Holocaust survivor's message of embracing differences resonates with multigenerational audiences

LAKEPORT — Kati Preston, a prolific orator and writer who survived the Holocaust in Hungary decades ago, had a message for a local audience this weekend about hate.

“It took me 50 years to stop hating. I don’t hate anymore,” Preston said. “When your heart is full of hatred, there’s no room for anything else and I managed to fill my heart with love.”

Around 200 people packed the Lakeport Opera House Sunday afternoon to view Preston's presentation.

Her appearance in Lakeport came just days after her presentation before Laconia School District students who recently read her graphic novel. 

Preston, who now calls Barnstead home, grew up at the dawn of national socialism in a part of Hungary which today lies in Romania. She narrowly escaped certain death as a young girl, though numerous members of her family were murdered by the hardline nationalist regime which came to power in those years. Preston was one of just two kindergarten students out of 52 who outlived the war.

“My mother came to America with me — she died here in New Hampshire. She lived to the age of 87, but she was never fearless, you know. She was always scared,” Preston said Sunday. "Every time the bell rang, she wanted to know who came and why. She never got over the fear.”

She went on to western Europe and eventually to the United States, where she’s lived over 40 years, and led a successful and varied life. Now, she’s dedicated her time and efforts to teaching youngsters about her experiences in surviving the Holocaust and the lessons she’s learned along the way.

“When I first came to America, I didn’t know if my neighbors were Democrats or Republicans. It didn’t matter, they were my neighbors,” Preston said. “Now we have all of these groups and everybody hates each other — this is so stupid. We’re still the same people, we’re all Americans.”

Following a surprise video presentation, Preston, sitting in a chair on stage at the Opera House, fielded all manner of questions and comments from curious audience members, who were in some cases moved to tears by her testimony. 

The free but ticketed event, hosted by the Laconia Putnam fund in partnership with Laconia Public Library and The Sun, was full weeks before Sunday afternoon, and a long line of ticket holders gathered outside the Opera House around 1 p.m. Sunday Upon entering the event, an emotional and compelling video presentation captured the attention of the audience for over an hour.

Despite seeing at one point the worst humanity had to offer, Preston, in a testament to her resilience, is remarkably optimistic about the future of society. She puts a lot of stock in the youngest generation of students, who she dedicates her efforts to educating today. Noting they lack the same prejudices more prominent among earlier generations, several times she said the youth will go on to “save the world”.

“I love talking to this new generation. This generation who’s in school today are so much better than the generations before. I’ve been doing this now for 15 years, the kids before used to talk about fame and fortune and money and success, this generation talks about the environment,” she said. “They don’t care if somebody’s blue, green, yellow, gay, straight — they’re not prejudiced. They don’t want to live in their parent’s basement when they’re 55, they’re a different kind of child.”

But there’s still work to be done. Preston said the modern Hungarian government suppresses their involvement in the Holocaust, at some points “white washing” that period of time.

“It’s a myth that they didn’t collaborate,” she said. “They were collaborators, all of them.”

A member of the audience asked Preston about her views regarding the modern political environment, and she said she sees similarities, albeit to a much less intense degree. 

“I see a lot of it happening today and I hate to say it but there are so many parallels,” she said. “Let that be a warning to us, because if we don’t stop it, it can escalate. People didn’t believe that could happen, we didn’t believe any of this would happen — I still don’t believe what’s going on today in America, this is not my America. When I saw Nazis marching with tiki torches in Virginia, I couldn’t believe it, and the faces, the ugly faces of hatred were the same ugly faces who marched when I was a kid.” 

She’s also noticed heightened criticism and public threats to education, which she characterized as dangerous, and encouraged people to read anything they can and to learn whenever they have the opportunity. 

Preston emphasized the importance of reaching common understanding between neighbors. 

“The only thing that can save us is to get rid of prejudice and to love each other, because we are so similar, everybody is so similar, we all want the same things,” Preston said. “We want our children to have a future, we want them to have enough to eat, to have an education — we all want the same things — there’s very little difference.”