One of our readers, Gábor Kreisler met Juda Szamet, a Pittsburgh shooting survivor who has Hungarian origins.
As we have all heard, last Saturday there was a serious attack against the Jewish community of Pittsburgh (US) leaving 11 people dead and 6 injured. One of the survivors is Juda Szamet, who has Hungarian origins and who met Gábor Kreisler in Debrecen months before the tragedy.
Last Saturday, Juda escaped from the Pittsburgh attack by accident because he was late for praying. This was the second time in his life when he escaped death in a miraculous way.
Juda Szamet visited Debrecen this May and he met our reader Gábor Kresiler who has written about Juda’s life to us.
Juda was born in 1938 in Debrecen. He survived the concentration camp in Bergen-Belsen, but he did not return to Hungary after WW II. He traveled to Israel, then to America and settled down in Pittsburgh eventually.
This year, the 80-year-old man decided to visit his home town with his family. In May, Gábor Kresiler was waiting for them at the railway station from where they went straight to the renewed Jewish Quarter of Pásti street (the photos were taken there). Juda was very nervous to visit Debrecen again and when he walked into the synagogue on Pasti street, he remembered the creaking floor immediately. At the memorial wall, he prayed for his father and relatives who did not survive the horrors of WW II.
After that, they walked to Hatvan street, where they were looking for number 20. Juda was searching for their old house with the knitting workshop, but now there is a multi-storey building with an OTP bank office. He wondered how narrow the Hatvan street was, when he was a child, it seemed very wide to him. After so many years, Juda could show her daughter and grandchildren where he was born.
Gábor Kresiler wrote that despite the bad memories, Juda remained Hungarian. They had more and more Hungarian words in their conversation, and he felt by the end of the day that Juda was filled spiritually, which gave strength to his life.
Photos: Gábor Kresiler
