DALLAS — Another Holocaust survivor has passed away in Dallas, according to the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum. Margaret Turk Hopkovitz died on March 3, the same day that 102-year-old survivor Heinz Wallach also passed.
According to the museum, Hopkovitz was born in Vel’ka Ida, Czechoslovakia in June 1925 to Serena and Samuel Turk. She was the youngest of three children and had a happy childhood in an Orthodox household.
In late 1938, her village was annexed to Hungary, which had anti-Semitic laws.
In March 1944, Nazi Germany invaded Hungary. Hopkovitz and her family were forced into a ghetto in Vel’ka Ida, then deported to the Auschwitz-Kirenau.
The museum said Hopkovitz’s parents were selected for death when they arrived to Auschwitz.
She and her sister, Clara, were tattooed and forced into labor, then taken on a death march from Poland to the Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp in Germany. The two sisters suffered from a disease known as typhus, but later recovered. After they were liberated from the Holocaust, Margaret went back to Czechoslovakia for a few years, then emigrated to the U.S. with her husband, Simon, in 1950. The two started in San Antonio to be closer to his brother.
From there, the rebuilt their lives, raised a family and became active members of the Jewish community. The Dallas Museum said they opened their home on Jewish holidays, led services at the Jewish Home for the Aged, and were active members of Congregation Rodfei Sholom.
Margaret then moved to Dallas in 2003, to be close to her daughter. For years, she shared her experiences with school children, Holocaust Museum visitors, and many others. Margaret Turk Hopkovitz is survived by her Aviva, her son, Michael, her eight grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren.
May her memory be for a blessing.
