Hedy's Journey: The True Story of a Hungarian Girl Fleeing the Holocaust
Everyone always says how brave I was to travel through Europe on my own in the middle of World War II I didn’t think I was brave I was Jewish so I had no choice My cousin Marika was brave The Nazis had already invaded Poland where she was from Ever since Hitler had taken power my family was terrified Hitler and his Nazis blamed the Jews for everything that was wrong in their country and the world We had heard about Hitler’s concentration camps Jews were being killed in them so we feared for Marika’s life
Marika was staying with us in Budapest when the order came for all non-Hungarians to report to the deportation office We offered to hide her we begged her to stay But she said
no She wanted to be with her parents and brother no matter what happened When she got on the train in September of 1941 she said I am only sorry I didn’t get more out of life while I could Marika understood that she was going to die I could not stop crying
Even though we were Hungarian we knew we were no longer safe in our own country If the Nazis were coming for one Jew it was only a matter of time before they came for us all The need to leave became even more urgent after the Nazi newspaper printed a story about my father calling him the king of the Jewish diamond jewelers Nazis believed the Jews had stolen all the world’s wealth They were calling my father a thief When my little brother Robert went to the newsstand to pick up a copy the vendor patted him on the head He called Robert a good little Nazi He had no idea Robert was Jewish My
