Heroes Among Us [antikvár]

GÁSPÁR ALAPY ILDIKÓ BAICSI From the Mayor's Otfice 10 tlie Catite Gar i As mayor, Gáspár Alapy made an unrivalled contribution to the reflowering of the part of the city of Komárom that was divided in half by the Peace Treat of Trianon. Portrait of Alapy, October 1938 n the midst of the upheavals of the Second World War, Gáspár Alapy, the mayor of Komárom and head of the Roman Catholic parish made a boldly defiant statement: "I took an oath to serve the needs of all citizens equally." He made this statement in response to an anti-Jewish motion which had been proposed during one of the sittings of the city council. The chamber filled with a troubled murmur The town of Komárom had been home to a sizeable Jewish community since the 13th century. As mayor, in these years of cataclysm and calamity, Alapy did everything he could to alleviate the sufferings of the Jews of Komárom, and the far-right elements in the city never forgave him for this. According to notary László Sulacsik, who had worked closely with Alapy, when the far-right Arrow Cross Party rose to power they had him arrested. In the end, he perished in Dachau, one of the Nazi concentration camps. Gáspár Alapy had been born in Komárom on September 10,1880, the descendant of an old noble family. His older brother Gyula was a prominent figure in Hungarian cultural life in Czechoslovakia. Gáspár Alapy continued his education in Pozsony (today Bradslava, Slovakia). In 1908, he took a position as a notary public in Komárom, and in 1918, he was appointed chief notary. After the outbreak of the First World War, he fought as a soldier in the Balkans. In November 1914, he was promoted to reserve artillery lieutenant. When the peace treaties were signed at the end of the First World War, the historical part of Komárom (today Komárno, Slovakia) on the left bank of the River Danube was annexed to the newly formed state of Czechoslovakia. Like many of the members of the urban middle-class in the city, Alapy moved to the part of the city which lay on the right bank of the Danube, which had remained in Hungary after the new borders had been drawn. In April 1922, Alapy, who according to the description given by his one-time barber was a "large [ ], ruddy-faced man with a moustache," became deputy