part0024

Howard and I knew each other from Wierzbnik, and attended Cheder together. He was two years ahead of me in school. His house fronted the town square of Wierzbnik. Howard had a work permit for one of the labor camps in Starachowice. We were transported together to Auschwitz with the rest of the prisoners from the Starachowice camps. During the death march, Howard wound up on a train to Buchenwald, from which he was later liberated. Howard first went to England, before emigrating to Canada. Whenever a Wierzbniker arrived in Toronto, the entire community came out to greet that person. That is how Howard and I were reunited. Howard has participated in the March of the Living several times, and Education Without Borders, which takes students to Poland to learn firsthand about the Holocaust. We often reminisce about our town and those who were lost. Howard and his wife Elsa split their time between Toronto and Miami.

After we were separated on the death march, Kiva was sent to Bergen Belsen from where he was liberated. He later emigrated to Canada. In the late 1950s he married and had two daughters and a son. Although Kiva physically left the camps, the camps never left Kiva psychologically and emotionally, and he spent the rest of his life struggling to overcome his past. Kiva passed away in Toronto in 2013.

After the war, my aunt Sara went to the convent where the Poles had abandoned my cousin Nora. Sara learned that the convent had transferred Nora to a convent in France. The nuns at the convent refused to turn over her daughter, but my aunt would not be deterred. A Jewish organization called BRAICHA, which helped reclaim Jewish kids who hid during the war, helped Sara smuggle Nora from France to Germany, and with the help of relatives, they emigrated to Canada. Soon after arriving in Canada, Nora contracted polio, which left her debilitated. After several surgeries, she was able to walk with a limp. Nora married and had two daughters. She passed away in 2013.

My cousin Moishe was liberated from Mauthausen. After the war he returned to Poland and was soon married. Shortly afterward, he and his wife moved to Belgium, where his wife had family. They emigrated to Canada in 1951. He and his wife had two children. His wife passed away in 2016. Six weeks later, his eldest son passed away. He currently resides in Toronto.

After we separated in Italy, Zvi returned to Germany to search for his sister. He found her in a DP camp. She went to Palestine on an illegal ship, but she passed away in Cyprus. Zvi emigrated to Israel in 1948. While serving in the Army, he lost his right hand. After The War of Independence, the government assisted him in opening a perfume store in Natanya. He married and had one son, Yossi, who still resides in Israel. Zvi passed away in Israel in 2009.