Patrick Leigh Fermor – ‘Between the Woods and the Water’ and ‘Dashing for

the Post: The Letters of Patrick Leigh Fermor’ locations in Budapest and
Romania

Budapest

Úri utca 15 - Varhegy District of Buda (see end note for the fuller history of the
property and the von Berg family)

Tibor Berg and his wife Bertha, 1945 census of Úri utca 15 and the front door today

In 1927 Freiherr Lieutenant Colonel Tibor von Berg (24/12/1893 Kapuvár, Győr-
Moson-Sopron county – 2/10/1987 of 43 Beverly Road, Newark, Wilmington,
Delaware: buried Brandywine Cemetery) bought the house with his wife Gräfin
Bertha Elisabeth Gisela Esther Maria Nákó von Nagy-Szent-Miklós (19/06/1898
Sânnicolau Mare*, Timiș County, Romania – ?). They were married 17th November
1917 in Budapest and divorced on the 20th March 1941.

* Sânnicolau Mare in Romania is also known as Nagy-Szent-Miklós and Groß-Sankt-

Niklaus in German

Bertha’s childhood home

"The Uri utca — die Herrengasse in German — a waving street of jutting

windows, tiled roofs and arched doors with coats of arms, ran along the very summit
of this castled height… …Perched above the din of the capital, this patrician quarter
had something of the hush of a country town...." ‘Between the Woods and the
Water’, pg 27-28.
“ …my hostess said… “…it’s a perfectly ordinary townhouse.”

Tibor and Bertha were in their mid-forties… Tibor was a captain in a regiment of
Horse-Gunners… …Liked by everyone, amusing, rather caustic, intolerant of
nonsense, and usually dressed in a tweed coat and skirt, Bertha was tall and
handsome with a stripe of grey in her dark hair… …The family, like many another,
was fairly hard up now and some of the house was let…” ‘Between the Woods and
the Water’, pg. 28.

“The house in the Uri utca was full of helpful books. Above all, there were the
Encyclopaedia Britannica and Meyers Konversationslexikon, both of them firm
standbys throughout the journey, and I found a wide window-seat to pile them on.”
‘Between the Woods and the Water’, pg 32.

In the 1930s numerous Swedish heads of state and politicians stayed at the house
including:

 Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten of Sweden stayed over for
one night on 12th December 1930 (he was later killed in a plane crash)
 a Swedish student (who helped Wallenberg save Jews) of the Swedish
Diplomat Per Anger who also rented there from Tibor in 1944
 Ádám Lajos husband of Countess Erzsébet Nákó, a surgeon and University
Professor
 Albert Szent Györgyi a Biochemist and Nobel Laureate
 the Diplomat Raoul Wallenberg who arrived in Budapest on the 9th July 1944
occasionally dined there with Countess Erzsébet Nákó, his social secretary
and Tibor’s sister-in-law via Bertha, who lived there with her relatives

Monument to Raoul Wallenberg, Újlipótváros, Budapest

“The door flung open and a black Alsatian called Tim bounded in and leapt on the
bed. He was followed by his owner, Micky (Miklós), the son of the house, a rather
unruly and very entertaining boy of fourteen or fifteen in Tintin plus-fours. “Here,” he
said, giving me a tumbler of water with one hand and a bottle of Alka Seltzer with the
other, “my ma says you’ll probably need these.”” ‘Between the Woods and the
Water’, pg. 29. “I explored the Vár – the fortress of Buda, that is – with Micky
and Tim, the huge black Alsatian…” ‘Between the Woods and the Water’, pg. 37.

Their son Miklós (Micky) Iván Berg was born 14th May 1922 in Roztoky, Prague-
North, Czech Republic, and would have been 12 years old when Fermor stayed at
the house in the Spring of 1934. After fighting in the 1956 uprising he escaped along
with his wife Anne Marie to Austria and Bavaria and then emigrated to the USA via
Canada. They settled in Casa Grande, Phoenix, Arizona in 1972 and became
citizens of the USA on 21st May 1976 (he was 54 and she was 60 at the time). As
reported in the Arizona Republic on 3rd February 1998 he passed away aged 75 on
31st January 1998. He was by profession a mechanical design engineer and was a
member of the Sons of the American Revolution. Miki’s wife Anne Marie Berg née
(Anna-Maria) Miskolczy de Mezőtelegd born in Illye (now Ciumeghiu), Bihor County,
Romania 26th May 1916 passed away in 2015 aged 99 (probate notice Casa Grande
Dispatch Arizona 1st April 2015). Paddy met her in Budapest in 1934 where she was
studying art history (‘Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Adventure’. Artemis Cooper). She
would have been 18 years old at the time.

(left) Miklos and his wife Anne Marie, Casa Grande Despatch (Arizona) 16th June 1976 - Newspapers.com

Úri utca 15

There is an enclosed yard with an entrance to a deep cellar where escaping Jews
were occasionally hidden. Money, which was used for bribes, was kept in the house
and receipts and accounts in the basement. The house was placed under Swedish
diplomatic protection in 1944 and used to assist dozens of persecuted Jewish
families to escape from the Gestapo and the Nazis who were occupying Hungary.
After the building was nationalised in 1951 by the Communists the Berg family were
moved, for political reasons, to Kék village in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County. After
fighting in the 1956 uprising Tibor and his second wife Theodóra von Berg née
Hegedűs escaped to Austria and from there emigrated to the USA.

Shortly after the First World War the family’s property and assets in the USA were
seized as a consequence of their having been categorised as German collaborators.
One headline under which the Von Bergs (sic) were listed read, “What American
women get for marrying Teuts: They became Germans by law when they wedded
squareheads and must suffer the consequences” (The Wichita Daily Eagle 10 th
November 1918).
The Arizona nightclub - Nagymező utca 20. Near the Oktogon

Situated on what was called the Broadway of Budapest at Nagymező utca 20 is the
Mai Manó Ház (House of Hungarian Photographers). The building was originally
constructed in 1894. The building was bought by the Bucharest born composer and
pianist Sándor Rozsnyai (one of his most popular productions was his operetta the
‘Lámpaláz’ (Stagefright) which was performed to great acclaim at the Magyar
Színház in 1931) and his wife Mici Rozsnyai (the famous dancer Senger Máriával
who was Miss Arizona in 1930). They had toured the world amassing considerable
wealth and fame and opened the famous Arizona Club on 16 th December 1932. The
club was a huge success.

One of its main attractions was its xylophone staircase which played a different note
on each of its steps. During its heyday it was patronised by the then Prince of Wales
(later Edward VIII) and Wallis Simpson, as well as Lord Astor.
Patrick Leigh Fermor visited the club during his stay in Budapest. He wrote that it
was “the scintillating cave of the most glamorous night-club I have ever seen. Did the
floor of the Arizona really revolve? It certainly seemed to. Snowy steeds were
careering round it at one moment, feathers tossing; someone said he had seen
camels there, even elephants… A bit later, spangled acrobats were flying through
the spot-lit cigarette smoke, joining, somersaulting, spiralling on their own axes,
sailing with arms outstretched as timely rings flew to their palms from the temporary
surrounding dark; and, finally, poised on the biceps of a sequin-studded titan, they
built a human pagoda, skipping nimbly aloft over each others’ shoulders until, from
the apex somewhere near the ceiling, a slim, frilled figure with a star on her brow
was blowing kisses.” ‘Between the Woods and the Water’, pg. 29.

The building today

After the start of the war the old patrons gradually stopped going. They were
replaced by Italian and German officers. Because Sándor Rozsnyai was Jewish they
were warned about the danger but chose to ignore the warnings. He was picked up
and incarcerated three times by the authorities.

Sándor Rozsnyai
It stayed open until its last event which was held on 16 th December 1944. Later that
month one December evening they were picked up and taken away in a car with
their valuables for the last time never to be heard or seen from again. They were
probably incarcerated and murdered in Sopronköhida prison which was used by the
Nyilas Government formed by the Arrow Cross Party during the Nazi occupation.
After the war the Arizona served variously as a school, a showroom for the
Hungarian Motorist Club and eventually became the Mai Manó Gallery and the
House of Hungarian Photographers.

Gül Baba türbéje (The Tomb of Gül Baba, Rosadomb Hill)

“Wandering about the steep and exhilarating city unearthed scarce marks of the long
sojourn of the Turks… …The tomb of a dervish on the Hill of Roses” Between the
Woods and the Water’, pg. 36.

Gül Baba utca – the way to the Gül Baba Tomb

Gül Baba, a Muslim holy man called the Father of Roses, arrived in Buda with the
invading ottoman Army in 1541. He died on 2 nd September 1541. Suleiman the
Magnificent took part in the construction of the coffin. The tomb, made of quartz, is of
the pantheistic Sufi-Shia Bektashi dervish order and was built by Mehmed
Pasha, senior provincial Governor of Buda between 1543-1548. After Buda was
recaptured in 1686 it was converted by the Jesuits into a Roman Catholic chapel
until 1790. In 1822 it was publicly proclaimed a site of pilgrimage. On the 17th March
1872 a senior dervish arrived in Buda to undertake a survey in preparation for
restoration work on the tomb. In 1885 the Turkish Government funded its restoration.
Further work was carried out before and after the First World War. It became what it
is today in 1962. It is still a place of pilgrimage for Muslims and a regular stop for
Turkish tourists. It is now the property of the Republic of Turkey.

Aquincum (Buses 34 from Arpad Hid Metro Station to Záhony Utca)

“On a bus trip a mile or two north to Roman Aquincum we were joined by a beautiful
girl of about fourteen called Harry, part-Croatian and part-Polish as well as
Hungarian. Tim bounded among the sarcophagi and broken walls and the ruined
amphitheatre and dug for bones in the Temple of the Unconquered Sun; and in the
museum we gazed at one of those disturbing bas reliefs of Mithras in a Phrygian
cap, plunging a dagger into the bull’s throat.” Between the Woods and the Water’,
pg. 38.

Mithras Shrine at the Southern Town Wall (right). Reconstruction from ‘Aquincum Anno: Roman Buildings then and now’ (left)

Aquincum

Circa AD 41-54 a 500 strong unit of Roman Cavalry arrived and took up station here.
By AD 89 the garrison had increased to around 6,000 soldiers. The city developed
around the military garrison and in AD 106 became the capital of the Roman
Province of Pannonia Inferior. The settlement was substantial and included the
Hercules Villa at Meggyfa utca, Thermae Majoris Roman baths and Roman remains
at Florián Tér and the large Amphitheatre at the junction of Viador utca and
Pacsirtamező utca. Eventually the settlement reached as far south as Contra-
Aquincum some of the ruins of which can be seen at Március 15 tér in Pest.

Duna Palota (Danube Palace) Hotel, Café Gerbaud and the Statue of
Vörösmarty

“Apart from a few old streets and squares, the smart Duna Palota Hotel and the
cheerful and pleasure loving waterfront – especially the Patisserie Gerbaud, a
dashing Gunters-like meeting place by the statue of the poet Vörösmarty – I liked
Pest much less than my own side of the town…” Between the Woods and the
Water’, pg. 39.

Inside the Duna Palota

The Duna Palota, designed by Vilmos Freund, was built in Neo-Baroque style
between 1883-1885 when it was known as the Lipótváros Casino though it wasn’t a
gambling venue but was in fact a club for the aristocracy. Its first President was the
grandfather of the actor Peter Faulk (Columbo). With its theatre it served as a place
for cultural events and Bartók, Kodály, and Dvorák played here. From 1951 it served
as a cultural venue for the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Today it’s a popular tourist
venue with folk dances, concerts and a restaurant. The bedroom scene where Eva
Perón broke up with her lover Juan from the film ‘Evita’ (starring Madonna) was
filmed in the venue’s Brown salon.

History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danube_Palace

Café Gerbaud

History
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Café_Gerbeaud

Statue of the poet Vörösmarty

Pannonia utca 48, Újlipótváros, Pest

Extract from Michael O’Sullivan’s forthcoming book ‘Between the Counts and the
Comrades’ at https://patrickleighfermor.org/tag/budapest/

“The best dreams of an ancient lineage are often had on beds of straw. This is the
thought that engages me as I stand outside the house in Budapest where Patrick
Leigh Fermor’s ex-girlfriend strangled her flatmate in 1969.

This end of Budapest’s Pannonia Street is more chipped and faded in appearance
than the more prosperous commercial stretch further south which is guarded by the
elegant facade of the Vigzinhaus – the city’s Comedy Theatre.

This neighbourhood of the XIII district called the Újlipótváros or New Leopoldstown
was still a very new part of the city when Leigh Fermor first came to Budapest in
1934. It soon established itself as home to the literary and artistic set and also
formed part of the residential area favoured by some of Budapest’s Jewish
community.

Today, according to recent census information, some of the capital’s Jewish

community is again re-establishing itself here. Standing outside 48 Pannonia Street,
I imagine it has changed very little since Xenia Cszernovits moved here in 1957,
soon after the revolution which tried to end Soviet rule in Hungary. I am trying also to
imagine how this woman of distinguished lineage, born into a family of landed gentry
in 1909, coped with the ‘class enemy’ status imposed on her by Communism and
how she coped too with being sent to work as a labourer in a textile factory.

Pannonia utca 48

Xenia Csernovits de Mácsa et Kisoroszi was a ravishing dark-haired beauty. She

was the daughter of a Transylvanian land owner from Zam, Mihály Czernovits. The
family was of grand Serbian origin. Xenia married Gábor Betegh de Csíktusnád,
scion of an old Transylvanian noble family, while still in her early twenties but at the
time she met Leigh Fermor in 1934 the marriage was going through a turbulent
phase. It later appears to have settled down again because they had a daughter two
years after Xenia’s tryst with Leigh Fermor.

Xenia’s niece by marriage, Stefania Betegh, doubts that the [Paddy’s] affair with
Xenia ever happened. She has no particular reason to defend Xenia’s honour. She is
not, after all, a blood relative. There is also the issue of the confused manner in
which Leigh Fermor attempts to disguise, and yet not disguise, Xenia’s identity
in Between the Woods and the Water. At one point in the narrative he gives her full
name, the location of her family house at Zam and enough detail for us to know
exactly who she is. Then he disguises her as ‘Angela’ and even adds a footnote
about the need to ‘alter names’ having already made her one of the most identifiable
characters in the book. She seems not to have been bothered by this and when, in
her seventy sixth year, she read a translation of the book in Hungarian by her
relative, Miklos Vajda, she wrote to Leigh Fermor to say how much she had enjoyed
it. Leigh Fermor’s attraction for women and his success as a seducer are well
known. The balance of probability, in the seduction stakes, most likely rests with his
success with Xenia. It was one of the last happy periods of her life.

Miklos Vajda, recalls her as a free spirit and ‘a woman with something of the exotic
gypsy in her looks and nature’. Men found her irresistible and the regular absence of
her husband on business trips enabled her to have frequent liaisons with various
male admirers, amongst whom Leigh Fermor is the best known.

Once Hungary had become a postwar Soviet satellite state, her life was altered in a
way that was unimaginable in 1934.
As a ‘class enemy’, she was sent to do menial work as a house painter and later in a
textile factory in Budapest. She ended her days in a squalid little basement flat which
she moved to after she strangled her former flatmate in a fit of rage in Pannonia
Street on 20 December 1969. Such was her popularity with her neighbours that
many of them testified in court to the justification of her actions, claiming that the
victim was an unbearable woman, thus leading to a reduced charge of
manslaughter.”

Hotel Metropol (now the Ibis Styles Budapest Center), corner of Osvát utca.
and Rákóczi út, Pest

“After one or two shots, I found a rather dilapidated Hotel Metropole in the Rákóczi
Ut., a semi-brothel with endless passages, the rooms giving out into a bleak rainy
well of moulting walls. Took a sleeper [a sleeping-pill].” ‘Dashing for the Post: The
Letters of Patrick Leigh Fermor’

Romania - Transylvania

Deva

“We drove eastwards along the leafy north bank of the river, turned south under the
steep, ruined-crowned hill at Deva…” Between the Woods and the Water’, pg. 115.

Citadel of the Djinn at Deva – 13th century

History
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortress_of_Deva
Hunedoara-Hunyadi

“On the other side perched the castle of Vajdahunyad, chief stronghold of the great
John Hunyadi, a building so fantastic and theatrical that, at first glance, it looked
totally unreal. Like many castles it had once been damaged by fire and built up again
in its former shape; but it was perfectly genuine.

Janos Hunyadi

The bridge led to a sallyport in a tall barbican which ended high above in a
colonnade supporting a vertiginous roof that soared in a wedge, like the great
barbicans in Prague: spikes of metal or shingle erected for the laming of infernal
cavalry flying low after dark.

Towers, clustering at different heights, some square and some round and all of them
frilled with machicolations, were embedded in the steep fabric.
Then light showing between the pillars holding up the great angular cowl of the
barbican gave the pile an airy, lifted, slightly improbable look, and the closely spaced
parade of the perpendicular buttresses made the upward thrust still more impetuous.

Beginning deep in the abyss, these piers of masonry ascended the curtain wall and
the donjon and the outside of the banqueting hall in unbroken flight and then burst
out high above in a row of half-salient and half-engaged octagonal side-towers, all of
them lighted by windows which carried on a dominating line of mullioned lancets,
and an inter-weaving network of late gothic tracery branched and flourished and
linked them together with all the impulse and elaboration of the French Flamboyant
style.

The Administrative palace including the entrance to the tunnel of the spiral stairs leading to the Knights Hall – 18th century (far
left) The Bethlen Wing - first half of the 17th century, The Old Gate Tower (far right)

Along the eaves of the precipice of roof overhead, the jutting towers ended in
disengaged extinguisher-tops, cones that alternated with faceted octagonal pyramids
and barbed the eaves with a procession of spikes, while beyond them coloured tiles
diapered the roofs in intricate patterns like those on St Stephen's in Vienna.

Beyond the sallyport, the inner courtyard mounted in galleries and balustrades and
tiers of Romanesque arches; cusped ogees led to spiralling steps; and indoors,
springing from the leafy capitals of polygonal rose-coloured marble pillars, beautiful
late gothic vaults closed over the Hall of the Knight I had seen nothing like it since
Vienna and Prague; the sudden outburst of flamboyant moulding conjuring up the
Hradcany and the banks of the Loire.

The Knights Hall 1452 (left) The Council Hall both in late Gothic style (first half of 15th century) (right)

My head was full of Hunyadi and I paced the yards and climbed the steps and
explored the vaulted chambers in a state of great excitement.”
‘Between the Woods and the Water’, pg. 115-116.

Existing since the 14th century it was originally the property of the D’Anjou family and
became the property, along with the estate of Hunedoara-Hunyadi, of the Corvins in
1409 until 1508. After this there were 22 owners, including Prince Gabriel Bethlen
between 1613-1629, until the property was taken over by the Hapsburgs in 1724 and
turned into the administrative HQ and storage for the local iron mines until 1854. In
1854 a fire destroyed the entire wooden structure and restoration works took place
between 1854 -1874 replacing the shingle roof with one made of tiles and some
towers were elevated, a neo Gothic façade was built and interior works and fit outs
were completed. More restoration work took place between 1956-1968 and then in
1974 it became a museum. Further restoration work has been taking place since
1997.

History
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corvin_Castle

Sighișoara- Segesvár- Schässburg

“…this journey made an hallucination of the sky and up into the middle of it , straight
ahead, a vertiginous triangle of steep roofs, spikes, tree-tops and battlemented cliffs
rose like a citadel in an illuminated psalter… …“Look!” István and Angéla exclaimed.
“Segesvár!” A Rumanian would have cried “Sighișoara!”; but a descendant of the
builders of that high place would have said “Schässburg!” ‘Between the Woods and
the Water’, pg. 151.
 The citadel hill and the lower city (left and centre) The barbican of the clock tower and the ‘Old Ladies’ corridor (right)

“I was… …climbing a windy staircase under beams and shingle and a steep wooden
roof in Transylvania. The Saxon steps lifted us to the town’s grassy summit, whose
battlements in the sky encompassed leaning gravestones, tall trees and an old
gothic church.” ‘Between the Woods and the Water’, pg. 156.

Scolarilor staircase (school children’s stairway)

“Beyond the gravestones outside the highest of the three town walls looped downhill
with battlements spaced out between jutting towers, several of which were choked
with storks’ nests.” Between the Woods and the Water’, pg. 157.
 Left to right – Furriers’ Tower, Shoemakers’ Tower, Tinmens’ Tower

History
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sighișoara

Notes: Other details for Úri utca 15 and the von Berg family

Úri utca 15 – history

The property was given by King Mátyás (1443-1492) to his loyal treasurer János
Ernuszt (?-1477), the Ban of Slavonia. He sold it in 1475 to Miklós (Farkas)
Königsfelder for 800 forints. Two years later Farkas became bankrupt. At this time
the property that he owned on the site measured 5.5. x 5.6 metres and in 1497 was
dedicated to the foundation of a Church with an altar dedicated to the Testament of
Christ and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

After the Turkish invasion from 1688 – 1705 the reconstructed house was owned by
the wheelwright Kundorf Dionisus. From 1784 it was owned by a Captain of the City
by the name of Ferenc Pavianovics. From 1800 onwards by József Grigely (1760-
1818) a Piarist priest, philosopher and teacher of Greek and Latin. The north-east
part of the building above the cellar measuring 4.3 x 3.2 meters was converted by
Grigely in 1807 into the Neo Classicist style (as he had done with Bécsi Kapu tér 7).

In 1820 the daughter of György and Mária Paschgall owned both 15 and 16. Her
husband was a well-known doctor by the name of Ferenc Bene.
 György Pries and Heinrich Kirschenbaum Architectural plans 1873 - BFL

In 1873 Dr. Kellemesi István Melczer (1810-1896), son of Countess Mária Majláth, a
lawyer and President of the Hungarian Judiciary with an interest in archaeology and
heraldry employed the architects György Pries and Heinrich Kirschenbaum to refit
the property into living accommodation. As he died childless in 1896 the house was
sold to the Bleuer brothers.

From 1891 it was the residence of Dr. Béla Hanzély, a physician who was appointed
by the State as Chief Investigator of the assassination of Count István Tisza but the
perpetrators weren’t apprehended at the time (though they were later identified and
pursued).

At the end of the 19th century the house was occupied by Károly Kasztner a retired
Captain of the Austro-Hungarian Army (császári és királyi), Eleonora Kastner, a clerk
by the name of Vilma Karner, a day labourer called József Bild, a maid Mária
Früchtegott, and Róbert Beyer, a lithographer, map designer and publisher, all lived
in the 17th-century building.

From 1927 the house became the property of Freiherr Lieutenant Colonel Tibor von
Berg (1893-1987) and from the 1930s onwards various Swedish politicians and
heads of state visited the house…

 Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten of Sweden stayed over for
one night on 12th December 1930 (he was later killed in a plane crash)
 a Swedish student (who helped Wallenberg save Jews) of the Swedish
Diplomat Per Anger who also rented there from Tibor in 1944
 Ádám Lajos husband of Countess Erzsébet Nákó, a surgeon and University
Professor
 Albert Szent Györgyi a Biochemist and Nobel Laureate
  the Diplomat Raoul Wallenberg who arrived in Budapest on the 9 th July 1944
occasionally dined there with Countess Erzsébet Nákó, his social secretary
and Tibor’s sister-in-law via Bertha, who lived there with her relatives

The house was placed under Swedish diplomatic protection in 1944 and used to
assist dozens of persecuted Jewish families to escape from the Gestapo and the
Nazis who were occupying Hungary. There is an enclosed yard with an entrance to a
deep cellar where escaping Jews were occasionally hidden. Money, which was used
for bribes, was kept in the house and receipts and accounts in the basement.

According to the census of the register of voters 1945 the occupants of the building
were the wife of Baron Tibor Berg (Berg Tiborné means the wife of Tibor Berg. Tibor
himself was in a Russian Prison between 1945-1948), Mária Moser, Hildegarde
Maria Nákó neé Peters (1895 Vienna – 1974 Passau) the wife of Baron Sándor
Nákó and mother of Erzsébet Nákó, and Albert Váry.

In 1948 Tibor, by then back in Budapest, made an application to restore the building.

After the building was nationalised in 1951 the Berg family were moved, for political
reasons by the Communist authorities, to Kék village in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg
County.

As of 2012 according to the award winning book ‘Det står ett rum här och väntar på
dig...": berättelsen om Raoul Wallenberg’ (Raoul Wallenberg: The Man Who Saved
Thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Holocaust) by the Swedish author Ingrid
Carlberg the house is the property of Tibor’s daughter Gloria von Berg, daughter of
Tibor and Theodóra von Berg née Hegedűs. It is likely that the property was returned
to the family as part of the property restitution process after the fall of Communism in
Hungary.

There are a total of four flats in the house one of which, from July 1944, had been
reserved by Per Anger for the use of Jewish refugee families. On the wall in the
entrance is a sign in Swedish “DETTA UTRYMMAR STOR ONDER SVENSK
SKYDD” (“This place stands under Swedish protection.”). According to Ingrid
Carlberg’s book about Wallenberg as the Soviets were closing in on Pest the
Swedish Diplomat Per Anger and Countess Erzsébet Nákó retreated to the cellar
under number 15 where they used a wood burning stove they had found in the
bombed out ruins of castle hill to cook tinned food, watery soups and meat from a
dead horse on the street outside.
The von Berg family

Tibor is listed as being in the Artillery Reserve in the 1917 and 1918 Ranglisten des
Kaiserlichen und Königlichen Heeres (The Ranks of the Imperial and Royal Army) of
Vienna.

In the Békéscsaba section of the Körösvidék newspaper of 23rd May 1926 it was
reported that a 6 HP Renault had won first prize in a race at Monte Carlo. Tibor’s
wife wrote the following letter to the race organisers…

After having recently driven 30,000 kilometres in my 6 HP car I can now say in
answer to your question how happy I am with it. I had it since last autumn, when it
was used mainly in Hungary, though unfortunately it was handled quite roughly. I
occasionally ploughed through water, snow and mud – it could have been a boat
rather than an automobile. We used it to go hunting driving along with three dogs
and rifles. I drove through wild goats on steep paths and farmland and during the
recent hard winter drove through blizzards where horses would have been up to their
stomachs. The car has only been used by me and generally there is nothing wrong
with it that can’t be fixed by cleaning, and it doesn’t smoke. I’ve recommended it to
many of my acquaintances and they have also been very happy with the model. In
my opinion it’s an ideal car for Hungarian conditions. Greetings and with great
respect. The wife of Baron Tibor Berg (báró Berg Tiborné)

In the Napi Hírek (Daily News) of Friday 25th June 1926 it was reported that Baron
Tibor Berg had on the previous day had arrived in Constantinople having travelled
870 kilometres in sixteen days on horseback. The route had taken him via Szeged,
Temesvár, Orsova, Turn-Szeverin, Calafat, Viddin, Lom, Berkovica and Szófia.
Between Viddin (Bulgaria) and Calafat (Romania) he had crossed the river with his
horses by barge. At Calafat a large crowd gathered expressing great interest and at
Viddin he had been welcomed and shown great hospitality by the Bulgarian
authorities in order for them to be able to continue their journey to Szófia and onward
to Constantinople.

It was reported in the Napi Hírek (Daily News) of December 1926 that on the 23 rd of
that month Tibor Berg, Miksa Berg and Tasziló Berg sold their holdings, an old castle
in Sopron, to Verseghi Elek Nagy the leader of the Hungarian Vatican Embassy for
17 billion crowns. It had been rented by Tasziló Berg. It is now known as Castle
Szidonia and operates as a hotel and is located in Röjtökmuzsaj, Hungary. It had
been purchased in 1910 by Tibor’s father Maximillian Berg and was formerly known,
in Hungarian, as Felsőbüki Nagy-Ürményi Kastély (Castle).
In the newspaper Prágai Magyar Hirlap 18th August 1927 a report on a serious car
accident appeared with the strapline ‘The carelessness of Baron Berg near Sopron:
the car crashed into a rock in the dark night and was crushed. The Baroness floats
between life and death’. As a consequence of a serious car accident at Sopron that
occurred on the 17th August Tibor was arrested. Apparently they had been driving
along the Devecseri highway which was under repair. They didn’t see a large
illuminated rock quarry in the middle of the road and when the car hit the rocks at full
speed it rolled over and the passengers were thrown out of the car and into the
rubble. The occupants of a car that was just behind them rushed to their aid. Bertha
had suffered various fractures and Tibor was passing in and out of consciousness.
They were taken to the hospital in Sopron where Bertha drifted between life and
death.

On the 2nd November 1930 it was reported in the Magyar Országos Tudósító
(Hungarian National Correspondent) that Tibor’s wife testified in court about the
goings on at the Polo Club the Bergs used in a lawsuit concerning an affair between
a Károlyné Palmer and a Polish lieutenant.

On the 16th February 1933 Tibor won the horse championship race at the Millenium
Festival of Bem on his horse Michel (see ‘Between the Woods and the Water’, pg.41.
for details about the where Tibor’s horse was stabled)

It was reported in the Napi Hírek (Daily News) in February 1934 that on the 6th of
that month Tibor’s wife attended a ball at the Dunapalota (The Danube Palace)
hosted by Henrik Borwin, Duke of Mecklenburg and his wife Princess Jiarola which
was given to honour the King of the Netherlands. It was attended by the Regent of
Hungary Miklós Horthy and his wife, Archbishops József, Anna, and Nicholas, the
Minister of Agriculture and future Prime Minister of Hungary Miklós Kállay and his
wife, Dr. Ivan Rákovszky and his fiancée, the wife of Baron István Béla Eugen Gyula
Piret de Bihain, the wife of Baron Tibor von Berg, Colonel H. J. Schmidt and Colonel
Baron Scholz in charge of the support staff at the ball.

The 19 year old Patrick Leigh Fermor visited Budapest in April 1934 and stayed with
Tibor and Beta at Úri utca 15.

On the 16th May 1935 Napi Hírek (Daily News) reported that Tibor was part of the
delegation sent to the funeral of Józef Piłsudski which took place 17 th /18th May 1935
in Warsaw which was also attended by Hitler. The Hungarian delegation included
General Ernő Nánássy-Megay representing the Hungarian Regent, General András
Líchtneckert, Colonel Kálmán Ternegg, Captain Ference Osztovics. They were
received at Warsaw Railway Station by General Jarnuszkiewicz, Minister of Military
Affairs Major-General Tadeusz Kasprzycki, officers of the Bem Riding Stables under
the command of Colonel Leon Dunin-Wolski, and members of the Hungarian
Embassy led by the Diplomat András Hory.

On the 13th June 1935 Tibor rode his horse Michel to victory in an Equestrian
competition on the Varosliget alongside Hanna Bárczy and Count Inna Széchényi.

In 1941 Tibor and Bertha were divorced. Tibor married his second wife Theodóra
neé Hegedűs (26/11/1903 Budapest – 11/01/1989 Innsbruck).

Between 4th – 14th June 1943 the Bergs exhibited an oil painting of the Hindu Prince
(and photographer) Sirdar Umrao Singh Sher-Gil (born 1870 Punjab) at the Nemzeti
Szalon (Hungarian National Salon) probably by his daughter Amrita Sher-Gil, a
renowned painter.

Between 1945 – 1948 Tibor was a PoW in Russia (the person listed in the 1945
census is his second wife Theodóra – Berg Tiborné means the wife of Tibor Berg)

In 1951 they were moved by the Communist authorities to Kék village in Szabolcs-
Szatmár-Bereg County.

In 1956 Tibor and his son Miklós took part in the fighting against the Russians. They
subsequently escaped to Austria. Miklós and his wife Anne Marie went to Bavaria in
Germany and from there to Vancouver in Canada from where they emigrated to the
USA eventually settling in Casa Grande, Arizona. In the meantime Tibor and his
second wife Theodóra emigrated to the USA to Atlantic City, then California and
Miami beach in Florida, eventually settling in Wilmington, Delaware.

In 1976 Miklós and his wife Anne Marie (neé Anna-Maria Miskolczy de Mezőtelegd)
became citizens of the USA. Kathryn Burk of Casa Grande, Arizona, describes her
first job with her neighbours Anne Marie and Miklos Berg…

In my early teen years the first job I had earning money was doing yard work for a
neighbor. Every Saturday morning, seven am sharp, I would walk down to the Berg’s
house. It was only six houses away from ours. Anne Marie and Miklos Berg had
emigrated years before from Hungary. They were both retired then. Anne Marie
Berg, my first employer, such a wonderful lady. She had a lovely accent when she
spoke. With desert type landscaping in their front yard and desert friendly plants in
the back yard, it was quite different from our own yard which had a grassy front lawn,
a grapefruit tree, Tree Rose of Sharon and an orange tree in the center area.
Hedges bordered our fence. It was quite a change of scenery down at the Berg’s.

What was the home of Annemarie and Miklos Berg in Casa Grande, Arizona

My first Saturday Anne Marie took me on a tour of the back yard explaining about
each plant in turn.

I remember bougainvilleas with bright crimson foliage, exotic desert bird of paradise
blooming bright yellow and orange flowers. I watered each plant slowly and
methodically. Always starting with the ones closest to the house and working my
way around the perimeter of the yard then ending with the plants in the center of the
yard. I weeded and groomed each plant when needed.
This was the way Anne Marie wanted it done and since she was my first employer
that is the way I did it.

When I finished my workday I knocked on the back door and Anne Marie would
inspect the premises. After she was thoroughly satisfied with my work I was then
paid the handsome sum of four dollars. Quite the goldmine I thought. This lasted for
three years and I remember it fondly.

http://cacandy.wikispaces.com/file/detail/Revision.doc

Micky and his wife Anne Marie – Newspapers.com

Casa Grande Dispatch Wednesday 16th June 1976
On Friday 31st August 1984 at the age of 90 Tibor was knocked down by a car while
out cycling. Up till then he had been a keen cyclist. After the accident he never
cycled again.

Morning News (Wilmington, Delaware) 1st September 1984 - Newspapers.com

Tibor passed away aged 93 in Wilmington, Delaware, USA, on Friday 2nd October
1987 three years after he was knocked over while cycling. His fascinating obituary
appeared in the Morning News (Wilmington, Delaware) 5th October 1987 and reads:

Morning News (Wilmington, Delaware) 5th October 1987 - Newspapers.com

Tibor von Berg burial plot Wilmington Brandywine Cemetery. The phrase “Born in a castle in Hungary. Died in a cottage in his
mother’s country.” Refers to his birth but the death in 1906 of his mother Sallie May Price, aged 32, from Philadelphia who had
married Maximilian von Berg

Theodóra, Tibor’s second wife who lived with him in the USA, was visiting her
daughter Gloria Von Berg in 1989 when she passed away aged 85 on the 11th
January.

(left) News Journal (Wilmington, Delaware) 4th March 1989 - Newspapers.com

(centre and right) Theodóra Von Berg’s grave at Fiumei úti Nemzeti Sírkert (National Graveyard in Fiumei Street), Budapest

Miklós passed away aged 75 on the 31st January 1998.

His wife Anne Marie passed away in 2015 aged 99.

Anne Marie’s original family home the Miskolczy Mansion (Conacul), in Illye (now Ciumeghiu), Bihor County, Romania (now
and then) and Anna as a child

It’s not known what happened to Bertha after her divorce from Tibor in 1941.

Bertha’s sister Countess (Gróf) Erzsébet Hildegard Nákó de Nagyszentmiklós

(16/04/1922 Vienna – 11/1978 Munich) was married to the eminent surgeon
Professor Ádám Lajos whose 1920 house in the Neo-Baroque style is now referred
to as the Ádám Villa at 1071 Budapest, Városligeti Fasor 35/a.
Link to video tour of the property
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akF_u0d780w

Professor Ádám Lajos was arrested by the Gestapo March 1944 but survived the
war to be arrested again on 17th November 1946 by the Communist Secret Police
and executed the same day.

Erzsébet passed away in Munich age 56 in November 1978.

Footnote:

15 Uri utca
A commemorative window was put up in 2009 and an application was made in July
2021 by the Görög Intézet (Gorog Foundation - in support of the Greek Diaspora) to
the Budapest City Council to place a plaque on 15 Uri utca to commemorate the
humanitarian use of the building for the support and rescue of Jewish people by the
Nákó family of which Bertha (Tibor's first wife) was one, who, with her sister
Erzsebet, helped Raoul Wallenberg. The Nákó family are of Greek origin.

It’s interesting that in Artemis Cooper's book, 'Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Adventure',
Úri utca 15 in the Varhegy District of Buda (Tibor and Bertha's residence) is
described as an 18th century building yet the historical notes in Hungarian describe it
as 17th century. The roots go back much further to the 1470s and like a lot of older
buildings in Budapest I would think it is multi layered, possibly with much older parts
forming part of the fabric of the building. A wander round the Varhegy District reveals
a few residences that have much older architectural elements that are visible to
passers-by. My aunt and uncle live in what was a Viennese palace in Budapest that
was confiscated by the Communist regime and converted into apartments.
Whenever I visit it feels much older and I always wonder if I am venturing into a
hidden Aladdin's cave of much older, hidden, architectural fragments. I've been past
Úri utca 15 many many times and stood across the road pondering what it would be
like to explore the building but would never dream of disturbing the peace of the
residents. Gloria Von Berg has hosted a reception there for the Patrick Leigh Fermor
Society I think to mark the publication of a book about Paddy.