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Born in Budapest during World War II, Miller endured the forced separation of her family and the murder of multiple close relatives. She survived, and later dedicated her life to educating future generations about the Holocaust, as well as to the dangers of hatred and intolerance.
Miller told those gathered about the remarkable survival of her parents:
“Alfred and Violetta Nobel were a young couple deeply in love. Before my father was taken to a labor camp, my mother wanted to become pregnant. My father was against it. ‘You don’t bring a child into a world where sure death is waiting for them everywhere,’ he said. But my mother, so in love, replied, ‘Maybe one of us will stay alive, and they will have a memory of the other.’
“Under these conditions, I came into the world—a world where death awaited me at every corner.
“Budapest, 1944. A freezing December night. Mothers are marching with their babies in deadly silence, heading toward the railway station. The destination: Auschwitz.
“Then, something unprecedented happened. With a sudden movement, my mother tore off her yellow star and ran out of the line, holding me in her arms. She hid under a gate, thinking no one had seen her.
“But a young Hungarian Nazi chased after her, shouting and aiming his rifle at her chest. ‘How dare you take off the yellow star?’ he roared. ‘Now I’m going to kill your child and make you watch. Then you’ll go back to the line without your baby.’
“There was no point in begging for mercy. All my mother had was a thin golden wedding ring. She held it out to him, saying: ‘Look! Look! You kill people and take their jewelry, but this ring is different—it is not covered in blood. It shines because you didn’t murder anyone for it. Take it. There is a blessing on it. You gave life to a mother and her child. Take it!’
“Maybe, in that one moment, he found a spark of humanity within himself. He didn’t follow her. He let her run, and we were saved.
“My father’s story is no less remarkable.
“Taken to the hunger camp of Bergen-Belsen, he survived on one slice of bread per week. He had the willpower to divide it into seven pieces, eating one each day. At liberation, he weighed only 35 kilos—the weight of a child,” she said.
‘The truth will stand’
Miller had expressed a wish to address world leaders at the United Nations during her participation in the 2024 International March of the Living, where thousands of participants join commemorative marches through both Budapest in Hungary and Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland.
Revital Yakin-Krakovsky, deputy CEO of the International March of the Living, approached Danny Danon, Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, about Miller’s desire to speak at the world body.
Danon said on Monday that “memory does not sustain itself; it needs to be protected, fought for and sustained so that even those who threaten it will not succeed in making it disappear. These pictures, testimonies and documents are for posterity, so that when the voices of denial rise, the truth will stand as an unshakable beacon of justice.”
He emphasized: “I would like to thank Marianne Miller and her family for being here and for their contribution to the preservation of memory and the fight for justice. The Holocaust is not just a historical memory—it is a call to action for the protection of the people of Israel and the fight against antisemitism. We will never forget.”
