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Join Meeting ID: 829 8972 7723 with Passcode: 270183 15 minutes informal conversations with others in the UK and round the world. Presentation starts promptly 11.15 UK
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Tomi Komoly
My Uncle Ottó: Hero of the Holocaust
Saved orphans from certain death Zionist leader - refused the opportunity to escape Murdered in Budapest on 1 January 1945
Tomi was born in Budapest in 1936. Brought up as a single child in a secular environment. Survived the Hungarian Holocaust (1944) but lost his father and 75% of his wider family. Went through the communist state schooling system, and one year of Technical University studies, but left in 1956 during the Hungarian uprising, becoming a refugee in
Austria. Tomi continued his studies in the UK, graduating in Engineering. He worked in the chemical industry with a multinational company as project manager in the UK, Italy, France, Spain and in Asia (India, Thailand, Indonesia, China); retired and set up as design consultant. Authored patents and technical articles, and published books on laboratory design and baking Hungarian desserts.
Tomi is one of a small group of survivors who share their story through the Holocaust Educational Trust in London. Communicated to nearly 23,000 people – mostly school children, and some official bodies and government departments. Tomi now considers its continuation as a mission and looks forward to every forthcoming event with enthusiasm.
Today Tomi will tell the story of his Uncle Ottó, a little-known hero of those terrible times when the Jews in Budapest were being rounded up for deportation. As a leader of the Jewish community he worked tirelessly to save thousands of lives, refused the opportunity to escape from Hungary and was murdered by
the Arrow Cross on 1 January 1945. A street and a moshav are named after him in Israel, and he is commemorated in the Forest of the Martyrs in Jerusalem.
