Samuel Menachem Rakowski Ron

Survivor of Nazi camps, soldier in the Haganah, land developer, Holocaust educator

Samuel Ron, who died Oct. 11 in Boca Raton at the age of 99, was one of the oldest survivors of Nazi concentration camps and also was wounded in the Negev fighting in the Haganah before the State of Israel was established.

However, it was Sam's feisty optimism and resilience that contributed to his surviving and thriving on three continents through his life. It also was key to the inspiration he provided particularly to young people he escorted on 10 Holocaust education trips to his native Poland and others he met as volunteer educator in the U.S. and on his many trips back to his Polish hometown.

Sam Rakowski Ron was born in Kazimierza-Wielka, Poland on July 28, 1924, the older son of Joseph Rakowski and Sophie Banach Rakowski. As a boy he was an exceptional student who helped in the family lumber business from an early age and was one of the few in his hometown to attend high school. His formal education ended with the Nazi invasion in 1939. In September 1942, just before the Nazis rounded up the local Jewish population for transport to the nearby death camp Belzec, he and his family and cousins went into hiding. When it became too dangerous in the countryside, they snuck into the Krakow ghetto. After the Nazis liquidated the ghetto in April 1943, Sam was interned at Nazi Concentration Camps Plaszow, Pionki and Sachsenhausen.

He survived a death march at the end of the war and reunited with his mother in Krakow. They soon learned that his father survived but his brother Yisrael died at Mauthausen. Sam joined the B'richa, a Jewish underground organization that helped many survivors flee to safety. Through the B'richa, he smuggled hundreds of Jewish orphans across European borders to ships that took them to what was then Palestine. He accompanied one of those ships full of orphans and settled on a kibbutz. These were among the exploits he later recounted to many young people on the Holocaust education program known as the March of the Living.

"To teens who heard him, he was a rock star," said Jack Rosenbaum, a close friend and former director of the March of the Living Southern Region. "Teens adored him, particularly, his sense of humor and simple humanity; even after dodging Hitler's killing machine and taking a bullet at the start of the Israeli War of Independence."

Rosenbaum called Sam a mentor who was among the strongest supporters and lovers of Judaism and Jewish people. "Even beyond that, he appreciated life and had respect for all persons, no matter their background."

In Israel, Shmuel Rakowski became Samuel Ron, changing his surname to the Hebrew word for joy in 1949 when he married Bilha Zehori. They had two children Tamar and David while living in Israel. In 1956, they came to the U.S. to visit Sam's parents in Canton, Ohio in 1956 and stayed. Sam joined his father's homebuilding business. Their second daughter Daphne was born in 1961 in Akron. They moved back to Israel in the mid-1970s before returning to the U.S. permanently where he succeeded as a land developer.

Sam's activities as a Holocaust educator earned him the Elie Wiesel Award from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

"We lived to tell the story,' Sam said to his concentration camp mate Jack Waksal, with whom he had a reunion at age 97 after Sam gave the keynote speech at a gala for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Boca. A short documentary "Jack and Sam" released earlier this year captures the story of that reunion and how the pair of survivors visited high schools in Florida to talk about the lessons of their Holocaust experiences.

Sam's life story has also been depicted in "A Jewish Journey," which he wrote with Caren Schnur Neile, another memoir "Wspomnienia" (reminiscence) translated into Polish and published in September, and "Jews in the Garden," by his cousin Judy Rakowsky, published in July.

"He was a sensitive wise man who I will keep in my heart and my memory," said Malgorzata Grabska, a Polish high school teacher who leads local Jewish remembrance efforts and who oversaw the translation of Sam's memoir into Polish. She and some of her students met Sam on a video call over the summer. "Meeting him was an extremely important experience in my life," said Grabska.

In September, Sam's hometown in Poland celebrated him with the promotion of his Polish memoir and ceremonies at his childhood school where he was honored as the town's "last Jew." He sent a video message in Polish saying he would forever be a beloved son of Kazimierza Wielka.

Sam recently celebrated 74 years of marriage with Bilha, the last 8 years of them spent at the Toby & Leon Cooperman Sinai Residence in Boca Raton. Sam is survived by Bilha along with his daughter Tamar Heller (married to Robert "Uri"), of Chicago, son David Ron (married to Susan Ron), of San Carlos, CA, daughter Daphne, of Chicago and grandchildren Elana and Erik Ron, Talya and Natalie Heller, and great grandchild Brooklyn Heller.

His funeral will take place Sunday, October 15th at 12:15PM at Beth Israel Memorial Chapel, 5808 W. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach, FL. Shiva will take place on Sunday from 5-7pm at Sinai Residences, in the Community Room.

The family has asked for donations in Sam's memory to go to the Jacobson Family Food Pantry at Jewish Family Services, www.ralesjfs.org or to the agency of your choice.