SZIKLAINÉ LENGYEL ZSÓFIA (BUDAPEST)
Storyteller, communications specialist, project manager
For many years, she has been working voluntarily and with great personal attention to preserving the stories of Holocaust survivors, rescuers and their families. As the founder of the History Saving Enterprise, she assumes that history is present not only in textbooks and archives, but also in the memories and everyday objects of families.
In 2020, she launched a one-person volunteer project, in which she conducted interviews with Holocaust survivors and rescue workers recognized with the Világ Igaza award. During the conversations, more and more families recommended new speakers, and this is how the volume 88 Stories from '44 was created. The book publishes eighty survivor stories and eight rescue worker recollections, presenting the experiences of labor service, ghettoization, deportation, concentration camps, Arrow Cross rule, and the siege of Budapest through memories related to everyday objects. The personal narratives are complemented by family photographs and an explanatory archive containing about three hundred terms. In addition to the book, she conducted numerous life-course interviews and also regularly supports the work of the EMEMA Foundation.
Her work preserves testimonies at a time when the personal voices of the survivors' generation are increasingly rarely heard directly. Her interviews connect historical facts with human faces, objects, fears, and decisions. By conveying personal memories in a way that is understandable, she makes the question of how to survive, help, and remain humane in times of inhumanity accessible to future generations.
For me, the most important thing in my job is – the candidate wrote
As a storyteller, I record life and family stories. I believe that every journey is valuable and worthy of being preserved for posterity.
I was nominated for the award for my book 88 Stories from '44, and for my volunteer work in preserving the memory of the Holocaust. When I first heard the stories of survivors as a student guide, I decided that as a chronicler I "had" to pass them on to many other people. Especially to young people and those who keep themselves away from this topic, so that they can learn about what happened beyond the numbers and the dry letters of history books during the period of danger, and understand where exclusion and hatred can lead even today. For the book, I spoke with 46 survivors and the last 5 rescuers awarded the title of Righteous of the World in Hungary, who were alive at the time. I highlighted 80+8 objects and built the consciously short, personal episodes around them. The reception is aided by a glossary, which I compiled so that readers can understand every nuance of these "condensed canned histories".
I have continued to collect stories ever since, and true stories I have recorded have appeared on several online platforms. As a volunteer (Élet Menete, or the Emlékezzünk és Emlékeztessünk Foundation), I keep in touch with many elderly people, and in 2024 I was able to accompany 21 survivors to Auschwitz. I give presentations (sometimes with survivors), and I am trying to apply because I want to get the book and its message to many schools in the hope that history will remain history forever.