Andy Réti was born on July 16, 1942, in Budapest, Hungary. He is a child survivor of the Holocaust. His father was conscripted into the Hungarian army's labour battalion (Munkaszolgálat) and murdered In Agfalva.

In October 1944, the Hungarian Nazi Party, the Arrow Cross, forcibly marched Jewish families to an open-air racetrack, where they were held for several days in brutal conditions. At one point, mothers were separated from their children. Andy’s grandmother picked him up, and through the intervention of a policeman, they were directed to a group that was ultimately saved by Raoul Wallenberg.

On January 18, 1945, they were liberated by the Soviet Red Army. After liberation, the Communist regime came into power in Hungary. During the 1956 revolution Andy and his mother fled led Hungary and came to Canada as refugees.

They settled in Toronto and built new lives. Andy grew up in Toronto, where, after finishing school he worked as a swimming instructor, cab driver, author, and museum guide. Since 2006 Andy has been a permanent speaker at Toronto’s Holocaust Museum.