Holocaust Survivors Tell Their Stories

This International Holocaust Memorial Day, January 27, 2020, marks 75 years since those held prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp were liberated. The survivors of the Holocaust, who emerged from a nightmare and managed to put together the pieces of a new life, have grown to old age in the 21st century. Those with the most vivid memories, who were adults during World War II, are mostly gone, and those few who are left are in the last years of their lives. Many, as they leave this life, take one last chance to tell their stories — via their obituaries.

In addition to the notable Holocaust survivors who have died in the past year — Branko Lustig, Eva Kor, George Brady — many “regular folks” told their extraordinary stories in their recent obituaries. Read on to discover these stories and remember the remarkable lives of the people who lived them.

She Stayed So Her Sister Could Leave

The Daily Journal

Goldie Finkelstein recently died at 90, leaving behind generations of loved ones. Her harrowing story began with a sacrifice: When Goldie was 13, in March 1943, she and her older sister were grabbed off the street by the Nazis to be sent to a forced labor camp. Her father was able to bribe the authorities to release his daughters, but when they got to the gate to be freed, a senior Nazi SS officer said to her father, "Two sisters? Only one may go, you must choose!" With her father unable to choose, Goldie volunteered to stay and for her sister to go home.