A New Jersey Holocaust survivor has died due to the coronavirus.
Margit Feldman, 90, passed away from complications stemming from the virus on Tuesday — a day before the 75th anniversary commemorating her liberation from a Nazi concentration camp.
Feldman survived several concentration camps as a teenager, including Auschwitz and a death march to Bergen Belsen, and was remembered for dedicating her life to sharing her inspiring story.
“Margit’s legacy is best captured in her work to ensure that the world never forgets the horrors of the Holocaust,” Gov. Phil Murphy said during his daily coronavirus briefing Thursday.
“She would share her story of survival and liberation with tens of thousands of students across the state, and served as a founding member of both the New Jersey Holocaust Education Commission, and the Holocaust and Genocide Institute at Raritan Valley Community College,” he said.
Feldman was raised in a small Hungarian town when the Nazis sent her and her parents to Auschwitz, where her parents were murdered. Feldman, 15 at the time, lied about her age, saying she was 18, to make herself eligible for forced labor.
She was living in Sweden when she discovered an aunt and uncle in the United States and relocated to New Jersey in 1947.
Feldman became an active member of her synagogue and other organizations, including the Jewish Federation in Hunterdon, Warren and Sussex counties, Murphy said.
She worked as an x-ray technician and married Harvey Feldman in 1953, with whom they had a son, Joseph, and daughter, Tina.
Her husband Harvey is currently hospitalized at Morristown Medical Center with COVID-19, while her son Joseph is fighting the virus on the frontlines in East Orange as a doctor.
Feldman is survived by her husband, children and three grandchildren.
“Just as despair can come to one only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings,” Murphy said, quoting Elie Wiesel.
“Margit gave us so much hope over her 90-plus years,” Murphy said.