Victims of the massacre
Two major Roma communities lived in central-western Hungary, around Székesfehérvár and Várpalota: the Hungarian or “musician” Roma, and the Olah (Vlach) Roma. Most victims of the Lake Grábler massacre were residents of the Székesfehérvár Roma settlement, who were interned in October 1944 and then ordered to perform forced labour.As the Soviet front approached, on January 23, 1945, members of the German 1st Panzer Division and the Hungarian Arrow Cross militia rounded up the interned Roma. On February 14, 1945, over a hundred Roma – mostly children, pregnant women, and elderly – were executed. Victims were forced to dig their own graves or shot through holes cut into the ice. Bodies were left scattered or submerged in the freezing water. Survivor testimonies and court records estimate the death toll at 118.
Despite the massacre being one of the largest mass murders of Roma during the Hungarian Holocaust, it was only 70 years later that a memorial was erected to honor victims.
“The men were driven there in the morning to dig a hole. They wouldn’t let them up from the hole, they were shot in the back. When we got there, the men were all dead. And then they shot us, the women and children.”
Testimony of one of the survivers
Harmat József: Roma holokauszt a Gábler-tónál. Várpalota-Veszprém: MNL Veszprém megyei Levéltára. p. 268.
Further Reading / Sources
Mi történt a Gábler-tónál? Konferencia az Ombudsmani Hivatalban.
Pharrajimos – Romák sorsa a nácizmus idején
Bársony János – Daróczi Ágnes (szerk.). Budapest: L’Harmattan Kiadó
A mai napig tömegsírt rejthet a horgásztó, ahol 118 cigányt végeztek ki a nyilasok
Tóth-Szenesi Péter. 444.hu