IF YOU HEARD WHAT HARA HEARD

HARA SHARES THE STORY OF HER GRANDMOTHER, IRENE BERGER TOROK, WHO WAS BORN IN NYIRGYULAJ, HUNGARY, A SMALL VILLAGE. SHE HAD A HAPPY CHILDHOOD AS THE YOUNGEST OF SEVEN CHILDREN, UNTIL THE HUNGARIAN ARMY, UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE NAZIS, ROUNDED UP ALL OF THE JEWS IN HER TOWN AND SENT THEM TO AUSCHWITZ. IT WAS AT AUSCHWITZ WHERE IRENE WAS SEPARATED FROM HER PARENTS, SISTER, BROTHER-IN-LAW, AND TWO YOUNG NIECES, WHO SHE NEVER SAW AGAIN. IRENE AND HER SISTER REMAINED TOGETHER THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE EXPERIENCE, THROUGH FORCED LABOR IN UNTHINKABLE CONDITIONS, TO LIBERATION AND THEN REBUILDING THEIR LIVES TOGETHER. IRENE MARRIED, HAD TWO CHILDREN, AND REBUILT HER LIFE FIRST IN HUNGARY, THEN MONTREAL, ULTIMATELY SETTLING IN LOS ANGELES WHERE HER FAMILY CONTINUES TO GROW TODAY.

IF YOU HEARD WHAT HARA HEARD, YOU WOULD NEVER FORGET.