Holocaust survivor Janos Cegledy poses in the Officers' Club at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, May 10, 2024. (Jennessa Davey/Stars and Stripes)
YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — Nearly 200 students listened intently as somber notes mixed with dissonant chords — music inspired by the Holocaust and played by one of the few survivors living in East Asia.
Pianist and composer Janos Cegledy, born in Budapest, Hungary, spent about two hours with eighth-graders from Yokosuka Middle School on May 10. He played original songs and told them about his childhood, the consequences of the Holocaust and its implications today.
Now 87 years old, Cegledy spoke quietly and amiably, but his music and message were compelling.
“It’s always important to know where we came from, and which direction we are going in the future,” he told the students gathered at the Yokosuka Officers’ Club.
Cegledy is one of approximately 245,000 remaining survivors of the Holocaust, according to a January report from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
German Nazis killed approximately 6 million European Jews between 1941 and 1945.
Throughout the Holocaust, Cegledy was confined to the Budapest Ghetto, one of many areas where Nazis segregated Jews from the general population. His parents were sent to Lichtenworth and Mauthausen concentration camps in Austria.
Holocaust survivor Janos Cegledy tells his story to middle-school students in the Officers' Club at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, May 10, 2024. (Jennessa Davey/Stars and Stripes)
Holocaust survivor Janos Cegledy, a pianist and composer, performs for students in the Officers' Club at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, May 10, 2024. (Jennessa Davey/Stars and Stripes)
Around 190,000 people were imprisoned in Mauthausen; at least 90,000 were killed, according to the Mauthausen Memorial website. Lichtenworth, a much smaller camp of about 2,000 Jews, is lesser known in history.
Both his mother and father survived to see World War II’s end, and the family ultimately moved to New Zealand. Cegledy went on to teach piano at Toho College of Music in Japan, and later at Musashino Academia Musicae in Tokyo.
The event, organized by Yokosuka Middle School each year, typically involves a live-video discussion with a Holocaust survivor; the students this year heard the speaker in person and his musical performance for the first time, said Andrea Greer, who teaches English and language arts for the school.
“Any time you hear primary source testimony, it becomes more real,” she told Stars and Stripes prior to the event. “You’re hearing a real story, you have a face with it, you can hear emotion in the voice.”
Cegledy agreed and said one of his primary motivations to speak with students is to combat Holocaust deniers and fight against propaganda that still affects how some view the tragedy.
“It’s important to present a live view. I’m still very much alive, and I remember what happened to me,” he told Stars and Stripes after the event. “The Holocaust is not my story. It’s the story of my parents and others’ determination, and they cannot talk, unfortunately.”
During a brief question-and-answer segment, Cegledy fielded a question about the Israel-Hamas war.
“I have to say that I’m not representing Israel, and I don’t totally agree with everything Israel does,” he told students. “I try to look at it objectively. But what has happened between Israel and Hamas in Gaza is so unique in history — it has never happened before.”
He explained his take on the situation in depth and said a comparison between that conflict and the Holocaust is “completely, ludicrously unfair” but expressed concern for refugees and other victims of the war.
“It’s a very difficult situation, and my heart goes out with them. I sympathize with them,” he said. “Frankly, I don’t know what else can be done except for what is being done at present.”
His music and his message were well received by the students. Adriana Cazares, 14, of San Diego, said she was grateful for the firsthand testimony.
“The events that he went through in his lifetime, he views things through that lens, but he’s still able to see things openly the way that he was explaining the Gaza-Israel conflict wasn’t biased,” Cazares told Stars and Stripes after the event. “He said that he was trying to see it from a different lens, and I think that’s really interesting.”
For Lyla Short, 13, of Virginia Beach, Va., Cegledy’s presentation was nothing less than brave.
“I’m really grateful that we got to see him,” she said. “He was able to be so steady, and even though he struggled and was traumatized by his experience, he still came out to teach us.”
