Sara Silow

"To hope that there will be no more war anymore."

Name at birth
Sara Parzenczewska
Where were you born?
Name of father, occupation
Chiel, Owned a wholesale fish business, had properties
Maiden name of mother, occupation
Reizel Wiasowska, Homemaker
Immediate family (names, birth order)
Parents, Bela (Chaya) Goldman, me and Malka
How many in entire extended family?
About 35
Who survived the Holocaust?
Only Sara
My father died of starvation in the Lodz Ghetto.  My sisters Bela and Malka, and their families were killed including my little niece, Mirka (Miriam Goldman).  My older sister Bela, her husband, and Mirka were in the Lodz Ghetto.  My younger sister, Malka, fled to Russia, She sent us letters to the Lodz Ghetto but after a while, the letters stopped coming.   She told us that she was pregnant.  She was in Mariupol, we heard that the Germans invaded there.  
 
My mother and I were sent to Auschwitz from the Lodz Ghetto.  We were separated during the Selection.  At the Selection, my mother, Reizel, was sent to the gas chamber; I survived as a slave laborer.   My mother was 55 years old; I was 24.   I was sent to Popenpitel (Neuengamme camp system) where I cleared the rubble in Hamburg.  It was freezing cold.  Later, I was taken to Bergen-Belsen which was terrible there.
 
At Bergen-Belsen, I was very sick with typhus and was dying.  I could not make it to the roll call; my friends dragged me out of the barracks where I collapsed.  Fortunately, that was the day the British liberated Bergen-Belsen.  After being hospitalized, the Red Cross sent me to Sweden to recuperate.  I was the only one in my entire family who survived. 
Name of Ghetto(s)
Name of Concentration / Labor Camp(s)
Where did you go after being liberated?
First to Sweden to recuperate. I wrote letters trying to find any relatives. The only answer I go was from a great-aunt by marriage who was living in Belgium. She took me in from Sweden.
When did you come to the United States?
December 1952 to St. Louis, Missouri and then later to Detroit
When and where were you married?
Brussels, Belgium, 1948
Spouse
Nathan, Auto Worker, Fisher Body, Chevrolet in St. Louis
Children
Charles, psychologist and director, Program for Holocaust Survivors and Families of Jewish Senior Life
Grandchildren
Two granddaughters: Shoshana and Naomi
What do you think helped you to survive?
I don’t know, strength. We lived from day to day. Everyday we waited for death.
What message would you like to leave for future generations?
To hope that there will be no more war anymore.

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