The FHM highlights the individual stories of 25 Holocaust Survivors
September 25, 2017 [St. Petersburg, FL] – The Florida Holocaust Museum (The FHM) has partnered with Eckerd College to release a 25th Anniversary oral history series titled “25 Survivors, 25 Stories… Celebrating 25 Years!”
Over the next 25 months, the Museum’s oral history series will feature a different Holocaust Survivor on the 25th of every month. Each Survivor brings to the series an individual voice that enlivens our understanding of the Holocaust; the war’s effects on individuals, families, and communities dispersed across the world; and its reverberations into the present moment.
The seventh story was released this morning and features Holocaust Survivor Judith Szentivanyi. An excerpt from the piece is as follows:
After being held at the factory, Judith was packed into a crowded boxcar with her mother and sister. “The Germans by that time had practically lost the war,” Judith says, “but their main concern was still how to kill Jews.” Of the 96 people transported in that boxcar, Judith is one of five Survivors.
After four or five days, Judith arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau. “There were German soldiers standing around, and they selected people, some right, some left,” Judith recalls. “The decision was the following: all the mothers with children were sent to one side, also all the old people, and all those people who looked not completely healthy. The rest, including me, were sent to the other side.” Judith was separated from her mother and six-year-old sister during the selection.
“I wanted so much to go with them but they did not let me,” Judith recalls. “Somebody told me that they went to ‘H Lager.’ Later I asked a German guard where the ‘H Lager’ was, and he told me that is the Heaven Lager.”
Judith was held Auschwitz-Birkenau for several days. The prisoners’ heads were shaved and women were given a single striped dress to wear. Judith was soon loaded again onto a boxcar and taken to the Płaszów labor camp, near Krakow, where she was held for roughly five months…
To read Judith’s story in its entirety, please visit:
In the coming months, The FHM will present numerous 25th Anniversary celebratory programs, events, and exhibitions, along with its daily educational and outreach efforts.
To learn more about The FHM’s upcoming 25th Anniversary events and exhibitions, visit the Museum online at www.TheFHM.org/25th.
The Florida Holocaust Museum is located at 55 5th Street S, St. Petersburg, FL 33701.
About The Florida Holocaust Museum
2017 marks a monumental milestone for The Florida Holocaust Museum (The FHM) as the Museum celebrates its 25th Anniversary. One of the largest Holocaust museums in the country, and one of three nationally accredited Holocaust museums, The FHM honors the memory of millions of men, women and children who suffered of died in the Holocaust. The FHM is dedicated to teaching members of all races and cultures the inherent worth and dignity of human life in order to prevent future genocides. For additional information, please visit www.TheFHM.org.
Photos and credits
Judith, age 9, with her mother in 1938.
Photo credit: The Florida Holocaust Museum, courtesy of Judith Szentivanyi.
Judith in 2001.
Photo credit: The Florida Holocaust Museum, courtesy of Jason Schwartz.
Judith speaking to educators at The Florida Holocaust Museum in 2011.
