Erika Furst, the last Jew from Prekmurje who survived the Holocaust, died at the age of 93, the Maribor Synagogue announced.
At the age of 13, Furst was deported to Auschwitz together with her mother and older sister. All three survived, but most of her extended family starved.
She returned to Murska Sobota and lived there until her death as one of the few remaining members of the once numerous Jewish population in Prekmurje, a region that made up the far north-eastern part of Slovenia.
For years, Furst was the initiator of preserving the memory of Prekmurje Jews, and in 2012 she was awarded the Golden Order for her contribution to raising awareness about the Holocaust in Slovenia and Europe.
Furst was a valuable source for Slovenian historians who failed to systematically collect first-hand testimonies while many citizens of Prekmurje who survived the Holocaust were still alive, said Boris Hajdinjak, director of the Maribor Synagogue, a center of Jewish culture and history.
Through the memories of Erika, a woman from Murska Sobota who was deported to Auschwitz at the age of 13, the names, faces, and events of many pre-war Prekmurje Jews have been preserved – late, if not too late, he said.
Hajdinjak met her several times over the years in order to get a lot of reliable information about the events of that time, but he says that he was “always surprised by her willingness to share her memories and positive outlook on life.”
