30th Anniversary Guardians Commemorative Book - Book - Page 102
COUNTERING
COMPLICITY
I was born in Warsaw
shortly before the war
into a distinguished
Rabbinical Hasidic
family. My mother studied law in
Poland, where it was extremely rare
for Hasidic women to pursue higher
education. In 1940, we were forced
into the Warsaw ghetto, where we
lived together until I was smuggled
out in 1941 to escape a typhus
epidemic. A Gentile took me to my
father, who had been trapped in the
Piotrków ghetto. My mother later
followed, uniting our family until she
was sent to a slave labor ammunition
factory. I remained with my father in
the ghetto, where he suffered many
beatings, until he died in my arms.
Still a young child, I was sent to
Ravensbrück, then to Bergen-Belsen,
where I was liberated in April 1945.
I was reunited with my mother in
Sweden, after we had been separated
for four years, and we came to the
United States the following year.
100 l UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM LEGACY OF LIGHT GUARDIANS
After being a professor of
anthropology for 37 years, I
retired and began translating the
100 tapes my mother had recorded
in Yiddish of her experiences, which
became the basis of my book Lives
Lived and Lost. She considered
her memories the tombstones
honoring those who were murdered.
Through my legacy gift, I want
to ensure that the history and
lessons of the Holocaust are taught
to people who have no existing
connection to it. Just as each person’s
story is unique, each genocide
has its own history and must be
understood in its own context.”
