Ben Midler Legacy Fund

I was born on June 27, 1928, in Bialystok, a city in the eastern part of Poland. Before World War II, Bialystok had a big Jewish community: Hebrew Schools, Hebrew Gymnasium, many Jewish organizations and Yiddish was spoken in the streets. The city was thriving with many textile, leather, and tailor factories.

In September 1939, the German forces invaded Poland. On the 22nd of June, the German Army marched into Bialystok and forcefully invaded homes to kill the Jews. The Germans gathered approximately 1,500 Jews into the main Synagogue and set it on fire. They did not allow the fire department to exterminate the fire. In August 1941, the Germans ordered the Jews to move out of their homes and into a small part of the city, the ghetto, taking only their possessions they could physically carry. I lived in the ghetto for 2 years.

On August 16, 1943, the Germans were given orders to liquidate the Ghetto. We all went into hiding in a space below ground that we built during the pogroms. My uncle, his son (my cousin) and myself came out, into the yard of the house to see what was going on and it was then that we were captured by the Germans. We were taken to march into a field nearby the railroads. They were exterminated in our first camp, Majdanek.

Over the course of the next 2 years, I was a prisoner of 6 concentration camps (3 were labor camps): Majdanek, Blizyn, Auschwitz/Birkenau, Oranienburg, Sachsenhausen, and Ohrdruf (part of Buchenwald concentration camp).

When I was liberated in May 1945 by the Russians, they discovered that I was very sick with measles, so I was sent to the hospital and that saved my life because it prevented from overeating to compensate for my starvation and malnutrition. After recovery, I went back to Poland to my hometown, Bialystok. I couldn’t find my family nor did I know if they were still alive. I migrated to Israel, and upon my arrival, I went to an Agriculture School.

In March of 1948, I was drafted into the Israeli army, the Palmach, and fought for Israel’s independence in the Harrell Brigade under the command of General Itzhak Rabin. Our unit from 5th Battalion was sent to fight in Jerusalem. Shortly after that, in January 1951, I got married and in 1954 I moved my family to Haifa to work in a dairy farm, Tnuva, milk plant.

For years, I continuously searched for any living relative and found that I had aunts that lived in Chicago, Illinois. Upon contacting them, they encouraged me to come to the US to be close to them, that was in 1959. I worked at a local dairy and eventually saved enough to own my own Auto Parts Store. After retirement, I moved to San Diego.

Since I was in the Ghetto during my 13th birthday,  it’s been my lifelong yearning to be Bar Mitvah’d. As a result, at 88 years old, witnessed by my family and friends, I was Bar Mitzvah’d with the members of Chabad of Poway in San Diego.

Today I have 3 beautiful daughters, 6 grandchildren, 6 great-grandchildren and was married to my wife, Esther for 70 years. Recently, she passed away, in 2021.

If you would like to read my self-published memoir