Grandma Magda's Holocaust survival story: pass it on

Grandma Magda, aka Magda Brown, was a Holocaust survivor dedicated to sharing her story with the world.

She passed away last year at age 93, much to the heartbreak of her adoring family — including her granddaughter, and my friend, Amy Rainey. On Holocaust Remembrance Day, Amy sent a group of friends and family members an email sharing the updated website she created for Magda, writing, “My work as one of Grandma Magda’s ‘press agents’ will continue for the rest of my life. I hope you’ll join me. “

So here I am: Joining Amy, and Magda, in sharing Magda’s powerful, essential story. Read an excerpt below and learn more about Grandma Magda at magdabrown.com.

Excerpt from Magda’s story

Magda (Perlstein) Brown’s eighth grade photo. Taken December 12, 1941.

“On June 11, 1944 — Magda’s 17th birthday — she and her family were crowded onto a railroad box car with 80 other people. Each transport held thousands of people, including children and the elderly. They traveled for three days without food, water, or any idea where they were being sent. The final destination was the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland. After arriving, Magda was separated from her mother, father, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends. It was the last time she saw them — they were sent directly into the gas chambers.

The deportation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz-Birkenau started on May 15, 1944 and lasted until July 7, 1944. Nearly 440,000 — half the Jews in Hungary — were deported. On average, 3 out of 4 people in each transport were gassed immediately upon arrival.

After months of torture and imprisonment in Auschwitz, Magda was “selected” to be sent to a work camp in August 1944. She was one of a thousand Jewish Hungarian women who were transported to Allendorf, Germany, a sub-camp of the Buchenwald concentration camp and the site of one of Germany’s largest munitions factories. The women were enslaved under dangerous conditions making bombs and rockets, filling them with liquid chemicals. The chemicals turned their skin yellow, their hair orange, and their lips purple.

In late March 1945, Magda and her group were sent on a death march to Buchenwald. Magda and several prisoners decided to attempt an escape, crawling on the ground and hiding in a nearby barn. For a day and a half, they hid in piles of straw, knowing that they would be shot if they were caught. Two soldiers from the 6th Armored Division of the U.S. Army then discovered Magda and the other women and liberated them. Magda was forever grateful to these brave, heroic soldiers.”

Barn in Germany where Magda (Perlstein) Brown hid and was later liberated by American soldiers

Discover more of Magda Brown’s story at magdabrown.com. And explore more women’s Holocaust stories in The Holocaust Encyclopedia.