Margit Feldman — Hungarian‑American Holocaust survivor and educator

Wartime experience

In 1944 Feldman and her family were deported to Nazi camps during the mass roundups of Hungarian Jews. Her parents were killed after deportation. As a teenager she survived by claiming an age that allowed her to be assigned to forced labor rather than immediate extermination. She endured harsh conditions in the camps and was ultimately freed from Bergen‑Belsen on April 15, 1945. Those wartime events shaped the rest of her life and became the foundation for her later public testimony.

Life after liberation and public work

After the war Feldman emigrated to the United States and established a life there as part of the Hungarian‑American community. Over many years she became a widely sought speaker at schools, synagogues, museums and community organizations. Using firsthand recollection, she explained the human impact of the Holocaust, emphasizing memory, moral responsibility and the importance of combating bigotry.

Teaching, advocacy and impact

Feldman focused on education and remembrance rather than public notoriety. She took part in survivor panels, gave lectures to students and supported initiatives that recorded survivors' testimonies for archives and curricula. Her accounts served as concrete, personal evidence used to counter denial and to humanize historical statistics for audiences across generations.

Key points and legacy

• Survived deportation as a youth; lost her parents in the camps.
• Freed from Bergen‑Belsen on April 15, 1945.
• Became a longtime educator and public speaker on Holocaust memory.
• Her testimony contributed to local and regional remembrance efforts.

Margit Feldman spent her later years in New Jersey. She died on April 14, 2020 in Somerset, New Jersey, during the global COVID‑19 pandemic, at the age of 90. Her work as a witness and educator is remembered by those who heard her speak and by institutions that preserve survivor testimony for future study.