Two Holocaust Survivors Visit WJC

Tuesday, April 24th, WJC welcomes Holocaust survivors Judy Altmann and Peter Somogyi.

 

6:30pm Hebrew High

Judy Altmann was born in Jasina Czechoslovakia, which was invaded by the Nazis in 1939. In 1944 she was arrested and transported to Auschwitz concentration camp with her niece where they were selected for work.  From there she was sent to Essen and Gelsenkirchen Labour camps where she remained until March 1945. She survived the “death march” that ended in the Bergen Belsen concentration camp.  Sick with typhus, Judy was barely alive when she was liberated by the British Army in 1945.

Ms. Altmann was given the opportunity to go to Sweden. She lived in Sweden until 1948 at which time she immigrated to the United States.

Judy, who has extensive experience speaking in schools, is a member of the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Speakers Bureau and is Vice President of the Holocaust Child Survivors of Connecticut.

 

Tuesday Evening at 7:45pm

Peter Somogyi was born in Pecs, Hungary in 1933.  In April 1944, he was placed in a ghetto in Hungary with all the Jews of Pecs where he stayed for two months. On July 9, 1944, when he was 11 years old, he was deported to Auschwitz with his mother, sister, and twin brother Thomas.

When they arrived at Auschwitz, after four days packed in cattle cars, Dr. Josef Mengele chose twins from the prisoner’s selection lines for use in his research.  Some of the twins were subjected to painful injections, endured cruel surgeries and suffered through countless other brutal experiments.

In May 1949, Mr. Somogyi and his brother moved to Israel.  He lived in Israel for seven years, then spent two years in England, then more than a decade in Canada.  He is married, has two children and four grandchildren.

 

For more information about the events, please contact Holly Rosen: holly_rosen@yahoo.com