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Judit Varga-Hoffmann was born in Hungary in 1927 and grew up in Nagykanizsa. Shortly after the German occupation of Hungary, she and her family were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp at the end of April 1944. There she saw her father János and her brother Sándor for the last time. Shortly after her arrival, the 17-year-old was selected for forced labour in an armaments factory. 

In January 1945, Judit arrived at Ravensbrück Women's Concentration Camp, where she unexpectedly found her mother Helén. About two weeks later, both were transferred to the Ravensbrück subcamp Retzow-Rechlin in Mecklenburg, where they had to perform hard labour for the Rechlin aviation testing centre. Judit's mother Helén died there. “One day”, Judit reported, "a fellow prisoner told me that my mother was asking me to come. I went to her bunk. There she lay, emaciated to the bone. I will never forget her words. ‘My child’, she said, 'I am going to die now. You will live to see the end of the war. When you return, gather what is left of our belongings.' Then she listed where I could find what. It is thanks to her that I found my father's diary." Judit published this diary in 2001.

After her liberation, the 18-year-old returned as the sole survivor of her family. Her return was marked by the loss of her loved ones and the repeated incomprehension she encountered when she cautiously began to talk about her experiences. It was a difficult new beginning to life after survival. Judit studied law and earned a doctorate. Later, she became a journalist.

Judit Varga-Hoffmann was one of the survivors who participated in the Ravensbrück Generations Forum organised by the Memorial Museum and the Dr. Hildegard Hansche Foundation since 2016. In September 2021, she was a guest in the international cultural education project ‘Sound in the Silence: Silence is no longer here because of us’. She was accompanied by her granddaughter, the Hungarian filmmaker Diana Gróo, with whom she had a particularly close relationship. In 2021, an interview with both of them was conducted at the Ravensbrück Memorial. 

Together with Judit and Diana, the “Sound” participants attended a memorial service at the site of the former Ravensbrück satellite camp Retzow-Rechlin, where the memorial site had been redesigned with the participation of local pupils. Diana wrote shortly before: "Attending the memorial service means a lot to my family. For my grandmother, it will be an opportunity to come to terms with a very painful chapter of her past."

Judit Varga-Hoffmann died on 23 October 2025 in Budapest. 

This week, the staff at the Ravensbrück Memorial Museum are mourning the loss of two women – Selma van de Perre and Judit Varga-Hoffmann – who became good friends to many colleagues and others who had the privilege of knowing them. They were two impressive, lively, very kind and intelligent women. Without them, the world is a poorer place.

Today, our sympathy goes out to the family of Judit Varga-Hoffmann, especially her granddaughter Diana.