11th Annual Kristallnacht Lecture: Endre Sarkany, Holocaust Survivor
- Oct
- 13
Wednesday, November 8
3:00 PM
Main Library
Endre (Andy) Sarkany was born in Budapest, Hungary on October 31, 1936. The building he lived in was located inside the Budapest ghetto which is where he remained during the Holocaust. The building housed a nursery/kindergarten on the ground floor. The school was affiliated with the Jewish Agency of Hungary and was led by Mr. Eugene Polnay. The building also housed on the top floor a dance, acrobat and ballet studio. These facts were significant in Endre’s survival and that of at least 150 orphaned children. Endre’s father was taken to Mauthausen concentration camp in the spring of 1944, fortunately he did survive.
After WWII, Hungary became a communist nation. Although Endre graduated high school in 1955, he was not accepted to university because he was deemed an undesirable element of society. This label was given to anyone who owned a business before the communists took over the country. Endre was fortunate to escape Hungary after the October 1956 uprising and was able to immigrate to the United States. He received his bachelor’s degree from Tusculum College in Tennessee and his Master of Science degree in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Endre worked for both the McDonald Douglas Corporation and the IBM Corporation.
Over the past 10 years, Endre has been speaking to students about his personal experiences during the Holocaust, living under the brutality of the Soviet regime in Hungary, and finding a home in the United States. Mr. Sarkany is married, has a daughter and son, and five grandchildren.
Kristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, was a series of coordinated attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on November 9-10, 1938. German authorities looked on as SA paramilitary and civilians carried out these attacks and covered the streets with broken glass from the windows of Jewish-owned stores, buildings, and synagogues. This annual event at the Farmington Libraries commemorates the human spirit’s ability to overcome such persecution.