Marianne Balshone. Holocaust Speaker
Examine carefully the eyes of the child in the photograph left. She is Marianne Balshone. Can you visualize this child as a young bride, disdaining the obligatory yellow star, carrying a basket of food bought with gold, under strafing and artillery fire, making her way through the streets of Budapest? On her person are two sets of papers, Jewish papers that should send her to an extermination camp, and forged ones which unquestionably could have her shot on the spot.
Born in Budapest, Hungary, Marianne Balshone survived the Holocaust in Budapest on account of the efforts of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who came to Budapest with the sole purpose of saving Hungarian Jews. Three generations of her family survived on account of his heroic efforts, which in itself is a miracle.
Marianne Speaking at the 19th Annual meeting of the Wallenberg Committee. The video begins with 4 videos of Hungarian Jews saved by Wallenberg, then Marianne tells her story.
Marianne was not only a survivor, but a passionate Holocaust speaker. Given that she and her family were personally saved by Raul Wallenberg, she recognized that:
One person can make a difference.
It was her mission to spread the message that one person can make a difference in anothers’ lives, and inspire and empower the listener to understand that they too have the capacity to make a difference. On this mission she would talk to elementary schools, universities, colleges, Kiwanis and Rotary clubs, churches, synagogues or any organization interested in the story of Jewish life before and during the Holocaust. She was determined to inform people of what really happened and through her story build empathy to ensure the Holocaust could not happen again. She lectured extensively across the United States, including Florida Atlantic University, Texas Lutheran University, Upper Canada College, Brooklyn College, throughout the southern Florida school system, and was interviewed on hundreds of radio and television talk shows.
The book Determined by Benjamin Balshone — Marianne’s second husband — tells the true story of Marianne and her family’s survival in war-ravaged Hungary. Marianne's experience in Budapest during the Holocaust, as well as the experience of a dozen different friends, has been captured in the book.
Benjamin Balshone was a writer, a pharmacist, and an American-born Jew, who's family emigrated to the United States well before the Holocaust. The experience of his European-Jewish wife, and the horrors of the experiences her family members went through, were both very foreign and very real to him.
The book Determined is available used in hard copy on Amazon, and we have also reissued a digital version for free. Click here to download your free digital copy of Determined.
An inspiring lecture at TEDx Women of three generations and what freedom means to each of them as they track their linked histories: Marianne, her daughter and her granddaughter.
sharable link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F7bnNbEHEI