Hungarian magician, Dr. Laszlo Rothbart, survives Nazi concentration camp
Hungary has a proud history of magic. Famously, Harry Houdini (Erich Weisz) and his younger brother Hardeen (Ferencz Dezso Weisz) were born there. When magician Charles H. Larson visited the country in 1938, he wrote, "Magic and Budapest compares with the best I have seen...Magicians here are [the] highest type professionals and business men. Magic should be proud of such dignity." One of these professionals was Dr. Laszlo Rothbart. B orn in Budapest in 1897, he was an educated man with good language skills. Rothbart's main occupation was a Doctor of Medicine. He led a successful career, and by his late thirties, was Chief of Hospital Staff, owning a three-story town-house hospital and x-ray laboratory in the capital city. Rothbart was a member of the Magyar Amateur Magusok Egyesulete (M.A.M.E.) (translates as Hungarian Amateur Magicians Association), the leading magic club for amateurs in Hungary between the world wars. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, he served on ...