It was a privilege to welcome guest speaker and first-generation Holocaust survivor Tomi Komoly from the Northern Holocaust Education Group to College this week to talk about his experiences as a young child growing up in 1940s Budapest. Tomi spoke about the rise in fascism in Hungary, which culminated in an alliance with the Nazis.
Tomi showed us pictures of the initial Hungarian anti-Jewish propaganda including posters forbidding Jewish people to enter public places and signs to state that Jewish people must only swim in the downstream of the River Danube. The students saw pictures of women and children being rounded up at collection points to be sent in agricultural train wagons to concentration camps, including Auschwitz.
Tomi went on to describe the situation of his own family; a father who was sent away to a forced labour camp whom he never saw again, and a mother who had to raise children in a climate of persecution, who fled from a collection point whilst being shot at; all so that she could return to her children. Tomi’s message was clear – refugees should be welcomed, education is key and Holocaust denial is dangerous for us all.
