Wierra Lewin
"Be healthy. Be nice and good, try not to hurt anyone. Help others in need. Remember what we went through, what I and others went through."
Name at birth
Wierra Feinstein
Date of birth
09/14/1921
Where were you born?
Where did you grow up?
Cherkassy, Ukraine
Name of father, occupation
Yonah,
Designed shoes, boots
Maiden name of mother, occupation
Chaya Etel,
Homemaker
Immediate family (names, birth order)
Parents, five sons and three daughters: Baruch, Leib, Itzchak, Yossel, Avram, Velvel, Dina Tzirel, Ruchel and me
How many in entire extended family?
30
Who survived the Holocaust?
Only myself and a niece who now lives in Israel
The men were taken into the army; my sisters were on their own living their own lives. I was the baby and lived at home with my mother. When I was 16, we were evacuated to Buchara, Uzbekistan. There, my mother died from dysentery, she was poisoned from the water. I had no money to pay for her funeral and so I used her earrings to pay for her burial.
From Buchara, I traveled to Tashkent, Uzbekistan. There I met my husband who was originally from Vilna who was also alone. I worked in a bakery for food, for bread and later in a barber shop. My husband had a job as a watchman at a brick factory.
After the war, we went to Vienna but all of my husband’s family was dead as was my family in Cherkassy, Ukraine.
My husband and I left for America in 1951 where Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) settled us to Omaha, Nebraska. We lived there for 13 years. We liked it there but my husband’s sister and a brother were in Detroit and so we moved here.
My niece who was a child in hiding with a Gentile family and later at an orphanage, found me years later. She lives in Israel and calls me twice a day.
Spouse
Herc,
Furniture factory worker in Omaha; Painter in Detroit
Children
Three: Phyllis Rashty, Helen Esther (Chaya Etel) Deering, and Jeanette Baker
Grandchildren
Eight: Rubin, Dianna, Julia, Jennifer, Jonathan, Brian, Joshua, and David; Five great-grandchildren: Jamie, Jacob, Benjie, Hannah, and Jonah
What do you think helped you to survive?
I don’t know. We tried to live. We were suffering. I had the will to live, I survived. I was hungry, swollen, and sick with malaria.
What message would you like to leave for future generations?
Be healthy. Be nice and good, try not to hurt anyone. Help others in need. Remember what we went through, what I and others went through.
Interviewer:
Charles Silow
Interview date:
09/01/2009
Experiences
Survivor's map
