Art by Hungarian artist TakerOne hangs on exterior wall of Research Studies Center Auditorium
Many spirits of humanity have contributed to building the legacy of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center since it was founded in 1898. A new mural on the downtown campus pays tribute to three Rowell Park heroes who saved the lives of thousands of Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust.
Hungarian street artist TakerOne created the artwork, celebrating these three longtime Western New York residents and lifesavers.
Clara Ambrus, MD, PhD
Dr. Ambrus (nee Bayer) was just a first-year medical student in Hungary when she bribed guards at camps and ghettos to release Jewish prisoners, who were then hidden and cared for by her family until the end of World War II. In 1944 she married Julian Ambrus, a fellow medical student, and the couple emigrated to the U.S. They settled in Buffalo in the mid-1950s and she became a Professor of Pediatrics and Obstetrics at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Both Julian and Clara were celebrated physicians at Roswell Park, with Julian serving as the longtime Director of Cancer Research.
For her bravery during the Holocaust, Dr. Clara Ambrus was named Righteous Among the Nations by The State of Israel in 2006, and named by the Pope as a Lady Commander of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem in 2008.
Tibor Baranski
Tibor Baranski is credited with helping to save nearly 3,000 Jewish lives as a young seminary student in 1944 Hungary. He helped set up safe houses, printed fake documents for Jews that enabled them to flee the country, and was captured by Soviet Union forces in 1945. Baranski was able to flee Hungary for Italy during the 1956 revolution, eventually leaving the priesthood and marrying his wife, Katalin. They moved together to the U.S., settling in Buffalo where Katalin was a researcher and doctor at Roswell Park.
Sister Margit Slatcha
Born in Hungary in 1884, human rights champion Sister Margit Slachta formed the Union of Catholic Women and the Sisters of Social Services, which was well-known throughout her country for nursing, midwifery and orphanage services. In 1920, Sister Slachta became the first woman to be elected to the Hungarian Parliament where most of her speeches focused on the condition of women and children, and in 1938, she published articles opposing anti-Jewish measures in her newspaper, The Voice of Spirit.
After WWII, Sister Margit emigrated to the U.S. and called Western New York home until she died in 1974. Through her efforts with the Church, it is estimated that she helped to rescue more than 2,000 Hungarian Jews: the State of Israel, through Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, awarded Sister Margit Slachta as Righteous Among the Nations in 1969. One individual whom Sister Margit saved, Dr. Gabor Markus, also ended up in Buffalo and was a doctor and researcher at Roswell Park.
The colorful spray-painted work is located on the eastern wall of the Research Studies Center Auditorium at the cancer center’s main campus. The site was chosen because of its street view and proximity to the hospital’s entrance.
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