Holocaust survivor David ‘Dugo’ Leitner dies aged 93
Shoah educator inspired people to eat falafel every 18th January to mark 'Operation Dugo': his survival of a 1945 death march from Auschwitz
Holocaust survivor David ‘Dugo’ Leitner has passed away. He died on July 26th at the age of 93 years old.
Known by his nickname ‘Dugo’, on 18 January 1945, 14-year-old David Leitner was forced by the Nazis, alongside 60,000 other Jews, to leave Auschwitz-Birkenau and walk for three days through snow.
Underfed, exhausted and freezing, Leitner says it was dreaming of his mother’s cooking and in particular bilkalach (small bread rolls from his home in Hungary) that got him through the ordeal.
Surviving the death march, when many others did not, in 1949 Dugo moved to Israel and discovered falafel at the Mahane Yehuda food market in Jerusalem. The taste brought back memories of his childhood and every 18 January he enjoyed them in celebration of his journey, freedom and liberation.
CONDOLENCES: Holocaust survivor David “Dugo” Leitner was born in Nyíregyháza, Hungary in 1930. He was just 14 when the Nazis invaded his hometown and sent him and his family to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Dugo was assigned sewage duty and narrowly escaped the gas chamber numerous times,… pic.twitter.com/zdKRCr2uN9
— Humans of Judaism (@HumansOfJudaism) July 27, 2023
In January this year, the Embassy of Israel and London’s largest food redistribution charity donated 500 falafel meals to the homeless in Leitner’s honour.
‘Dugo Day’ has become a huge movement centred around social action and giving food to those going hungry.
David Leitner, the Holocaust survivor who started a widely-marked tradition of eating falafel to mark his 1945 march from the Auschwitz concentration camp, died Wednesday at the age of 94.
Known as “Dugo,” Leitner, who was born in Hungary, started the tradition shortly after his… pic.twitter.com/5h33IbMddm
— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) July 27, 2023
Karen Pollock CBE, Chief Executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust said: ‘David’s sad passing reminds us all of how precious Holocaust survivors and their first-hand testimony are. David’s story of survival and his celebration of life via the simple tradition of eating falafel was an inspiration to so many and incredibly heart-warming. At the Holocaust Educational Trust, we are committed to sharing the stories of survivors and their families, reaching every person from every background, so that testimonies like David’s are never forgotten.’
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