From the Holocaust to Hollywood. The story of Andrew Lazlo returns to Ennis

“When you have no money and weigh 90 pounds, you don't have the money to bear hatred or the energy, and if you bear hatred, you're not able to move on, and the other side wins,” said Andrew Lazlo Jr. in an interview with The Madisonian prior to his free presentation at the Madison Theater on April 21 at 6:30 p.m where he will tell the story of his father Andrew Lazlo, a holocaust survivor who came to the United States and went on to a career as one of the top cinematographers in Hollywood. 

Lazlo Jr. whose maternal grandfather was Dave Granger who established the Granger Ranch in Ennis, has presented his father’s story all over the world and now he gets to bring the tale home to Ennis where his grandfather spent the last part of his life. 

“Andrew Laszlo grew up in Papa, Hungary,” said Lazlo Jr. as he explained his father’s life story. “He was the only member of his family to survive the Holocaust. He was at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at the same time as Anne Frank.” 

“After the war, Andrew came to America penniless and became a famous cinematographer (Shogun, Rambo, First Blood). He was honored in the U.S. Capitol for 2004 Days of Remembrance alongside Elie Wiesel. When he retired from film making, he moved out to Montana where he taught film and television at Montana State University. He donated the archives from his movie career to MSU.”

“He landed in New York Harbor on January 17, 1947, penniless, while he had enough money to buy a loaf of bread. He didn't speak the English language, but he learned the art of motion picture photography when he was drafted into the US Army and assigned to the Signal Corps,” Lazlo Jr. continued. 

“He did the first interview with Fidel Castro for Ed Sullivan. He did one of Barbra Streisand's movies, the ‘Owl and the Pussycat.’ He got an Emmy nomination for ‘Shogun,’ and did a lot of movies with Walter Hill, probably the more famous of which was ‘The Warriors.’ He then did ‘Rambo First Blood’ and his last movie was ‘Newsies', which if you had children, was a popular movie. After he retired from the movie business, he came out to live in Ennis, where he taught film and TV at MSU.”

While the presentation touches on his father’s storied Hollywood career, Lazlo Jr. focuses the majority of the talk on his experience in the concentration camps and his immigration to America after. 

“He got to the Displaced Persons Camp in old Germany, and applied for immigration, and with that came citizenship,” he said. “Every country took some of the survivors, the US, Britain, Israel, Australia, and he wanted to come to the US, because it always was a country that fascinated him.”

“So when he arrived on January 17, 1947, he had citizenship. He was given citizenship, but he had to teach himself to speak English and support himself while he was looking for work. So, you know, it was not easy. There are a lot of people who, if they couldn't speak the language, would have been happy just making enough money to put food on the table.”

Lazlo did not stop at just putting food on the table. His storied career made a huge impact on the motion picture industry, but that is not the bulk of the story that his son tells about his father. 

“My talk is equally about his growing up in Hungary, the period of time where he survived through strong will, preparation and instinct, the concentration camps and his escape to America,” explained Lazlo Jr. “Then briefly touching on his famous career and  his later life, where he was very much of a member, honored member of the Holocaust community.” 

Lazlo used his success and the connections he made in Hollywood to work to make a difference in the world throughout his later life. 

“He lit candles with senators in the capitol rotunda. He was an honored guest with Elie Wiesel, the famous Holocaust survivor,’ explains Lazlo Jr. 

“This is not so much a Holocaust story,” he continued. “It's a story of strength, rebirth and dealing with the Holocaust and other things that very few people survive. So this is not an immigrant story. It's not a Holocaust story. It's a story of one person's strength and life to move on and start a new family and keep the name alive.”

Lazlo Jr., at 73 years old, has set about the quest of delivering this story at venues around the world to help keep the stories of holocaust survivors like his father alive. His intent is to share the lessons of his father’s remarkable life in a manner that will inspire a wide audience and help his legacy continue to make an impact in the World. 

“This, again, is not necessarily a Jewish story. It's not necessarily a Holocaust story, but it is a story of a Jew set in the Holocaust and and was able to move on without hatred. To go on to a wonderful life, as opposed to being killed or feeling that he was a victim, or getting on the soapbox to try to preach,” he concluded.