a voice for the future

World renowned for his work in pediatrics, Dr. Robert Fisch is an artist as well as a noted author. As a young man he dreamed of being an artist or an architect, but when the war ended he enrolled in medical school.

Dr. Fisch survived not only the Holocaust, but also the dark days of Communism in Hungary. “When the Communists took over it was as bad as the Nazis.” After the Hungarian Revolution he knew it was time to leave. He left for Austria and with the help of HIAS, immigrated to the U.S. in 1958.

For Dr. Fisch the Holocaust is a horrible memory. “When the war ended I had a lot of hatred in me, and I thought I would be able to be cruel with the Germans. But when I met Germans who were hungry, I had two choices. I do either the same things they did to me, or I will be different. And I didn’t feel that to let them suffer would be the answer.”

“What is now most important is what we can learn from this event. To be respected you need to have respect.”