Alfred Alexander Lakos

Alfred Alexander Lakos was born on March 11, 1937, to the late László Lakos and Rozsi Schönberg of Budapest, Hungary, and passed away at the age of 84 on Dec. 4, 2021, in Athens, Ga. As a child, he experienced the German occupation of his home country. He was hidden in an apartment by an American family friend, Dr. Maria Madi, for four months after learning his parents were taken by the Nazis. Alfred’s father escaped a labor camp and survived the war, but his mother, Rozsi, was killed at Auschwitz. Dr. Maria Madi’s diaries of the events in Hungary during the 1940s were discovered years later by her family. They are going to be the subject of a scholarly publication due out in 2022. Her diaries are available in the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. In November of 2021, Alfred was interviewed by an Israeli film crew for a documentary due out in 2022 featuring Hungarian witnesses and survivors to the Holocaust.

After Hungary was liberated, he was reunited with his father who later married Magda Orehoja. They raised Alfred and had a daughter, Erzsi. He eventually graduated from the Eötvös József Gimnázium (secondary school).  He remained in Budapest until the 1956 Hungarian Revolution when once again his country was invaded, this time by the Soviet Union. He fought briefly before departing for Italy where he joined other family members.  He graduated from college and later immigrated to Montreal, Canada on a work visa and lived with an aunt. His dream was always to one day make a life the United States, a country free from invading nations and religious persecution. He worked two jobs in the early 1960s when he fell in love with a young Swiss lady named Evelyne Meier in Montreal who happened to be spending a summer working away from her home in Berneck, Switzerland. They wed in Montreal in 1964 and finally made it to the USA, settling in North Carolina in 1968. Their journey together took them from North Carolina to Massachusetts and then to Georgia where they lived since 1980. One of Alfred’s proudest moments was when he became a naturalized United States citizen on December 12, 1975.  There were countless trips and cruises back to Europe and across the world that they shared with their children and grandchildren. Alfred was a successful salesman in textiles and later industrial engineering including working for Inpro Seal where he retired from in 2005 following a 20-year career with the company.

Nothing for Alfred was greater than his love for his family who survive him: his wife of 57 years, Evelyne, and their three sons, Michael and his former wife Lucinda, Christopher and his wife Leslie, Sean and his wife Rachel. There are five grandchildren, Marcus, Logan, London, Manhattan, and Eli. He is also survived by his younger sister Erzsi, in Budapest, Hungary, her husband Péter Szántó and their children David, Szandra, Szintia and Matyi as well as cousins Guido, Claudio, Elizabeth, Rosi-Yvon, Patrick, Claude-Michel, Marie-Therese and numerous other European relatives in Hungary, France and Italy.

A celebration of Alfred’s life will be held Friday, March 11, 2022, on what would have been his 85th birthday. First, there will be a graveside service at Noon at the Oconee Hill Cemetery in Athens, Ga.  The family will receive friends for two hours after the service from 1-3 pm at the Sexton’s House located at Oconee Hill Cemetery.

The Lakos family expresses its sincere appreciation for the family and friends who have reached out during this most difficult time to share their love and support. We thank all those who helped organize and were able to attend the private family service at Bernstein Funeral Home on Dec. 7.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Alfred’s name to the Wounded Warrior Project or the Memorial Miniature Golf and World War II Museum in Buda, Texas are welcome. These can be made to https://support.woundedwarriorproject.org or [email protected] on PayPal or @memorial_minigolf_museum on Venmo.