The Daughter of Auschwitz. My Story of Resilience, Survival and Hope

Tova’s Acknowledgments

I am truly indebted to all my family and friends who have been a part of my life and who have, therefore, contributed directly or indirectly to this book.

First, I would like to thank my mother, Reizel, who, at the worst of times, instilled in me self-reliance, inner strength and the will to survive. She imbued me with love, trust and respect for others, enabling me to marry and create my own family.

To my father, who taught me to never be a bystander and to confront evil by any means. He showed me how to find the joy in life through his singing and acting and how to celebrate every Jewish occasion with beauty and love. And to his wife Sonia, who was a wonderful partner and a terrific grandmother to my children.

To Maier, my late husband of sixty years, who was the first person to captivate me when I came from Europe, and who continued teaching me love, trust, loyalty to family and Israel throughout his life. He was a wonderful father, never missed a Shoah presentation and was both my greatest advocate and my greatest critic. Together, we built a life filled with Judaism, family and love. I will miss you forever.

To Maier’s family in Israel and in the US, who took me in as one of their own and became my family with whom we celebrated the joys and sorrows of life. Thank you to the Ben Chorins, the Masseys and the Schneidermans. You gave me the family I never had.

To my four amazing children and my eight wonderful grandchildren.

To my eldest daughter, Risa (Ruth), and to her beautiful girls, Sarah Esther and Dvora Chana Leiba, thank you for continuing the beautiful traditional Hasidic Jewish life for which my grandparents were murdered. Your life is a testament of human strength and resilience over those who tried to destroy us.

To my son Gadi, who was my first child to return to Auschwitz with me and acted as my emotional support. And to his wife, Sarah, who accompanied me to Auschwitz on the seventy-fifth commemoration of the Liberation, as we walked together through Birkenau and the crematorium. As I watch the growth and development of your two children, Avigail and Gil, I feel a great joy and pride, as I see them becoming responsible, kind and loving adults. I know they will not be bystanders, as they already have participated in various social causes. And to Ira and Lucille, thank you for always being there for me.

To my daughter Itaya, who not only kept me sane during the first few months following Maier’s death, but also accompanied me to several child-survivor conferences over the years. Itaya traveled with me to Poland to trace my family’s history with WGVU-TV and participated in several educational documentaries for colleges and high schools. Thank you for all the support with telling my story, and for helping me confront my past. Thank you also for raising and engaging your four amazing children, Eitan, Ari, Aron and Noah, who are all sensitive, intelligent, loving and passionate for Israel. Extra thanks to Aron, for bringing my story to millions of TikTok viewers and for educating many young people who would otherwise not have heard about the Shoah.

To my youngest son, Shani, who has been instrumental in helping me write my memoir, and without whose dedication, patience and love, this book would not have been written. And to his wife, Joanna, who has kept us both going with her support, suggestions and encouragement.

To my aunts, Ita, Elka and Helen. As my father’s only siblings who survived the war, you will always be part of my soul, as will be my three cousins, Pearl, Ben, Marty, and their children and grandchildren.

To Frieda, who helped clarify some ghetto details and who hosted me and our small group of Tomaszów child survivors on January 27 for many years to reminisce and celebrate our liberation from Auschwitz. And to her aunt Sophie, who elucidated some details about my family as I was too young to remember.

To Estelle, my first close friend and confidante in America. Our conversations have spanned seven decades and hopefully many more.

To my Hebrew-school classmates in my first few weeks in America, Simcha and Risa. Thank you for welcoming me and for seventy years of friendship.

To Rebecca, Toby and Florence — my greenhorn friends. Together, we negotiated our new American culture as teenagers and I have appreciated your friendship ever since. Rebecca, I miss you terribly.

To Bonnie, with whom I shared several years at the Girls’ Club. Thank you for sharing holidays with my family.

To my very special friends Ruth and Yaakov. You have embodied Ben-Gurion’s dream to “make the desert bloom” in Mitzpe Ramon, Israel. You have been by my side through all our ups and downs and I cannot imagine my life without your love, support and encouragement.

To my friends Irris, Dalia, Ruth, Netta and Gabi. Thank you for enriching my Israeli experience and for the many years of friendship.

To Julie, Vera, David, Joy and your partners in New Jersey. Thank you for sharing my joy in Israeli folk dancing and your continuous friendship through the years.

To Pat and Dan, and Ruth and Eugene. When new friends feel like old friends, it’s a gift.

To my local Jewish community and the Conservative Temple. Thank you for making me feel at home for so many years.

To Jewish Family Service, I am grateful to everyone with whom I have worked and for the opportunity to have served both as a director and as a therapist. Special thank-you to Steve, Linda, Ruth, Nancy and Susan, who enabled me to be an effective director, and to my special friend and colleague Beatrix, who has taught me so much. To Jerry, the director, and to Joan and Jean Marie, thank you for making it possible for me to continue being productive.

To Sir Ben Kingsley, thank you for writing such a heartwarming forward to my biography and for spending time with me. Your portrayal of Holocaust characters is unforgettable and we, the survivors, are grateful and indebted to you.

To Dr. Lillian Kaplan, my psychiatrist, who was the first person with whom I felt safe enough to cry. You will never realize the great impact you had on my life. You died too early and I miss you greatly.

To Dr. Michael Nissenblatt, my oncologist and healer, who promised me a long life and kept his promise.

To Michael Walenta, the general manager of WGVU-TV Public Media, Ken Kolbe, assistant manager, and Phil Lane, product manager, for our amazing experience filming in Poland that enabled me to find and share with my daughter the haunts of my past, including my bunk in Auschwitz and the basement apartment where I lived with my mother after the war. Your sensitivity allowed me to relive those experiences without any trauma.

To Milton Nieuwsma — it was your guidance and support that sparked in me the will to write my memoir. The first book we wrote together started my journey.

To my tattooist in Birkenau, your kind words to a frightened six-year-old resonate even today: “I’ll give you a very neat number. If you ever survive, you can buy a blouse with a long sleeve and nobody will know what happened to you”. It has been seventy-eight years since you were murdered, but I still remember you.

I am indebted to the late Dr. Michael G. Kesler for the extensive research in his book The Remnant on the Displaced Persons camp in Landsberg am Lech, where we both resided.

To all the synagogues, churches, schools, organizations and especially the Institute of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Raritan Valley Community College. Thank you for inviting me to share my story of the Shoah. The audience letters I received showed that my story resonated.

Malcolm and I are indebted to the publishers on both sides of the Atlantic for placing their trust in us and for helping us bring this book to fruition. It has been a joy to work with both Katy Follain of Quercus Books in London and Peter Joseph of Hanover Square Press in New York. Their passion for the book has been inspirational.

We could not have done this without the negotiating skills of our agent, Adam Gauntlett, at Peters Fraser and Dunlop, and his colleagues in the international department, Becky Wearmouth, Lucy Barry and Antonia Kasoulidou.

To Malcolm, whose vision inspired this book. I would never have accomplished this without your determination to see it to completion.