Arriving in America after World War II, Andrew Laszlo kept much of his Hungarian childhood a secret. Decades later, his wife Ann, convinced him to share the secret with his grown children.
When Andrew was born in 1926, His middle-class family lived in Papa, a small town west of Budapest. It was a happy time.
At age fifteen, Andrew was not allowed to join the Boy Scouts. His brother could not attend the university. The reason.... Their mother was Jewish. As Nazi inspired antisemitism grew, Andrew's determination to survive was tested again and again.
On March 19, 1944, Germany invaded Hungary. He wrote: "...as I warned you...Yes, from here on this account is going to get rough."
His family was relocated to the Ghetto and forced to wear the yellow Star of David. Andrew's brother, Sandor, and then Andrew were conscripted into Hungarian Labor forces. His mother, father, grandmother and aunt were taken away.
As the war dragged on, Andrew was sent to the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp. Years later; his children learned that Anne Frank was a prisoner in the camp at the same time. She perished before the war ended.
The loss of his family deeply affected Andrew. At 20 years old, having nothing left, he escaped Russian occupied Hungary and made his way to post-war Germany. There, he filed an emigration petition for the United States. He arrived in New York Harbor on January 17, 1947. He carried his secret past locked in his heart...for 50 years.
Andrew Laszlo went on to have a distinguished motion picture career. He was a cinematographer for over 50 movies and televisions series, including Shogun and Rambo, First Blood. He worked with many of the movie stars of his time. He traveled the world doing pictures and teaching the next generation of film makers.