Hedy Patricia Flesh, Holocaust survivor and businesswoman, 94

Hedy Patricia Flesh of Los Angeles passed away Sept. 18 at 94. She is survived by her children, George Flesh of West Newton, Mass., Nancy Brundige of Los Angeles and Arlene Flesh of Los Angeles; and her grandchildren David, Emily, Joseph, Jacob, Hanna, Sara, Simon and Benjamin. 

She brought her extended family together nearly every Shabbat.

Hedy was born into the Pasternak family of Tallya, a small town in the wine country of northeastern Hungary, where her father, Simon, owned and operated the town flourmill. The family was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1944, Hedy surviving her incarceration there as well as at Landsberg concentration camp in Germany. On several occasions, she risked her life to save other camp inmates, including her mother, Anna. Liberated by the 12th Armored Division of the U.S. Army in 1945, she was miraculously reunited with her entire immediate family back in Hungary.  

Hedy married Laszlo Flesh in 1946 and they immigrated to the United States the following year, eventually settling in Hawthorne, Calif.  Laszlo became a successful entrepreneur, and in 1956, the couple assisted the remaining Pasternak family members in leaving Hungary for the U.S. This included Hedy’s father and mother, as well as her sister Clara Pasternak Kraus, and brother Alfred Pasternak, both of Los Angeles.  

When her husband passed away in 1966, Hedy took over the running of his businesses, eventually moving her family to Brentwood, where she lived until her death. She married Rabbi Mika Weiss of Temple B’nai Hayim in Sherman Oaks in 1987 and was a supporter of many Jewish charitable organizations in the U.S. and Israel. Rabbi Weiss died in 2001.

Donations can be made in Hedy’s name to Shelters for Israel or to the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust.