Malvin Katz Fried

Malvin and her eight brothers and sisters were born to religious Jewish parents in the small town of Buj in northeastern Hungary. The family later moved to the village of Zalkod, where Malvin's father ran a general store. The Katz family lived in a sprawling farmhouse with a large garden and fruit orchards. Malvin married Sandor Fried, the brother of her sister Sadie's husband, Hermon.

1933-39: Malvin's oldest sister, Sadie, who immigrated to the United States many years ago, has come home for a visit. Sadie's two children, Lillian and Arthur, love playing in the gypsy camp near their grandparents' farm and helping their grandmother gather fruit in the orchards. On their trip over, Sadie stopped in Hamburg and says she saw Nazis marching in the streets. She's afraid, but her family has told her not to worry: It all seems so far away.

1940-44: Four weeks ago, on March 19, 1944, German forces occupied Hungary. Here in Nyirbator where Malvin moved after her marriage to Sandor Fried, all of the Jewish citizens have been forced to abandon their homes and most of their belongings. They've spent the last few days crowded into the local synagogue. The rough Hungarian gendarmes have searched them and stolen their remaining money and jewelry. Now they've told them that they're to be moved to a ghetto in the county seat, the town of Nyiregyhaza. Then what will happen to themx?

Malvin and her husband, Sandor, were among 435,000 Hungarian Jews deported in the early summer of 1944 to Auschwitz. Malvin and her husband perished there.