Walker is the author of the critically acclaimed volumes, “Betrayal at Little Gibraltar”, and “The Last Lap.” He is known as a diligent researcher who will turn over every stone, twice.

Recently, I received an email from Walker, asking me what I know about the background of George Angelus, who was identified in a research paper, as one of the most important forgers in Budapest during the Holocaust. He provided fake IDs and other fake documents to hundreds, maybe thousands of Jews, being sheltered, secretly, by Hungarian, Christians.

Angelus was identified as a native of Parkan, my hometown, on the Danube River. In fact, George, known by his Hungarian first name, as Gyuri, was my childhood friend. We grew up together. We belonged to the same Maccabi Hatzair Zionist organization. Gyuri, was two years older than me, but we had a lot in common, including a deep interest in literature.

Angelus, at the age of 14, became a local celebrity, as a published poet. He was tall, good looking and had a presence. What made him also different was that at one point, he was an apprentice at a local printshop.

When I conveyed this information to Walker, he said, “Well, now, it makes sense how he was able to produce all those fake documents.”

As if fate had ordained it, I was one of those Zionist-led, anti-Nazi underground activists whose main job was clandestinely delivering fake documents to Jews, being sheltered at Christian households.

Often, their presence there came under suspicion from hostile neighbors, and Jews in hiding, had to leave in a hurry. They urgently needed fake IDs.

Otto Komoly, an engineer, who was a decorated officer during the First World War, serving in the Austro-Hungarian Army, became a Zionist leader and the head of the Aid and Rescue Committee. He was mainly in charge of providing help to Jews in hiding.

I was assigned to Komoly, as an aid, a “shames.” (Hepler in Yiddish).

Wearing my “Levente” cape of the Hungarian Fascist Youth organization, I was most suitable to deliver bribes to high- ranking Hungarian government officials, and fake IDs to Jews in hiding.

I knew that, with the fake IDs in my possession being apprehended by the “Nyilas” militia gangs roaming the streets of Budapest, hunting for Jews, and having a licensee to kill, would be the end of me.

To hide the gold Napoleon coins, intended as bribes, and the false IDs, I buried them in a brown-paper bag, filled with one-kilogram of white flour.

I carried the flour filled bag on every mission, In case someone would question me about my errand. I could say, “I am delivering food for needy people.” Budapest suffered from severe food shortages.

The closest call I had was when I reached the door of an apartment where two young Jewish men were hidden by an elderly Christian couple.

Before I had a chance to ring the bell, the door of the next apartment opened, and a man in a Nyilas uniform asked me, “What is your business here?”

I pointed to the bag of flour, and said, “The district Catholic Charitie is sending this to help out.”

Then I turned to him, and said, “If your family needs assistance, I can ask the Charity to send you some food.”

The man turned around and closed the door behind him.

The two Jewish men obtained their fake IDs and left the hiding place. I don’t know whether they survived the Holocaust.

I am often asked, what do I consider as my most important accomplishment in life?

I have been a journalist for 80 years. First as a foreign correspondent based in Prague, Czechoslovakia, I had interviewed dozens of world leaders, and sent out hundreds of dispatches. After escaping from Communist Czechoslovakia, and settling in the United States, I wrote more than a thousand columns for the Adirondack Daily Enterprise, and the Lake Placid News: I wrote more than 2,000 columns for the Virginia Gazette, during the past 44 years.

Looking back, I think delivering those fake IDs to people in hiding is the most enduring legacy I will leave behind.

Frank Shatz is a Williamsburg resident. He is the author of “Reports from a Distant Place,” the compilation of his selected columns. The book is available at the Bruton Parish Shop and Amazon.com