Monday, January 27, marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi concentration camp.
To commemorate the occasion, Merchant Taylors’ School in Northwood welcomed Holocaust survivor John Hajdu to give a talk on Monday, January 20.
Born in Budapest, John was just four years old when Hungary allied itself with Nazi Germany in the early 1940s. He and his family were forced to live in the Jewish ghetto.
In 1943, John’s father was taken away to a forced labour camp for Jewish men, leaving his mother to raise him by herself.
One year later, an order forced all Jews to wear a yellow star as a mark of identification.
Not long afterwards, John and his mother were forced to move into a designated ‘yellow star’ house with his Aunt Iby and Uncle Rezso.
In October 1944, John’s mother was taken away and made to work on fortifications in the village of Kópháza. Finally, she was marched to Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria.
When the Nazis began rounding people up, John’s Aunt Iby hid him in a non-Jewish neighbour’s flat – an act that saved his life.
He did see his parents again, as they were both eventually freed from the camps.
A spokesperson for the school said: “We are very grateful that John was able to share his story with the boys.”
Photo credit: Merchant Taylors’ School
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