Robert Reichmann was born on January 11,1938 in Budapest, Hungary. He later decided to change his name to Robert (Bob) Ratonyi, hoping to escape the name-associated antisemitism that was prevalent even in postwar Hungary. In the early part of the war, Bob mentioned that Hungarian Jews were an insulated group: in November 1940 Hungary’s Horthy […]
George Berci was born March 14, 1921 in Szeged, Hungary, and when he was a toddler his family moved to Vienna. They stayed there until 1936, when the family returned to Hungary. By this time antisemitism was obvious on both sides of the border. Hitler took Austria in the 1937 Anschluss, and Admiral Horthy took […]
Daisy Gross was born April 20, 1939 in Nitra, Czechoslovakia. She grew up there, and had a good life by all accounts; her father had a good job, and she and her parents were doing well, alongside their housekeeper Tonka. But the tone changed with the war: Daisy’s father ran a sugar beet refinery, and […]
George Kutas survived the Holocaust in Hungary. In this brief video segment he discusses the evolution of antisemitism in Hungary during the war years, prior to the 1944 deportations. While most Hungarian Jews who were deported were sent directly to Auschwitz-Birkenau to be murdered – including much of George’s extended family – George was put […]
On Wednesday, November 16, a Holocaust survivor named Eva Meisels shared her testimony with the Grade 6’s in a Zoom assembly. Mrs. Meisels was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1939, and was forced into the Budapest Ghetto with her mother and other family members until Liberation in 1945. She emigrated to Montreal with her […]
Angi Orosz was born December 21, 1944, in Auschwitz-Birkenau, one of a handful of Jewish babies born in the camp who was able to survive. Her mother Vera Bein gave birth to Angela in that terrible place, and as Angi says in her testimony she speaks to honour her mother’s determination and fight to survive, […]
Judith Nemes Black was born November 15, 1941 in Budapest, Hungary. She grew up against the backdrop of the war and the mounting restrictions that Hungarian Jews were forced to endure, including the conscription of her father into forced labour. In 1944 the situation deteriorated for Hungarian Jews; Nazi Germany invaded and the fascist Arrow […]
Alex Hacker was born in Budapest, Hungary on May 7, 1926. His father was a successful businessman in the vegetable oil business, and because of that – as well as Hungary’s alliance with Nazi Germany – Alex and his family and the Jews of Hungary in general were shielded from the immediate brutality of the […]
John Bozek was born August 16, 1924 in Detroit, Michigan. His parents had emigrated from Poland at the turn-of-the-century, and John was the youngest in a family of four siblings. He grew up against the backdrop of the Great Depression, but John remembers that his father always had a job, and that the family even […]
Last week, Crestwood School’s Grade 6 students had the amazing opportunity to hear the story of a Holocaust survivor. This man’s name is Andy Réti, and I hope to be able to share his incredible journey that we all got to hear and see about on Thursday. I hope you can recognize the significance […]
Judah Samet was born in Debrecen, Hungary on February 5, 1938. He attributes his wartime survival to his mother, whose brave actions brought Judah and his siblings through the war. Hungary’s Jews had been insulated from the worst horrors of the Shoah for most of the war, but all that ended with the German invasion […]
Leslie Vertes was born February 18, 1924 in the village of Ajak (Hungary). His father was a shoemaker who worked alongside his wife. Leslie was 14 years old when the family moved to Budapest, where he was unable to finish the last year of high school and go to university due to the prevailing anti-Jewish […]
Ted Bolgar was born September 12, 1924 in Sarospatak, a small town in Hungary. The Germans occupied Hungary in March 1944, and in April, the Jews of Sarospatak were forced into the ghetto of a nearby town. When the ghetto was liquidated in June, all the inhabitants were deported to Auschwitz. Upon arrival, Ted and […]
Margaret Newman (nee Kaufman) was born March 29, 1923 in Satu Mare, Romania. She was the second child in a family of eight children, and as the eldest daughter it was her job to maintain a respectable and observant household. When Satu Mare and the surrounding region were annexed by Hungary, life became more complicated […]
March 19, 1944 marked a turning point in Hungary’s wartime history; it was the day that Nazi Germany began a direct military occupation of its onetime ally, Hungary. Life for Hungarian Jews, which had been deteriorating under the previous regime, took a dramatic turn for the worse as discriminatory laws gave way to ghettos and […]
Meet the Teacher: Chuck Podlovics Subject: Science and Biology Grades: 10, 11, 12 Mr. Podlovics was born in Hungary and lived there until the age of 9. His family moved to Canada in 1984 (If you do the math correctly, then you will now be able to figure out how old he is). He and […]
Judit Fulop was born in the small city of Debrecen, Hungary on September 23, 1928. She grew up an only child in a comfortable middle class environment, attending a Jewish school and then her local high school until the war broke out in 1944, when Jewish students were prohibited from attending public schools. Despite these […]
Leslie Fazekas was born on September 28, 1925, in Debrecen, Hungary. He grew up in a middle class family in the well-assimilated Jewish community, alongside his younger brother. He did well in school, and was preparing to go to university, just as wartime anti-Semitic restrictions were beginning to be felt in Hungary. But his […]
Leslie Mezei was born in 1931 in Hungary in a little town called Gödöllő. He had a good relationship with his mother and father. His father was an officer in the Hungarian army, and a lawyer. Leslie lived in a small house and had a tough childhood with some anti-Semitism appearing in his neighborhood and […]
Georgine Nash was born in Hungary on June 16,1937. She grew up during the war, and as was the case with most Hungarian Jews, she enjoyed a distance from the terrible conflict, and the from the terrible Shoah that was commencing in the neighbouring countries. Georgine remembers her father being taken away to a labour […]
Yolanda Engel (nee Lebovics) was born December 11, 1937. She grew up in wartime Hungary, sheltered from events until the German occupation of 1944. Her father had been conscripted into the labour battalions by that time, and the remaining family members were taken into the ghetto. Shortly after that, Yolanda’s mother was taken away to […]
Mary Speare was born in Budapest, Hungary but has lived in Canada for over 60 years. She went through WW2 and experienced Nazis persecution against Jews. Her father was taken to a labour camp early on, as the family’s fortunes began to unravel. Mary was fortunate to be spared deportation to Auschwitz as her mother put […]
Lidia Gasper was born in 1928 in Szekszard, Hungary. Before the Holocaust, she had a good life. She had other Jewish friends in her town, her father had a mill that gave them water, and she had a bat mitzvah. She had to go to another town to go to school, and this is where […]
Marian Bensimon was born in Czechoslovakia; she was 6 years old in 1942 when her family moved to Budapest, Hungary. Marian’s parents sensed the danger on the way; her father was taken to a labour camp and the family placed in a ghetto, so Marian’s mother arranged to have her daughters taken to a convent, where they were hidden […]
Paul Szabo was born in 1933 Hungary. His family was made up of his mother, father and sister, who was 3 years older than he. Paul’s father was a manager in charge of a small factory manufacturing plumbing fixtures. His mother was an accountant before the war, working for a pharmaceutical company. Paul and his […]
Eva Olsson grew up in Hungary, born into a Jewish family in Satu Mare, Hungary. She remembers the family’s Hasidic traditions, and the poverty and simplicity of her early life. Like other Hungarian Jews, Eva was comparatively isolated from the war raging all around them; they heard rumours and such, but as Hungary was allied […]
Steve Kuti is a survivor of the Shoah from Budapest, Hungary, one with a remarkable story to tell. He remembers growing up in relative privilege; his parents did well and were accepted in the larger community. But with changes in Hungary’s wartime government, restrictions came into play, and Steve remembers his family being pushed to […]
Helen Berkovitz was born in 1921 in Tacsava, Czechoslovakia. The eldest of three sisters, Helen lost both parents in Auschwitz and was interned with her sisters in Bergen-Belsen and Theresientadt. After liberation, Helen met her husband at a collection point for the camps near the Austrian border, and they went through the DP camp life together as […]
George Gador was born in Czechoslovakia in 1925. When the Germans invaded Czechoslovakia, it was split into two areas. The area near Hungary was where George and his family lived. When George grew up he learnt how to speak both Hungarian and Czechoslovakian. Later on, he was captured by Nazis and was taken to a […]
Michael Mason was born September 14, 1928, in Czechoslovakia; he grew up in Hungary, with the name Miklos Friedman, in a family that he described as occasionally observant. His memories of his early life are typical of the time: he and his friends explored the countryside, went to school, and occasionally got in trouble. Michael’s […]