Holocaust Survivor, Hidden Child, Artist, Educator, and March of the Living Witness

Gabriella Karin was born Gabriella Foldes on November 17, 1930, in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, to Arpad and Sari Foldes. Her family owned a delicatessen near the local police station, a location that later became part of the family’s wartime story as her mother, Sari, worked with the Slovak underground and helped warn Jewish families targeted for deportation.

As persecution against Jews in Slovakia increased, Gabriella’s childhood was disrupted. In 1941, after she could no longer attend school as a Jewish child, her parents obtained false papers for her and sent her to the Ursuline convent school in Bratislava, where she lived under an assumed Christian identity. She was separated from her parents during the school year and later remembered the fear and loneliness of that period.

In March 1942, mass deportations of Jews from Slovakia began. Sari Foldes, working with the underground, received information about families scheduled for deportation and went out to warn them. Gabriella sometimes accompanied her mother on these dangerous visits, witnessing the fear of families who knew they might soon be taken away.

By August 1944, Gabriella and her family were forced into hiding. She was fourteen years old. Together with seven others, she hid in a small apartment in Bratislava belonging to Karol Blanar, a young lawyer who risked his life to protect them. The apartment was located across the street from the Nazi-Slovak Gestapo, making the hiding place both terrifying and strangely protected, because the building’s rules officially barred Jews from living there and the authorities did not search it.

For nine months, Gabriella lived in hiding, unable to move freely or speak openly. She spent long hours reading, while outside the window she could sometimes see people being arrested and taken away. In the final weeks of the war, heavy bombing forced the group into a shelter before Soviet troops entered Bratislava in April 1945.

Passing the Torch

Gabriella Karin has dedicated much of her later life to Holocaust education. She has spoken at Holocaust Museum Los Angeles, the Museum of Tolerance, schools, universities, and community programs, using both her testimony and her art to help students understand the human reality of the Holocaust. Holocaust Museum LA describes her as an acclaimed sculptor whose work depicts the horrors of the Holocaust while also inspiring hope for a more peaceful future.

She has also been connected with March of the Living, travelling with students to Poland and Israel and sharing her experiences as a survivor and educator. Gabriella’s own website notes her participation with March of the Living, where survivors become guides, storytellers, and living witnesses for young people confronting Holocaust history.

Through MOLDAP and the USC Shoah Foundation partnership, Gabriella Karin’s testimony has been preserved in 360° on-location video and in a Virtual IWALK module. These digital resources allow students and educators to encounter her testimony in connection with sites in Bratislava and other places tied to her wartime experience.

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