Livia Molnar Bergen papers

Livia Molnar Bergen was born on July 16, 1924, in Budapest, Hungary, to Alexander Molnar, a prosperous merchant, and his wife, Jolan Herzl Molnar. She had an older sister, Julia, who married Zoltan Steiner, and a younger brother, Philip. In the autumn of 1944, Livia and her siblings were deported from Budapest. Her brother escaped, but Livia and Julia were taken to Dachau concentration camp. From there, they went to Bergen-Belsen and to Kristianstadt concentration camps. In the spring of 1945, they were forced on a death march which lasted into the winter. On one day of this march, they fell behind, but they were ignored by a German officer whose orders were to shoot the weak. They were found by a German civilian officer who took them to the civilian jail in Hoyerswerda, Germany. Julia stayed in the jail until liberation. Livia was taken to the Auxiliary Hospital where she had part of her foot amputated. She was deported to a hospital in Bodenmais, Germany, where she was liberated by American troops. She returned to Budapest and found her mother, sister, and brother. She left Budapest in 1947 for two years in England and then immigrated to Israel in 1949. On Mar, 27, 1952, she married Kurt Bergen, and they had two children: Dorit (b. 1953) and Dan (b. 1954). In 1956 the family moved to the United States.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Kurt Bergen

The papers were donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum by Kurt Bergen in 1996.