75 secular years ago tomorrow, the man in the picture unfortunately succumbed to injuries from the reckless conduct of a negligent driver. At least he died at an old-enough age (as he was actually 75 on all calendars), from shock within an hour, and after a life of tragedy upon tragedy. His life began tragically as well.
Born the “illegitimate” Nagy Mihály at 2-2 utca Szövetség in Austrohungarian Budapest, Michael Trudnak would later lie about his birth partly out of shame of being a “mamzer”. Born to hidden-Jewish parents Nagy Mária (מרים בת יוסף אלעזר ומרים) and Trudnyak Mihály (מיכאל בן יעקב ומרים), he joined his utca Dohány (i.e., Dohány Street)-born sister Aranka/Aurelia Zsuzsanna. His mother had been from hidden-Jewish families in the Budapest (certainly not Kacwin or “Czechoslovakia”) area for a while (and when her cousin Libich Paulina Szidónia returned openly to traditional Judaism, she divorced the father of Sibalszky Kálmán—the Kalman Sibalszky, whom close to remain Roman Catholic by faith as well as threw himself into Anti-Communism activities to the point of arrest!). As for the older Mihály, his families were also Anusim, though apparently not with as colorful of a history outside of the derogatory surname (“difficult one” or “son of the difficult one”) and potential connections to Frankism, plus one conversion to Augsburger Catholicism (Anusim and B’nei Anusim generally didn’t care about moving interdenominationally just as long as we could stay hidden, etc.—with or without belief in Jesus. Regardless of our individual beliefs, we certainly recalled the traumas of our ancestors as well as of fellow Anusim and B’nei Anusim—including the Jewish Anglican Dr. Roderigo Lopes, the Jewish reformer whom gets Antisemitically eclipsed by Luther and Calvin.).
Similarly to how one Trudnyak moved interdenominationally (See the above note.), the Nagy-Trudnyak couple moved intracity wise. The difference is that they moved two times within five years (once from Dohány Street to Szövetség Street, once from 2-2 Szövetség Street to 19 Szövetség Street—with 19 utca Szövetség being much closer to the Jewish Quarter in relatively-newly-merged-with-Buda Pest). The harassment and imminent conscription of Nagy Mihály got to them by 1891–Mihály Trudnyak was 16, not 15, and he needed to quickly take his father’s name as well as claim to be a year older than he was. He also needed to join his father in Reading, Pennsylvania, only to have his father leave for Obrucsno (Obručné) near his own town of birth (Késmárk or Kežmarok) in 1892 and return to Reading in 1895.
As far as I know, he never again saw his mother (whom was last known to be alive when Aranka married the “illegitimate”/“mamzer” Párducz Fuchs Rezső—whom actually got incarcerated for trying to use the name “Fuchs” in 1891!). He also never again saw either of his sisters (Aranka and Mária—and you can guess why his parents did not want to name their first daughter “Mária”!). In other words, he began life with instability and with multiple losses of significant connections—including to his mother permanently (at least in the ‘olam haba), and to his father at least twice (with a move to Obrucsno followed by a move back to Obrucsno. That alone would cause instability for a hidden-Jewish boy living under Austrohungarian persecution, and all because his parents were uncomfortable marrying in a Roman Catholic Church. They certainly heard and/or read the shocking and disgusting account of the desecration of Zolika the son of Joachim Arányiné Jána/Johanna. Zolika’s gentile father was Catholic or Catholic adjacent, and the 1842-born Mária and 1845-born Mihály wanted to avoid any Catholic rituals as much as possible especially after their 1859-born peer was desecrated.).
With generational, personal, and other trauma (including the posthumous desecration of his parents’ Matrilineally-Jewish peer) on his mind, Mihály Nagy Trudnak (now going by Michael “Mike” Trudniak or Trudnak) needed to figure out how to balance himself in the United States—and in Appalachian Pennsylvania after a brief stint on its border in reading as well a brief stint in New Jersey! In 1913, he’d already lost two children (with the younger deceased child dying in 1912, and in often-unforgiving Appalachia). Now he bit another proverbial bullet: naming a daughter “Mary” after perhaps losing a daughter because he dared to name her the apparently-more-gentile and -Catholic “Katherine” (Mary would later get spooked and not name any of her sons directly after their own father for 11 years!). His next daughter was “Rosalie” mostly after his wife’s mother and his maternal grandfather’s mother by secular name (only one nod to Sefardi and Mizrahi custom that Jews in the Hungarys traditionally used—for his wife’s sister Helen Rosalia—and thus no harm or foul!).
Then came World War One (Mary wasn’t celebrating her secular birthday on July 29th, her actual secular birthday, again!). A real dread that the nominally-tolerant Hapsburgs could win crept in to everyone (July 28, 1914 ended up being what Michael Trudnak hoped; and he claimed to be born in his father’s Exile base of “Czechoslovakia”). When the Hapsburgs lost, another dread followed up the former dread of a Hapsburg win: the 1918 Flu Pandemic came raging! Then came the 1929 loss of the youngest Trudnak child (after multiple other losses), the Depression, and the recognized part of the Holocaust (as Jews in the Islamic Middle East and under Stalin, including in the Exile base of Ukraine for the Trudnyakovs, also endured Antisemitic ethnocide.).
In the midst of 1929-1943, more losses (including that of Mary’s firstborn son and of Michael’s wife) followed. On the secular day of June 7, 1946, the widower of Anna Munka Trudnak and thrice-bereaved father with multiple other losses somehow made it to 70 secular years. Then came life’s final tragedy for the somehow-walking-independently 75-year-old man whom could walk back and forth from the Ashley (Ashley-Hanover Township) Hose House (Firehouse) every night. On the secular date of August 24, 1951, 75-year-old Austrohungarian Inquisition survivor and tragedy-beleaguered Michael Nagy Trudnak didn’t even get to live to 80 years old by reason of strength; and 27-year-old negligent driver Robert Evans subsequently got away with vehicular homicide. Robert Evans also failed to drive Michael Nagy Trudnak to the much-closer Ashley Hose House, leaving him to die in the hospital. The firefighters could’ve tried to save the 75-year-old man much more than a self-assured punk in his 20s even made any effort to do teshuvah for driving particularly dangerously at night!
A life begun in tragedy 150 years ago ended tragically in just over half that much time 75 years ago this year (regardless of which calendar one uses)—and the 75th yahrzeit bookends yet another chapter in the continuing legacy of Michael Nagy Trudnak, a tragic ordinary figure whose life could barely be less ordinary. By the way, the ultimate fates of Michael’s parents, sisters, and known in-law brother are still unknown to me—one of the great-grandchildren of Michael’s daughter Mary.
