Elizabeth Sandy, 101

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Elizabeth Sandy died peacefully on June 16, 2024. She always had a tremendous zest for life and for her family. She lost her father, mother and brother in the Holocaust. She survived by escaping from a forced labor battalion march and finding shelter in the Swiss Consulate Annex, in Budapest, called the Glass House.

The murder of her immediate family and many close relatives made her value all the more those who survived and her new family, including her husband, Gabor (deceased), her son, Robert, her daughter, Carol, and their spouses, Elaine and Lenny, plus her grandchildren, Steven (deceased), Rachel, Matt (spouse Alison) and Alison, and her five great-grandchildren, Sol, Matilda, Jake, Benny and Mason. She died the day after Sol’s bar mitzvah, which she had dearly wanted to attend.

She had two treasured causes, Israel and Holocaust education. They sometimes overlapped. She gave talks about her experiences to student groups ranging from 5th graders to college students. In one talk to college students, she was asked what is different now than in the 1930s. She replied that the difference is Israel. In the 1930s, the Jews being persecuted had no place to go; now they have Israel. 

In that regard, anyone wishing to honor Elizabeth can donate to a charity that cares for seriously wounded Israeli soldiers, https://fidv.org/, or to the Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Education Center, in Rhode Island, https://bornsteinholocaustcenter.org/ (photos of Elizabeth are featured on their website), or the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum at https://donate.ushmm.org/6hRw6kqugUOvJLNKCIbD1g2. 

In 2019 the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum interviewed Elizabeth about her life and her experiences during the Holocaust. You can view this interview at: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn714922