Margit Buchhalter Feldman (June 12, 1929 – April 14, 2020) was a
Hungarian-American
Hungarian Americans ( Hungarian: ''amerikai magyarok'') are Americans of Hungarian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau has estimated that there are approximately 1.396 million Americans of Hungarian descent as of 2018. The total number of people wit ...
public speaker, educator, activist, and
Holocaust survivor
Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and its allies before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no universally accep ...
. Feldman and her family were placed in a concentration camp in 1944, where her parents were killed immediately. She survived her incarceration after lying about her age, resulting in her being placed in a work camp. She was freed from
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
Bergen-Belsen , or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, in 1943, parts of it became a concentr ...
on April 15, 1945. After moving to the United States, she raised a family and became a public speaker, sharing her experience with students until her death.
Early life
Margit Buchhalter was born June 12, 1929, in
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
, Hungary. Her parents were Joseph and Theresa Buchhalter. The family lived in
Tolcsva ez maga Zsombibacsi uradalma
Tolcsva is a village in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county, Hungary. It is the birthplace of film pioneer William Fox.
Notable residents
* Barna Buza, Hungarian politician and jurist, Minister of Agriculture (1918-1919) ...
, Hungary.
Holocaust
When she was fourteen, the
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...
s invaded Tolcsva. Her family was moved into a
Nazi ghetto
Beginning with the invasion of Poland during World War II, the Nazi regime set up ghettos across German-occupied Eastern Europe in order to segregate and confine Jews, and sometimes Romani people, into small sections of towns and cities furtheri ...
in another town. In April 1944, her family was transported to Auschwitz and her parents were killed immediately in the gas chambers. Buchhalter lied to the German guards, saying that she was 18 years old, and was sent to
Kraków
Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 159 ...
, Poland, where she worked at a quarry. The Germans tattooed "A23029" on her left arm as her identification. After Kraków, she returned to Auschwitz.
Buchhalter was transported to a women's camp in Gruenberg, where she met
Gerda Weissmann Klein
Gerda Weissmann Klein (May 8, 1924 – April 3, 2022) was a Polish-born American writer and human rights activist. Her autobiographical account of the Holocaust, ''All but My Life'' (1957), was adapted for the 1995 short film, ''One Survivor Re ...
. Buchhalter participated in the death march from Gruenberg to
Bergen-Belsen
Bergen-Belsen , or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, in 1943, parts of it became a concentra ...
. On April 15, 1945, Bergen-Belsen was liberated. Upon liberation, Buchhalter suffered from
pleurisy
Pleurisy, also known as pleuritis, is inflammation of the membranes that surround the lungs and line the chest cavity ( pleurae). This can result in a sharp chest pain while breathing. Occasionally the pain may be a constant dull ache. Other s ...
and
pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...
. She also suffered injuries from the explosives that were set off by German soldiers in an attempt to destroy the camp. Buchhalter was one of two family members to survive out of the 68 of whom were transported to concentration camps. Buchhalter moved to Sweden, where she recovered.
Career
Buchhalter immigrated to the United States in 1947. She moved to New York, where she lived with her aunt, Harriet Boehm, and cousins. She became an x-ray technician.
Educator and activist
Feldman did not speak publicly about her experience in the Holocaust for many years. In the 1970s, while living in Bound Brook with her own family, a boy from her neighborhood asked Feldman to speak to his elementary school class about her experience. She declined to speak to the group, but allowed the boy to record her talking about it. He proceeded to play the tape to his class. The class was deeply affected by her story and the boy gave the feedback to Feldman, who realized the importance of sharing her experience.
Feldman co-founded the
Raritan Valley Community College
Raritan Valley Community College (RVCC) is a public community college in North Branch, New Jersey. RVCC offers Associate degree programs leading to an Associate of Arts (A.A.), Associate of Science (A.S.), Associate of Fine Art (A.F.A), or ...
Institute for Holocaust & Genocide Studies in 1981. She also co-founded the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education with then New Jersey state assemblyman
Jim McGreevey
James Edward McGreevey (born August 6, 1957) is an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who served as the 52nd governor of New Jersey from 2002 until his resignation in 2004 following the revelation of his extramarital affair w ...
in 1991. In 1994, she supported a bill mandating Holocaust and genocide curriculum in New Jersey schools.
She served as president of the Jewish Federation of Somerset & Warren Counties and chair of the United Jewish Appeal and Israel Bonds Campaigns. She was also president of the Jewish Home for the Aged, vice president of Congregation Knesseth Israel and a member of Temple Sholom in
Bridgewater, New Jersey
Bridgewater Township is a township in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. The township is both a regional commercial hub for Central New Jersey (home to Bridgewater Commons and different corporate headquarters) and is a bedroom suburb ...
.
In 2003, she co-authored the autobiography ''Margit: A teenager's journey through the Holocaust and beyond''.
Personal life
In 1953, she married Harvey Feldman, whom she met while hospitalized to recover from
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in w ...
. The couple lived in
Bound Brook, New Jersey
Bound Brook is a borough in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States, located along the Raritan River. At the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 10,402,
Feldman, her family, and the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education created the Margit Feldman Teaching Award in 2014. The award is given to New Jersey teachers who demonstrate "outstanding" in-class education about the Holocaust, bias, prejudice, bullying, and bigotry. In 2016, Peppy Margolis directed a documentary about Feldman, entitled ''Not A23029''.
Michael Berenbaum
Michael Berenbaum (born July 31, 1945, in Newark, New Jersey) is an American scholar, professor, rabbi, writer, and filmmaker, who specializes in the study of the Holocaust. He served as deputy director of the President's Commission on the Holo ...
narrated the short film.
Death
Feldman lived in
Somerset, New Jersey
Somerset is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located within Franklin Township, in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States.COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickl ...
-related complications.
Works
*with Bernard Weinstein. ''Margit: A teenager's journey through the Holocaust and beyond''. Scottsdale: Princeton Editorial Associates (2003).