2023 30thAnniversaryCommemorativeBook SINGLEPAGES-small - Flipbook - Page 39
CONTINUING A
FAMILY LEGACY
Our parents, Leslie
and Susan Gonda,
were both Holocaust
survivors from Hungary.
Our mother was deported to
Auschwitz-Birkenau, and our father
was assigned to forced labor duty
at the Komárom labor camp. After
leaving the camp using false papers,
he managed to survive in Budapest,
where he met our mother the day she
returned. They would later marry,
immigrate to Venezuela, and then to
Los Angeles—where they built their
lives around their family.
They were passionate about their
shared desire ‘for a world where what
humans have in common is more
important than what drives them
apart’—a belief embodied in their
founding gift to the United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum over
30 years ago to establish the Gonda
Education Center, a meeting and
exhibition space in the Museum.
Leslie and Susan felt a huge sense
of relief that the Museum existed,
and especially that it was built in
Washington, DC, where it will exist
in perpetuity with all the historic
monuments of this country—serving
as a living memorial to the many souls
lost in vain during the Holocaust.
They were honored to be a part of the
Museum’s founding and to support its
work for decades.
Holocaust education was of paramount
importance to our parents. Through
the establishment of the Leslie
and Susan Gonda (Goldschmied)
Foundation Fellowship, we wish to
honor them and reinforce the Gonda
family’s continuing commitment
to support the Museum’s ongoing
educational outreach.
We feel that the best way to ensure the
permanence of a legacy gift’s benefits is
through education. Recent events have
underlined this need more than ever.
Despite all the irrefutable evidence,
drastic ignorance and denial still exist
in the world. Holocaust education is as
relevant and necessary now as it was
when the Museum opened and will
continue to be relevant for all time.
We’re certain that Leslie and Susan
would agree.”
— Lou and Kelly Gonda,
Lorena Gonda, and Lucy Gonda
SAFEGUARDING TRUTH FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS l 37