Holocaust survivor to visit Laconia to share story with community, students

LACONIA — Kati Preston, a survivor of the Holocaust, author and prolific speaker, will give a presentation on her life and advocacy work at the Lakeport Opera House at 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 27.

Preston, born to a Hungarian mother and Jewish father, turns 86 years old on Sunday. She’s had many careers, but has spent the last 15 years traveling, speaking to students about her experiences and survival as a young girl in Hungary at the dawn of the National Socialist Movement’s rise to power.

Despite her own experiences — she narrowly escaped certain death with the aid of a Christian girl who helped her to hide under hay in the loft of a barn, and lost 27 Jewish members of her family including her beloved father — in surviving the Holocaust, Preston has a remarkably positive outlook on life and a deep faith in the humanity of the younger generations.

“When I found out how my father died, I was full of hatred, and it took me 50 years to stop hating,” she said. “I don’t hate anymore.”

Preston said she’s returned to Europe many times since the fall of the Iron Curtain, but she’ll never return to Hungary, where it was Hungarians — her fellow countrymen — dressed in green uniforms with black feathers in their caps who hunted her family, throwing them into ghettos and eventually to concentration camps.

“I never met a German Nazi,” she said. “Everything was done by local people, rounding us up.”

In Lakeport, she’ll discuss her work, emphasizing important takeaways, and answer questions from the audience. A special video presentation will accompany the event.

Attendance at the event is free, but tickets to reserve a seat are required. Tickets will be available at The Laconia Daily Sun and the Laconia Public Library starting on Monday, March 31. 

Preston spends much of her time speaking with students — her favorite age group are those in the seventh and eighth grades — about the conditions which existed in her childhood, and how the younger generation can ensure such calamities do not repeat in their own lifetimes.

Students from Laconia High School will also hear from Preston during her visit, on the Wednesday before her presentation at the Lakeport Opera House.

“Fight hatred and prejudice because it destroys everything — hatred and prejudice destroys everything,” Preston said. “I know it sounds very trite, but I do believe in love, in all its forms.”

Students often ask her worried questions, like if what happened to her could happen here, too. She always used to assure them it was impossible, she said, but now, she’s not so sure. 

“I don’t say that anymore — I can’t, I’m seeing the repeat of my childhood problems,” she said. “I see people marching with tiki torches.”

“The faces of hatred are the same every generation, it never changes. Hatred is hatred,” she said. “People who march hating people have the same ugly face — it distorts the human face.”

Preston said she’s noticed concerning traits in society today, which remind her of when she was a young girl.

“Prejudice and name-calling have been legitimized, and things come from the top down,” Preston said. 

“Now they’re not hunting the Jews, they’re hunting somebody else, but the hunting is still going on, and that’s wrong,” she said. “People should not be marginalized — they should have access to the same human rights, to stand trial.”

But she’s also encouraged, meeting with youth. She said the youngest generations appear to be focused on the world around them and are empathetic.

“I’m so optimistic, believe it or not,” she said. “This generation will save the world, and they have to because we’re giving them a bum rap, aren’t we?”

Since 2018, a Canadian film team has worked on producing a docudrama about Preston’s life story and her experiences in surviving the Holocaust. It’s called “Hidden”, and includes interviews with Preston and other historical experts. It was produced by Jody Glover and directed by Preston’s son, Daniel Matmor.

“They were going to make the film in Hungary," she said. “The Hungarians wouldn’t let him do it, because it’s not a pro-Hungarian film, it’s kind of critical of the cover-up that the Hungarians did.”

The film is set for release in September. 

“I hope what they take away is not to have prejudice and not to ‘other’ anybody,” Preston said.

Glover, a Canadian film producer, said she connected with Matmore in working on the one-hour, 15-minute film, and it was a rewarding experience.

In 2019, she met Preston for the first time, spending three or four days with her in New Hampshire, conducting interviews.

“She’s this kind of person that just really grows on you quickly,” Glover said. 

“She’s quite a stoic person, and what struck me was how she could describe those events that happened to her without over-the-top emotion,” Glover said. “Maybe she’s just processed it so much because she’s talked about it so much, I don’t know.”

They’d speak for long periods, stopping from time to time to dig deeper and understand the intricacies of what Preston was describing. Preston lived many seasons throughout her life, working as a journalist, a fashion designer and in theater at various times, which Glover said made her a unique subject.

“The other thing that she did after the Holocaust was she had a fashion business, and she was quite successful in London,” Glover said. “When I first met her, I was really curious about that, and she showed me her original designs.”

“She moved on from that tragedy in her life,” Glover said. “What I think is the most phenomenal is that she chose later — when you’re in your 80s and you decide you’re going to take on this kind of work — that seems like such a heavy weight to carry, and to speak in public in front of so many people, she’s fearless.”

Glover said telling Preston’s story is important because she focuses on children, her goal is to teach them about being resilient. Noting antisemitism is on the rise, Glover said Preston is a master at conveying her own experiences and acts as a “beacon of hope”.

“I’m not a victim, I’m a survivor — it’s a huge difference, because if you’re a victim, the enemy wins,” Preston said. “[Adolf] Hitler didn’t win. I’m a success story because I’m alive, my four sons are alive, and every time I gave birth to one of my sons, I was giving the finger to Hitler.”