Eva Rydell

Eva Weisz was born in 1935 in Budapest, Hungary. Before the invasion of Hungary, Eva’s parents owned a custom furniture business and Eva attended Jewish preschool and elementary school.

Before the occupation, when Hungary was a member of the Axis, Eva’s father was conscripted into forced labor where he was killed. Her mother maintained the company until Jews were no longer permitted to own a business.

After the German occupation of Hungary in March 1944, Eva and her remaining family were forced into a Star House. One day, the Gestapo took them to a field where they had gathered people to deport to Auschwitz. After a wait it was determined that the train was too full so they were returned to the ghetto. Eva, her brother George, and their mother survived the war. Her extended family was murdered, primarily at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

After the war Eva’s mother remarried and the family remained in Budapest. In 1956, when the Hungarian Revolution began, Eva and George escaped to Austria. They immigrated to the United States in 1957 where Eva met her future husband, Maury Rydell.