Peter Goldman

Peter Goldman unexpectedly passed away on January 5, 2025 in Aventura, Florida at the age of 84. Peter is survived by his wife of 59 years, Matilda Goldman, his son, Bernard Goldman, and his three grandchildren, Michael, Sabrina, and Jayda.

Peter was born on July 27,1940 in Budapest, Hungary to Eugene and Caroline. As a young child, both his parents, his grandparents, and seven aunts and uncles were all sent by the Nazis to the concentration camps. When the Nazi deportations were imminent, his parents hastily paid someone to take him in and hide him. But with his parents gone to the death camps, so too was the money and Peter spent two years bouncing between those who wanted to turn him in to the Nazis and those who tried to hide him. Virtually all of Peter’s family were murdered in the Holocaust, but miraculously both his parents who were sent to different death camps (and were actually marked for execution) survived and started a year long quest to find him.

Though Peter and his parents finally did reunite, the next several years proved extremely difficult. As the last surviving Jewish boy in his Hungarian school, Peter’s plight at the hands of the Nazis was not met with sympathy. Rather, he spent the next two years with almost daily beatings by groups of five or more boys. In one such incident, four boys pinned him down and carried him to the schoolroom door, where the fifth boy slammed the door on his hand, badly breaking it. Though physically a small boy, he tried to fight back as best he could - taking pride in an occasional punch that would land on one of his tormentors. Eventually, this fight in him seemed to earn the respect of the largest of his tormentors, who on one particular day instead of initiating announced to Peter “You’re a good Jew, but the rest of them should have burned in Hitler’s ovens.” From that day forward the beatings stopped.

In 1956, Hungary started an armed uprising against the Russians who had come to occupy it. This uprising, and the battles that ensued, were not only centered around Budapest - but around a University that was two doors down from his parents house. While Peter and his friends (i.e., those former tormentors) thought it was great fun to go out after a battle, pick up submachine guns from the bodies of dead soldiers, and shoot them off at the park, Peter’s parents had enough. They used what little assets they had remaining to escape Hungary. As did many Hungarians, Peter crossed the border into Austria evading spot lights and armed guard towers manned by angry soldiers.

Peter eventually ended up at a boarding school in Switzerland through the support of a refugee relief organization. His parents went to the United States, where Peter joined in 1960 after finishing boarding school. He spent the next four years obtaining a degree in Chemistry with honors from Hunter, with the intent on attending medical school. But when his father could not continue the family trade of a jeweler, Peter had to step in and abandon his aspirations of a medical career.

Peter met his future wife Matilda at a school dance, and they married in 1965. They ultimately moved to Queens, New York, where Peter continued his father’s trade as a skilled jeweler. He never lost his Hungarian accent nor his penchant for making colorful complaints in his native tongue. Together they had one child, Bernard - the name of Peter’s grandfather who did not survive the death camps.