yearlong battle with cancer. Marika was born in Budapest, Hungary on January 28, 1934 to Kornél and
Lenke Schweitzer. As a child, she survived the Holocaust during WW II, but mourned her many family
members who were deported to Auschwitz and Dachau never to return. After the war, she and her
parents watched as the Soviets brutally crushed the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. At age 22,
determined to raise a family in a free society, Marika said goodbye to her parents and escaped to
Vienna until she could affect passage to the United States where her half sister lived in Bethlehem, PA.
She eventually moved to New York City and while working at Albert Einstein Medical School met her
future husband, Dr. Joshua (Frederic Coppola) Barnett, with whom she had two sons.
As her sons got older, she decided to pursue her interest in logic through computer programming, and
her 25 year career included positions at Honeywell, Digital and Oracle. She enjoyed her retirement by
Lake Boon in Stow with her second husband, the late István L. Vér. Marika was an award winning
playwright and also accomplished photographer, creating her own “Fifth Image” compositions, one of
which is on permanent display at the new World Trade Center in New York and another hanging in the
residence of the Hungarian ambassador to the United States.
Marika’s family was her ultimate pride and joy, and nothing made her happier than to see them around
the dining room table altogether, enjoying her Hungarian specialties while listening to her stories. She
is survived by her sons and their families: Alexander, Sharon, and Eden Barnett of Framingham, MA;
Erik, Claudia, Sam, and Julia Barnett of London, England.
Graveside service will be held on Sunday, April 11, promptly at 11 AM, Brookside Cemetery, 36
Gleasondale Road in Stow.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made in Marika’s memory to Facing History and
Ourselves, a group for whom Marika spent many years travelling to schools around New England and
telling 7thgrade students about how she survived the Holocaust.
Donate online at https://give.facinghistory.org/secure/give or by mail: PO Box 470749, Brookline, MA 02447.
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