Survivor Profiles: Vera Burstyn
Do not discriminate. Your neighbors might not cook the same food that you do, they might not dress the same way that you do, but people just want to live their lives. They just want to have a better life for their families.
Vera Burstyn
Her Story:
Vera was born in Budapest. In 1942, her father was taken to a labor camp, sent to the Soviet front, and never heard from again. When Germany occupied Hungary in 1944, Vera’s apartment building became a yellow star house. That fall, Vera’s mother was sent on a forced march to Austria and eventually to Bergen-Belsen. Vera lived in a Red Cross orphanage in Budapest until an aunt with Swedish papers found her and took her in. Vera’s mother returned in the summer of 1945, and they remained in Hungary until the communist revolution in 1956. Vera moved to Skokie in 1967 and had 4 children and 12 grandchildren.
Learn More:
Podcast episode Survivor Speaker session at the Museum Coffee with a survivor facebook live sessionPhoto credits: John Pregulman