30/08/2026
Can We Find Dr. Dezső Silberstein’s Family? Please Share.
In 2025, I rescued the original photographic identification booklet of Hungarian attorney-at-law, Dr. Dezső Silberstein, from a flea market.
Today, I am trying to find his family so I can return it to them. Please help me by sharing his story.
Inside the booklet is something especially precious: his photograph.
As a genealogist, I have always felt a responsibility to rescue old personal documents when I come across them. A passport, an identification card, or a photograph may look like an old piece of paper — but sometimes it is one of the last surviving personal traces of a human life.
So I began researching the man behind this face.
Dezső Silberstein was born in Szarvas, Hungary, in 1884, the son of Fülöp Silberstein and Lujza Glasner. He married Anna Nyiri and built his legal career in his hometown.
And the newspapers brought his world back to life.
Dozens of contemporary newspaper articles document his life as an attorney at law and member of his community. We find him arguing cases in court, representing a client in the purchase of Szarvas’s Árpád Hotel and Café, and participating in the social life of the town.
Then, in 1944, the story changes.
A May 1944 newspaper reported that twelve Jewish attorneys were removed from the Szarvas district.
Dr. Silberstein was one of them.
He was later deported to Auschwitz and never returned. After the war, the Szarvas District Court dealt with his legal declaration of death.
But his identification booklet — and his face — survived.
My research revealed one more important clue: Peter Page of Toronto, Canada, a great-nephew of Dr. Silberstein, submitted a Page of Testimony to Yad Vashem to preserve his relative’s memory.
Now I would like to find Peter Page or his family and return Dr. Silberstein’s original identification booklet to them.
If his family cannot be located, the document will be preserved through the Iratmentő Alapítvány (Hungarian Heritage Archives Foundation) and placed in an appropriate Hungarian public collection.
But before that, I want to try to bring it home.
If you know Peter Page of Toronto, his descendants, or anyone connected to the Silberstein family of Szarvas, please contact us.
And even if you don't: please share this post. You never know who may recognize a name.
Perhaps one share will be the one that brings this small piece of Dr. Silberstein’s life back to his family after more than 80 years.
A name. A face. A story. And, hopefully, a way home.
— Dr. Bence Erdős
Genealogist, EverGens Europe Ltd.
Curator, Iratmentő Alapítvány – Hungarian Heritage Archives Foundation
