Erika Hecht 1934 - 2022
Erika Hecht was born to a Jewish family in Budapest in 1934, she has passed away in December 2022.
She was only three when her divorced mother converted to Catholicism, hoping to protect them from the rising tide of antisemitism and the Hungarian Nazis. After Hungary allied itself with Germany in the 1940’s, the family obtained fake names and false papers and retreated to a small farming village where no one knew their true identity. They had harrowing experiences surviving the war zone created by the clashing German and Russian armies.
After the war when the German occupation gave way to a Soviet Communist takeover, the family fled again to post-war Vienna where Erika had to silently carry the trauma of the war experience while remaining a practicing Catholic. Her education continued, first in an Austrian and later a British convent boarding school. Upon return to Vienna, Erika attended medical school and during her internship she met and married a Jewish man, a distant relative, from Montreal. She moved to Canada and instead of continuing her medical career, she had three children and eventually a career as an Interior Designer. Through her marriage, Erika was now leading a Jewish life and her Catholic past and war experiences had to be disregarded. After twenty-four years, her marriage failed.
It was at that time that she discovered a group of Holocaust survivors in New York with similar childhood experiences as “hidden children surviving as Christians”, coping with similar issues of identity. Finally coming out of the closet became the main interest of Erika’s life. She organized the “Child Survivors/Hidden Children of the Holocaust” conference in Montreal in 1994 with six hundred participants and forty- two therapist led workshops. Once her divorce became final, Erika moved to New York permanently and got involved with “hidden children” groups and organizations all around the world, visiting conferences as far away as Australia and frequently speaking before large audiences.
Her story is the basis of the Emmy-nominated documentary, Remember Us: The Hungarian Hidden Children. At this time she began to take notes, writing down some of the stories that she often spoke about. They became the basic elements of her memoir, Don’t Ask My Name.
Erika moved permanently first to New York in 1998 and currently lives in Sag Harbor.
Born Jewish in Hungary in the 1930s, Erika became a “Hidden Child,” one of many Jewish children who were provided with false identities and survived the Second World War as Christians. The lies she had to tell and the secrets she was forced to keep sent her on a lifelong search for identity, until she is finally ready to tell her gripping true story.
Erika is only three when her divorced mother officially converts to Catholicism in hopes of protecting the family from the rising tide of antisemitism, but this is not enough to shield them from persecution, especially after the Germans occupy Hungary in the 1940s. Obtaining false identities and papers, they retreat to a small farming village where no one knows their true background, only to find themselves caught between the clashing German and Russian armies, both of which pose a constant threat to their lives and freedom.
Now refugees in a fierce war zone, Erika and her family endure a harrowing struggle for survival that will forever leave its mark on her and her loved ones. DON’T ASK MY NAME is a compelling memoir of a woman’s journey through one of the darkest chapters of the twentieth century.
The book is now avaiable at Amazon and your local book stores.
Events and Reviews
Book signing (CLICK HERE)
on June 24, 2021, 5PM
at Julie Keyes Gallery
Sag Harbor, New York
"A Hidden Child's Tale of Survival: Erika Hecht Reads from her gripping book: Don't Ask My Name"
The Amagansett Free Library
Amagansett, New York November 8, 2021, 2 PM
Suffolk Y JCC
"Books Introduce Us to Heroes"
74 Hauppauge Road, Commack, NY 11725 July 20, 2021 - Museum of Jewish Heritage Stories Survive: Erika Hecht Conversation with Ari Goldstein - VIDEO Read more about Erika's book on Goodreads Story Circle Network - Review Tonstant Weader Reviews The East Hampton Star - Book Review Sag Harbor Express -Interview The Sothampton Press - Arts & Living
Deborah Kalb - Q&A with Erika Hecht Book Review by Amos Lassen
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"You might ask how much it is possible for us to remember about our early lives and how Erika Hecht was able to do so and then write about them from the perspective of a young girl. Not only is she able to do this but she also draws us into her life as she shares it with us. It is obvious that her memories affect her being to this day and by writing this, she is able to face those memories head-on and give us a read that we will not forget easily. We are nearing the time when there will be no survivors left and this means that there will be no more first-hand accounts of the sufferings of the darkest period in world history. This is certainly not an easy book to read but it an important one that urges us to embrace who we are."
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Amos Lassen