Baptism as an avenue of escape for Hungarian Jews facing deportation to death camps has been partially blocked as a result of pressure on the Catholic and Protestant churches in Hungary by the Budapest puppet government.
Hungarian newspapers reaching here today disclosed that both churches have been obliged to tighten their regulations on baptism. An announcement by the Archiepiscopal Office in Budapest said that henceforth candidates would be baptized only after passing an examination and testimony by their teacher that they sought baptism out of conviction.
The Catholic announcement was followed by a statement by Bishop Zoltan Koeroesi of the Lutheran Church which specified that conversion could be granted only after a six-month course of instruction followed by a six-month trial period. The Lutheran announcement contained proposals for the protection of Christians of Jewish origin.
Apparently not satisfied by the new regulations, the Hungarian press threatens to publish the names of people acting as godfathers and godmothers to Jews.
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.
