Margit Buchhalter Feldman (F / Hungary, 1929-2020), Holocaust survivor
Margit Buchhalter Feldman (F / Hungary, 1929-2020), Holocaust survivor
- KEYWORDS : <Auschwitz> <Krakow> <Auschwitz> <Death March> <Bergen-Belsen> <Liberation of Bergen-Belsen> -- <Sweden> -- <United States>
- MEMOIRS : Margit (2003)
Biography
Margit Buchhalter was born June 12, 1929, in Budapest, Hungary. Her parents were Joseph and Theresa Buchhalter. The family lived in Tolcsva, Hungary.
Feldman and her family were placed in a ghetto and deported to Auschwitz in April 1944, where her parents were killed immediately in the gas chambers. She survived her incarceration after lying about her age, resulting in her being placed in a work camp at Krakow. After returning to Auschwitz, was transported to a women's camp in Gruenberg, where she met Gerda Weissmann Klein. Buchhalter participated in the death march from Gruenberg to Bergen-Belsen, where she was freed on April 15, 1945.
Upon liberation, Buchhalter suffered from pleurisy and pneumonia. She also suffered injuries from the explosives that were set off by German soldiers in an attempt to destroy the camp. She moved to Sweden, where she recovered.
Buchhalter immigrated to the United States in 1947. She became an x-ray technician and raised a family. She became a public speaker, sharing her experience with students until her death in 2020.
She published her autobiography in 2003.
Book : Margit (2003)
- Margit Feldman (with Bernard Weinstein), Margit: A Teenager's Journey through the Holocaust and Beyond (Scottsdale: Princeton Editorial Associates, 2003).