The Jewish community recently honoured a Canadian Presbyterian minister who helped Jews and Christians escape Nazi persecution during the Second World War. Rev. Dr. Fred Metzger, now retired, was declared “righteous among the nations” at a Yad Vashem ceremony in Vancouver in May. Alan Baker, Israel's ambassador to Canada, flew in from Ottawa for the presentation.
“What a man. What inspiration. What principles. What dedication,” said Garde B. Gardom, former lieutenant-governor of British Columbia, during the ceremony. “There's no question that what he believes in and practices can be a role model for anyone and everyone.”
A native of Budapest, Hungary, Metzger was instrumental in saving Hungarian Jews from death and internment in concentration camps. His name was brought forward for the honour when Dr. Jan Gecsei, a computer sciences professor at the University of Montreal, told the story, in an interview, of a young pastor who had saved him and his mother (who died in August at age 94) from the Nazis. Gecsei was also at the ceremony and spoke of his wartime experiences.
“It was an emotionally moving moment for me,” Metzger told the Record, “because he [Gecsei] reminded us that this celebration is a special gift from God, who gave 62 years of very rich and blessed time to him and his 94-year-old mother instead of ending at the crematorium of Auschwitz.”
During the ceremony, Metzger recounted incidents from his life during the Nazi era for the 300 people in attendance. One of his saddest memories was the story of an 18-year-old youth named Bandi Rózsa. The son of wealthy Jewish merchants, Rózsa was preparing to be a medical doctor. One autumn day, his mother told Metzger that her son was on a long, slow death march to the railway station where he would be put on a train and taken to a concentration camp. Mrs. Rózsa had a Swedish passport for her son, which would release him from the march.
“I took the passport and got on a streetcar to Buda. By the time I arrived I was told they had just left,” recounted Metzger. “The large group of Jews were already on the highway toward the north. I hurried after the slow-marching crowd on foot. They went like sheep to the slaughter. It was easy to spot Bandi, being so tall. He had a backpack and a suitcase in hand. 'Come Bandi!' I said. 'Step out! I have your Swedish passport. I can take you back to your parents!'
'No! I cannot come. My uncle is with me and he does not know the Lord!'
“I kept arguing with him. But seeing his determination, I had to give up. I returned with the passport to his mother … However, Bandi did not reach the railway station in the north. We found out that he collapsed on the road. He had high fever and pneumonia and died near the railway.
“As the Scripture says: 'Greater love has no man than this; that a man lay down his life for his friends.' (John 15:13) I will never forget him.”
Metzger became involved in the rescue operations after going to work in a chemical factory in Budapest as an industrial chaplain in 1943. It was then that Rev. József Éliás, director of the Good Shepherd Society (created by the Hungarian Reformed Church of which Metzger was a member) invited him to join the staff of his agency. The agency managed 32 properties along the Danube River to be used as safe houses for nearly 2,000 children and some of their mothers.
They also established an orphanage in Noszvaj and inspired Hungarian Christians to hide and rescue thousands of persecuted Jews. The institute included a large, complicated cave system in the basement, where adult army deserters were also able to hide.
Mordecai Paldiel of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem estimates that at least 100,000 non-Jews acted to rescue 595,000 Jews. An American researcher puts the number of rescuers at 250,000.
Metzger came to Canada in 1950 as a minister of the Reformed Church in Hungary and was soon appointed by the Presbyterian Church's Board of Missions to Edmonton, in order to start Calvin Hungarian Presbyterian Church. In 1953, the General Assembly received him as an ordained missionary and he was sent to Vancouver to begin another Hungarian congregation. In 1965, he moved to St. Columba, Vancouver, where he remained until his retirement in 1998.
He was also the institutional chaplain at the Central City Mission, Vancouver, the largest men's shelter in Canada at that time, between 1958 and 1964; founded the Westminster Foundation for clinical training of clergy in 1967, where both clergy and lay persons were trained in pastoral counselling; and was sent by the church to Vienna in 1956 during the Hungarian Uprising to bring more than 4,000 Protestant refugees and six Presbyterian ministers to Canada. In 1997, he received his Doctor of Divinity from the Presbyterian College, Montreal, and in 1984, he received the Pilgrim's Medal from Pope John Paul II.
Metzger is an avid collector of ancient artifacts, including a fragment of the Isaiah Scroll from the Dead Sea Scrolls. He is the founder of the Biblical Museum of Canada – Quest Exhibits, at Regent College, Vancouver. Due to lack of space, the museum will be moving to Trinity Western University. The teaching museum, which features exhibits valued at than $1 million from 37 distinct time periods, attempts to show how God has been trying to communicate with His creation throughout the ages. – AM with files from Jim Mair.
