May 1, 2015

Margaret Hopkovitz

Margaret Hopkovitz was born in 1925 in Czechoslovakia, which she described as being "just like little America" until 1938, when German soldiers and others surrounded the region and everything changed. She came from a close family that included her parents, a brother, and a sister. When the Jewish residents of her small town were ordered to gather at the school with their belongings, her brother had already been taken away to clear mines for the enemy. Her family was then moved to a larger city where Jews from surrounding areas were assembled before being loaded onto boxcars bound for Poland.

The train carried Margaret and her family to Auschwitz, where, on arrival in June 1944, a selection took place. Her parents were sent to the left and killed, while Margaret and her sister were sent to the right. She was tattooed on her arm and endured long roll calls, meager food, forced labor, and constant fear behind electric wire. Later she was marched a day and a half through heavy snow in a single dress to Bergen-Belsen, where disease and death were everywhere and she survived typhus. She credited her faith in God and the presence of her sister with helping her endure. British forces liberated her on April 15, 1945.

After the war Margaret returned to Czechoslovakia to find strangers living in her family home and everything gone. Her parents never came back, though her brother, who had survived working in a kitchen after being liberated by the Russians, returned safely, and her sister married and settled nearby. Margaret was preparing to move to Israel when she was introduced to a young man bound for America; she changed her plans, came to the United States, and was married for about 50 years, living in San Antonio. She later moved to Dallas to be near her daughter, who cared for her. Margaret shared her testimony, including at the JCC, to honor those who never came back, especially the children and mothers lost to the camps.

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