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Irene Weiss is a Holocaust survivor who is free to be Jewish, to love her family while 6 million fellow Jews lost their freedom and their lives. Listen to her story and her perspectives on enduring the horrors of antisemitism, hatred which did not end with the Holocaust – and which is growing in the US and the world.
Irene Weiss was born Perl Ruchel Fogel on November 21, 1930, in Bótrágy, Czechoslovakia (now Batrad’, Ukraine). Nazi Germany dismantled Czechoslovakia in 1938-1939. In November 1938, Bótrágy, located in Subcarpathian Rus, came under Hungarian rule. The Hungarian takeover changed the Fogel family’s lives. The Hungarian government enacted antisemitic laws, restricting Jewish life in Hungary and its occupied territories.
In March 1944, Nazi Germany invaded Hungary. Under German influence, Hungarian antisemitic policies quickly escalated. Jews had to wear a yellow Star of David badge on their clothing. In April 1944, Hungarian authorities rounded up thousands of Hungarian Jews, including the Fogels, and crowded them into a ghetto in Munkács, a brick factory that was never intended to house people.
Over a two-month period beginning in May 1944, about 420,000 Jews were deported from Hungary to Auschwitz-Birkenau, including Irene and her family. Irene was 13 years old. Upon arrival at the camp, her family was separated. As Soviet troops approached, in January 1945, the SS personnel fled, leaving the camp unguarded. The prisoners gradually left. Irene and others found temporary shelter in an empty house in a nearby town. Soon after, Irene made their way to Prague to look for relatives or other survivors. Later, she married and came to the US.
FJMC Combating Antisemitism Initiative Web Page
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