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“The fact that the Holocaust became my life,

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the fact that it became my life goal, my profession,

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so to speak, to talk about the Holocaust

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– about that terrible Hungarian
Holocaust, that was so short –

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since then, I can answer that unequivocally.”

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That is what Éva says

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when she is asked what the
Holocaust means to her.

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She can talk about her past life

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as if it was someone else’s life.

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This year, Oskar Gröning, a former SS man

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who worked on the ramp in Auschwitz

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– he took the inmates’ valuables from
them and kept a record of them –

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was sentenced to a prison term of four years.

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He said:

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“For me it is beyond all question

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that I am morally guilty.

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I ask for forgiveness.

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You have to decide on the
question of the criminal guilt.”

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During the panel discussion on 6 November 2015,

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Éva commented:

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“I’m still convinced

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that he doesn’t fundamentally comprehend

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what happened to us there.”

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Just like people who weren’t there
at all, it seems to be extremely

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difficult for former perpetrators to
comprehend what happened back then.

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Éva managed to come to terms
with her difficult past.

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Because of the fact that she survived,

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she knows exactly what the
Holocaust means to her.

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For us this question is far more difficult,

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because we weren’t there.

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All we can do is try to comprehend
her feelings and her pain.

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But we can never achieve that entirely.

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And that’s why it’s all the more important
that there are people like Éva Pusztai.

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Contemporary witnesses who don’t draw
self-pity from their horrible pasts,

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but the wish to warn younger people,

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so that something like the
Holocaust doesn’t happen again.

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Because of the fact that we’re still so young,

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we hardly have any direct points of contact.

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But reflection on the Holocaust is
nevertheless very important to us

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– in the sense that we reassess it,

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that we not only condemn 
the mistakes of our forebears,

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but also take a stand

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to bring about real change for
the present and the future.