‘Please keep the memory alive’: Holocaust survivor Olga Horak passes away
Born in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia in 1926, she survived Auschwitz and was liberated from Bergen-Belsen on April 15, 1945
Holocaust survivor and Sydney Jewish Museum volunteer Olga Horak has passed away.
Born in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia in 1926, she was 14 when the war broke out in 1939. In 1942, Olga’s sister was rounded up with other 16 year old Jewish young adults and transported to Auschwitz. Olga never saw her again.
Her family then crossed into Hungary, but soon returned to Bratislava. While in hiding they were betrayed and sent to Auschwitz. Olga’s father and grandmother were sent directly to the gas chambers.
During the bitter winter of 1944-45 Olga and her mother marched for hundreds of kilometres through day and night to Dresden, where they were then transported to Bergen-Belsen. Despite suffering from typhus and diphtheria, she survived to see Bergen-Belsen liberated on April 15, 1945. Tragically, her mother died the day after liberation.
In 1949, Olga and her husband John arrived in Sydney to begin a new life, but it took time for her to share her testimony.
“People were not ready to listen,” she told The AJN in a 2022 interview. “It took a long time, not only for people to listen to us, but for Holocaust survivors to start talking about their past.”
In that interview – with the number of Holocaust survivors dwindling, Olga urged the younger generations to continue telling their stories. “Do not forget and please keep the memory alive,” she said.
“The young generation should not forget – they should take over and continue to remember.”
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