Hungary is seeking the extradition from Australia of a man accused of killing a young Jewish stonemason in Budapest in 1944. Until Dezso Balasz died in 1970, he sought to have Charles Zentai, a Hungarian who lived in Australia, tried as one of the killers of his son, Peter Balasz.
JTA has received a copy of a letter Balasz wrote to United States military officials in 1948 saying that Zentai had been identified during a trial in Budapest. Zentai had moved from Hungary to the American-occupied zone in Germany, and Balasz wanted the Americans to return him to Budapest to face trial.
Balasz never got his wish as long as he lived — but it may come true after his death.
Hungary’s justice minister has asked his Australian counterpart to extradite Zentai to be tried for the murder of Peter Balasz.
“The Hungarian government is treating this case very seriously,” Bela Bozsik, deputy head of mission at the Hungarian Embassy in Canberra, told JTA. “But the extradition treaty is very clear. We can do nothing but wait for a decision from the Australian Ministry of Justice.”
A spokesman for the Australian justice minister, Sen. Chris Ellison, told JTA, “We are still awaiting final submissions from the Australian federal police, the Hungarian government and others. We are treating this very seriously and will act as quickly as possible.”
Australia never has extradited anyone accused of being a World War II criminal.
“There is nothing to do now except to wait and see what happens,” said Michael Bowden, Zentai’s lawyer.
Zentai used to live in Budafok, a suburb of Budapest, near the Balasz family. Most of the Balaszes survived the war, disguising their identities, but Zentai, then a soldier, is alleged to have recognized Peter Balasz on a Budapest tram.
The young Balasz was not wearing the mandatory yellow star, so Zentai, with the help of others, allegedly kidnapped and killed him.
Until 1947, Dezso Balasz did not know what had happened to his son. But then another soldier, Lt. Lajos Nagy, was tried and convicted for many crimes, including Peter Balasz’s murder.
Zentai’s new life in the American zone in Germany came to an abrupt end when Nagy was convicted. First he moved to the French zone; then, he and his family left Germany in 1950, first for Italy and then for Australia, which at the time had no extradition treaty with Hungary.
In his letter to U.S. military authorities, Dezso Balasz described his son’s last hours.
“My sons Peter and Paul were 18 years old in 1944,” he wrote. “My son Peter was a strong, burly, healthy boy. His twin brother Paul has been lame, paralyzed since birth, unable to walk. During the terrorism of the fascist reign, I and all my family were hiding with forged documents.
“On Nov. 8, Charles Zentai recognized my son Peter on a tram car. He took the 18-year-old boy with him to the barracks at Arena Utca. In a private cabinet of the barracks on Nov. 8, from 3 o’clock in the afternoon till 8 p.m., my son had been so terribly tormented and injured by Charles Zentai” and Nagy “that the poor boy died on that very day there in the barracks.
“In the late hours of the night, Zentai and Nagy lifted the corpse onto a cart, drove it to the River Danube and tied heavy stones to the corpse and threw it into the Danube.”
Dezso Balasz told authorities that an army captain, Bela Mader, had also been involved in his son’s death. Witnesses had testified that Mader showed six laborers the dying Peter Balasz and told them that the same fate awaited them the next day.
In March 1946, a Budapest court sentenced Mader to life imprisonment for other crimes. At that time, his alleged role in Peter Balasz’s death wasn’t known.
“Our nights are still haunted by his picture and we are incessantly shedding tears,” Balasz wrote of his son. “This terrible crime must not remain unrevenged.”
However, the letter to U.S. military officials produced no results. Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, told JTA, “I have no evidence that the Americans ever answered.”
Zentai started a new life in Perth, Australia, in 1950.
His family has denied that Zentai was in Budapest on the day Peter Balasz was killed, but The Australian, a newspaper, discovered documents that show Balasz didn’t leave Hungary for Germany until March 1945.
Through Operation Last Chance, a Wiesenthal Center program that offers rewards for information on suspected war criminals, Balasz’s surviving son, Adam, who still lives in Budapest, provided the center with information about Zentai.
Zentai had made no attempt to change his identity, which Zuroff said wasn’t surprising.
“Ninety-eight percent of war criminals knew they were considered to be small potatoes,” he said. “They weren’t Himmler. They truly believed they would never be caught.”
Zuroff, who claims that at least 11 witnesses testified in court about Zentai’s participation in Balasz’s murder, told JTA that he provided information about Zentai to Australia’s ambassador to Israel in November.
Zentai was interviewed by Australian federal police on March 2. He told the media that he was prepared to return to Hungary to clear his name, but a friend told the media that Zentai has a heart problem and is too sick to travel. Others, however, say he is healthy and vigorous.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
