Hungarian Auschwitz survivor says world has not learned lesson

Hungarian Auschwitz survivor Agnes Darvas, 92, looks at photographs of her younger years in an album in her apartment in Budapest, Hungary, January 9, 2025. REUTERS/Marton Monus

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - When Agnes Darvas was deported from Hungary to Auschwitz in 1944, she escaped being sent straight to the gas chambers with other children largely because her coat had been stolen in the ghetto and her mother had cut off her braids for fear of lice.

The coat borrowed from her mother and makeshift hairstyle made her look older to Joseph Mengele, Auschwitz's "Angel of Death" who chose who was fit for camp labour and who was to be killed, Darvas, now 92, told Reuters.