Ma, tegnap, holmap (Today, yesterday, tomorrow)
Object numberM2011/060:001
TitleMa, tegnap, holmap (Today, yesterday, tomorrow)
Description'Ma, tegnap, holmap' (Today, yesterday, tomorrow), one of three poems hand written in Hungarian, by the donors mother, Magda Bognar (nee Lowinger), in Altenburg, a sub camp of Ravensbruck concentration camp, November 1944 - January 1945, when she was 23-years-old.
Magda Bognar (nee Lowinger) was born on 10 April 1921 in Sarvar, Hungary, the youngest of 11 children of Jacob and Josephine Lowinger (nee Spitzer). As a young girl Magda formed a friendship with Ernest Bognar (born 8 February 1920) from the nearby village of Sopron, but their friendship was interrupted by the war. Magda and two sisters, Irene and Ella, were the only members of their family to survive the Holocaust. Ernest, who lost his entire family in the Holocaust, and Magda met after liberation, re-established their friendship and married. Their son George was born in 1946. After defecting from Hungary in 1948, the couple lived in Austria and then Paris before migrating to Australia, in 1957. They had two more children, Michael and Susan.
Little is known of Magdas Holocaust experiences, as she never spoke of them during her lifetime. These poems are the only testimony of her experiences, her physical and emotional suffering, and a chronicle of the daily harsh realities experienced while incarcerated. Her resilience is revealed through a focus on the power of her imagination, providing a vehicle for the poet to remember a better past and hope for a better future. The poems conclude with positive thoughts. Dream ends with: Mama, I know that you are not with me/and yet I feel you here, your hands holding me/and as snowflakes are chased by the storm, so does my imagination fly away with you Whatever will happen I do not care anymore/ because I believe that the dream will come true soon. We too found out ends with: our dreams must come true one of these days/and when that happens we shall all go home/ and we shall re-build our tiny nest all over again/where nobody ever can harm us again/and if they ask/are we happy, is it good to live like this/ we shall say yes, because we learnt to suffer and to persevere.
Magda Bognar (nee Lowinger) was born on 10 April 1921 in Sarvar, Hungary, the youngest of 11 children of Jacob and Josephine Lowinger (nee Spitzer). As a young girl Magda formed a friendship with Ernest Bognar (born 8 February 1920) from the nearby village of Sopron, but their friendship was interrupted by the war. Magda and two sisters, Irene and Ella, were the only members of their family to survive the Holocaust. Ernest, who lost his entire family in the Holocaust, and Magda met after liberation, re-established their friendship and married. Their son George was born in 1946. After defecting from Hungary in 1948, the couple lived in Austria and then Paris before migrating to Australia, in 1957. They had two more children, Michael and Susan.
Little is known of Magdas Holocaust experiences, as she never spoke of them during her lifetime. These poems are the only testimony of her experiences, her physical and emotional suffering, and a chronicle of the daily harsh realities experienced while incarcerated. Her resilience is revealed through a focus on the power of her imagination, providing a vehicle for the poet to remember a better past and hope for a better future. The poems conclude with positive thoughts. Dream ends with: Mama, I know that you are not with me/and yet I feel you here, your hands holding me/and as snowflakes are chased by the storm, so does my imagination fly away with you Whatever will happen I do not care anymore/ because I believe that the dream will come true soon. We too found out ends with: our dreams must come true one of these days/and when that happens we shall all go home/ and we shall re-build our tiny nest all over again/where nobody ever can harm us again/and if they ask/are we happy, is it good to live like this/ we shall say yes, because we learnt to suffer and to persevere.
Production date 1944 - 1945
Object namepoems
Materialpaper
Dimensions
- 4 parts each length: 210.00 mm
width: 150.00 mm
Language
- Hungarian Professor Vera Ranki
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by George Bognar