70 OMZSA plaquette

István Örkényi Strasser

Budapest, 1940

brass, cast, engraved

present of baron Alfonz Weiss de Csepel, 1941

The National Hungarian Jewish Aid Organization (OMZSA) was founded in 1939 with the mission of creating the appropriate financial basis to provide for the needs of the masses after the anti-Jewish laws and regulations. The most important donors for OMZSA received this brass plaquette by Örkényi Strasser, as an “engraved document for sacrificial fulfillment of obligations”. On one side of the plaquette there is a woman and a child with the motto of OMZSA: “Don’t leave your brethren!”. On the other side, there is the OMZSA badge, and a text referring to the donation: “The owner of this plaquette has fulfilled his obligations towards OMZSA”. The plaquette was designed by the young sculptor István Örkényi Strasser (1911–1944), whose successful early career was cut short in 1941 by forced labor. His battalion was murdered on October 11, 1944 in the train station of Kiskunhalas. This plaquette was donated to the museum by baron Alfonz Weiss de Csepel, son of the founder of the metal factory in Csepel, who supported his brethren in need as a member of the wealthiest Jewish family in Hungary.