Ghettos & Camps

I looked out my tiny ghetto window and saw birds, and I said, ‘they are free to fly, and we are prisoners. Why?...Why?...Why?’  Nobody should go through what we went through.  Never again.  We should not forget.  We should remember.  It can happen anywhere, even in these United States.” - Nora Eilenberg

Nora (Rozencwajg) Eilenberg was born in Lodz, Poland on November 10, 1916. She grew up in a wealthy Jewish family with five siblings.  Her father was a contractor, specializing in supplying and installing metal products in buildings.

In June 1939, Nora became engaged to Sam Eilenberg.  By the time they married in December, World War II had begun.  Less than three months later, the Nazis established a ghetto in Lodz. Nora’s family was forced to close their business, surrender their belongings, and live in one room. In 1944, the Nazis deported Nora and Sam to Auschwitz, separating them for forced labor into the respective men's and women's sections of the camp.  Remarkably, Nora was able to remain together with her two sisters.  Over the next year, Nora and her sisters were imprisoned in other camps, including Stutthof. Throughout the hardships they endured, they gave each other the moral support essential for their survival.

A grueling 12 day forced march led them to Theresiendstadt, where Nora expected to be killed. Fortuitously, they arrived shortly after the war ended, and the defeated SS guards had already abandoned the camp.  For several days, Nora (suffering from a skin infection) and the other survivors stayed there with no food in overwhelmingly crowded conditions.  On May 5, 1945, they were liberated by the Russian army, although the soldiers themselves were starving and could not offer assistance. Soon, the Red Cross reached the camp, and Nora was brought to a hospital for treatment.  A few weeks later, she was reunited with her husband Sam in Theresiendstadt.

The couple lived for four years in the Landsberg Displaced Persons camp, where their first child was born.  In 1949, they immigrated to the United States.  Living in Ohio, Sam owned a candy business and they had another child.  In 1981, the couple retired and moved to Seattle. Nora, grandmother of six, died in October 1998.

1916-1998

Paula (Schaul) Stern was born to a Jewish family on August 22, 1922, in Arnstadt, Germany. Paula was the youngest of three children and dreamed of becoming a pediatric nurse. In 1940, as life became increasingly restricted and dangerous for Jews living in Germany, Paula found an opportunity to work on a Hachschara farm in Neuendorf, outside of Berlin. Hachschara farms trained Jewish youth in agriculture to prepare them for life outside of Germany. It was there that she met her future husband, Klaus Stern. Klaus and Paula, uncertain of their future, but committed to staying together, married in 1942.

Only eight months later, in April 1943, Klaus and Paula were deported to Auschwitz. Upon arrival, they were separated, and neither knew where the other went. Paula was selected for work and tattooed with the number 42008. Paula was assigned to the munitions factory in Auschwitz, known as Union Kommando. Her job was to measure each cone-shaped piece and compare it to a standard. In defiance, Paula occasionally discarded the good pieces to sabotage the Nazis' munitions. "I was lucky I was never caught."

In the freezing winter of January 1945, the Nazis marched all of the remaining prisoners in Auschwitz north and away from the advancing Allied troops. Thousands died in these "death marches." When Paula was finally liberated by Soviet troops, she was anxious to return home and to try to find Klaus. They had been separated with no communication for 28 months. She received a note from Klaus - miraculously he had given it to some soldiers who passed the note over 400 kilometers to Paula's hometown. He was suffering from typhus but recovering slowly. "Paula, I am alive. Please wait for me."

Klaus and Paula were the first survivor couple to arrive in Seattle in 1946. They had two children and helped to found the Holocaust Center in 1989. Klaus was a member of the Holocaust Center for Humanity's Speakers Bureau for many years. 

1922-2022

"I couldn't see anything and I didn't know when the car will tilt over to empty itself, so one of my hands was pressed when the car tilted - it was pressed against the ceiling and it cut me completely there, three fingers" - Sam Farkas

Sam was born in Teresva, Czech Republic on July 14, 1928. His father worked in the timber industry, and Sam and his five siblings lived a comfortable life. After his town was invaded by Nazi-collaborating Hungarians in 1939, even teachers would tell him and the other Jewish kids, “Hitler will get you.” His father, believing no one would harm them, refused many offers from non-Jewish friends to hide the family. In January 1944, Sam and his family were deported to the Mateszalka ghetto in Hungary, where they were routinely abused and overworked. One month later, the Nazis forcibly sent the family to Auschwitz.

At the end of the war, Sam returned home to find out that only his eldest brother had survived. He met his future wife Ruth in a tuberculosis ward in 1946. They married in 1949 and settled in Seattle in 1951, where Sam volunteered at many Jewish organizations and food banks. Sam passed away in 1995.

1928-1995

"We went into the shower, took everything off, throw it away, we showered, shaved heads. I was next to Joe and I couldn't recognize him" - Sidney Wald

Sidney Wald (Zelig/Ziegmund Waldieferant) was born to a Jewish family in Kielce, Poland in 1924. He had 7 siblings, and a large extended family.

Sidney's mother Hinda lost her hearing during an illlness and the traumatic birth of her last child.  Sidney's father Coleman died when Sidney was 11 years old in 1935, and his mother Hinda was left to raise the children on her own. Sidney said that the children communicated with their mother by yelling very loudly since she could hear a little bit. Sidney's siblings included: Salah, Mendl, Joe, Esther, Chava, Rivka, Moshe.

The Wald's home was only one room with no electricity or running water. There were about 25,000 Jews in their city of Kielce out of a population of 80,000. Sidney recalls that there were theaters and an opera house, and there was also a great deal of antisemitism.

Sidney attended Jewish schools, but had to leave school in 1935 when his father died so that he could learn a trade and help to support his family. He worked for a local Polish merchant along with four or five other employees learning the upholstery trade.

In 1939, the Nazis invaded Poland and began introducing and enforcing new laws that restriced what Jews were allowed to do along with their rights and protections. He recalls that he was hit by a German soldier for not tipping his hat. By 1940, the Jews of Kielce were forced into a ghetto, a small part of the city with limited access to the rest of the city. Since Sidney's family's house was in the area designated as the ghetto, they did not have to move. Sidney worked in a rock-shredding factory. It was hard work but at least he was given a little bit of food.

In 1942, the Nazis forced all of the Jews in the ghetto out. Sidney could only take what he could put on his back. The Walds gave their passports to the soldiers who would decide their fate in a "selection." Sid's mother, and his sisters Chava, Rivka, and Esther were sent to the left. The rest were directed to a line to the right. 

Sidney was taken to another factory where Joe and Salah were also sent. He remained there for 18 months. In 1944, the Nazis deported Sidney to Auschwitz. Joe and Salah were sent with him. They were forced into open railcars, in which they traveled for two days to Auschwitz. Three days after their arrival, he was transferred again to a different camp, Trzebinia where he worked as a slave laborer until December 1944 or January 1945.

As the Allies approached, the Nazis made desparate attempts to move the prisoners. Sidney, along with any surviving prisoners, were forced by the Nazis out of the camp on a "Death March" to Auschwitz, and then to Sachsenhausen, Ravensbruck, Klinkerwerks ammunition factory, and then back to Sachsenhausen where he was imprisoned. In April 1945, he forced on another march, but after 10 days, the group awoke from a night in the forest and the guards were gone.

Sidney stayed on a nearby farm for about a month. He did not have a home to return to. He claimed he was Danish and was taken to the British zone. Siblings Sidney and Joe were sent to Bergen-Belsen Displaced Persons Camp, a camp for survivors and refugees. There they were reunited with Salah. Sidney, Joe and Salah were the only three survivors from his family.

Sidney met his wife Fanny at the Bergen-Belsen DP Camp and married her on February 2, 1946. Sidney and Fanny had 3 children and immigrated to the United States in 1950, settling in Seattle, WA.

Sidney died in 2010.

Sidney's siblings included: Salah (sister, b. 1909, d. ?), Mendl (brother, b. 1912 – d. Auschwitz 1940s), Joe (brother, b. 1914, d. ?), Esther (sister, b. 1916 – d. Auschwitz 1940s), Chava (sister, b. 1918 – d. 1940s), Rivka (sister, b. 1921 – d. Auschwitz 1940s), Moshe (brother, b. 1926 – shot 1940s).

1924-2010

“For all the time I was in the camps, in Auschwitz and everything, I always had the feeling, ‘I’m going to survive. I’m going to get out of here.’ But by the middle of April [1945], I figured, no way I can survive and get out, especially after my little sister died...I said, out loud, ‘[There]’s no God. God won’t let us suffer like this.’ And, believe it or not, a miracle happened. That afternoon, the camp was liberated.” - Stella DeLeon

Stella was born to a large Sephardic family on the island of Rhodes in 1926. In July 1944, the Nazis deported 1,700 Jews from Rhodes to Auschwitz, including Stella, her seven siblings, and their parents. From their 2,000-year-old Jewish community, only 151 Jews survived, including Stella and her sister Flora. Tragically, their sister Janetta died of typhoid just three days before liberation. On April 15, 1945, Stella and Flora were liberated by British soldiers in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and then made their way to Rome.

In December 1945, a cousin in Los Angeles found the girls' names on a list of survivors and sponsored them to come to America in 1947. Stella lived in Los Angeles for two years before meeting her future husband, Ralph DeLeon while on a trip to Seattle. They were married within six weeks, and Seattle became her home. Stella was a member of the Ezra Bessaroth Sephardic synagogue and was a part of the Holocaust Center for Humanity's Speakers Bureau. Stella and Ralph had two children, whom they named Rochelle and Jack in memory of Stella's beloved siblings. Stella passed away in 2001.

1926-2001

"We had no dreams of liberation. We hoped merely to destroy the camp and to die from bullets rather than from gas. We would not make it easy for the Germans." – Thomas Blatt, From the Ashes of Sobibor, 1997

Thomas "Toivi" Blatt was born on April 15, 1927 in  Izbica, Poland, a small town near Lublin, Poland. After the Nazi occupation of his town in 1939, Blatt escaped from the ghetto in Izbica, but was caught and imprisoned at the age of 15. He managed to escape from the prison and return to Izbica.

On April 28, 1943, the Nazis deported Blatt and his family to the Sobibor death camp. There, his father, mother, and little brother were separated from him and murdered. One of the SS officers picked Blatt out and said, "You will be my shoeshine boy." This meant that Blatt joined the group of slave laborers in the camp.

In Sobibor, Blatt became a member of the camp's Jewish resistance group. He was designated to run messages during a planned revolt. On October 14, 1943, the prisoner revolt resulted in the killing of nearly all the Nazi staff and allowed over 300 (out of the 600 who attempted escape) fellow slave laborers to break free. Unfortunately, many of these escapees lost their lives on the minefields surrounding the camp. Of the 300 who escaped, only 54 survived to the end of the war.

Blatt and two young fellow prisoners were among those who successfully escaped. They found refuge with a farmer who agreed to hide them for the money. However, the three boys were eventually betrayed and mercilessly shot. Blatt, left for dead with a bullet in his jaw, managed to escape.

Blatt's story is told in his two books: Sobibor: The Forgotten Revolt and From the Ashes of Sobibor.

Blatt dedicated his life to accurately preserving the memory of the more than 250,000 Jews whom the Nazis murdered at the Sobibor death camp. He regularly returned to Europe to appear on talk shows, give lectures, and continue his research. He was depicted by an actor in the award-winning made-for-television movie called "Escape from Sobibor," and acted as chief adviser for the film.

Blatt traveled to Munich in 2011, in spite of his failing health, to testify in the trial of former Sobibor SS guard Ivan (John) Demjanjuk. His compelling courtroom testimony helped prosecutors in Munich win Demjanjuk's conviction on more than 28,000 counts of serving as an accessory to murder.

Thomas Blatt lived in Seattle for more than 20 years and was a member of the Holocaust Center for Humanity's Speakers Bureau. He later moved to Santa Barbara to live with his daughter. Blatt passed away in October 2015.

1927-2015

“Suddenly one of the onlookers threw a little piece of … pound cake, into the midst of the drifting people….  It was like a chicken fight at feeding time. The (death march victims) had forgotten any sense of human dignity…. All that remained was a living creature’s sense of survival.” - Tom Lenda

Tom Lenda (Lustig) was born in 1936 in Plzen, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic).  The Lustig family moved to Plzen shortly before Tom was born.  Tom’s father, Pavel (Paul) was educated in commerce and also attended a textile college in England.  He was fluent in several languages and was an established textile manufacturers’ representative.  Tom’s mother, Irene, worked as a certified nurse in a hospital until her marriage. The Lustig family were part of a close-knit extended family that was well-established within the Czech community; they considered themselves proud Czech citizens who were Jewish.

Three years after the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia on March 15, 1939, the family was ordered to take one suitcase each and report to Exhibition Hall in Prague where over 1,000 Jewish people had been rounded up by Nazi authorities.  From there they were taken by train to Terezin (Theresienstadt), a concentration camp 40 miles north of Prague.  The Lustig family was separated after their arrival at Terezin and, contrary to Nazi propaganda attempting to show that this was a desirable Jewish settlement, they endured severe overcrowding, rats, straw beds, poverty, and illness, as well as the deportations of so many to Auschwitz. The Nazis placed Tom into a heim (home) with other children.  He was ordered to take human ashes from the camp crematorium and dump them into the nearby Ohre River.  Irene started work as a nurse in the camp hospital, also her living quarters.  Paul was assigned to a transportleitung (transportation) group and was deported to Auschwitz in fall 1944.  Toward the end of the war, when the Soviet Army approached the camp, Paul escaped from Auschwitz with a small group and joined the Czechoslovakian army. 

After liberation, Paul returned to Terezin to retrieve his family on May 25, 1945.  They continued to live in the Czech Republic, and in the late 1950s, Tom joined the Czech army.  Tom married Rose Stribrna in 1966 and had a daughter, Hana.  They escaped the communist regime in Czechoslovakia in 1969, fleeing to Munich and then to Australia, where Tom and Rose had a second daughter, Helen.  The family settled in Seattle in 1975, and Tom worked as a civil engineer in the Pacific Northwest until his retirement. 

Tom’s book, Children on Death Row, Holocaust and Beyond speaks in greater detail about his time in Theresienstadt. https://www.amazon.com/Children-Death-Row-Holocaust-Beyond-ebook/dp/B006JGJHTO  

His daughter, Hana Kern helped Tom give his presentation and when he was unable to present it, she stepped up to become a member of the Holocaust Center for Humanity’s Speakers Bureau. 

1936-2021

"One day, they lined us up and we had to go past Mengele naked, with our shoes in our hand… He said to me, 'You won’t do. You’re too thin. Go that way,' which was left. I didn’t go all the way there…I spoke German very well, and I said, 'Oh, but I’m very strong, I can work.' A German guard was standing next to me. She leaned to him, and she said, 'Lass das kleine gehen [Let the little one go],' and he did. He did." - Vera Federman

Vera (Frank) Federman was born in Debrecen, Hungary in June 1924. The Nazis invaded Hungary in March 1944, and in June, on Vera’s 20^th birthday, Vera and her family were deported to Auschwitz and separated. Vera was in Auschwitz for six weeks before the Nazis sent her to a munitions factory in Allendorf, a subcamp of Buchenwald. Vera was liberated by the American forces on March 28, 1945, and upon returning to Debrecen, she discovered that only she and her beloved cousin Marika had survived. Their lives shattered, they found refuge in a DP Camp in Austria.

In May 1946, the Hillel Foundation for Jewish Campus Life offered scholarships for young, educated, English-speaking survivors to enroll in American colleges. She and Marika both qualified, and left Europe for the University of Washington in December 1947. Soon after moving to Seattle, Vera met Marvin Federman, a US Army veteran who had served in Europe. They married in 1949 and had two children (Murray and Judy) and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Vera shared her story as a member of the Holocaust Center for Humanity's Speakers Bureau. She passed away in 2017.

1924-2017

“Once in the Lodz ghetto I went out and I saw a sunset. The sun was very large and round and big, and at that moment I just knew that somehow I would see that sun again, and it will be that way, and I will survive and I will live.” - Zahava Sweet

Zahava Eksztajn was born in Lodz, Poland on May 7, 1930. She remembers antisemitism in the form of being bullied and stoned by other Polish children. In early 1940, a few months after the Nazis occupied Lodz, the Nazis relocated Zahava and her family into a ghetto that contained more than a third of the city’s population. There she worked in her father’s tailoring factory.  However, she soon fell ill with jaundice due to malnutrition and was placed in the ghetto hospital. Thanks to her Aunt Fella, she narrowly avoided being rounded up by Nazis when they emptied the ghetto hospital of unattended children.

In the spring of 1944, Zahava was separated from her family and deported to Ravensbrück. At this women’s concentration camp she was given a uniform, lice-infested jacket, wooden shoes, and sent to work in the nearby Wittenberg aviation factory. One German soldier regularly gave her bits of food and information while promising to keep her alive, but he later disappeared inexplicably. After Russian soldiers liberated Ravensbrück, she traveled back to Poland and reunited with her father and sister, but learned that her mother had perished.  Zahava and her sister lived in Israel for twelve years before immigrating to the United States in 1958.

Soon after arriving in the United States, Zahava met and married Richard Sweet. The couple and their two children lived in Seattle from 1989 until 1999 before moving to California. Zahava’s collected poems can be found in The Return of Sound. 

1930-