Dr. Anna Ornstein 

Anna Ornstein was a Hungarian Jewish girl, and therefore, a Nazi target.  During the spread of Hitler's influence, she was forced to leave her hometown in search of an education, her brothers were deported to labor camps and war fronts, and her father was arrested.  In 1944, at the age of seventeen, she and her family were shoved into cattle cars and deported to Auschwitz.  Anna recalls that fateful moment at the railway yard in Auschwitz as a dark summer day that was filled will foul air.  It was in the few short moments after arrival at this horrifying camp that she saw the last glimpse of her father. 

A few months after arrival in Auschwitz, Anna and her mother were sent to a camp in the Sudentenland in Czechoslovakia where they were forced to work as slaves in a munitions factory. 

One morning in May, 1945, Anna awoke to the sunrise.  How had she avoided the 4:30 a.m. wake up call and march to the factory?  She looked outside to see no guards, no sentries, an unattended gate, and a commando frantically mounting his horse while tearing the Nazi insignia from his arm and racing away into the woods.  Anna screamed for joy (Horizons 14 and Search for Meaning 30).  Germany was running from the Russians.  She was free at last. 

Anna and her mother made their way on foot to Czechoslovakia, hoping to get to Hungary.  In Hungary, Anna learned that her brother and father had been killed, but gave thanks that her mother had survived.  They moved into Anna's aunt's house in Budapest, filled with hope for the future.  In Budapest, she was joyfully reunited with her pre-war boyfriend, Paul, and they were married.

Anna and Paul studied medicine in Germany and both attained their medical degrees.  She studied in the very country that had refused to acknowledge her as a person among those who had waged a war against her race, but she persevered, and was even able to pick up her studies where she had left off before the war. 

Anna and Paul then moved to the United States, where they entered the medical profession in Boston.  They then moved to Cincinnati, each accepting offers from the University of Cincinnati to teach psychiatry.  After her retirement at the University of Cincinnati, Anna became a child psychiatrist at Harvard, where she continues to work to this day.

Anna is a mother of three.  She has lectured and written extensively on the Holocaust.  Her new book, entitled My Mother's Eyes, recalls her experiences during the Holocaust and is now available for purchase.

Anna's story is truly a remarkable one.  From her terrifying experiences in Auschwitz, to her joyful liberation in 1945, to her travel to America, to her faculty position at the University of Cincinnati, to her position at Harvard, Anna is most certainly a prime example of what it means to live life hopefully, courageously, and to the fullest. 

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Ornstein, Anna.  My Mother's Eyes.  Cincinnati: Emmis Books, 2004. 

"Anna Brunn Ornstein."  Horizons. pg. 13-15.  October 1993.

"Lusia, Steve, Anna and Paul."  Horizons.  pg. 15-17.  October 1993.