Anna

Interview of Anna Menzl, Holocaust survivor from Győr

An oral history interview with Anna was commissioned by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and is entitled “Oral history interview with Anna Menzl” as available in the Museum’s archives. Below is a link and references to the USHMM registration. This interview is published with the kind permission of Anna and with acknowledgement of the rights of USHMM.

Anna was born on 13 June 1942 in Szeged (South-East Hungary – ed.). She has lived in Switzerland since the age of fourteen.

Her father was György Menzl (Orosháza, 12 August 1906 – Egg, Switzerland, 1983), whose family originated in Novi Sad, Serbia, and moved to Szeged in the early 19th century.

Her mother Erzsébet Polgár (Győr, 25 August 1909 – Egg, Switzerland, 1983) was the daughter of Dr Sándor Polgár of Győr, a renowned botanist of his time (Győr, 13 December 1876 – Auschwitz, 15 June 1944; his wife: Margit Csillag). Another member of the Polgár family was Dénes Polgár (Győr, 1912 – Budapest, 2009), a well-known journalist.

When Anna was born, the family lived in Szeged. While her father was a forced labourer on the eastern front, the family was deported to Austria with Anna in 1944. After their liberation, the family reunited in Szeged and moved to Győr in 1946. They “defected” to Switzerland in 1956.

The very detailed interview in Hungarian with Anna can be found here.

Anna took part in the Jewish Roots in Győr World Reunion staged on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the deportations, Győr, 4-7 July 2024.

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© United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: USHMM: RG-50.944.0116; Title: Oral history interview with Anna Menzl; URL: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn723336;
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Washington D.C.

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Edited and translated into English by Péter Krausz