Dr. med.
Bela Molnar
1892 - 1944

Bela Molnar was born on February 24, 1892 in Kaschau (Hungarian Kassa, which is now Kosice, Slovakia) as the son of Dr. Eugen Friedmann (1863 to 1937) and Hermina, née Hollay (1866 to 1944). Dr Friedmann changed his family name to Molnar. Eugen Molnar was a committed Jewish community member, even heading the Reformed Jewish community in Kaschau for several years. Bela Molnar had four brothers: Geza, born on September 19, 1893; Ferenc, born in 1897; Stefan (Istvan), born on August 11, 1900; and Karoly, born on October 11, 1911. Karoly studied medicine at the Charles University in Prague from 1929 to 1935 and became a doctor.

Kaschau belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire for centuries. After World War I, it was assigned to the Czechoslovak Republic and belonged to Hungary again from 1938 to 1945. Since World War II, the city has once again belonged to Czechoslovakia. After the division of Czechoslovakia, Kaschau is now considered the second largest city after Bratislava in the newly founded state of Slovakia.

Education and place of work

Bela Molnar studied medicine at the Royal Hungarian University in Budapest. After finishing his studies and serving in World War I, Molnar worked at the 3rd Medical Clinic of the University of Budapest under the direction of Baron Alexander von Koranyi.

After settling in Budapest, he established a practice in Karlsbad (now Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic) at the address “Deutsches Haus, Alte Wiese 4,” (German House), which he operated every summer.

The “Deutsches Haus” (German House) was initially mentioned in 1922 in the directory of spa doctors in Karlsbad. Up until 1938, the Budapest newspapers in the spring always mentioned that Dr. Bela Molnar had reopened his clinical practice in Karlsbad for that year.

Bela Molnar published several articles on clinical bacteriological examinations, thyroid diseases, and diabetes mellitus in the weekly Hungarian medical journal Orvosi Hetilap. Further publications under the name Bela Molnar in the Klinische Wochenschrift (Clinical Newsletter) and in Virchow’s Archive for Pathological Anatomy and Physiology and for Clinical Medicine cannot be clearly attributed to him. A colleague with the same name also worked at the Third Medical Clinic of the University of Budapest a few years earlier.

From 1922, Bela Molnar focused his attention on medical history, researching and publishing until 1944. Molnar published a small book on the medical history of Janos Arany (1817 to 1882), who was a Hungarian national poet. Janos Arany visited the Karlsbad spa on an annual basis since 1869. Because of gallstones, he received a treatment via cholecystostomy in Karlsbad, as Bela Molnar described in his book:

“In September 1869, after the first application of the Karlsbad water, a tumor developed slowly and painlessly under the right ribs, in the area corresponding to the liver. The tumor grew in size at the beginning of December, so he informed his family doctor, who recommended spermaceti rubs. The tumor continued to grow and became larger and larger until, on January 10 and 11, 1870, a lens-shaped, black-blue spot was visible. On the 13th, this blue spot quickly spread to the size of a crown. His attending physician happened to meet Dr. Kovacs Sebestyen Endre at that time, and together they visited Arany Janos. Kovacs Sebestyen Endre examined and removed the hardening without questioning the patient, cut into the blue area, and removed 3–4 gallstones from the opening. In the following days, more gallstones came out, about 8–9 in total, the largest of which was about the size of a small pea. After the tumor was cut open, the patient had to endure severe pain and a wound for about eight days. After that, no more gallstones appeared, but the passage through which they were excreted remained open until his death and bled slightly. He had to use a carbolic acid-based ointment constantly.”

Molnar continued to publish, for example regarding Tamás Jordán, a balneologist who lived 400 years ago. In 1940, he published a work on the history of pharmacy in Kaschau and in 1944 his nearly 400-page work on the history of medicine in Kaschau was released.

After 1933

With the Munich Agreement in October 1938, Czechoslovakia was forced to cede the Sudetenland to the German Reich. As a result, Jewish doctors were subject to the regulations for Jews that had been in force in the German Reich since 1933. On November 28, 1938, Molnar`s practice in Karlsbad was provisionally placed under the control of a lawyer.

From 1938 onwards, the anti-Jewish laws in Hungary became stricter. While there is no clear documentation as to whether Bela Molnar gave up his practice in Budapest, it can be assumed since he accepted the position as the Chief of the Department of Internal Medicine in his hometown in 1938.

Kaschau was a railway junction and played a crucial role for transport trains from Hungary to Auschwitz. Between May 15, 1944, and July 20, 1944, up to four trains a day were sent via Kaschau to Auschwitz, carrying a total of over 400,426 Jews in 137 trains during this period.

The Jewish population of Kaschau was forced into a ghetto and deported to Auschwitz in five transports on May 16, 1944 (two trains), May 17, 1944, May 24, 1944, and June 3, 1944. The train transports arrived one to two days later leaving Kaschau.

Bela Molnar (now listed with the Slavic first name Vojtech) and members of his family were on one of these trains. Bela Molnar, his mother Hermine and his brother Ferenc (Frantisek) were murdered in Auschwitz.

His brother Geza was deported from Auschwitz to Groß-Rosen and from there to the Riese satellite camp in the Eulengebirge mountains.

At the Riese satellite camp, prisoners were forced to build a tunnel system, which was supposed to become the new headquarters of the Führer. Geza Molnar was listed with the remark “leg ulcer” on the transport list back to Auschwitz on September 29, 1944, where he died on November 29, 1944. His other brother Karoly was arrested in Kaschau on June 4, 1944 and deported via Auschwitz to the Kaufering III satellite camp of the Dachau concentration camp, where he was registered as an “arrival” on June 18, 1944. He was liberated by the Americans on April 29, 1945. His subsequent fate is unknown, as is that of his brother Stefan.