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00:00Every family has its secrets. Locked away behind our front doors are the hidden pasts,
00:11the buried scandals and the life-changing decisions that have shaped our family and our nation.
00:17Dad was a rabid anti-Semite and I suspect he was helping the Nazis.
00:25So your father was under surveillance in 1959. The Spikes story doesn't end with the FBI.
00:34The big question, who is my father and how do I find him?
00:40I just desperately want to know why she ended up in Fremantle Jail.
00:46Every Family Has a Secret uncovers the extraordinary stories behind our everyday lives.
00:52This time, two Australians question everything they know about their fathers.
00:58Everyone deserves to know their story and to know the truth of their story.
01:02Acclaimed actor David Field seeks the truth by the deathbed confession.
01:07Who was his real father?
01:09You're saying that that's confirmation, that that's family.
01:13And Perth woman, Angela Hamilton, follows the trail of her father through wartime Europe
01:21to unearth the shocking secret he took to his grave.
01:25The torture is repeated twice more. It's horrible, isn't it?
01:31This is the landing spot where many thousands of migrants came to some Australia after World War II.
01:48One of them was a Hungarian refugee named Pal Rogi.
01:54I'm meeting his daughter, Angela Hamilton.
01:57Because after her father's death, she discovered some disturbing evidence that suggests that he was hiding secrets.
02:06Angela, hello. Nice to meet you.
02:09This place is probably a bit different now to when your father first set foot in Australia.
02:15I imagine that most of the refugees were delighted to leave behind the ravaged Europe,
02:21but you never felt that your father quite fitted that picture.
02:24He never seemed to embrace Australia or praise Australia.
02:29I think with Dad it seemed that he was fleeing something.
02:34There was quite a curious occupation that he might have had during the war.
02:40And now you really want to get the answers about what it was he did.
02:43It would be great to have the full story.
02:46Not only good news, but possibly bad news. Are you prepared for that?
02:50Shall we go and start? Here we go.
02:52Let's go.
02:57Come in, honey. Thank you.
02:59Lots of stuff. Lots of stuff. Lots of intrigue in there.
03:02Now, I'll show you a picture here.
03:05That's my father, probably in his thirties.
03:08Looks like a movie star.
03:10Oh, he thought he was a movie star.
03:13To other people, he was just the most amazing child.
03:17But, um, we grew up just experiencing this brutal, cruel man.
03:24Explosive and unpredictable.
03:27You're just a guard every second, every minute of every hour.
03:31This is supposed to represent some sort of a happy family.
03:35Yeah.
03:36Well, this is a very staged photo.
03:38Do you see how I've got to look away?
03:40My sister's got to look that way.
03:42No one looks relaxed.
03:43No, no. No, we don't do.
03:45Particularly your mother.
03:46She's tiny, like a little bird.
03:49And I can remember, Dad had beaten up Mum rather badly.
03:53He was kicking her around on the floor.
03:55That night when we went to bed, I said, that's it.
04:00I hate him.
04:01I'm never going to forgive him.
04:03I know his daughter and he's my father and I have to be obedient.
04:08But I hate him.
04:10And I had as little as I could do with my father that I could get away with.
04:16So he didn't hellow in any way, shape or form as he got older?
04:20No, he didn't.
04:21What did emerge as we were growing, becoming more aware, was that Dad was a rabid anti-Semite.
04:28We might all be watching TV in that.
04:30A man be interviewed.
04:32His dad catapults out of his chair and is at the front of the TV going,
04:38Jido, Jido, there's a woman in his woman.
04:41Meaning, Jew, Jew.
04:44And we wouldn't say anything because he didn't know what that was going to ignite or not going to ignite.
04:50Lord, when I'm going through his papers years later,
04:56what do I find?
04:57He was married to a Jew.
04:59She died in 1943, aged 29, of a weak heart injury at the time.
05:07There were laws.
05:08You're not allowed to be married to a Jew.
05:10You want sexual relations with a Jew.
05:12So, Roji's death was critical to his survival and state because of this office that he held.
05:20And then we find there, Dr. Roji Powell, which is how he's a Nazi.
05:25What are you?
05:26I suspect he was a collaborator, sympathiser, that's helping the Nazis.
05:35We all knew Dad to be a cruel and violent man.
05:38What made him that?
05:40When did he become like that?
05:42It takes immense courage, Angela, to want to confront this.
05:46It's taken me all this time to actually face it.
05:53You can't deny it.
05:56No.
05:57You just gotta meet it.
05:59Did Pal Roji flee Hungary in a bid to bury a dark past?
06:10Angela has never felt an attachment to her father's homeland.
06:13But she knows that's where the answers lie.
06:16For the first time, she's headed to his birthplace, Sigetu Mamacai, in the northern Transylvanian region of what is now Romania.
06:35I've come here looking for what made my father the man that we knew him to be.
06:42A brutal father and friend.
06:44The family's hometown, like Pal himself, has an explosive history.
06:57In 1914, when Pal Roji was born, it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
07:05But after World War I, it was handed to Romania.
07:09Pal, a part Hungarian, grew up in a town that was now under Romanian rule.
07:16Despite this, he enjoyed a life of privilege.
07:19An adored only child.
07:21Becoming a lawyer like his father before him.
07:29I've got some letters that have his family home address.
07:34And I'm hoping to find the place that my dad lived in when he was going to school as a young...
07:41I think I found it.
07:49This is number one.
07:51Andre Muirassan Strasser.
07:59It's so amazing to find it.
08:06This is where he was a young, innocent boy.
08:10Oh my goodness.
08:20Oh wow.
08:25I think my dad would...
08:27See, this was my home.
08:30Now you understand a little bit more about...
08:33Angela has photos of her father's Jewish wife, Roza Grun,
08:37taken here, in her grandson's home, in 1939.
08:41And there's a corner.
08:43It was Rozi, Dad's first wife, and my grandfather.
08:47Rozi stood here.
08:49With her auntie.
08:51Rozi and the father looked close.
08:52There's a fondness between them.
08:54It was a real surprise to find that his first wife was Jewish.
08:57Just some questions.
08:58Because...
09:00Life...
09:01Of my father.
09:02We are rabid anti-se...
09:04And...
09:05These photos...
09:07Were actually sent to my father in prison.
09:10Rozi is leaving...
09:12My grandparents...
09:13While dad is in jail.
09:14Pal Rozi's jailing in 1913 came as political passions in Hungary were boiling.
09:29Nationalists like Pal saw themselves as freedom fighters, keen to reclaim lands they'd lost to Romania.
09:36We sort of knew that dad had been back to prison.
09:40But...
09:41We never really got the why.
09:43And because of our relationship and his demeanor...
09:48You sort of did question.
09:50You just listened.
09:58History researcher Scott Alsop has found that the most notorious prison in all of Romania...
10:03I've got goosebumps...
10:06All over me.
10:08...loomed large in Pal Rozi's life.
10:11This is...
10:13The prison.
10:15Father was held.
10:16Oh my goodness.
10:22On the New South Wales south coast...
10:25Another Australian is searching for the truth about his father.
10:29Actor and actor David Field.
10:32All the merchants stole the sea from the sailors...
10:37While they was drunk on rum and spice.
10:41David has appeared in dozens of Australian films and television series.
10:46Most recently, The Secret Daughter.
10:48Which centres on the search for a true father.
10:51A storyline which mirrors David's own life.
10:57I've known David for many years.
10:58We worked on the television drama city inside together.
11:02But I knew nothing about his astonishing family secret.
11:05When David was 25 years old, his world was rocked...
11:09By a deathbed confession that brought his whole identity into question.
11:12Hello.
11:22Hello.
11:24Hello.
11:26How are you?
11:27My favourite actress.
11:30Oh, it's been a while.
11:32You're the best.
11:33Come in.
11:35Oh, this is great.
11:37Come on, dog.
11:38This way.
11:39Sit down, madame.
11:42Well, David, I know very well that you're a loving father and you've created a beautiful family for yourself.
11:48Thanks, mate.
11:49What sort of upbringing did you have?
11:51It wasn't a warm, lovey, touchy-feely type of family.
11:53You know what I mean?
11:54It was sort of tough country people, you know, working class, housing commission.
11:59For example, the dinner table was quiet.
12:02My dad was a tough man.
12:04Very much that 40s, 50s male that sort of ran the show.
12:08Yeah.
12:09My mum was very sort of gregarious, funny and very outgoing.
12:14Yeah.
12:15But I think it was tough for them in their marriage, I'd say.
12:20I wrote a recently where I said daddy was silent, violent and mama had a whiplash tongue.
12:25So you say he was silent, violent.
12:26Was he actually physically violent with you kids?
12:28He was what I'd call a slow punisher.
12:31So he'd send you to the bathroom and say, I'll be back in 15 minutes.
12:34And you think about how many stripes you want, whether you want to be a corporal or a captain.
12:39Quite frightening.
12:40Were you in touch with your father's family?
12:42My grandma and granddad lived down the road.
12:45In 86, Jack died.
12:48My father's father.
12:50And it would have been maybe four or five years after that, maybe,
12:53that my sister Alison sat me down and said, look, I've got to tell you something.
13:03When Pop died, he on his deathbed said to me that one of your kids is not your father's.
13:10And that it was me.
13:13Wow.
13:15So what was your response to that?
13:19Well, I fronted my mum and I had this great conversation with her in the car.
13:24And it was very nerve-wracking, as you can understand.
13:29Yeah.
13:30Mum said, yeah, that she had had an affair with a fella.
13:35And told me his name.
13:37And...
13:38Told you his name?
13:39Yeah.
13:40I knew him.
13:41I was...
13:42His son was one of my friends at school.
13:45Wow.
13:46We both had this really cheeky sense of humour.
13:48He was a really cheeky kid.
13:49Naughty kid.
13:50Are you still in contact with him?
13:51No.
13:52No, I haven't seen him for a few years.
13:54Mum and I sat in the car and talked about it.
13:56Mum said, I'm 99% sure that, you know, you're your dad.
14:00And my response was, yeah, but it's the 1% that gets in, Mum.
14:04Yeah, 99 is not 100.
14:07Yeah.
14:08Why did you let it lie?
14:09I didn't really want to cause trouble.
14:13But inside, of course, there is this...
14:16I wish I knew.
14:18Well, I think you do deserve to know if your father was your father.
14:21Yeah, I think deep down so do I, you know.
14:24Yeah.
14:25Yeah.
14:26Yeah.
14:27Until recently, there was no easy way of proving paternity.
14:31But the advance of science made a way to find out who his real father is.
14:38Alright, step one.
14:39The DNA test.
14:41Well, it's good because my brothers agreed to, um, to do one with me.
14:48So that's really good.
14:49That's good.
14:50You need some parent too.
14:51Yeah, exactly.
14:52Yeah, yeah.
14:53So I've got to spit.
14:54A lot of spit.
14:55It's going to take a long time.
14:56Okay.
14:57It's alright.
14:58Good all day.
14:59I'm there.
15:00Okay.
15:01Do you have a feeling that it's a momentous thing that you're doing?
15:06Without a doubt.
15:07Because it's, um, well, it's life changing in that if there is something in it, then I'll
15:15be relieved just to know that sense of truth, you know.
15:20It's not a little plastic thing of spit.
15:22It's a can of worms, isn't it?
15:23Well, exactly.
15:24Maybe it is.
15:25But I don't know.
15:26I think now's the time.
15:27Yeah.
15:28So, here we go.
15:31So, who is David Fields' father?
15:36The man who raised him, or the man his mum named as Mr. One Percent?
15:47350 kilometres inland lies the town of Parks and David's childhood home, which he shared
15:53with his three siblings, his mum, and the man he assumed was his dad.
15:58The most damaging thing in holding secrets is for the secret holder.
16:03I think if my mum was carrying that secret for 20, 30, 50 years, how terrifying that would
16:10be for her in that time.
16:18I lived here when I was 14.
16:21The town is very small to me, and it's very small in, kind of in my memory and in my world
16:27town.
16:28And yet, something in you still exists as part of this town.
16:33There's a lot of family, but they're in the cemeteries.
16:43Housing commission, mostly five-round houses you see here.
16:46This is the house I grew up in.
16:49The old man built the carport there when we were kids.
16:53You can jump out back a little.
16:55Wow.
16:56That hasn't changed much.
17:0130 years ago, David fronted the man his mum had said was a one-cent chance of being his
17:08dad.
17:09I just drove straight out here, sort of impulsively, and found him.
17:13I don't know.
17:14I don't know what I expected.
17:16And I just knocked on the door and said to him, this is the situation that I've heard.
17:23Do you think this could be the way things are?
17:26And he said, no.
17:27You know, that he'd spent time with my mum, but that, no, that it wasn't.
17:33There wasn't really much more to say.
17:35I mean, what do I say after that?
17:37Are you sure?
17:40Do you want me to ask you again?
17:43I don't know what I expected.
17:44It was an impulsive move as I had too many moments in my life.
17:50After decades of wondering, David's DNA test is about to provide a definite answer.
17:57Everyone deserves to know their story and to know the truth of their story.
18:05Angela Hamilton's quest to unlock her violent father's secrets has led her to the grounds
18:15of a romantic jail with a fearsome reputation.
18:18Oh my goodness, see the scale of it.
18:22Angela knows her father, Pal Rojci, was imprisoned in 1939 as right-wing extremism took hold in
18:29Europe.
18:30On the 1st of September 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland.
18:36A ruthless move, plunging the world into another war.
18:39Inspired by their German allies, Hungarian nationalism escalated.
18:45Violence from Hungarian paramilitary groups increased.
18:53Faced with this growing insurgency, Romanian authorities hit back.
18:58Hundreds of Hungarians were arrested and charged with treason against the Roman state.
19:04Among them, Pal Rojci.
19:11This prison was built at the end of the 19th century.
19:15It was the Bastille of Romania.
19:17It had a horrific reputation.
19:20Anyone who was anyone in the world of political dissidents was held here at some point.
19:26This is the golden book of heroes and martyrs of Transylvania.
19:33Now if you flick through, there are details of a number of the heroes and martyrs.
19:40And there's Rishi Pao.
19:43So that's my father.
19:45As a hero.
19:46As a hero.
19:47As a hero.
19:48Oh.
19:49Wow.
19:50The Northern Transylvanian region was given to Romania.
19:54In the aftermath of the First World War, a number of paramilitary organisations cropped up.
19:59With the sworn aim, the restoration of Hungarian land.
20:03Yeah.
20:04There is evidence that Pal Rojci was a member, effectively a Hungarian nationalist.
20:08Right.
20:09Would you like to read the translation of what this says?
20:11Yes, do you?
20:12We do.
20:16Pal Rojci went to the prison of the 6th Army Corps of Kosfa,
20:21where he is immediately subjected to torture by medieval implements.
20:27Beaten by fist.
20:29Kicked.
20:30His bones are hit with a stick.
20:34He is plack.
20:39He is put in a stock.
20:42The bones of his wrists and fingers are crushed with iron pliers.
20:47The torture is repeated twice more.
20:50Finally, he and his 14 fellow prisoners are tried by a military court,
20:55where he receives a sentence of five years hard labour.
20:59He is taken to the infamous Dophtana prison.
21:02Gets an appendicitis.
21:04He suffers from petrified spirit worm and external sepsis.
21:09Help from his benevolent fellow prisoners.
21:12Save his l-
21:26Winnie.
21:28So it was a place designed to crush people.
21:32I can't believe it.
21:34It's horrible, isn't it?
21:37It is.
21:38It's brutal.
21:39I'm seeing him for the first time.
21:44He's a shocking victim.
21:48I've never had a moment, a second, of feeling sorry for my father and mother.
22:03This does it.
22:04This does it.
22:07He comes with what they did to him.
22:10That's amazing.
22:15Did they break him and did he reinvent himself?
22:18So, yeah, I don't think I've shed too many tears for my father in my life.
22:31I've shed them for my mum and for us kids.
22:35Not never for my father, but I do today.
22:39KORRAK PELRÓSÍ
22:48As Paul Rozzi suffered in prison, the political landscape shifted once again.
22:53This time, in his favour.
22:56Hungary, now strongly aligned with Nazi Germany,
22:59won back the highly contested Northern Transylvania region from Romania.
23:06This deal also involved an exchange of political prisoners, including Pál Rósi.
23:15In September 1940, Pál retook to his hometown of Szigetú Mamacá, a hero.
23:23Pál's release coincided with increasing anti-spiritism in Hungary.
23:29While on paper he was still married to Jewish woman Rósa Grún,
23:33it appears their relationship was over.
23:37From what we know, Rósi was not on scene.
23:42There's a Christmas photo with his parents and some family, but no Rósi.
23:49It would seem not in his interest at all to be married to a Jew.
24:03I just wanted to come here, come to the Jewish cemetery and I wanted to find her grave.
24:13She died so young.
24:15While the circumstances around Rósa's death remain buried with her,
24:20Angela wants to honour her father's first wife.
24:22Local Jewish expert, Panina Zilberman, also has family in this cemetery.
24:33Hello, Shalom Angela.
24:35Thank you so much for being here.
24:37Angela, in Judaism when one visits a tombstone, we light a candle.
24:42And with your permission, I brought one and can light and you can see
24:50Tell people that come to the cemetery to visit that some of you is here.
24:55It doesn't give me any answers, but it makes her real.
25:13More than just historical facts.
25:18Panina is aware of the plight of other Jews in the area.
25:21Everybody knew each other in this city, there were only about 5,000 people altogether, 17,000 Jews.
25:31Times are of restrictions, of prohibitions coming directly from the Nazis or coming by the Hungarian armies here.
25:40Locals were the ones implementing them.
25:44Locals, like Pal Rósi.
25:45Being a lawyer got a job about a hundred kilometers from and there was a twist in his life that affected his whole total life, his family, and his personality.
26:01Really?
26:02Yes.
26:04And the name of the community is called Russia RSA.
26:07With a huge sense of foreboding actually, I went to go to a border and find out what happened.
26:23That was so big that it would change him for sure.
26:28For decades, actor David Field has lived with uncertainty, questioning who his father really was.
26:41Now, he's about to learn the answer.
26:44It's nerve wracking.
26:46But it's a good thing.
26:48You're all full and you're all empty at the same time.
26:51In expectation.
26:57The science is in.
27:00And Brad Argent from Ancestry has brought David's DNA results.
27:05Hey Brad, this is a fine piece of machinery isn't it?
27:09It's so impressive.
27:10Built the same year as you.
27:1361?
27:14Yeah.
27:15Oh well that's why it's a fine piece of machinery Brad.
27:19My question to you is why now?
27:22I'm 57 and I have two girls who are 14 and 16.
27:26And it's only fair that they know their story isn't what it appears to be up to now.
27:34You've taken a DNA test.
27:35Yeah.
27:36We also tested your brother, Steven.
27:38Yep.
27:39Whether or not you're his brother or a half-brother.
27:42Yeah.
27:43You're still a brother.
27:44Yes, of course.
27:46The DNA never takes anything away from you.
27:47Yeah.
27:48It just tells another part of the story of who you are.
27:50Yeah, I like that.
27:52Should we have a look?
27:54Sure mate.
27:56Let's open Pandora's box.
27:57So what's really interesting about this is you're mostly British.
28:05The average Brit's only about 4% and you're 82.
28:08Wow.
28:09Which is quite a lot.
28:10And you've got a good chunk of Ireland in there as well.
28:12Yeah.
28:13I want you to compare that with your brothers.
28:17Right.
28:18Steven is mostly Western European.
28:21Right.
28:22And his Irish is 41%.
28:24Wow.
28:25Right.
28:26So quite different.
28:27Yes.
28:28The percentages between my brother and I are really quite extremely different.
28:32It's quite amazing.
28:33Yeah.
28:34However, this is just part of the picture.
28:38The DNA test result also confirms the exact biological relationship between David and his brother.
28:45So your brother Stephen is your half brother.
28:47Okay.
28:48Alright.
28:49Okay.
28:51Do you want to go?
28:52Yeah, I do.
28:53Go on to the next page.
28:54This is wonderful.
28:59So these are your results.
29:01And we've run these through the database.
29:03And what that does is it looks at and compares your DNA with the 10 million other people in the database and looks to them.
29:12Okay.
29:13So you've got, it's a close family match.
29:23Yeah, you're saying that that's confirmation.
29:26That that's, that's family.
29:28That we can be as confident as we can be.
29:30Yeah.
29:31This person is a half sister and you share the same biological father.
29:36Wow.
29:41Okay.
29:44Wow.
29:45Alright.
29:49Yeah, I know that person.
29:50Yeah.
29:52From a long time ago.
29:53As chance would have it, Mr. One Percent's daughter has been researching her family history and has shared her results on the database, giving David the answer to who his biological father is.
30:07Yeah.
30:08And it's been within arm's reach.
30:13Yeah.
30:20Do they know this?
30:21Yes.
30:22So we have reached out on your behalf.
30:24And your biological father is now an elderly man, still alive, but, you know, his health is deteriorating.
30:38And he's not interested in taking this any further.
30:48Yeah.
30:49That's cool.
30:50Because I kind of feel the same way.
30:54And his children, at this stage they want to honour their father's wishes.
30:59That's cool.
31:01At no stage have we actually ever disclosed who you are.
31:05So we don't know if they might change the document.
31:10Right.
31:12They've got some processing to do.
31:13Yeah.
31:14Yeah.
31:15Just like you.
31:16Yeah.
31:17Maybe once they get a sense of, this is who you are.
31:20Yeah.
31:21Their position might change.
31:22Yeah.
31:23And I think that's the best way for it to be.
31:27It's a sad, joyous piece of news.
31:31Yeah.
31:32Yeah.
31:33And I thank you for that.
31:35It's been a pleasure, mate.
31:37Thanks, mate.
31:38Thanks, man.
31:44Well, I'm reeling.
31:54And it's, it's, I guess, a feeling like no other I've had to know the truth.
32:07I feel lifted, full of air.
32:10I kind of left my body for a moment.
32:20To find out that someone in my childhood who was such a dear friend is my half-brother.
32:25It's quite wonderful.
32:27So it's going to be interesting if down the track we meet up and chat about things.
32:40There's a yearning.
32:41There's a, there's a, there's a certain kind of internal pain about this.
32:46But a mark of your grace as a human being is how you carry whatever pains you.
32:52Whether it be a secret, whether it be whatever.
32:54It's been a good process.
33:06I think the truth is rarely as painful as we think it's going to be.
33:10For me, it is a fairytale ending.
33:22Because I've discovered what I wanted to know.
33:27This is fine.
33:29Because this is the truth.
33:31And it doesn't matter when the truth comes.
33:33Because this truth comes, how wonderful that it has.
33:47On the other side of the world, Angela Hamilton is about to uncover the secret which changed her father forever.
33:53She's heading to the small town of Borussia in far northern Romania, where her father, Pal Roshi, gained position of power in November 1941.
34:06In the months prior, the Hungarian government deported thousands of foreign-born Jews, handing them to Nazi death squads, including 40 families from Borussia.
34:17Jewish expert, Alina Maransian, has discovered Pal Roshi oversaw the continued harassment and identity checks of Jews who remained in the area.
34:34We found this little document, which says my father was the Solga Bureau.
34:41The Solga Bureau was the representative of the central government of Hungary and arrested with a lot of power and authority.
34:51There's a specific incident related to your father.
34:56Now, what happened here happened under the anti-Jewish laws that were active during the Second World War.
35:02Based on this law, they were asking for the foreign citizens of the area of Borussia to show their Hungarian citizenship.
35:13Those responsible for the Roundup acted outside the law, targeting local Jews who had legitimate Hungarian citizenship.
35:20Regardless, they had or had their citizenship.
35:25Thirty-four Jews, elderly people, men, women and children were forcedly marched into the woods.
35:33Now, if you look over there, that's the area where they were taken, up there on that mountain, and they were left there.
35:41It was snowy.
35:42The president of the Jewish community informed the history of internal affairs, and an order came that they should immediately bring back the group of Jews.
35:55Your father superior, intent, left the office so he could take responsibility, and this order came twice.
36:03Your father, he was supposed to follow the order, but he did not.
36:09And I'm going to show you a testimony of a woman.
36:16She was 15 at that time.
36:19Any memories of the event?
36:22So, we're going to do this.
36:24So, the first bad thing the Hungarians did is getting refugees with their families.
36:31A lot of them had ancestors of Czechoslovakia.
36:37She was a mix from all over.
36:39They took maybe 40 people, and they said to them, we're going to take you to the border and send you back to Poland.
36:46One soldier came back, and he just couldn't stomach it.
36:50Just put them up or killed them.
36:52Abandoned in the snow, the freezing wilderness proved as leaf as any bullet.
37:01Sorry, we have to talk about this.
37:05No, it's about this.
37:06I wanted to know this.
37:08I mean, I didn't know it was this, but I wanted to know.
37:11The Romanian state held this tribunal after the war.
37:18Here's testimonies about what happened.
37:22When they arrived at the place where they were abandoned by the border guards,
37:28they were all exhausted and freezing.
37:30The Jews were left there, who died in the most horrific way from the cold, from exhaustion, and from hunger.
37:39And some of them even drowned.
37:42The remains of the bodies of those who had perished were found on the heights of Mount Balasina.
37:48Out of 34 Jews, only three survived.
37:5134 men, women, and children were marched up there and left in waist-deep snow.
38:01And he could have stopped that, and he chose not to.
38:06Exactly.
38:10Your father and his superior were never charged and they were never sentenced for their deeds.
38:21Like a tour.
38:30I am so sorry.
38:32I'm sorry.
38:33I am too.
38:35I'm really sorry.
38:51This is the path that many, many Jews took.
38:55I've been told there is a memorial to all of those Jews who died.
38:59I feel so much for the lost souls here.
39:14They didn't have a chance.
39:17This was his secret that he took to his grave.
39:24For what my father did, I don't think he could live with himself.
39:28He was the powerful despot in our family, and he's a powerful despot here.
39:38I believe he went back to Siget.
39:42He doesn't seem to suffer any setbacks.
39:45He goes on with impunity.
39:48Pal Rozi may have thought he got away with mass murder.
39:53But all that changed after the war.
39:55The region of Northern Transylvania was once again under Romanian rule.
40:04And Pal's role in the deaths of these 31 Jews came under scrutiny.
40:08In 1946, in the northern Romanian city of Cluj, war trials were held here at the Palace of Justice.
40:27Flying in from Israel, from the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, is Dr. Efrem Zuroff, the world's leading Nazi hunter.
40:36Hello.
40:37Angela, nice to meet you. Welcome to Cluj.
40:40Thank you so much.
40:42Your father was motivated by anti-Semitism, by hatred, by power.
40:48Conditions were created in which it was more normal for people to kill Jews and other enemies of the Reich to save them.
40:57Over the past 30 years, Dr. Zuroff has helped prosecute nearly 40 Nazis.
41:01He has analysed the decision passed in absentia against Angela's father, Pal Rozi.
41:08In the name of justice, the People's Court makes the fine decision.
41:12The following accused were found guilty of committing war crimes leading to the degradation of the country.
41:22Dr. Pal Rozi from Maramorset, former Zulga Bureau, current residents unknown.
41:28He facilitated the deportation and extermination of Jews.
41:35Your father was a war criminal. He murdered innocent people.
41:40But what you have to understand is that this didn't only remain on paper.
41:46In other words, the Romanian government's extradition.
41:53The Justice Minister of Romania has lodged an application for the extradition of Dr. Pal Rozi,
41:59residents unknown, who were sentenced to 12 years of hard labour by the peace court of Cluj-Nabuka.
42:08So in other words, he was on the run.
42:10He was on the run.
42:11He was on the run. He knew that they were looking for him.
42:14And his fear, I think, was, of course, to be caught by the Romanians or by someone else
42:20who would turn him over to the Romanians and he'd be sent back here.
42:23Right.
42:24The best way to avoid that fate would be to get as far away as possible from Romania.
42:33But he wasn't alone. Thousands and thousands of people in similar situations
42:38who were running away to escape justice.
42:41This document relates to his application for a refugee.
42:44It's something that paved the way for his immigration to Australia.
42:47In June 1949, he had to flee the country because he didn't want to join Communist Party.
42:54If he didn't flee, he would be arrested and put in concentration camps.
42:59Taking a few of his documents and interviews,
43:02I am of the opinion that he is a Hungarian national.
43:05Story acceptable. Could be established.
43:07Opinion. Political refugee.
43:09He knew to come up with a story and he just needed to sell that story.
43:13Right, but everyone was selling the same story.
43:15We're running away because we're against communists.
43:19Which was true. That part certainly was true.
43:21True, yeah.
43:22But only part of the truth.
43:24A report on application for naturalization or registration as an Australian citizen.
43:30It's a Commonwealth of Australia document.
43:33Question number 12.
43:35Have any convictions been recorded against applicant?
43:39And the answer is no, that he has put here.
43:42Of course not.
43:43Because otherwise you wouldn't have been granted citizenship.
43:47Is there an otherwise of good character? Yes.
43:50He knew how to answer the questions.
43:52Yes. That's clear. As they all did.
43:54ACO has no objection to the application.
43:58Welcome to Australia.
43:59Yeah.
44:00Listen, I admire your courage.
44:04Thank you so much.
44:06Maybe it'll give you .
44:08And you did the right thing now to come here and to search for the truth.
44:12And I am so sorry.
44:14You're in no way, shape or form guilty of anything.
44:17It's not a secret.
44:18Right.
44:19That he thought he took.
44:20Right.
44:26In the Palace of Justice.
44:29There was no qualifying of those words.
44:33They were shocking words.
44:35He was a war criminal.
44:38But my heart cried.
44:43I thought I had detached myself from my father as a child.
44:49I thought there was nothing that could hurt me.
44:53But it has and it did.
44:56With his paperwork now processed.
45:11Pal Roji departed Europe in mid-1950.
45:15Bound for Friantle, Western Australia.
45:18Keeping him.
45:20And seemingly unconcerned about possible extradition.
45:22He was among 170,000 displaced persons accepted into Australia between 1947 and 1953.
45:35Including 17,000 Jews.
45:38Most of whom were Holocaust survivors.
45:43Roji thought he was free.
45:45Unaware, the notorious Romanian secret police had him in its sights.
45:52Dr. Zurov gave me this envelope at the end of our talk.
45:57So...
45:59I almost tremble to think what might be inside.
46:09Angela Hamilton has learned her Hungarian father, Pal Roji, was a war criminal.
46:15Sentenced in 1946 to 12 years jail.
46:19After being found directly responsible for the deaths of 31 Jewish people.
46:24Pal fled to Australia in 1950.
46:27Now for the first time, Angela has access to a Roman secret police fault on her father.
46:35This is Romanian People's Republic.
46:38Minister of Internal Affairs.
46:40General Directorate of State Security.
46:43Fugitive Rojipa number 2923.
46:48Oh, gee.
46:50From the interrogations that were conducted.
46:54The fugitive is an adventure and a womanizer.
46:57And from 1951 to the present, he is in the town of Subiaco at the above mentioned address.
47:05From where he continues to be in touch with his parents in Siget.
47:09He is currently married again, this time to a woman from England.
47:14With whom his children?
47:15We were all being watched.
47:22As a fugitive.
47:24The fugitive will be registered and his activity will be placed under surveillance in the country.
47:32Traitor file.
47:35A traitor in every respect.
47:39A criminal.
47:41A fugitive.
47:42A traitor.
47:43A traitor.
48:13Hello.
48:15Welcome.
48:16Oh, how would I be seeing you?
48:18How lovely.
48:22A pew.
48:23Thank you so much.
48:24So, was there more than you thought?
48:27Yeah, much more.
48:29To read, Guilty of Committing War Crimes.
48:33When I read that, that's all I read.
48:37That was sort of like such a shock.
48:39Deacon, yeah.
48:40And it just reverberated in my head as I read the rest of it.
48:43Mmm.
48:45I can't imagine what that feels like.
48:48Can't imagine.
48:50I will continue to feel great shame for what it did to the Jewish people.
48:58But, I understand what all of them.
49:03That is so what my father wouldn't have wanted.
49:06Do you regret, June?
49:08Do you regret going on this June?
49:10It's been the greatest privilege of my life.
49:14He thought he got away with it.
49:16And he didn't.
49:18And I saw him even half smiling over that.
49:21I feel triumphant.
49:22This man.
49:25Has gone to his grave.
49:30And we know the truth.
49:52Big one of them.
49:53I know.
49:54It's been the most beautiful why.
49:55It was my father.
49:56I love it.
49:57Yes, I love it.
49:58I know.
49:59But, I didn't know.
50:00I have a wife.
50:01And I'm the one who I think was.
50:02I'm the one who I'm the three.
50:04I love his mother.
50:06I love it.
50:08This man.
50:10I love it.
50:12I love it.
50:13I love it.
50:14And I love it.
50:16I love it.
50:17I love it.
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