The brothers eventually made it to America. "It was her," Meador said of the planned surprise. Michal Lotzkar, daughter of Polish Holocaust survivor Arieh Engelberg, who survived numerous labor camps before eventually finding refuge in Israel after the Holocaust, shares her family's story of survival, determination, and luck. "We couldn't go outside," Meador said. In January 1945, they were ordered to move to another camp — on foot. She remembers dinners of watery soup and a piece of bread. He was my father.". That's the day I went through the selection, through Dr. Mengele,” Reich said, “and I’m celebrating May 5, when I was liberated from Mauthausen.”. She remembers what they told her: "You're free.". The people on this list are or were survivors of Nazi Germany's attempt to exterminate the Jews in Europe before and during World War II.A state-enforced persecution of Jews in Nazi-controlled Europe lasted from the introduction of the Nuremberg Laws in 1935 to Hitler's defeat in 1945. Her family fled into the woods. His time in the Buchenwald concentration camp had taken its toll: his hair had grayed, his skin had a sallow look. The woman picked her up and sat her on a bed, where someone was under the covers. In 1935, Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party had been in power two years — controlling virtually every aspect of daily life. Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and its allies before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. Subscription terms | She called them Aunt Millie and Uncle Fred, Aunt Phyllis and Uncle Izzy. Founded over 25 years ago, the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County is the preeminent Holocaust resource on Long Island. Minutes after Meador stepped onto American soil, a man met her but he said nothing. It was so crowded that everyone had to turn over at the same time, she said. Today, Selfhelp’s senior centers serve approximately 8,000 seniors throughout the borough. Sunday's commemoration falls on the 74th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. A message was scrawled on the store window: "Don't shop here. “We were there, waiting to die,” he said. "They would have killed him," Gancz recalled. The loudspeakers in her Polish town warned that men should flee from the Nazis. It was a painful day for survivors around the world – including two women from Long Island who had just met. The couple still live together, at the assisted living center. Robbin first started working on the idea in 1982, and the dedication took place on June 7, 1987. “People who couldn't make it were shot. Mermelstein remembers being in a crowded boxcar and the last thing her father told her: "You are going to make it.". “We were a family of eight,” said Rosenthal, now 91. Anton died about two months ago. He had already been sent to Mauthausen, another camp. Learn more . Holocaust survivor Esther Basch was a guest speaker at Babylon High School, where her great-grandson, Jake Turet, 16, is a 10th-grade student. They divided them up one potato per person per day. Then three years later, Meador learned she could go to the United States. Find out how. Holocaust Survivors' Flag Unfurled After 64 Years A tale of hope and survival is celebrated on Long Island By Greg Cergol • Published April 29, 2011 • Updated on April 29, 2011 at 6:43 pm "I remember hearing the most terrible sounds — people being hurt, screaming, and things being broken like dishes," Meador recalled. Her sister, three years her senior, was moved into a home where she took care of a family's children. Developing News NYPD Investigating If … Ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Meador and seven others came together to share their memories of that dark time so long ago. He was later moved to Buchenwald, another concentration camp, which wasn't liberated until April 11, 1945. He ended up — like tens of thousands of other Jewish men on that night — in a concentration camp. About Us | Cookie Settings | Meador, 87, lives at an assisted living center in Commack. Jews." Her sister had fallen ill and was recovering in the camp infirmary. "They found her and wrote down her number.". Simon recalled standing on … There was no food. Long Islanders who survived the Holocaust commemorate the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camps. Holocaust survivors, the passengers from the Exodus, DPs from central Europe, and Jewish detainees from British detention camps on Cyprus are welcomed to the Jewish homeland. “To me, Auschwitz was like the French Riviera compared to Buchenwald,” said Rosenthal, recalling how prisoners wouldn’t be fed and would be worked literally to death, with bodies strewn “like garbage.”. She remembers what happened in bits, the way little ones do. And she did, having two daughters, three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, but her journey to North Bellmore was paved with unspeakable horror: a cascade of more restrictive laws against Jews in her native Hungary, then deportation to Auschwitz and elsewhere. Survivors Rabbi Fabian Schonfeld, Hannah Horon, Ethel Katz, Hannah Deutsch, Cynthia Zalisky, Steve Berger, and Hanne Liebmann realized the total extent of Nazi brutality, struggled to live within hometowns that were still antisemitic, and face a world that … Lastly, she remembers how the end of the war came to the camp. “‘Can't you see the smoke? Dozens of men and women who survived the Holocaust celebrated a special, pre-Passover Seder Wednesday on Long Island. Meador and 80 other children boarded a train to Amsterdam with German soldiers. She said she has no photos of her family left. Then, she saw Russian soldiers. Mermelstein, Rosenthal and Reich represent an aging number of Holocaust survivors on Long Island and across the world whose dwindling ranks take with them firsthand, eyewitness accounts of Nazi atrocities. She was hit, twice in the arm. Rosenthal managed to survive. Gita Shorr is now a survivor of the Holocaust and the COVID-19 pandemic, but the 90-year-old says she is blessed and has a lot more living to do. The inter-generational meeting took place as … "I couldn't carry him. The doorbell rang. Then, the man spoke in broken English. For Tina Kamin, it's the blaring loudspeakers that are seared into her memory. Once, they found a mound of potatoes. Those who died at Auschwitz include members of the family of Simon, the Holocaust survivor living in a Long Island high-rise apartment building. I celebrate two days: one of them is July 6. Of the 1.3 million, 1.1 million were murdered, and nearly 1 million were Jews. As a teenager who could work, Rosenthal was allowed to live when the rest of his family him was condemned at Auschwitz. She was given specific instructions on what to do when she arrived in New York: She should go with the person who called her by name. “I think the whole world should know these things,” she said. Where she could play. Long Island Holocaust survivors on Long Island share their touching memories Ruth Meador shared on Tuesday, Jan. 22 the story of how she survived the Holocaust. Betsy Touriel-Kapner’s maternal grandparents, Gisela and Friedrich Aschkenasi, lived in Vienna, Austria, where they were married in … These trips became a turning point for hundreds of educators in their understanding and commitment to Holocaust education. About Us | They never spoke of that time. "Each child carried a small suitcase, and they (the soldiers) would open them and dump out the contents. By 1939, Holland was no longer safe from the Nazis, and Meador was moved again — this time to England. Contact Newsday | "I was afraid it would fall off.". "She said, 'I'm going to the crematorium.' 1972 The vital work for Holocaust survivors expands through community-based programs in Washington Heights and Queens, and in later years Brooklyn, Nassau County, and the Bronx. In the process, another prisoner, a doctor, amputated some of his toes after they were so frozen that they began to rot. Robbin was a holocaust survivor from the Schindlerjuden and Oskar Schindler ’s physician and the chairman and founder of the Long Island Holocaust Memorial Commission. Can't you smell the burning flesh?’” she recalled being told. He would move to the United States, work in real estate, buy a house in Roslyn and become a synagogue president of Shelter Rock Jewish Center and establish a Holocaust studies center at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center. "I was crying.". She eventually found her sister with the help of the Red Cross. He was forced to carry cement bags , unload bricks and work at a synthetic rubber factory. Reich, whose family began to suffer the fallout of Hitler's rise early on with laws restricting Jewish employment and business ownership, worked in the resistance. No pre-registration needed - just click the link below and join live on May 12! "A youth group marched through the streets singing anti-Jewish songs," she said. "He said, 'Now I'm going to call my brother, your uncle,' " recalled Meador. "When it was cold, we were cold," she said. There, she lived with couples who took in Jewish children. "I held my nose all night," she said. For a few, the years have muddled their memories. "She was not Jewish, but she had a lot of guts," Meador recalled of Wijsmuller, who is mentioned in oral histories archived at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. Her father was waiting for her there, she was told. "We call that chutzpah.". Then, quietly, the girls and their parents squeezed into the bathroom. They had been walking for two days and nights, with little if anything to survive on, when Anton became too weak to walk on his own. Contact Newsday | “The whole world needs to know and care.”. By clicking Sign up, you agree to our privacy policy. They had virtually nothing to eat. What her parents told her. No one kept track of who was in Auschwitz, which Survivors that were in Auschwitz came to the U.S. or how many ended up in NYC or on L.I.,” Lom wrote in an email. The only water that we had was ice and snow from the road,” he said. Ruth de Beer was 7 in 1933 when the Nazis started replacing books with magazines that depicted Jews as thieves and worse. "We would knock on a door" and beg for food, she said. They walked together in silence to the subway. Father and daughter started a new life, just the two of them. In Amsterdam, Meador was placed in a shelter. ", "She was crying," Birnbaum added. Cookie Settings | Her parents sold the store and the family moved to Palestine, the area now known as Israel. Meador was all of 4. Even so young, she could feel the hate. They slept behind trees. Your ad choices | Rose Ashkenazy was born in Poland. On Jan. 27, 1945,  Soviet soldiers found about 7,000 survivors. Back in 2005, Brad Zarlin, then a Huntington resident, called Chaim Wolgroch, a Holocaust survivor who lived in Charleston, South Carolina. She remembers her caretakers as if they were her own relatives. 1975 The first of five senior centers is established in Queens. Betsy Touriel-Kapner, the daughter of Austrian Holocaust survivors, tells the stories of her parents escape from Austria to Bolivia. She remembers hiding in the woods near the Russian border with her parents and sister. Privacy Policy | Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City Hall. Advertise with Newsday | She learned of a Dutch social worker, Truus Wijsmuller, who was moving hundreds of Jewish children whose families wanted them to go into hiding. A short time later, Birnbaum went to visit her sister. Life outdoors, for them and other Polish Jews, went on for a couple of months. It marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp complex Auschwitz, to which at least 1.3 million people were sent between 1940 and 1945, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s encyclopedia. Then, the Germans discovered their hiding place. He had seen it. CEDARHURST, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) – More than 150 Holocaust survivors spent time with 10 Israeli soldiers on Long Island on Thursday. Her father looked nothing like how she remembered him. She missed her sister, she said. She and her husband, Louis, have two sons, David and Ron. 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