Magda Schaloum: Beloved Holocaust Survivor

Magda Altman Schaloum

Auschwitz survivor, Holocaust educator, wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, Magda Schaloum, 92, passed away on June 9, 2015.

Magda told her story of Holocaust survival to thousands of students, teachers and community groups in the Northwest as a member of the Holocaust Center for Humanity’s Speakers Bureau.  She told her audiences-who were awed by her honesty and grace, that she wanted them to remember that they had heard her story of survival, so that they could say, ‘I have seen and heard a survivor.’”

Magda was born in Gyor, Hungary in 1922.  She was 22 years old when the Germans occupied Hungary on March 19, 1944.  The Nazis began systematically depriving Jews of their rights and forcing them to move into ghettos.  Magda, her mother and brother were deported to Auschwitz. When she and her mother were lined up for ‘selection,’ she tells students “Mother was sent to the left, and I was sent to the right. And I tried to run after my mother, and they grabbed me back and they said, ‘Just go ahead, she will go take a shower, and we will me So I yelled out, ‘I love you mom and I'll see you later.’ That was the last I saw my mother.”

Magda was then sent to Plaskow, the concentration camp in Schindler’s List.  After several months, she was sent back to Auschwitz, and it was at this time that she was tattooed with the number A-17170.

After working in several slave labor camps, Magda was finally liberated by the US Army in 1945.  While in a displaced persons camp in Feldafing, Germany, Magda met her husband, Izak, a Sephardic native of Salonika, Greece. He had also survived Auschwitz. Isak and Magda were married six weeks later while still in the camp. They settled in Seattle in 1951.

Madga was an active member of Sephardic Bikur Holim in Seattle. She was featured in an exhibit and book Weaving Women’s Words: Seattle Stories that showcased thirty women, born in the early 20th century, who made their homes in the Seattle Jewish community. Magda was interviewed many times by local media.

We all loved Magda and will miss her.

Learn more about Magda and her incredible life on our website: http://www.holocaustcenterseattle.org/survivor-voices/magda-schaloum

The Center has established the Magda Schaloum Educational Fund in her memory. Tributes may be made to the Holocaust Center for Humanity—2045 Second Avenue, Seattle, WA 98121; (206) 582-3000; www.HolocaustCenterSeattle.org.

                  Magda's son Jack Schaloum continuing her legacy by
 sharing her story of survival, June 8th.