In occassion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Italian club, alongisde the Italian Consulate in Miami, will host a lecture by Mr. Laszlo Selly. He is a Hungarian survivor of the Holocaust, living through the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, eventually escaping to the United States.

Laszlo Selly and his twin brother were born in Budapest, Hungary, on December 31, 1937, into a middle-class, secular Jewish family. At six years of age, he remembers his mother sewing a yellow star onto his outer garments.

Desperate to keep their twins safe, Laszlo’s parents made the difficult decision to send them into hiding. This plan led them into great danger and they returned to their parents.  Somehow, Laszlo’s father obtained a Raoul Wallenberg certificate of protection that allowed the family to move to a safe house.

After liberation by the Soviets, the family began rebuilding their life in Budapest.  The twins started school and underwent ten years of intense communist indoctrination. As Laszlo was completing his training as a professional photographer, the 1956 Hungarian Revolution began. During the chaos of the revolution, Laszlo and his brother escaped from Hungary and made their way to the United States.

In New York, Laszlo became a very successful food photographer working with advertising agencies, hotel chains, and package designers.  After he retired, Laszlo and his wife, Gail, moved to Florida to be near their family.