{"id":2351,"date":"2020-04-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-15T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/?p=2351"},"modified":"2020-06-12T15:02:26","modified_gmt":"2020-06-12T15:02:26","slug":"margit-buchhalter-feldman-holocaust-survivor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/?p=2351","title":{"rendered":"Margit Buchhalter Feldman, holocaust survivor"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Margit Buchhalter Feldman a Hungarian-American public speaker, educator, activist, and Holocaust survivor \u2013 died on April 14, 2020, from COVID-19-related complications.\r\n\r\nFeldman and her family were placed in a concentration camp in 1944, where her parents were killed immediately. She survived her incarceration after lying about her age, resulting in her being placed in a work camp. She was freed from Bergen-Belsen concentration camp on April 15, 1945. After moving to the United States, she raised a family and became a public speaker, sharing her experience with students until her death.\r\n\r\nMargit Buchhalter was born June 12, 1929, in Budapest, Hungary. Her parents were Joseph and Theresa Buchhalter. The family lived in Tolcsva, Hungary.\r\n\r\nWhen she was fourteen, the Nazis invaded Tolcsva. Her family was moved into a Nazi ghetto in another town. In April 1944, her family was transported to Auschwitz and her parents were killed immediately in the gas chambers. Buchhalter lied to the German guards, saying that she was 18 years old, and was sent to Krak\u00f3w, Poland, where she worked at a quarry. The Germans tattooed “A23029” on her left arm as her identification. After Krak\u00f3w, she returned to Auschwitz.\r\n\r\nBuchhalter 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. On April 15, 1945, Bergen-Belsen was liberated. 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. Buchhalter was one of two family members to survive out of the 68 of whom were transported to concentration camps. Buchhalter moved to Sweden, where she recovered.\r\n\r\nBuchhalter immigrated to the United States in 1947. She moved to New York, where she lived with her aunt, Harriet Boehm, and cousins. She became an x-ray technician.\r\n\r\nFeldman did not speak publicly about her experience in the Holocaust for many years. In the 1970s, while living in Bound Brook with her own family, a boy from her neighborhood asked Feldman to speak to his elementary school class about her experience. She declined to speak to the group, but allowed the boy to record her talking about it. He proceeded to play the tape to his class. The class was deeply affected by her story and the boy gave the feedback to Feldman, who realized the importance of sharing her experience.\r\n\r\nFeldman co-founded the Raritan Valley Community College Institute for Holocaust & Genocide Studies in 1981. She also co-founded the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education with then New Jersey state assemblyman Jim McGreevey in 1991. In 1994, she supported a bill mandating Holocaust and genocide curriculum in New Jersey schools.\r\n\r\nShe served as president of the Jewish Federation of Somerset & Warren Counties and chair of the United Jewish Appeal and Israel Bonds Campaigns. She was also president of the Jewish Home for the Aged, vice president of Congregation Knesseth Israel and a member of Temple Sholom in Bridgewater, New Jersey.\r\n\r\nIn 2003, she co-authored the autobiography Margit: A teenager’s journey through the Holocaust and beyond.\r\n\r\nIn 1953, she married Harvey Feldman, whom she met while hospitalized to recover from tuberculosis. The couple lived in Bound Brook, New Jersey and had two children.\r\n\r\nFeldman, her family, and the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education created the Margit Feldman Teaching Award in 2014. The award is given to New Jersey teachers who demonstrate “outstanding” in-class education about the Holocaust, bias, prejudice, bullying, and bigotry. In 2016, Peppy Margolis directed a documentary about Feldman, entitled Not A23029. Michael Berenbaum narrated the short film.\r\n<\/p>

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Margit Buchhalter Feldman a Hungarian-American public speaker, educator, activist, and Holocaust survivor \u2013 died on April 14, 2020, from COVID-19-related complications. Feldman and her family were placed in a concentration camp in 1944, where her parents were killed immediately. She survived her incarceration after lying about her age, resulting in her being placed in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2352,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[46,7019,15],"tags":[876,2288,877],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/wp-content\/uploads\/imageholder\/uploads\/Margit_Feldman.jfif","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3531,"url":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/?p=3531","url_meta":{"origin":2351,"position":0},"title":"Dora Werzberg, nurse & social worker","date":"April 2, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Dora Werzberg Amelan, a French nurse and social worker, succumbed to Covid-19 on 1 April 2020. \u00a0 In 1942, she rescued Jewish children through \u0152uvre de secours aux enfants (OSE). She worked in the Camp de Rivesaltes and the Gurs internment camp, and took care of children who had survived\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "France"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1720,"url":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/?p=1720","url_meta":{"origin":2351,"position":1},"title":"Henri Kichka, holocaust survivor","date":"April 28, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Henri Kichka a Belgian writer and Holocaust survivor who was one of the leading figures in Holocaust education in Belgium died on 25 April 2020 at the age of 94 in Brussels as a result of COVID-19. Kichka was the only member of his family to have survived the deportation\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Belgium"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2405,"url":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/?p=2405","url_meta":{"origin":2351,"position":2},"title":"Benjamin Levin, holocaust survivor","date":"April 14, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Benjamin Levin a Jewish partisan during World War II, the last surviving member of the Avengers group led by Abba Kovner died on April 13, 2020 from COVID-19. After the war, he joined the Irgun, and was one of the surviving crew members of the Altalena ship. In 1967, he\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Noteworthy"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3869,"url":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/?p=3869","url_meta":{"origin":2351,"position":3},"title":"Liu Fan, nurse","date":"February 15, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Liu Fan \u2011 a deputy chief nurse of Wuchang Hospital in Wuhan, Hubei, China \u2013 passed away on 14 February 2020 due to coronavirus. She was the first nurse to die from SARS-CoV-2 infection, at the age of 59. Her death caused strong internet reactions across China. Both her parents\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "China"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3759,"url":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/?p=3759","url_meta":{"origin":2351,"position":4},"title":"Roger Chappot, ice hockey player","date":"May 8, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Roger Chappot\u00a0 - a Swiss professional ice hockey player -\u00a0died due to complications of COVID-19 during the pandemic on 8 April 2020 at the age of 79. He played for HC Villars and Gen\u00e8ve-Servette HC in the National League A. He also represented the Swiss national team at the 1964\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Noteworthy"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2519,"url":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/?p=2519","url_meta":{"origin":2351,"position":5},"title":"Gil Bailey, radio broadcaster","date":"April 14, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Gil Bailey \u2013a pioneering Caribbean radio broadcaster, known as the \u201cGodfather of Caribbean Radio\u201d or \"Godfather of Reggae Radio\" \u2011 died on 13 April 2020 from COVID-19. \u00a0 Bailey was born in the Airy Castle village in Jamaica's St. Thomas Parish in 1936. In 1957, at the age of 21,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Noteworthy"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2351"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2351"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6124,"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2351\/revisions\/6124"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}