Etela Laczuschová - Instytut Pileckiego

The medal / Recipients

Etela Laczuschová (1922–1944)

Awarded in 2024.

The Kežmarok house was a unique location for Polish couriers and refugees: they could rest and recuperate there, eat a meal, or obtain necessary assistance.

For many centuries, Kežmarok in the Spiš region has stood at the crossroads of European trade routes from the west to the east and from the north to the south, i.e., from Poland to Hungary, which has left an indelible mark on the history and identity of the town. Slovaks, Germans, Hungarians, Poles, Ruthenians and Jews all lived there side by side. During the Second World War, couriers of the Polish Underground State traveling from occupied Poland to Hungary to pass on information and accounts concerning the situation in the country availed themselves of the town’s status as a stop along the route. One of the chief transfer points was established in Kežmarok in the house of Helena Vargová at 28 Starý Trh Street. Other household members, namely the daughters of Helena’s sister, Etela Laczuschová and Berta Ludvighová with her husband Otto, were also engaged in aid activities.

The Kežmarok house was a unique location for Polish couriers and refugees: they could rest and recuperate there, eat a meal, or obtain necessary assistance. Some people stayed there for many months. Etela would repair clothes and help design safe routes. Berta was an invaluable assistant to her husband Otto, who was a taxi driver and helped the couriers and refugees in this capacity. The house of Helena Vargová also served as the couriers’
mail exchange point, and Otto was engaged in delivering mail to occupied Poland. Among those who received assistance from the Slovak family were Wacław Felczak – a historian and emissary of the Polish Government-in-Exile, Józef Krzeptowski – “the king of the Tatra couriers”, and Anna Przemyska – a courier of the Home Army, poet and author of children’s and young adult literature. During one of his stays in Kežmarok, Wacław Felczak managed to avoid arrest only thanks to the intervention of Helena Vargová. Seeing that he was being led by gendarmes, she approached Felczak and began to pretend that he was her cousin – she took him by the arm and went home with him. The gendarmes did not raise a protest, because Helena had a sterling reputation in the town.
Not all members of the Kežmarok household lived to see the end of the war – the 22-year-old Etela died of a disease in March 1944. Due to his German-sounding name, Otto Ludvigh was arrested by the NKVD in February 1945 and sent to a labor camp deep in the USSR. Happily, he was released in December 1949 and returned to Kežmarok, where he lived to a ripe old age with the other two family members.

“The Ludvigh house was valued the most by couriers and relay messengers. It was an ersatz home full of warmth, peace and quiet, and they – constantly pursued, always with a noose around their necks, with their hands groping either for a gun or for a vial of poison – missed these things the most.”
A recollection by Józef Bieniek, soldier of the Peasant Battalions and the Home Army: J. Bieniek, Przyjaciele z trudnych lat, “Rocznik Sądecki” 1974–1977, vol. XV/XVI, p. 273

Otto Ludvigh (standing first from the right) with his family at the meeting of former couriers and their helpers in November 1972 in Zakopane (Private archive of the Ludvigh family).
Helena Vargová (standing first from the left), Otto Ludvigh (sitting second from the right) and his wife Berta (standing first from the right) with Polish couriers in the house at 28 Starý Trh Street in Kežmarok in April 1944 (Private archive of Wojciech F

See also

  • gen. Lóránd Utassy (1897— 1974)

    awarded

    gen. Lóránd Utassy (1897— 1974)

    Utassy denied the Gestapo access to the internment camps and refused to surrender Polish soldiers. He also participated in talks with the Red Cross, aiming to establish it as the representation of Poles who had found themselves on Hungarian soil.

  • Ilona Andrássy de Csíkszentkirály et Krasznahorka

    awarded

    Ilona Andrássy de Csíkszentkirály et Krasznahorka
    (1917–1990)

    Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Ilona Andrássy was working together with other aristocrats, established the Hungarian-Polish Refugee Welfare Committee in Budapest.

  • Rodzina Gorius

    awarded

    Rodzina Gorius

    Eugène Gorius (1873–1953) ● Marie Gorius (1881–1971) ● Léon Humbert (1900–1969) ● Rosalie Eugénie Fogel Gorius (1919–2007) ● Jeanine Humbert Hermann (ur. 1934)