My Family Roots

Bagrut Project
Kannot High School
Pamela Harazi
February 2, 2010
 My Family Tree
I was born in Montreal, Canada in 1971. My mother,
Gyorgyi Szedo, was born in Budapest, Hungary in
1947, as were my grandparents, Margit and Imre.
Both of my grandparents are Holocaust survivors, and
both lost family members in the Shoah.

My father, Zigu Schnabel, was born in Bucharest,

Romania in 1941, as were my grandparents, Betty
and Eugene.

My parents, Gyorgyi and Zigu, were married in

Montreal, Canada in 1967.
Family Pictures
 Making Aliyah (Or in my case, immigration)
My father’s family Moved to Canada in 1962 because they wanted
to start a new and better life.

My mother’s family made moved to Canada in 1956 because of the

Hungarian Revolution. Hungarians from all walks of life rose up to
fight the brutal Soviet-installed Hungarian communist government.
Thousands died fighting, others tortured and executed, while
200,000 were forced to flee.

When they escaped, my mother was 9 years old. They were forced
to crawl through the snow in the middle of the night for fear of
getting caught. By the time they reached the Austrian border, my
grandmother had developed pneumonia, and spend one month in a
refugee camp, recovering, before continuing their journey to Israel.
The Hungarian Revolution
 Life in Hungary
At the time that my family left Hungary, it was a communist country.
My grandparents owned a leather goods store, and were
successful. Because of the communist government, this was illegal,
and therefore, one of the reasons which influenced their decision to
leave the country.

There is no official religion in Hungary, but most people are Roman

Catholic. Hungary is one of the most prosperous countries in
Eastern Europe. Their language is unique because it is not related
to any other European language.

Today, everyday life in Hungary is much the same as anywhere else

in Europe.
 Hungarian Traditions
• Genuine traditional Hungarian
culture survived for a long
period in an untouched
countryside characterized by
rootedness. Peasant dress,
food, and entertainment,
including folk songs and folk
dances—the rituals of
weddings and Easter and
Christmas holidays—continued
until the mid-20th century. The
drastic modernization of the
second half of the 20th century
nearly destroyed these
customs. They were
preserved, however, as folk art
and tourist entertainment.
 Hungarian Food
• Hungarians are especially passionate
about their soups, desserts and
pastries and stuffed pancakes
(palacsinta), with fierce rivalries
between regional variations of the
same dish, (like the Hungarian hot fish
soup called Fisherman's Soup or
halászlé, cooked differently on the
banks of Hungary's two main rivers:
the Danube and the Tisza). Other
famous Hungarian dishes would be
Paprikás (paprika stew, meat
simmered in thick creamy paprika
gravy) served with nokedli (small
dumplings), Goulash, Gundel Pancake
(pancakes served flambéed in dark
chocolate sauce filled with ground
walnuts) and Dobos cake (layered
sponge cake, with chocolate
buttercream filling and topped with a
thin caramel slice).
 Visiting Hungary

Hungary is a beautiful country and I have been there

several times as a child and as an adult. It is a
popular tourist destination because it has a lot to
offer, from nature to history and culture, and from
beaches to shopping and cafes.

I still have cousins in Budapest and I keep in close

contact with them.

In conclusion, I am very connected to my family roots

and I intend to keep my children connected as well.
Photos of Hungary