It is with great sadness that we heard of the passing of Susie Halter.
Susie was just 15 when Germany invaded Hungary in March 1944. Although deportations from Budapest to Auschwitz were stopped in July 1944, the city's Jews were increasingly subjected to terror at the hands of both the Germans and the Hungarian Arrow Cross Fascists. Whilst Susie's parents were interned in the Budapest Ghetto, she and her pregnant sister were sent on a forced march towards Austria where they were to be used as slave labour. Susie bribed a Hungarian guard to help her sister escape before escaping herself. She returned to Budapest where she hid with non-Jewish friends until liberation.
Susie first came to the UK in 1948 when she represented Hungary in the 100m freestyle swimming in the Olympics. She married fellow survivor Roman Halter in 1950. Roman passed away in 2012.
You can read more about Susie in an article from 2012 here.