Dr. Zsuzanna Ozsváth July 2, 1931–Feb. 6, 2026

By Veronica Gonzalez

University of Texas at Dallas professor Dr. Zsuzsanna Ozsváth didn’t shy away from her past.

After surviving the Holocaust in her native Hungary, where more than 550,000 Jews were killed, Ozsváth spent her career ensuring the memories were never forgotten.

Ozsváth, emeritus professor of literature and history and the first holder of the Leah and Paul Lewis Chair of Holocaust Studies, died Feb. 6. She was 94.

Ozsváth founded the University’s Holocaust Studies Program, which was officially established in 1986. Thanks to a gift in 2006 from Edward M. Ackerman and his wife, Wilhelmina, it evolved into the Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies.

By the time Ozsváth retired from UT Dallas in 2020, she had left a lasting mark.

“After 37 years of teaching, research and writing, she had inspired generations of students and touched countless lives,” said Dr. Nils Roemer, dean of the Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology; director of the Ackerman Center; the Arts, Humanities, and Technology Distinguished University Chair; and the Stan and Barbara Rabin Distinguished Professor in Holocaust Studies.

Dr. David Patterson, professor of literature and history and the Hillel A. Feinberg Distinguished Chair of Holocaust Studies, met Ozsváth nearly 40 years ago. Ozsváth’s joyfulness, humor and beaming smile were rivaled only by her deep knowledge of Jewish history and her devotion to students, whom she would often host at her home, he said.

“She loved her students,” Patterson said. “You can’t teach people whom you don’t love. Loving is part of teaching. It’s part of Jewish values. She was a teacher her students not only learned from, but they wanted to emulate.”

Sarah Valente BA’11, MA’13, PhD’19 met Ozsváth as a freshman at UT Dallas and studied under her for 11 years.

Valente credited the professor with steering her away from premed studies and encouraging her to follow her passion for literature, and she became a professor instead. She is now director of the Sandra Kahn Wasserman Jewish Studies Center and oversees the Antisemitism Studies Lab at The City University of New York’s Baruch College.

In Memoriam: Dr. Zsuzsanna Ozsváth

Donations in Dr. Zsuzsanna Ozsváth’s memory may be made at giving.utdallas.edu/Ozsvath. “She became a wonderful friend and kind mentor and like a family member,” said Valente, who accepted an assistant professor position the same week Ozsváth passed away. “She deeply shaped my intellectual development while opening doors so I could pursue the education I dreamed of. She used to tell me, ‘I believe angels are real because I have met them.’ Zsuzsi was that angel in my life. When I last visited her in Albany a few months ago, she said she still had ‘enormous expectations’ for my future, and I am truly honored to carry her legacy forward through my research and teaching, sharing with my students the wisdom and inspiration she so generously gave me.”

Mary Catherine Mueller BA’09, MA’12, PhD’18, teaching associate professor of English at Southern Methodist University, said Ozsváth was not only a mentor to her, but also a dear friend throughout her studies and the years to follow.

“I was always learning from Dr. Ozsváth — whether in the classroom or outside of it,” Mueller said. “Every time a student would walk into her office hours, or classroom, or into her home (as she would often host students for dinner or for ‘the most incredible coffee in the world,’ as she would affectionately say), they could sense her welcoming hospitality and graciousness.

“I am thankful that God had mine and Zsuzsi’s paths cross many years ago, where I was blessed to have met, learned from, researched under, and shared many conversations and laughs with the brilliant professor, encouraging mentor and dear friend. Like a bright, welcoming star illuminating darkness, Dr. Ozsváth was — and will always be — a fixed mark at UT Dallas and in the field of Holocaust studies, where those blessed to have known her and to have learned from her will always see and think of her when reflecting on our time at UT Dallas and beyond.”

Ozsváth was 12 years old in March 1944 when the Nazis invaded her homeland, forcing Jews into Budapest ghettos. Around Hungary, Jews were deported by train to be killed in concentration camps and forced on death marches. Her family escaped with their nanny’s help.

Ozsváth wrote about her experiences in her memoir “When the Danube Ran Red,” for which Patterson wrote the foreword, and then in “My Journey Home: Life After the Holocaust,” about life in communist-ruled Hungary after World War II with her husband, Dr. Istvan Ozsváth, whom she met when she was 18. The couple immigrated in 1957 to Germany, where she was a professional pianist. They settled in Texas in the early 1960s when her husband joined the Graduate Research Center of the Southwest, the precursor to UT Dallas. A professor emeritus of mathematical sciences, Istvan died in 2013.

Known as Zsuzsi, Ozsváth was an accomplished scholar, poet and author fluent in German, Hungarian and English. She earned her PhD in German literature from UT Austin in 1968. When she joined UT Dallas in 1983, she initially taught 19th- and 20th-century literature and history classes before focusing on the Holocaust.

Ozsváth’s love of literature and poetry began as a child. She meticulously translated the works of several poets, preserving the cadence and rhythm of their original language. Often collaborating with the late UT Dallas professor emeritus of literature and creative writing Dr. Frederick Turner, she published numerous books, including “The Golden Goblet: Selected Poems of Goethe” and “Light within the Shade: Eight Hundred Years of Hungarian Poetry.”

“She was trying to retrieve some of the beauty from the ashes of the Third Reich,” Patterson said. “It was part of her identity, both as a literary scholar and a Holocaust survivor.”

Ozsváth received numerous accolades, including in 1995 when she shared the Milán Füst Prize of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences with Turner for “Foamy Sky: The Major Poems of Miklós Radnóti.”

“We are all better for having known Zsuzsi,” Roemer said. “She will always have a special place in the University community and beyond, and we are grateful for her life and legacy.”

Ozsváth is survived by her two children, Kathleen Ozsváth and Peter Ozsváth, and five grandchildren.

Veronica Gonzalez is communications manager in UT Dallas’ Office of Media Relations. Reprinted with permission from news.utdallas.edu.