyeshalom to Austria derailed it completely blocked the electrified double-track section of the route Both tracks have been made impassable and the overhead line system has also been severely damaged, the expert said. He noted that the damage could be HUF hundreds of millions, napi.hu reports Mr Hadnagy added that no one was injured in the accident and passengers are transported by replacement buses between Hajdúhadház and Újfehértó The police and the railway safety service of MÁV Zrt are investigating the cause of the accident and website in this browser for the next time I comment Y"},"category":false,"taxonomy":{"active":false,"name":"category"}},"markup":{"custom_html":true,"wpp-start":"","wpp-end":"<\/ul>","title-start":"","title-end":"<\/h2>","post-html":"{thumb} {title} {stats}<\/span>{excerpt}<\/p><\/li>"},"theme":{"name":""}} You have successfully joined our subscriber list © 2025 DailyNewsHungary | All rights reserved