Holocaust Survivor, Skokie Resident Receives Doctorate

Skokie resident Magda Brown in an inspiration. That's what her granddaughter Amy Rainey said about the former Holocaust survivor.

Brown, a longtime resident, is 87. She recently received an honorary doctorate from Aurora University on May 5.

Brown was born in Miskolc, Hungary in 1927. In July of 1944, however, German troops sent some 44,000 Hungarian Jews to Poland. About 75 percent were gassed immediately, according to the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center website.

Brown was ultimately sent to a camp in October of 1944 with about 14,000 other Jews. On her 17th birthday, she was separated from her family and sent to Auschwitz, Poland. She would eventually go on to work 12 hour days making rockets and bombs for the Nazis.

In 1945, Brown and several other workers managed to escape. In the end, Brown was only able to locate six of her cousins out of an extended family of 70, the website stated. 

However, in 1962, she was reunited with her brother in the United States.

"She's driven by an intense focus to tell her story to as many people as possible," Rainey said. "She's spoken at countless schools, universities, synagogues, churches and other venues, including Holocaust remembrance events hosted by [former] Mayor Richard Daley and Gov. Pat Quinn."

To read Brown's full story, click here.

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