Peter Katz was born in Vienna, Austria on May 19, 1930. He had a normal loving upbringing with his parents Leo and Grete, until the outbreak of the Second World War.

His father went to France to try and find a way for his family to escape, sadly in the meantime he was captured by the Germans next to Auschwitz, where he was murdered in November 1942.

His mother, wanting to provide safety for her son, put him on a Kindertransport headed to Belgium. They said goodbye, never believing it would be for the last time. Sadly she was taken by the Germans to a work camp near occupied Lublin, where she died of illness in March 1943.

Young Peter was adopted by a Jewish family and together they survived the war. He worked hard his whole life to take care of them. Eventually, He took them to Israel and put them in an old age home and took care of them until they passed.

Peter found that he had an aunt and uncle living in Mexico, so he decided to go to them. There he started to work. Harriet, a Jew born in Guatemala to German and Polish Jewish refugees, came on holiday to Mexico, where they met. They wed, and moved to Mexico where he worked incredibly hard to provide for his beautiful family.

Peter is active in Holocaust education and is a pillar of the Mexican Jewish community. Together with Harriet this year they will celebrate their 69th wedding anniversary.

I went to visit Peter in Mexico City with our Survivor Torah.

A big thanks to Diario Judio Mexico for helping to coordinate.