30th Anniversary Guardians Commemorative Book - Book - Page 112
HONORING
SURVIVORS
My wife, Irene, was
a Holocaust survivor
who triumphed over
the evil that tried to
destroy her. In 1939, when she
was eight years old, the Germans
captured her city of Łódź, Poland.
Irene’s father and older sister Bella
fled to the Russian zone, planning to
send for Irene and her mother. But
they got separated, and the closely
guarded border kept Irene and her
mother from joining them.
They survived five years in the
Łódź ghetto before Irene and her
mother were put on a train to
Auschwitz in 1944 and soon selected
for elimination. Imagine a young
girl standing bare with a towel and
soap, waiting patiently in line to be
gassed and cremated. Miraculously
that day, the process was halted due
to a faulty mechanism. Saved from
the gas chamber, Irene, her mother
and 1,000 of the other women were
instead shipped to an aircraft factory
in Germany as slave laborers.
In April 1945, they were sent to the
Mauthausen death camp in Austria
110 l UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM LEGACY OF LIGHT GUARDIANS
and liberated by General Patton on
the last day of the war. Returning
to Łódź, they found no traces of
their family. Amazingly, Irene found
her sister Bella at the Zeilsheim DP
camp. Bella had married a survivor
of the Riga ghetto—my cousin Isaac
Mischkinsky. Now 15, Irene, her
mother, Bella, and Isaac came to the
United States. Despite all the horrors
Irene suffered at Auschwitz, she
became a lively, spirited person who
did many good deeds for others.
This gift to the United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum honors
my wife and her family—survivors
who enjoyed America’s freedoms.
The Museum must make sure people
never forget what happened and
never let it happen again. It’s so
important for young people to learn
about this history because what
happens to one minority group
could happen to others. We must
never let anyone be treated like
the Jews during World War II.”
