Magda Herzberger
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Magda Herzberger, (20 February 1926 – 23 April 2021) was a Romanian-born author, poet, lecturer, and composer.[1] Herzberger was a survivor of the Auschwitz, Bremen, and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps. Her book Survival was an account of her early life, her time in the camps and eventual liberation, and her reunion with her mother.[2]
Herzberger was born in Northern Transylvania (now Cluj, Romania). She was an only child to her mother Serena Daszkal and her father Herman. Despite being an only child, she grew up in the company of many cousins. She lost 80% of her family in the German concentration camps, including her father, who was killed in Dachau. However, her mother was a Holocaust survivor. The two were eventually reunited after World War II. Serena Daszkal died in 1994 at the age of 93.[3]
At the age of 18, Herzberger spent six weeks inside the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz. She was later transferred to Bremen to perform forced labor while the city was being bombed by the Allied troops. She was transferred again in March 1945 to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. She was given the task of disposing of the bodies that would accumulate throughout the barracks. Collapsed from exhaustion, Herzberger was found barely alive among the corpses by a liberating British soldier.[4]
In late 1945, she returned to her home town of Cluj. She completed her bachelor of science degree then started at King Ferdinand Medical School, where she met her husband. Due to fear of communist forces within the area, they decided to flee to Israel. However, their ship was captured by the British in the Aegean Sea. They were brought to Cyprus, and held in a prison camp until they were permitted to enter Israel in 1949.[4]
