PETER VAGI

1927 - 2025

VAGI, Peter Age 97, of Boca Raton, FL and previously of Weston, MA, passed away on Monday, February 10, 2025. He was born and raised in Budapest, Hungary, loving son of Sandor and Malvin (Scheer) Weisz. He attended school there with older brothers, Oskar and Tomas and half-sister, Alice, until 1944, when, like all Jewish children, he was expelled by the Nazis. The family survived the war largely thanks to Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who defied his government to save thousands of Hungarian Jews. After the war, Peter resumed his education and attended medical school for 3 and a half years, until the Communist takeover in 1949, when he again was expelled from school and forced to work as a laborer. It was not until 1953 that he again was able to resume his schooling, this time at the Technical University in Budapest. He studied civil engineering until the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, at which time he and his family fled Hungary for Montreal, Canada. Peter came to the U.S. in 1965 and held a number of positions in retail store design and mass merchandising. In 1973, he joined the Bradlees company. He worked there for 20 years, rising to V.P. of Store Design, Construction and Engineering for all their stores along the East Coast. In 1981, Peter married Dr. Arlene Frank, a research psychologist. They settled in Weston, MA, where they lived for the next 20 years. They had no children but were involved in many professional, cultural and Jewish philanthropic activities and traveled extensively through Europe. In 1990, Peter became a U.S. citizen. After retiring, he began to give talks on his wartime experience and being saved by Wallenberg, who disappeared into the Soviet Gulag at the end of the war. He was invited to be part of a special U.S. diplomatic mission that went to Sweden to try and uncover the truth about what happened to Wallenberg after the war. In 2010, Peter took part in an award-winning Holocaust documentary, The Rescuers. His own story and role in the film were honored by Congress with entry into the U.S. Congressional Record. In 2014, Peter was again honored by inclusion in a 70th Anniversary Hungarian liberation remembrance ceremony at Yad Vashem in Israel. When not working or taking part in other activities, Peter spent his time becoming something of an expert cook and wine connoisseur and indulging his life-long passion for opera and classical music. More than everything, Peter loved his family, especially his brothers who predeceased him. In addition to his wife, Arlene; he is survived by sister-in-law, Kitty Vagi; nieces, Anne Vagi and Juli Stranz; and grandnephews, Nicholas and Andy White and Alexander Lavallee. Graveside Service was at 11:00 AM, on Friday, February 14, at United Hebrew Brotherhood Cemetery, 2605 West 70th 1/2 Street, Richfield. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in Peter's name to Yad Vashem USA Foundation, P.O. Box 25125, New York, NY 10087 or online at www.yadvashemfoundation.org. Hodroff-Epstein 612-871-1234 www.hodroffepstein.com