Upstander Andy Reti shares Holocaust education in Ontario

“Are you an Upstander, or a Bystander?”

A classroom full of teenagers were intrigued by this question when it was put to them bluntly by guest speaker and Holocaust survivor Andy Reti. An Upstander, he explained, is a person who sees a wrong being committed and does something to help stop it. A Bystander is someone who is too frightened or lazy to do something to stop wrong doing.

Retired Taxi operator Reti wrapped up another successful week of Holocaust Education by speaking to a high school history class in Athens, Ontario on May 9th. Students, teachers and media present hung off of Reti’s every word as he described what it was like for his family to survive World War II as Jews living in Hungary.

Andy and his wife Judy made Smith Falls, Ontario their centre of operations for the first week of May, and every day they visited a new town and spoke at a different high school within the Ottawa Carleton school board. They wrapped up on Friday, May 9th, in Athens, Ontario, which is where Taxi News caught up to them.

Reti is energetic and enthusiastic, appearing many years younger than his actual age of 83. He was born in 1942 in Budapest, Hungary on the eve of Hitler’s European Holocaust.

Clearly, Reti is an Upstander. He has dedicated years to travelling and giving talks, to ensure that the horrors of the Holocaust are not forgotten.

“In 1945, my grandparents were murdered in Auschwitz within 10 minutes of their arrival. We were forced out of our apartment at gunpoint, and later, my father was murdered by Nazis in 1944,” Reti told the students.

“Holocaust education is one of the most essential tools in combatting hate,” explains Reti, who is part of the “Tour for Humanity” speakers’ program organized by the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre, one of Canada’s leading human rights and social advocacy organizations. Inspired by the legacy of Simon Wiesenthal, FSWC works to build a more inclusive and respectful Canada by sharing the lessons of the Holocaust, advocating for human rights and combatting both antisemitism and hate in all its forms.

Reti honours his mother, Ibi Grossman, and his father Zolti, for bringing him into the world even during the worst possible time. As detailed in a summary of Andy’s book “Stronger Together:”

“In the fall of 1941, as the situation for Jews worsens across Europe, Ibolya (Ibi) Grossman learns she is pregnant. She is scared and confused: a baby during wartime? But her husband, Zolti, assures her, ‘We need this baby, you will see.’

“When András (Andy) is born, Ibi realizes her husband was right. Andy gives her a reason to go on during the worst of times in the Budapest ghetto, and to persevere in their escape from Hungary after the war. In as much as Ibi’s story is a tribute to her son, Andy’s memoir, written through his own and his mother’s memories, as well as her words and silences, is a tribute to her legacy.”

Tragically, his father was shot and killed by soldiers while attempting to return to Ibi and Andy. Reti explains his father’s death as a sacrifice made in love.

In describing the very important ring he wears, which was smuggled out of the Budapest Ghetto by his mother, Reti quizzed the high school students: “If you were escaping with nothing but some food and water and a baby, where would you hide a gold ring to prevent soldiers from finding it?”

The mystified students laughed out loud when Reti exclaimed: “In the baby’s diaper! NOBODY wants to search a baby’s diaper for valuables!”

This was how Reti’s mother Ibi managed to keep her treasured ring, which he has renamed “The Ring of Love.”

“Love of Life, of Family, and of Freedom are the most important things,” he explained.

Reti’s childhood and the struggles his mother endured are chronicled in the book, “Stronger Together.”

Now a father and a grandfather, Reti told the students he believes his portrait of three generations of family is “my revenge on the Nazis!”