As a child, Magda Brown was sent to Poland’s Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Separated from her family, she would later escape. As a part of Women’s History Month, Grand Valley State University invited the 89-year old to tell her story. As a Holocaust survivor, she has a mission in life. “You know, genocide doesn’t happen from one minute to the next. It builds gradually.”
A Hungarian Jew, Magda Brown will never forget her 17th birthday in 1944. It was the day when she and her family were herded into a boxcar headed for the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
“They take away your freedom. They take away your livelihood. They take away your property and on and on and on gradually until you are reduced to the lowest level of an animal. So, I tell this story to the children especially, so they appreciate what they have and they protect their freedom. Because next to your health, freedom is the most important commodity you can have.”
Magda, as an American citizen today, tells me she has concerns about the new immigration policy. She believes other immigrants should receive the same welcoming treatment as she did in 1946.
Patrick Center, WGVU News