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Submitted by Marcin Bąk on Sat, 11/23/2019 - 16:43
The dramatic fate of the family of Emánuel Korompay – author of the first Polish-Hungarian dictionary
Historia

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Memorial plaque on the Faculty of Oriental Studies (former Hungarian Studies Department) building at the University of Warsaw. Phot. Author..

 

The dramatic fate of the family of Emánuel Korompay – author of the first Polish-Hungarian dictionary

The events that shaped the history of the first half of the twentieth century are, on the one hand, connected with eminent personalities, whose actions influenced the fate of many, and on the other hand they are visible in the accidents that affected "ordinary" people. An example illustrating the tragedy of Polish history in the 20th century is the story of the author of the first Polish-Hungarian dictionary, a lecturer at the University of Warsaw, a captain of the Polish Army, a victim of the Katyń massacre - Emánuel Korompay and his heroic wife and daughters.

 

FROM HUNGARY TO POLAND

Aladár Emánuel Korompay was born in Budapest in 1890 into a wealthy family of pharmacists. The relatively high social standing of the Korompay family meant Emánuel received a thorough education - he knew many languages and also studied at universities in Rome, Vienna and Budapest. In 1912, Korompay was awarded a teacher's diploma in classical philology, which enabled him to work in a middle school in Léva (today's Levice, Slovakia). In connection with the outbreak of World War I, Emánuel was sent to the Przemyśl fortress as an Honvédség lieutenant (Hungarian army). It was most probably when he was stationed in the Austrian fortress that he became familiar with situation of Poles. A German translator - Mieczysława Grabas - who would later become Emánuel's wife, could have had a hand in this.

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Emánuel Korompay in uniform. Phot. Public Domain.

Despite the objections of both families, Emánuel and Mieczysława tied the knot in 1917. Together with their first daughter Ilona (born in 1918), the young couple settled in Levice. Rapid political changes (formation of Czechoslovakia, communist revolution in Hungary) and family situation (Emánuel was disowned by his family) caused the Korompays to give up their lives in Hungary and move to Poland, which was formed after 123 years of captivity. Emánuel took Polish citizenship in 1919 and joined the Polish army as a lieutenant. As a volunteer he participated in the war with Bolshevik Russia in 1920. Later on, he served as a military supply officer. For some time the family lived with Mieczysława’s relatives in the village of Stubno near Przemyśl, and then in Przemyśl itself. It was also there that their other daughters were born - Marta (1919) and Elżbieta (1921). The period of peaceful life in Przemyśl came to an end in 1929, when Emánuel, at that time a captain, was retired. The situation was dramatic as job losses coincided with the onset of a global economic crisis. By chance, while travelling by train, Korompay met a Hungarian studies scholar, well-known throughout Poland - professor Adorján Divéky. The latter decided to help his compatriot by letting Korompay take over his post as a Hungarian language teacher at the University of Warsaw, and also made it possible for him to work in the Embassy of the Kingdom of Hungary and at the Polish-Hungarian Friendship Society. The newly created jobs required a move to Warsaw, which happened in 1930.

 

THE WARSAW PERIOD: 1930-1939

The Korompays lived in an officer's house on Hołówki Street in Mokotów (not far from Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński). Emánuel's everyday life was associated with the promotion of Polish-Hungarian ties. He worked as a press clerk at the Embassy of the Kingdom of Hungary and was president of the Polish-Hungarian Friendship Society (1936-1938). He was ardently and passionately worked as a university lecturer, where he was a respected as an educator and scientist. His greatest achievements include the authorship of the first dictionaries and phrasebooks for learning the Hungarian language.

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Title pages of selected publications by Emánuel Korompay. Source: POLONA. Edit: Author.

Korompay’s great commitment to the university was also acknowledged. In connection with the renaming of the University of Warsaw into Józef Piłsudski University, Korompay suggested to other philologists at the University that he would translate one of the monographs on the Marshal into their native languages, which received a favourable response.

Korompay used his skills acquired within the scope of his language studies not only to work as a teacher but also as a translator, translating Zofia Kossak-Szczucka's novel "Fire" into Hungarian.

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Press release. Emánuel Korompay – author of the "Marshal Piłsudski monographs in foreign languages" project. Dziennik Bydgoski, 1935, R. 29, no. 231, p. 6. Edit: Author.

Therefore for the Hungarian-Polish Korompay family the 1930s was a time of stabilisation and professional success. Mieczysława helped her husband to prepare materials for classes and also helped to solve language problems. The daughters attended schools run by the Nazareth sisters. In 1935 Elżbieta changed her school to Wanda Jakubowska's private middle school. The Korompay girls were brought up in a deeply religious and patriotic spirit. In May 1939, Marta graduated from high school and was admitted to a diplomacy university programme.

In August 1939 Emánuel Korompay was with his students in Hungary, Ilona and Elżbieta were on vacation, while Mieczysława with their daughter Marta was in Warsaw.

 

THE SECOND WORLD WAR

After the German invasion of Poland, Emánuel Korompay, as an employee of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Hungary, could safely wait for the further developments. Nevertheless, he immediately volunteered for the Polish Army. On September 5th, Mieczysława and Marta joined the defence of Warsaw.

Marta was the first victim of the war. In September 1939, together with her mother, they worked as volunteers in the Main Headquarters of the City of Warsaw, located in the Europejski Hotel. On September 26, 1939, Marta and her mother and about 70 other people were in one of the hotel's interiors. During an afternoon bombing raid, the ceiling of the room collapsed, mortally wounding Marta. Mieczysława, standing next to her, suffered only slight injuries. Marta, as the only fatality at the hotel, was hastily buried on the sidewalk. The body was exhumed at the end of October and buried at Czerniakowski Cemetery.

Emánuel was the war’s next victim. After the September campaign, he was taken prisoner by the Soviets in Złoczów. On November 15, 1939, he was sent to the camp in Starobelsk. Only one post card sent on the 8th of March 1940 reached his family throughout his period of imprisonment. In a moving message to his beloved wife and daughters, Emánuel asks about their health and provides information on how and to whom he left money for his family. In April he was sent to Kharkiv, where he was murdered together with other officers.

Ilona and Elżbieta returned to Warsaw after the capital surrendered. Elżbieta graduated in 1941 and began medical studies at the Private Vocational School for Sanitary Auxiliary Personnel of Dr. J. Zaorski. Her mother took up a job at the Central Welfare Council, at a food distribution point on Czerniakowska Street, while Ilona found a job in a cartridge factory on Wronia Street.

Mieczysława and Elżbieta (pseudonym "Grażyna") joined the underground, where they served as liaison officers. On January 9, 1943, Elżbieta was caught by the Gestapo together with incriminating evidence and was taken to Szucha Avenue prison. A few days later, Mieczysława was also arrested. Elżbieta was brutally tortured and raped in her mother's presence. On the night of January 12-13, she committed suicide in her prison cell. Her deed was dictated by the desire to save others, so as not to reveal any secrets of the underground during further torture. For this act she was posthumously honoured. Mieczysława continued to be tortured, which damage both her physical and mental health. She spent a lot of time at the Pawiak Hospital. On October 5, 1943, Mieczysława Korompay was transported to Auschwitz, where she contracted typhus and died on January 29, 1944.

Ilona, like her sister and mother, was also active in the underground. Due to her connections with the Home Army she had to hide under a changed name until the end of the war.

Despite the exhumation of mass graves in Kharkiv, Emánuel Korompay's body was never identified. A symbolic funeral did not take place until April 1989. when the only surviving daughter handed over a handful of earth from Katyń to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fatima in Szczecin. The bodies of Mieczysława and Elżbieta were never returned to the family.

 

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Korompay family grave at the Czerniakowski Cemetery in Warsaw. Phot. Author..

 

MEMORY OF THE KOROMPAY FAMILY IN POLAND AND HUNGARY

Ilona Korompay was the only one to survive the war. She graduated from the Catholic Institute in Częstochowa. She worked as a catechist in rural schools and then as a librarian at the Szczecin University of Technology, where she lived since the 1950s. At the end of her life she moved to Warsaw. She spent the last few years under the care of the Franciscan sisters. She died on 4 September 2010. She was buried in a family grave, together with her sister Marta. Ilona Korompay devoted her life to cultivating the memory of the dead of her family, bearing witness to the heroic deeds of her sisters and mother, and to spreading word about Emánuel Korompay.

In Warsaw there are several places commemorating the dead Korompays. The plaques dedicated to Emánuel are located in the University of Warsaw and on the wall of the house where he and his family lived in Mokotów. To his memory, an oak tree was planted within the Nazareth sisters’ middle and high schools.

Elżbieta Korompay is commemorated on a plaque at the Museum of Struggle and Martyrdom on Szucha Avenue. She is also listed among the fallen students of the Nazareth sisters' schools on the memorial plaque at 137 Czerniakowska Street. She was posthumously awarded the Polish Silver Cross of Merit with Swords.

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Bilingual memorial plaque on a building at 3 Hołówki Street – Korompay’s apartment in Warsaw. Phot. Author

In Hungary a Monument to the Katyń Martyrs was unveiled in Budapest in 2011. Next to the monument, two oaks were planted, symbolizing the murdered of Hungarian origin: Aladár Emánuel Korompay and Oskar Rudolf Kühnel. There is also a plaque on a wall of the Arpada Gymnasium in Budapest (the one Korompay graduated) dedicated to the victims of the Katyń massacre.

 

Maria Jaworska

 

SELECTED SOURCES

Korompay I., Tyś opiekunem sieroty, Warsaw 2002

Kovács I., Cud nad Wisłą i nad Bałtykiem. Piłsudski – Katyń – Solidarność, translated by Jerzy Snopek, Warsaw 2016

Kunert A., Katyń, ocalona pamięć, Warsaw 2010