Religious Upbringing

[Text: Tom describes his religious upbringing in Budapest, Hungary. He speaks to his father’s conversion to Christianity in an effort to pursue a medical career.] 

Tom Szekely: Fairly weak religious upbringing, but what there was of it was secular Christian. So, we did not practice either Jewish or Christian practices too much. However, we had a Christmas tree at Christmastime, celebrated Easter, and so on. So, I would say secular, nonreligious secular, I guess probably puts it in context.  

Interviewer: And how is it that your family ended up Christian?  

Tom Szekely: Okay, that’s a good question. It turns out that both my father and mother got baptized, converted to Christianity independently of each other before they ever met. In the case of my father, he converted to Christianity because he wanted to become a doctor. And by that time, there were enough regulations against more Jews not being allowed to study medicine. So, his parents decided that he might as well convert, and then he’ll be able to go to medical school, which is what happened. In those days, when you converted, then you became Christian, period. And this wasn’t the tact that the Nazis took, as we shall see later.