Heda Margolius Kovály

Heda Margolius Kovály is the author of the autobiographical text. She does not provide demographic data regarding her life, though she was probably born c. 1923. She notes she was still a child while her first husband, Rudolf Margolius, was already an adult—his birth being during 1913—and she notes being old enough to accompany a physician on rounds in the Lodz Ghetto during c. 1941 but being young enough to be forced into slave labor by the Nazi regime during her incarceration at Auschwitz and elsewhere.

Kovály, a Jew, and her family were forcibly evacuated to the Lodz Ghetto during October 1941. They remained there as conditions deteriorated and the family lost at least one cousin during this period of incarceration. Lodz is estimated to have housed about 204,000 Jews and Kovály is one of only about 10,000 survivors. The family remained more or...