Fryda Gurwitz

"FAMILY IS EVERYTHING – DO NOT GIVE UP – AMERICA IS A GOLDEN LAND"

Name at birth

Freydal Rubin

Date of birth

01/15/1916

Where were you born?

Lodz, Poland

Where did you grow up?

Lodz, Poland

Name of father, occupation

David Rubin, businessman

Maiden name of mother, occupation

Malka Rubin, businesswoman

Immediate family (names, birth order)

Parents, four sons, and four daughters

How many in entire extended family?

About 50

Who survived the Holocaust?

My uncle Joseph Rubin, my cousin Philip Basser, and I

I was married before the war to Aharon (Aaron) Kalevach. I had one son Donni, he was 4 years old. I was a seamstress in a labor camp outside of the ghetto. We made monograms and uniforms for the German military. They paid me with food.

While I was away, the Germans liquidated the Pinsk ghetto we were in and killed my whole family. My husband worked for doctors in the Pinsk Ghetto.

I fled to the forest, met up with six other Jews. Four more Jews wanted to join us, the original six said no, but I threatened to leave with them if they did not take them in, they relented.

During the day we hid in the fields and swamps looking for food and at night they foraged and cooked potatoes, sometimes meat and bread, but that was scarce.

I escaped being in the concentration camps by being a part of the Partisans.

Name of Ghetto(s)

Pinsk

Where were you in hiding?

In the forests around Pinsk

Where were you in the Former Soviet Union?

Pinsk

Where did you go after being liberated?

Brono, Austria

When did you come to the United States?

September, 1947

Where did you settle?

South Bend, Indiana (cousins lived there)

How is it that you came to Michigan?

My daughter lived in Michigan. At the age of 88, I was diagnosed with Cervical Cancer and my daughter and family wanted me to move closer so they could be with me during this time and in my later years. I survived the cancer and made Hechtman Jewish Apartments my new home. I told my doctors that if I could make it through the Holocaust, I can make it through this.

Occupation after the war

Custom tailor

When and where were you married?

March 1945 in Austria

Spouse

Samuel Gurwitz, (Shaya Gurevich), blacksmith and later a welder

Children

Lillian Rivers, teacher; Norman Gurwitz, attorney

Grandchildren

Four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren

What do you think helped you to survive?

Perseverance and the desire to live and not give up.