The Hungarian, who died at the age of 92 last week, escaped the fascists as a teenager in 1944 and became swimming royalty
The fascists came for Eva Szekely in the winter of 1944, when she was 17. “I was told to lie down and say I was sick,” she remembered. “‘Come on! Get going!’” their leader shouted. “Then my dad told him: ‘She is sick, can’t you see, she cannot walk!’ and he said back: ‘She doesn’t have to walk far.’” Only to the nearby banks of the Danube, where they were doing the killing.
“And then from some heavenly influence my dad said: ‘Don’t take her, she is the swimming champion of Hungary, and one day you will be happy you saved her life. Tell him your name.’ And he looked at me, and I looked at him,” he had one grey eye and one brown eye, “and I said my name. This is how I stayed alive, that Dad told him I was a swimming champion and he would still remember me.”
Written by Andy Bull
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/mar/03/holocaust-survivor-to-olympic-gold-the-remarkable-life-of-eva-szekely under the title “Holocaust survivor to Olympic gold: the remarkable life of Eva Szekely”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
