Pogany tells family's Holocaust story
Nat Curiel
Issue date: 5/4/06 Section: News
- Page 1 of 2 next >
Eugene Pogany began his talk Thursday evening by drawing a parallel between the story of the Jews' Exodus from Egypt, remembered every year during the celebration of Passover, and the more contemporary experience of the Holocaust. Pogany takes strong exception to those individuals who have cynically called for Jews to put the Holocaust behind them, arguing that it is still imperative for such an ineffably tragic event in a people's history, be remembered forever.
Pogany was compelled to tell his own family's heart-wrenching story in his memoir, "In My Brother's Image: Twin Brothers Separated by Faith after the Holocaust," "most of all, to dispel silence."
Pogany's talk was the feature of this year's Yom HaShoah observance, or Holocaust Remembrance Day. Dr. Pogany, a practicing clinical psychologist in Newton, Massachusetts and the son of two Hungarian-Jewish Holocaust survivors, talked at length about his family's experience before, during and after the war. Pogany's focus during the talk, and in his memoir, was on the chasm between his father Miklós and his father's twin brother Gyuri after the war, living in suburban New Jersey. This gulf between brothers had its roots in the divergent trajectories of their experiences during World War II and their mutual refusal after the war to revisit painful memories.
Born in 1913 in Budapest, Hungary, the twins were raised in a devout Catholic home. The ostensible reason for the Poganys' conversion was professional; the twins' father, Bela, hoped to obtain a job as a veterinarian in a decidedly Catholic provincial village. However, Bela's wife, Gabriella, embraced the faith enthusiastically and whole-heartedly, so much so that she reputedly went to the gas chamber clasping a crucifix. The mother's religious fervor rubbed off on both her sons, especially Gyuri, who decided to enter the priesthood shortly before the war, and found himself in Italy for reasons of health on the eve of Germany's incursion into Hungary.
Pogany was compelled to tell his own family's heart-wrenching story in his memoir, "In My Brother's Image: Twin Brothers Separated by Faith after the Holocaust," "most of all, to dispel silence."
Pogany's talk was the feature of this year's Yom HaShoah observance, or Holocaust Remembrance Day. Dr. Pogany, a practicing clinical psychologist in Newton, Massachusetts and the son of two Hungarian-Jewish Holocaust survivors, talked at length about his family's experience before, during and after the war. Pogany's focus during the talk, and in his memoir, was on the chasm between his father Miklós and his father's twin brother Gyuri after the war, living in suburban New Jersey. This gulf between brothers had its roots in the divergent trajectories of their experiences during World War II and their mutual refusal after the war to revisit painful memories.
Born in 1913 in Budapest, Hungary, the twins were raised in a devout Catholic home. The ostensible reason for the Poganys' conversion was professional; the twins' father, Bela, hoped to obtain a job as a veterinarian in a decidedly Catholic provincial village. However, Bela's wife, Gabriella, embraced the faith enthusiastically and whole-heartedly, so much so that she reputedly went to the gas chamber clasping a crucifix. The mother's religious fervor rubbed off on both her sons, especially Gyuri, who decided to enter the priesthood shortly before the war, and found himself in Italy for reasons of health on the eve of Germany's incursion into Hungary.
Be the first to comment on this story