Frank Farkas

GEDCOM Note

Frank had 17 brothers and sisters. Frank was a proud man and war hero in the Austria-Hungarian army, was highly decorated, wounded 21 times, and after 7 years in the army rose to the equivalent rank of Lieutenant despite being very religious. Due to the proximity of several countries, he also knew how to speak a little German as well as Hungarian. In Hungary, he, the children, and Rose lived in his father-in-law's house, a beautiful home with a large back yard, several dogs, and live-in help. Emery, Elizabeth and Leslie were born there. His grandson, Emery, also remembers having to take water from the well, heating it, and carrying it to the bath tub to take a bath. So, while it was a grand house for the time, plumbing was limited.

Many stories have been handed down about Frank. It is said that when he returned from the army, he organized the men in his village to defend themselves against the pogroms. This, of course, was unheard of! Raping and pillaging in the Jewish ghetto's was a well-established pastime in Hungary as in other parts of Europe - it was even considered to be part of the Christmas fun - and, of course, Jews didn't fight back. But he taught the men in his village to fight back; they were able to fend them off. But he knew that they'd always have to fight, and he dreamed of a better life. So, not speaking a word of English but knowing a trade, he sailed to America and found a Hungarian butcher that he could work for while he learned English. He saved enough money to bring Rose and their children over to America. After he brought them here, they saved enough money to bring the rest of their village over - one by one - and they all worked together until they were able to bring all of the families over.

There are two other not necessarily contradictory accounts as to why/how he left for America. In one story, he had to flee to the US because he shot and killed someone who was bullying his town in Hungary (most probably part of a normal pogrom and maybe a Cossack leader). In another story, he went to America because Central Europe was economically ruined after the first world war and neither he nor Adolf (his brother-in-law) had any good prospects for making a living. Because of this, Morris, his father-in-law, gave he and Adolf some money to go to America, which they did in 1923. It is also said that Morris had a second motive, which was to separate Frank from Rose for a while, because her frequent pregnancies were endangering her health. Rose and three kids came to the US later.

The unexpected consequence of Frank immigrating in 1923 is that he got under the wire before a very restrictive immigration law limiting Eastern Europeans went into effect in 1924. If Frank had remained in Europe, the entire family would have been wiped out by the Nazis in 1944.

After apprenticing for the Hungarian butcher, he opened his own butcher shop and he and Rose opened a Hungarian restaurant. Both businesses did well. After World War I, he bought a lot of cattle which made them bankrupt when the depression hit and lowered the prices of beef. He went on to invest in apartment buildings, and it is remembered hearing how hard it was for him as an older man to go from door to door to collect the rents, and to buy new appliances that would suddenly disappear or break down because drug addicts would be selling them part by part. But he stood up to them all - including the thief that walked into his butcher shop one afternoon. Instead of handing over his hard-earned cash, he reached for one of his carving knives - again, to stand up for what was right, and to fight back. But this time he was older, and the bad guy was faster. And he ended up in the hospital with a stroke that left him with a limp for the rest of his life.

He is fondly remembered with his big, handle-bar mustache, and his smile, and the twinkle in his eye. He would often say "tsk, tsk" (as in "shame on you") when someone didn't meet his standards (like when he corrected the rabbi's Hebrew throughout Dale's Bar Mitzvah). He was also remembered for watching Rose and the rest of the kids with incredible, unlimited love when he'd come over every year to pick the plums from the tree in the corner of Leslie's backyard.

Frank was the patriarch of the family and known as a do-gooder. He either formed or was highly involved in the "Jokai Association" - Hungarian Social & Benevolent Society. The Jokai Society was founded in the early twentieth century by Hungarian Jewish immigrants , who pooled their limited resources to hire a doctor and buy burial plots.

Frank was a very religious man from a very large family. He used to stand in the kitchen and watched his daughter-in-law, Louise, like a hawk to make sure she did not break the rules of kashrut while cleaning the dishes.

A note about the nickname: Feribachi. Feri is the Hungarian version of Ferenc and bachi means uncle.