Susi Podgurski, 100, of Baltimore, MD, passed away on September 27, 2024. Susi was born in Berlin, Germany on January 25, 1924.
She had to flee the ever-pervasive conditions of the Holocaust via the Kindertransport to England in June 1939. She was forced to leave behind her mother, father and sister; all of whom she was never to see again. Her parents were murdered at Auschwitz.
Susi was taken in by a distant relative in England, attended boarding school in Bournemouth and thereafter Clark’s College in London. Living in London during the blitz, she served with the National Fire Service. After the war, Susi immigrated to the U.S. Her sister, with whom she hoped to be reunited with here in the US, died within the year in Germany as a result of illness incurred from being held in a concentration camp.
Despite all the trauma in her early life, Susi went on to become the senior assistant to the CEO of Sea & Air Shipping Inc., a leading international freight forwarding firm located in the Wall Street area.
She was married to Joseph Podgurski for close to 64 years (who predeceased her on February 14, 2013, at the age of 98) and is survived by her daughter, Barbara Martensson.
She tirelessly strove to educate others about the Holocaust. She spoke on numerous occasions at schools in Westchester, NY; made a lengthy video for Steven Spielberg’s Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation; was an active member of the Kindertransport Association and made documentary contributions to the U.S. Holocaust Museum, where she was also invited to speak.
Susi and Joseph moved from Westchester to Baltimore, MD, where she resided at Roland Park Place for close to 26 years. There, after giving an initial talk accompanied by the video she made for Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation on the 60th anniversary of Kristallnacht, she was asked every year by the residents of RPP to repeat her talk and show the video.
Susi had a profound hope for peace in the world. She lived her life with the utmost dignity. She gave of herself to others unstintingly.
