LOS ANGELES, Could 18 (Reuters) – George Berci and Frank Shatz might have crossed paths in a Nazi labor camp or working within the Hungarian underground almost 80 years in the past. However so far as they know the 2 Holocaust survivors met for the primary time on Wednesday in Los Angeles.
Berci, 101, is a pioneering Los Angeles surgeon who nonetheless studies to work in a white coat at Cedars-Sinai Medical Middle.
Shatz, 96, is an writer who nonetheless writes a column for the Virginia Gazette.
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Native Hungarians, they each escaped a Nazi labor camp and later achieved prominence of their respective fields in america. The American Jewish Congress organized their assembly.
The 2 males exchanged vast smiles as they met at Berci’s nursing house. As Berci waited, Shatz strode towards him, strolling briskly with a cane, they usually hugged.
Holocaust survivors Dr. George Berci (R), 101, and Frank Shatz, 96, who haven’t seen one another since their escapes throughout World Warfare Two from a Nazi labor camp, reunite after Shatz traveled from Virginia to satisfy Berci at a Village Senior Residing middle in Los Angeles, California, U.S. Could 18, 2022. REUTERS/Mike Blake
“We escaped virtually the identical day from the slave labor camp and we discovered ourselves in Budapest and we each joined the anti-Nazi underground,” Shatz stated. “We have been in the identical place, did the identical job, so most likely our paths handed a number of instances.”
Berci has stated he was a captive of the Nazis in the summertime of 1944 when he escaped at age 23 due to a close-by allied assault that distracted his guards. He then joined the Hungarian underground in Budapest.
Shatz wrote in a current column he was a slave laborer within the Carpathian Mountains constructing a railroad for the German military and escaped throughout an aerial bombardment. He, too, joined the anti-Nazi underground in Budapest.
Shatz realized of Berci’s story from a current profile of the physician within the Los Angeles Instances, resulting in the assembly.
“We’re very lucky that we bear in mind these historic websites, these historic occasions,” Berci stated.
The variety of Nazi Holocaust survivors is tough to estimate. The U.S. Registry of Holocaust Survivors lists 195,000 survivors and kinfolk.
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Reporting by Rollo Ross in Los Angeles and Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, Calif.; Enhancing by Cynthia Osterman
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