Holocaust survivor and longtime volunteer Susan Pereszlenyi died on Feb. 16. She was 99.
This is the story of Susan Pereszlenyi, as told by her three children: Anna Mussman, Judy Jolles and Robert Pereszlenyi. Mussman lives in Israel, Jolles in Philadelphia and Robert Pereszlenyi in Florida.
Pereszlenyi was born in Tardoskedd, Slovakia in 1924. After her father died when she was young, times were hard for her family, which consisted of her mother, two sisters and a brother.
“Her mother, our grandmother Omama, couldn’t take care of all the children, so my mom and Aunt Olga ended up living with an aunt and uncle in Budapest. Then came the horrible Holocaust,” Robert Pereszlenyi said.
In the early 2000s, Susan Pereszlenyi brought her children back to Budapest to see where she had grown up.
“I was always asking her, ‘Why were you here? Why weren’t you living with your mother?’ And it was hard to really picture her, my grandmother, sending all her children away,” Jolles said. “I didn’t really understand how a mother could do that — but they were, she was protecting her children and they thought Budapest was a safe place.”
However, the Nazis did come, and she and her friends were taken to the camps. Olga, one of Susan Pereszlenyi’s sisters, had blonde hair and blue eyes and forged a new identity as a Christian — which she used to bring food to her mother and brother, who were living in a basement, according to Mussman.
“She met my father in the camps, and they married after liberation with a stipulation that my mother had, which was that this was a package deal: Omama included,” Robert Pereszlenyi said in his mother’s eulogy.
Miklos Pereszlenyi, Susan Pereszlenyi’s late husband, was a watchmaker before he was imprisoned in the camps. Initially, he was transported to Auschwitz with his first wife and their two daughters, who were killed there. He was later transported to Dachau, where he met Susan (née Guttman).
After the war, Miklos and Susan Pereszlenyi lived in Landsberg, Germany, for a short while, where Anna Mussman (then Pereszlenyi) was born in 1947. In 1949, the family prepared to follow Susan Pereszlenyi’s siblings to Israel, but they were persuaded to go elsewhere because her siblings said life was difficult there, according to Robert Pereszlenyi.
The family moved to Philadelphia because Miklos Pereszlenyi learned that native Hungarian Eugene Ormandy was the conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Once in Philadelphia, Miklos Pereszlenyi found work repairing watches and eventually bought a home and business. Miklos Pereszlenyi died in 1983, when Susan Pereszlenyi was 58.
After her father died, Mussman said her mother came into her own and became independent — volunteering and doing things Mussman hadn’t thought she would do when younger.
“[She was] social, very independent after my father passed away. She had many friends, and she was the only driver,” Jolles said.
Driving was one way she helped her friends, and she also volunteered with the Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors in Philadelphia. Mussman said that the organization helped her mother develop her confidence.
“She would do whatever they wanted her to do, which was help out with the luncheons, and she would go earlier and set up the tables and, whenever there were phone calls to make, she called people,” Jolles said. “She would pick people up and take them there. She was basically the only driver, and she would do whatever she could to help out.”
Pereszlenyi had a unique talent, according to her children. She had a way of making sure everyone in her life felt special — whether that was calling to check in or remembering and making their favorite dish.
In the days before her death, Pereszlenyi suffered a heart attack but recovered. Afterward, she made sure to call her friends and family.
“She just gave them her last message, her last piece of advice and everyone got a different message,” Mussman said. “She really made sure everyone in her life felt like they were important.”
