Frances Fabri

In 1944 at 14 years Frances Fabri watched her idyllic childhood in Bekes, Hungary, strangled. The invading Nazis with their laws stole all Sarika Ladanyi (Frances) knew. Her family was sent to Auschwitz. Her father, the doctor, disappeared. Her mother, a journalist, with the help of the Auschwitz underground saved her daughter’s life by having her switched from the “Children’s Barracks.” Surviving four camps, Frances and her mother saved each other’s lives and witnessed unbelievable horrors and sacrifices. They were saved by American soldiers while they were on a death march from their camp. Returning to their home in Bekes, Hungary, they found few who would listen. In 1956 they crossed snow covered mountains to reach freedom again, this time from the Soviet Union. In New York, in a search to understand and to be heard Frances studied at Hofstra University. In the 1970s she left for the California Bay Area.

Continuing her search to be heard she designed the protocol and trained college students for interviewing Holocaust survivors. Fifty interviews and the foundation of the Holocaust Center of Northern California are the results of her efforts. Still, she felt unheard. Her boxes of stories left after her death form her short story collection, "Crickets Would Sing." In 2006 Matthew McKay, Ph.D. established the Fabri Literary Prize to honor the memory of Frances Fabri.