Honor thy mother. That's the motto Angela Polgar has tried to live by all her life – a life that began in a death camp. The place was Auschwitz-Birkenau, in southern Poland. Her parents, Hungarian Jews, arrived there on a Nazi transport on May 25, 1944.
Polgar's mother, Vera Bein, nee Otvos, was 25 years old at the time and almost two months pregnant.
On the infamous railway platform where "selections" were made, Bein, as Polgar respectfully calls her, was not sent to the gas chambers. Instead, she was assigned to a variety of gruelling work details before becoming a guinea pig for sterilization experiments by a camp doctor.
By the horrific standards of the Holocaust, it's an ordinary story, perhaps – except for one thing. The patient survived, and so did her child.
On Dec. 21 Bein felt labour pains. She climbed to the top bunk in her barrack, and there, aided by two other inmates, gave birth in secret to a baby girl.
The infant was tiny, weighing only one kilogram; she was too weak to cry but strong enough to drink the meagre offering from her mother's breast, and somehow survived the next few weeks in hiding.
The only other infant survivor, according to Auschwitz museum records, was a Hungarian boy, Gyorgy Faludi, born the day of liberation with the help of a Russian doctor.
Soviet Red Army troops liberated the camp on Jan. 27, 1945. Baby and mother were among the survivors, and they were an unusual sight – indeed, almost unique.
The only other infant survivor, according to Auschwitz museum records, was a Hungarian boy, Gyorgy Faludi, born the day of liberation with the help of a Russian doctor.
Angela Polgar has decided now is the right time to tell Canadians her family's remarkable story.
She isn't doing it to shine light on herself; she even refuses to have her picture taken, for fear people would accuse her of self-aggrandizement.
Rather, she wants to honor her mother, a woman who never liked to talk about her experience because she thought it would be a burden to her daughter.
"She was a very, very special lady," said Polgar, a former clothing store owner who lives in Montreal with her husband, Joseph.
"My mother felt so terrible for all the people who had lost their children. They lost their babies, and she brought one back," Polgar said.
"And at the same time she didn't want me to have the memories she had. So she didn't talk about it."
Telling it now is a release – and a duty. "It has nothing to do with me, this story. She did it. She's the one who went through all this."
And so Angela Polgar begins her story.
That both mother and daughter survived at all is a miracle in itself. About 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, were exterminated at Auschwitz between the start of the organized killing in March 1942 and its end in November 1944. The death machine was at its busiest the summer that Polgar's parents and other Hungarian Jews arrived en masse to be liquidated – more than 132,000 a month, according to Canadian scholar Robert Jan van Pelt's exhaustive study, Auschwitz: 1270 to the Present.
"By the end of June, in just two months, half of Hungary's Jewry – 381,661 souls – had arrived at Auschwitz," van Pelt wrote in the 1996 book he co-authored with U.S. scholar Deborah Dwork. "At no other time was Auschwitz more efficient as a killing center."
They quote one survivor, Alexander Ehrmann, who arrived at Birkenau at night and was aghast at what he saw and heard – especially the piles of burning bracken and rubble he saw and smelled through the barbed wire.
From the pyres came the sounds of children. "I heard a baby crying. The baby was crying somewhere in the distance and I couldn't stop and look. We moved, and it smelled, a horrible stench. I knew that things in the fire were moving; there were babies in the fire."
At selection on the platform, most visibly pregnant women were sent to die; so were babies, children, the obviously sick and the elderly. Others were spared for use as slave labour or fodder for medical experimentation.
Some of the inmates in Camp C, Auschwitz's barrack for Hungarian Jewish women and girls, were able to bring their pregnancies to term, but their babies were almost invariably taken from them right after and killed – "mercifully" strangled to death by Jewish inmate doctors forced to work for the Nazis.
Most pregnancies never got that far; the usual clandestine practice was to abort fetuses before they could be born – a life-saving measure for the mother, who was an easy target for liquidation if her pregnancy became too obvious.
One of the Jewish physicians who routinely performed this "service" at Auschwitz, a Hungarian gynecologist named Gisella Perl, described that and worse in her 1948 memoir I Was a Doctor in Auschwitz.
Walking by one of the crematoriums one day, she witnessed what happened to one group of women who, promised better treatment, had revealed to their Nazi overlords that they were pregnant. "They were surrounded by a group of SS men and women, who amused themselves by giving these helpless creatures a taste of hell, after which death was a welcome friend," Perl recalled in her book.
"They were beaten with clubs and whips, torn by dogs, dragged around by their hair and kicked in the stomach with heavy German boots. Then, when they collapsed, they were thrown into the crematory – alive."
Vera Bein escaped that fate. For the longest while, she kept her pregnancy secret, and was lucky her delivery came within weeks of liberation by the Soviets, unannounced, and not "helped" by any camp doctor.
Her survival – and that of her daughter – is a footnote of the Holocaust, but an important one.
"This does seem to be an unusual story," said Estee Yaari, foreign media liaison for the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem. "Although there are others," she said, including one survivor born in Buchenwald in 1944, "it is a rather rare occurrence."
Surviving Auschwitz was one thing. Little "Angi", as her mother called her, was also lucky to have survived the war's chaotic aftermath, overcoming a bad start from poor nutrition that made her bones weak.
She was even lucky to get official proof of her arrival in this world: a birth certificate that her adoptive father got for her before the family left Poland.
Prepared in 1945 in Oswiecim, the Polish name for Auschwitz, the certificate gave her name as "Angela Bein." The surname was that of her biological father, Tibor Bein, a lawyer, who died of maltreatment in the camp.
"Auschwitz" was listed as her place of birth – a place that has ceased to exist by the German name, except as an expression synonymous with mechanized murder. Auschwitz today exists only as a museum, and Angela Polgar has never been back.
She has a copy of her birth certificate, issued in 1989 by the Communist authorities in her hometown, Sarospatak, in eastern Hungary.
As further proof, she has her original 1966 Hungarian teacher's diploma, which also lists Auschwitz as her birthplace.
After the liberation in 1945, Polgar's mother trekked across parts of Poland, Romania and Byelorussia in a circuitous route leading back to safety in Hungary. There, Vera remarried, and it was that second husband – Sandor Polgar, also an Auschwitz survivor, owner of a textile shop and a generation older than Vera – who adopted Polgar and become her "real" father, the only one she ever knew.
Twelve years later, however, he, too, died, and mother and child were once again set adrift. Coming on the heels of the crushing of their country's revolution by the Soviets in 1956, and with a relative now in Canada to sponsor them, they started plotting their flight from Hungary. Vera left in 1966, Angela followed in 1973 with her own daughter, Katy. They settled in Toronto, where Vera worked as a kindergarten teacher and bookkeeper. Katy moved to Montreal and started a family, and in 1996 Vera moved here to be with them.
For the longest time, the family saga – especially the Auschwitz part – was kept private. The only public recounting came in the form of a short memoir, written in Angela Polgar's voice by her sister-in-law, a retired Montreal high schoolteacher named Marianne Polgar. It was published in a small Zionist journal in New York in 2000.
Then, last January, after a barrage of coverage in the media about the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Polgar decided the time had come to let the whole story be told. Polgar also unearthed a precious resource: an old audio tape of her mother recounting her time at Auschwitz. It was an "interview" Vera gave her granddaughter, Katy, in 1984 for a high-school project. The tape – her final word on the subject – will soon be registered as part of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum's archives in Poland.
As testimonies go, it's a poignant one: words spoken over the telephone more than 25 years ago, a 30-minute inter-generational dialogue in which the subject sounds like she'd rather not be telling the innocent teenager just how horrible history can be.
"It's so painful to talk about this," Vera says at one point, as Katy prods her for details. "I was so curious to hear what she had to say," Katy, now doing her doctorate in cancer research at McGill University, recalled last week.
"My mother was so protective; she wouldn't let me read any Holocaust books, so this was my one-time shot to see what my grandmother could give me. The amazing thing was that she was never bitter about what happened to her. She just went on with life."
On the tape, Vera begins by describing the confusion of her arrival at Auschwitz in May, 1944. She remembers the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele sending her to the left after inspection on the platform while others were sent to the right, to their deaths. Worried she was being separated from the others and unaware of her good fortune to be spared, she remembers telling Mengele she was pregnant, hoping he'd be compassionate and let her stay with the others.
"You stupid goose!" she recalled Mengele snapping at her, ordering her to do as she was told. Healthy and strong, Vera was good stock for the camp's labor force. Mengele wasn't going to send her to her death, not yet.
She was sent to have her left arm tattooed with a registration number: A-6075. Then she was assigned the night shift in the ample storeroom in Camp A that contained mounds of confiscated belongings of other Auschwitz victims and inmates.
Because it was so rich in stock, the depot was dubbed "Kanada," like the land of plenty. Vera's job was to sort clothing, shoes, bedding – anything the Germans wanted to keep for themselves.
Later, she was assigned kitchen duty, where she ate potato peels, a slight but vital source of nutrition for her and the child inside her. The rest of her daily diet consisted of ersatz coffee in the morning, "something warm, a soup made of grass" for lunch, and for supper a slice of bread with a smear of jam or margarine on it.
Then came hard labour outside the camp, building a road and working in a field. Vera was transferred to Camp B2, then Camp C, where she got to know children, especially twins, who were used for medical experiments by Mengele and fellow doctors before being liquidated.
In October, now seven months pregnant, she was selected by Prof. Carl Clauberg's medical team for sterilization experiments.
It was only a matter of time before she became a guinea pig herself.
In October, now seven months pregnant, she was selected by Prof. Carl Clauberg's medical team for sterilization experiments. They injected some kind of burning, caustic substance into her cervix.
Right behind, in the uterus, was the fetus.
"That was me in there," Polgar now marvels. "The needles went in, I went to the right side, then the left side. Who knows what he gave her?"
Somehow the fetus survived. After the experiment was over, the patient went back to her barracks – and then disappeared from the doctors' radar.
"Somehow Mengele forgot her," Polgar said. "I was so small, the pregnancy didn't really show. That was her luck. Otherwise, they would have finished her off, and me, too."
A month later, Vera was approached in her barracks by "a Jewish woman doctor" – possibly the gynecologist Gisella Perl.
The doctor had a warning and an offer. She told her that new mothers usually "disappeared" along with their offspring after the birth – sent to the gas chambers. She offered to give Vera an abortion.
"I promised her to think it over, because she really insisted on it," Vera recalled on the tape. "She said I was too young to be gassed, and she wanted to save me." But that night, Vera dreamt of her mother. "She told me, 'Veruska, you are eight months pregnant, and you don't do this, because (the fetus is) alive already and ready to leave. Believe in God and Hashem will be with you. Maybe a miracle will happen. But don't do it.'
"The next day, Vera gave the doctor her answer: she was going ahead with the birth. It happened on Dec. 21, in the barracks of Camp C. "I felt the pain and told the Block altester (the barrack's inmate supervisor) that I feel cramps and pain. She asked me to climb on the top of the bunk, and she came with me and she helped me to give birth to your mummy," Vera tells her granddaughter on the tape. "She knew how to do it, because she was the daughter of a doctor, so she had an idea about cleanliness and how to help a woman in labor. She brought hot water and clean sheets. She cooked a pair of scissors in hot water to sterilize them" before cutting the umbilical cord, she said. "So everything went quite easily." The infant weighed one kilogram, a little over two pounds "Mummy was so weak and so tiny, she didn't cry. So nobody knew she was born."
Three hours after giving birth, Vera had to leave her baby in the bunk and go outside in the cold for roll call.
Three hours after giving birth, Vera had to leave her baby in the bunk and go outside in the cold for roll call – what the Germans called the Appell.
Her daughter is still amazed she was able to do it. "What courage, what incredible strength she had to do that," Polgar said. "Remember, it was December. It was freezing, and they didn't have any coats or proper shoes, just wooden clogs that made them slip on the ice."
Just before the liberation, a final scare. Yelling "Schnell! Schnell!"(Quick! Quick!) the German guards herded surviving inmates like Vera into a tunnel beneath the camp and told them they would be exterminated. (It didn't happen, but to her dying day Vera retained a mortal fear of tunnels; once, trapped between stations in a stalled Toronto subway car, she lost her senses, screaming to be let out.)
After the scare, there was another miracle.
On the day of liberation another child was born at Auschwitz, Gyorgy Faludi.
His mother had helped Vera with her delivery; now Vera returned the favor.
The woman didn't have enough milk to suckle her son, so Vera did it. It was the beginning of a long friendship. The two families – Faludi with her son, Bein with her daughter – stuck together for the next few months of wandering back to Hungary. Vera nursed the two children and helped Faludi find her husband and return to their hometown, Miskolc. The war was over. Now the recovery began. After the liberation, no-one except Vera held up much hope that little Angela would live long.
In Budapest, Vera's mother's advice was to let the baby die. So, too, said the local doctors they consulted – until one of them did a closer examination."(He) held me up like a chicken, by the legs with my head down. He wanted to see if I'd try to pull my head up. And I did. And then he said 'We can let that baby live.'" Her biggest problem in those first few years were her bones. "They were very weak, and I wasn't allowed to walk. So they put me in a carriage, and my father took me back and forth to school that way," she said.
In the street, strangers used to stare." Everybody looked at me ... and said 'That's a doll, not a baby.' They called my mother the crazy lady, because they thought she was only pretending to have a baby." Over time, though, with better nutrition and care, the child's bones got stronger, and at six she could finally walk unaided. The legacy of Angela's early years never disappeared completely. She's still tiny of stature, under five feet tall, and walks with a shuffling gait. But that doesn't seem to faze her. These days, she bustles back and forth to a computer class she takes in Montreal and doesn't seem handicapped by her physique – or her past.
Sixty years after her birth she's been thinking a lot about her mother. She remembers her on her death bed, 13 years ago in a Toronto hospital. It was a sad, cruel end to a remarkable life. Vera's body was ridden with cancer of the spine and lung. While she lay dying, paralyzed, she had visions of Auschwitz. "She would say 'Mengele is at the door,' " Polgar said. "It was horrible. There was not enough morphine to take the nightmare away even from her dying minutes."
Vera Polgar, previously Vera Bein, born Veronika Otvos, died at age 73 on Jan. 28, 1992 – a day after the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. "She did not want to die on Jan. 27," Polgar said. "She pulled the suffering through to the next day to die."
She remembers her mother for many things: the odds she overcame, the perseverance she embodied, the pain she concealed for so many years under a mask of optimism and a survivor's dream of renewal.
"She was very charming, never depressed," Polgar said. "But deep down, it was always there."
Like the ink in the number tattooed on her arm, the mark that Auschwitz left on Vera's psyche was indelible. Now, thanks to her daughter, so is her story.
© CanWest News Service 2005
This article originally appeared in CanWest Newspapers.
(86) M, March 25, 2019 2:08 PM
It was not Poland. It was IIIrd Reich! Nazi Germany occupied Poland.
(85) Mark Ratley, January 26, 2015 3:42 PM
King David wrote Psalms 139 for such a time as this.
See above
(84) Aleia Hutcherson, January 19, 2015 9:57 AM
Thank you
Thank you to Angela and to Aish for sharing this incredible personal story of survival from Auschwitz. I am constantly amazed and humbled to learn what people went through in the Shoah, who are living amongst us, whose experiences we wouldnt even know about unless they open up and share like this. Thank you.
(83) Patrice Britz, February 2, 2014 4:16 PM
Stories to remember
I am a Montessori teacher of children 6-12 and when I taught in Charlotte, NC, I had the great honor of being assisted by a young woman, daughter/granddaughter Lia Beresford, who's mom, Jackie Fishman and her mother, Dr. Susan Cernyak-Spatz, are all revered teachers in Charlotte. Lia's grandmother was a survivor of Terezin and Auschwit and in tribute, she proudly bears her grandmother's concentration camp number on her arm. . She continues to be a writer, professor, a remarkable story teller, and a leader in the Jewish community both in Charlotte and beyond. These three generations of educated woman are remarkable in their own right, but together represent the hope and strength of the many who continue to inspire through the courage and life force that was fueled from all that their parent's endured. They not only continue the legacy of their own family, but share their vitality and hope with the children and adults they now teach. I also had the honor of hosting Suly Chenkin, another Holocaust survivor, who continues to speak with children in Charlotte. She moves us all deeply with her kindness, stories of survival, and never ending hope. I am so
honored to have known them, and I thank them for sharing their lives and their stories with us all. I also deeply appreciate Ms. Polgar's persistence and courage for sharing her mother's story of giving birth to her in the concentration camp. How remarkable to also have given birth to daughters and granddaughters who now carry their family's story forward. We must continue to honor these survivors and hear more stories, however difficult, because it's vital to our humanity to better understand and learn this horrific time in history, so that it is never repeated again. Cernyak-Spatz: http://www.salisburypost.com/article/20110323/SP0101/303239995/ Chenkin: http://www.ucps.k12.nc.us/news/jump.php?news Survivors in Charlotte: http://www.charlottemagazine.com/Charlotte-Magazine/November-2009/All-That-Remains/
(82) Eve, April 24, 2013 4:47 PM
Amazing
This story is amazing. that is the only word to describe this miracle. She was so weak and yet managed to give birth. Autzvits reduced people to animals but this amazing woman pulled through. Well done to her! RIP
(81) Elisabeth Soros, April 4, 2013 3:48 AM
Born in Auschwitz
All this stories should be collected in book forms together and should be in the Libarys ! Vera's numbers total was: 18 ! We praise G-d who preserved us and give us a new life , sustain us. The pain and ache is there in deep, but a new strength must be there too and remaining fathful to the noble challenge offered us by them whom we thought will be dead, but who live must be remaining faithsful to the challege and to Hashem. Hashem will give healing and strenth. We are loyal to God, to home, to communities to the society. We belive in Justice and Righteousness.We believe in loving mercy and with love fight against evil.Human equality before the law and we promote moral and human values as superior.We do work for peace and love because that is what Hashem want from us. Life! Life for All Humanity !
(80) Angi, January 26, 2013 11:34 PM
the continue of the story
I would like to add for the story: Vera 's name is carried by 2 great grand daughters, 1 was born 4 years ago, 2009, and 1 was born exactly 68 years later, when Vera give birth to Angi. 2012.
(79) katelyn jones, October 14, 2012 4:43 AM
wow
I'm laying here in bed about to go to sleep with my 4mo old daughter on my lap and I'm in awe of this amazing woman and her strength to live for her unborn baby. I just don't know what I would do when she shares about the Dr asking her if she wanted to have an abortion.everything down to the size and strenth of the baby to not be able to cry was planned by God. I am so sorry for the mother's and babies who were victims of the holocaust...it is an almost unfathomable fate for any mother or expecting mother...thank you for sharing this story of unimaginable strength !♡♥
(78) Liezer, August 22, 2012 4:37 AM
My mother was there too
Damn the Germans for four generations for the sins of their fathers. My mother was in one of those camps during.. I was born in March of 46 and always considered it a minor miracle. This story is a major miracle.
(77) eli knight, July 29, 2012 9:45 AM
gives me chills , and courage
gives me chills , and courage
(76) Anonymous, January 20, 2012 9:33 PM
Dear Angela,
This was just an amazing story she's an amazing woman and I respect her very much.
(75) Wendy, January 2, 2012 12:13 AM
Continued Education About The Holocaust
Hello. I would like to commend Ms. Polger on honoring her mother by continuing to tell her story of their survival while being in and at the concentration camp. It's terrible that this happened but proud of those who won't let us forget about those atrocoties of what Hitler tried to accomplish. My grandfather who turned 91 years young this year helped liberate the freedom of all Jewish people by serving in the 2nd world war. He continues to tell his story of when he served in the Lord's Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadian) 5th Canadian Armoured Division from June 1942 to October 1945 in Italy, France, Germany Belgium and North Africa. I'm so proud that he has chosen to continue telling his story about the war and what he had to do endure for our freedom. We shall never forget those who served, who died for us for our freedom. For those who are still here, thank you for helping us to remember and not to ever forget.
(74) creeper, December 21, 2011 6:18 PM
heart breaking
Vera Bein was an amazing lady. Thank you for telling her story to the world.
(73) Harry Mcilreavy, October 10, 2011 6:58 AM
she is a wonderful example to us all
May It be possible to speak about her in a chruch service on the 24/01/2012 this is our Holocaust Day . It would be a great honour to do this.
(72) D'vorah, June 16, 2011 7:26 AM
Lam. 3:25-27
There is just one thing that comes ti my mind now: Through the L-rd's mercies we are not comsumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: Great is Your faithfulness. The L-rd is my portion, says my soul, therefore I hope in Him
(71) creed0849, June 16, 2011 2:32 AM
Stories to tell.
Anyone who had a close relative or friend who survived the Holocaust, has a duty to get these stories told. These stories are one of the most important ways to Always Remember and Never Forget. This generation of survivors is dying out and their first hand accounts with them. The younger generations need to read these stories from the people who lived through them, to have a personal connection to these horrific events, not just a cold summary in some text book.
(70) Neicee, May 1, 2011 7:09 PM
Dear Angela,
Thank you for sharing your amazing story. This is one to be tucked away in my heart and kept. Prayers for you and yours. Vera Bien was quite a lady.
(69) Samantha, November 24, 2010 9:16 PM
Wow Truely amazing. I am doing a History project for our towns history fair and have decided to use this as my project. There is limited information on the subject but its just so interesting and amazing I couldnt stay away.
(68) Amanda, June 8, 2010 2:05 AM
Wow
This is such a touching story. The Holocaust was so aweful with all those innocents deaths. But let's honor them and all the Hell they went though. And those who survived, like Vera and her daughter, probably pray that the story of the Holocaust won't fade throughout the ages. There are already people who don't believe it happened, despite all the evidence; don't let anyone else not believe.
(67) Tyler, May 28, 2010 4:27 PM
This story is amazing.
(66) Anonymous, April 7, 2010 6:07 PM
emotion
torah say honouryour parents never to forget
(65) Anonymous, April 7, 2010 5:57 PM
Stories
Is there noend to the stories that come out ofthe Holocaust? Just when you think no more remain to be told there comes another one.
(64) leah, April 7, 2010 4:27 AM
wow
(63) Claudia, March 23, 2010 3:47 PM
Amazing
That's absolutely incredible.
(62) Gabor Faludi, January 18, 2009 4:29 AM
contact
Dear All, Anybody knows the contact of Angela or her family, pls let me know, because my father (Gyorgy Faludi) would like to contact her!Thx in advance! GFaludi falu2@freemail.hu
(61) ND, January 15, 2009 2:18 PM
Uplifting
Thank you for sharing your story. Your mother was a brave woman and so are you.
(60) Anonymous, January 21, 2008 2:16 PM
miraculous
Thank you for sharing your very moving personal miracle. Your mother was obviously a very special woman - strong and determined mentally and spiritually.
(59) Anonymous, April 28, 2007 9:26 PM
very moving!
Really makes you think about what is life and what it means to be a Jew.
(58) Suharto LKW., April 27, 2007 10:58 PM
The other side in earth.
This touched my heart, thank's and God Bless you.
Suharto L. Katoppo.W, MBA
TRANS NATIONAL INSTITUTE
Palangka Raya - INDONESIA
HP.081528256771
(57) keyvan, April 16, 2007 12:52 PM
thank you very much for sharing your valuable memory, and letting others to know how they have treated innocent man and woman as well as little childs.Your mother had great faith to beleive that god is a god of miracles and this story is very touching and will have positive impact on the people all over the world.
(56) Anonymous, April 15, 2007 3:17 PM
Thank you so much for sharing your story. Your mother had great faith to believe that God is a God of miracles.
(55) Bonnie, April 15, 2007 8:53 AM
Our Jewish History:
It a blessing when our family can talk about stories like this, and know who we are, God Bless, and piece be with everyone. Bonnie
(54) Anonymous, April 15, 2007 7:23 AM
This is an amazing story. It is very fitting for the mood today. Today is Yom HaShoa- Holocaust Rememberance day. This story is very touching and can put people in the right mood for today.
(53) Tyler T, March 1, 2007 12:32 AM
wow
I honestly think that is one of the most amazing stories i have ever heard...that is just so gripping...reading that gave me chills...its ridiculous what these people, your mother grandmother and countless others went through, im speechless right now really, but thank you for sharing this...truly is amazing
(52) Melinda Wilson, February 2, 2007 9:13 PM
thank you
thank you so much for sharing this powerful story of the strength of humans with the help of God and what he gives us. Your mother was an awesome woman, and you are wonderful for sharing with us this beautiful story of strength and the human spirit.
(51) Elinor Simon, August 19, 2006 12:00 AM
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow them........even to survive the Camps.
Thank you for the decision to share these stories of miracles.Incredible!
(50) mallie, August 5, 2006 12:00 AM
Deeply Touching
This true story really moved me, I find it amazing to think of how the human spirit can go through so much and still come out the other side with dignity intact, you are lucky to be related to such strong incrediable women- keep telling this story-it needs to be heard.
(49) Selda, May 23, 2006 12:00 AM
Unbelievable
Thank you for sharing this exceptional story.
(48) Ronnie McCracken, May 15, 2006 12:00 AM
Deeply moving story
Vera's story is so deeply moving. It should be printed as a booklet and widely distributed. It speaks for the multitudes who did NOT survive. Thank you for sharing it with us.
(47) Larigan, May 7, 2006 12:00 AM
Wow!
Wow-what a life, what a story. Thank you for sharing it with the rest of the world on this little footnote in Holocaust history.
(46) wendell ken, April 28, 2006 12:00 AM
it's an amazing and an awesome story
(45) Anonymous, April 11, 2006 12:00 AM
I enjoyed the story very much. I'm very gratefull that the Vera hid the baby safely and that they survived. Auschwitz sounded horrible.
(44) Tammy Blazer, March 16, 2006 12:00 AM
Oh my god
I can't even begin to tell you how very sad I was to read this but I was happy to know that the women who had her babie and kept it in hiding survived and so did the child.
(43) Anonymous, March 13, 2006 12:00 AM
wow!
Thank you so much for sharing your story! It is extremly sad yet heart warming. Despite all the bad in the world, it is great to see that good can rise from it. Vera was an amazing women!
(42) Ada Root, March 6, 2006 12:00 AM
Destined to live!
My heart aches for Vera and all the horrific events she witnessed and went through. Such a bitter-sweet it is for you to tell this heart breaking story. Thanks for sharing about your wonderful mother. Ada
(41) alice, February 20, 2006 12:00 AM
tsk tsk.
so sad and amazing
(40) Anonymous, January 22, 2006 12:00 AM
wow! This definitely strengthened my belief in G-d! What a mother. What a daughter. Thank you so much for writing this article. It's an incredible story of miracles, determination to survuve that can give strength and support to all who read it.
Thank you again.
(39) Sonia, January 22, 2006 12:00 AM
Miracles as legacy - Survival as Triumph
What a remarkable inspiring story - a miracle child and mother survived out from the fires of the Shoah.
Yet, how to acknowledge the millions upon millions of the brave, the gentle, the courageous the every day Yiddishe mammas and papas, and aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, grandparents, and the precious beloved children who did not survive the death machine that was the Shoah. I refuse to believe HaShem loved any of those precious children less, those who did not survive less than those of us, the miracles, who did.
The Shoah reincarnates when we forget who we are. Even now attacks against Jews, the survivors of those camps and their children, our right of our people's right to exist is in the news. The fools among us who don't understand our legacy, the rightness of our survival and self determination based not on political comings and goings, economic ideologies but the contract between our forebear Abraham and HaShem of our being an eternal nation. Reiterated in the Torah at least 7 times! Lest we forget our mandate as a people is to live, survive, persevere against any and all enemies. It is not about miracles. It is about our legacy as a nation, a people that will endure.
I too am a miracle baby brought by my brave mother out of the holocaust.
Barely remembering the trains on which Jewish survivors after the war rode from transit camps to refugee camps, from one to another in search of relatives. In my mother's case, none were found.
I see my mother's survival and that of mine and others like myself a testimony to the strength and courage of the Jews in Europe, the families from which we come. Entire families perishing at the hands of Hitler and his European handmaidens even as I was being born. Courageous, wonderful, beautiful families those children like myself who survived were never to know.
To me every Jewish child, every Jewish baby, every Jewish mother and father and Jewish grandparents that live as Jews, teach future generations by example how to lead their lives as Jews, who study and teach Torah are miracles.
The instruction from the Torah, our source is and remains Chooses Life! Our mandate, prevail!
(38) Anonymous, January 21, 2006 12:00 AM
miracle
I would have to say that is a miracle,you see I was born 2lbs.15 ounces and I barely survived and I was in the hospital. I am so glad that you lived. I think it was a true miracle.
(37) erika odor, January 3, 2006 12:00 AM
pepole need more storys like this one and they will know GOOD is always there for everybody.They need to see miracels in this times.I'm so lucky i got this story.made my heart betting again.For the 6000000 people we lost for nothing in that time.We have to keep this in our memore and never forget.Yours truly ERIKA ODOR
(36) Anonymous, January 3, 2006 12:00 AM
Wow just wow
This is such a touching story. To see a girl talk about her mother and to be given birth in Auschwitz is remarkable. God really loved her because out of so many kids she was one that was born in the concentration camps and also was alive to tell her mother's story. This story is very touching in many ways.
(35) JM Kabaiku, December 15, 2005 12:00 AM
This is a remarkable story of how God can work miracles even under very difficult and traumatizing conditions.
(34) Jada Marquez, December 12, 2005 12:00 AM
Born in Auschwitz
This is an amazing story and it brings tears to my eyes. She must have been a very strong lady.
(33) Anonymous, November 12, 2005 12:00 AM
My Great Grandpa was a gaurd in aushwits
oh my gosh when i read this story i started to ball i could belive how strong that women was i give her all my gratitued and i honor her for her courage.
(32) Errol Monteiro, October 31, 2005 12:00 AM
Born in Auschwitz
This is an amazing story which brings tears to one's eyes.
Vera Otvos should be remembered as a truly brave and determined person.
My the almighty grant her eternal rest!
After reading what people have gone through in the camps, I pray G-d, the world never sees this kind of barbaric killing ever again.
(31) Anonymous, October 27, 2005 12:00 AM
I am also a holocost baby. I was two years old when the Nazis took us from
Debrecen to Bergen Belzen. Even today so
many years later, people look at me in wonder. My mother was always avery religious orthodox woman and when she used to talk about her trials and tribulations it was never with anger and
regret but with wonder and awe that G-d
let her live with two small children.
It seems that the commander (who was later hung at Nurenberg) felt sorry for
her telling everyone that such a beautiful woman should not have to work
and let her sit beside him while supervising the work. My brother and I
stayed behind in the camp. My mother said that if the liberators would have
come a day or two later everyone would
have been dead from starvation. She begged me to write a book but I never did. Maybe one day. If Hashem wants you
to live, you live.
(30) Leah PettePiece, October 21, 2005 12:00 AM
Born In April After the Liberation
Angels's story made me cry, first tears of joy that she survived and then more tears as I remembered my own mother who was so brave to hide her pregnancy during her months in Auschwitz, and then pure joy and ecstasy that there is someone else with a life that rose literally from the ashes! I am always very touched when I read of others who were born in the camp or in the immediate aftermath of that, I too have written my story in memory of my mother, "I Am My Mother's Memory." I would love to be in touch with Angela, to be able to have tea with her and share our own feelings of how it is to come into the world so small, so frail and yet to survive with strength in our later years.
(29) Anonymous, October 20, 2005 12:00 AM
I loved this story. I can't believe that this happened. What a horrible experience for the mother and baby.
(28) Penny Gwaltney, October 2, 2005 12:00 AM
An incredible woman!
My husband and I just returned from D.C. where we went through the Holocost Museum. What an experience! At age 53, sure, I'd heard of the holocost, but didn't really know the intense sufferings of people. I found this article simply incredible. Thank you!
(27) Bella Levien, September 29, 2005 12:00 AM
every word was spellbinding ,with belive in emuna and endurance.
Couldn't stop reading this article. It has left an important message to me and all of Klal Yisroel.When a person sees the survival that this family endured,against all odds.
One believes beyond a doubt that Hashem is with us. This Jewish family is living proof of survival from a nation of bestiality beyond human imagination or comprehension. One must thank the the Almighty for every breath of air we breath. If this is not Divine Providence, then what is?
(26) Celia, September 14, 2005 12:00 AM
Only Hashem save her
What an amazing story of courage and
defiance in the face of the enemy, but
a great faith in a Big God.
Thank you for telling this story to inspire and encourage us all.
(25) Rivka Willner, September 14, 2005 12:00 AM
I learnt alot from what I read.
I went on a tour of Eastern Europe this summer. I was in Aushwitz - Birkenau. Ever since I appreciate these stories very much and I read as many stories I can get my hands on. Thanx for providing the website.
(24) Martha, September 12, 2005 12:00 AM
How can anyone read this story and comoplain about their lives today? I wish every American could read this and compare their problems with the things this faithful and determined mother went through!
(23) Touched, September 8, 2005 12:00 AM
Hope from hopelessness
It's true what they say, that joy does come fron sorrow. i'm thankful to you for putting this remarkable story on the internet. Anyone that sees it will know that there is hope for everyone.
(22) Gabriella, August 29, 2005 12:00 AM
The story of this lady and her daughter was incredible! She was a remarkable woman! I want to thank you for putting it on the internet!!
(21) Anonymous, August 17, 2005 12:00 AM
Courage
I appreciated this remarkable story. How man can be so cruel!! God certainly spared this courageous woman and her child. I was blessed to read this wonderful story.
(20) Anonymous, August 13, 2005 12:00 AM
studing the holocaust
i have been trying to find eveything i can about the holocaust. i absolutely love finding a new piece to it or finding out more info. it makes me sad that jews and others had to go through that trouble. they were amazing people. i also believe that honoring them and the survivers is a good idea. they were like soldiers that were fighting with everything they had. I hope one day i can be as couragious as them. being able to live in the harsh conditions and working so hard as well as eating so little. im glad i found this story.
thak u for putting it on the internet.
(19) Victoria, August 9, 2005 12:00 AM
Remarkable Woman!
What a remarkable woman to read about. I hear that many people, in the U.S. don't even believe that the holocaust happened. How can anyone not believe in something that was so horrific happening to others? This is history!
A sore spot in history, to be sure, but, nonetheless, history. I pray that we will somehow pass on to today's generation the horror of what these people went through, so that they will not be silent if these things begin to happen again.
(18) Elisha, August 8, 2005 12:00 AM
A life story of Triumph
Recently I watched a movie called "Schindlers List". It was very graphic and very real. I know of many rumors that say Auschwitz didn't happen. That no body could be that cruel.
I have so much overwhelming love and respect for the survivors of the Holocaust, I will find ways in my life to help others see through their prejudices and I hope that all in all, life is better for what happened.
I cannot imagine standing idly by and watching millions of people die.
I am glad to not be born in those days because knowing all the death that happened I know I also would have been scarred.
My love to the decendants and the survivors, my prayers also for peace in the hearts of all who were there.
Elisha Hoffer
(17) Gitta, August 4, 2005 12:00 AM
This poignant story makes me believe in miracles. This story made me feel that sometimes in the midst of darkness a candle shines. These women truly had a purpose & a mission in their lives.
Thank You
(16) raye, August 3, 2005 12:00 AM
So many untold stories
Many years ago I attended a Reunion of Holocaust Survivors who were children during those years. Despite their experiences they became writers, professors, doctors. A film was shown where a mother finally told her grown daughters in Israel about her survival of the Holocaust. They asked her why she did not tell them before. So you can imagine the innumerable stories that are still left to be told. Even my parents never spoke about the pogroms they had to run away from in the shtiebels in Russia. I only knew about them from the Sholom Aleichem stories.
(15) Anonymous, August 2, 2005 12:00 AM
Many, many thank yous' for sharing this remarkable story. I am greatful
for this story and (and so many more) of survival because they make me
want to be a much better Jew and to do the very best with so little and
yet keeping my chosen faith in tact. Verna
(14) Anonymous, August 2, 2005 12:00 AM
unbelievable
I thank you so much for displaying this story for people to read. I was extremely moved by this story and cannot believe that human beings and exceptionally your mother had to undergo such horrendous brutalities. Your mother is such an amazing person and I am sure will merit a lot in the world to come. G-d bless you, your family and your loved ones!
(13) denise snarski, August 1, 2005 12:00 AM
Your mother was truly a hero
I too am of Hungarian-Jewish descent. However, my great-grandmother was fortunate enough to come to the U.S. in the early 1900's. The family always hid the fact that they were Jewish, so great was their fear. I am proud to know that I share my Jewish ancestry with a woman like Vera. May you and your daughter be blessed abundantly.
(12) Anonymous, August 1, 2005 12:00 AM
thank you
thank you for sharing your family's story...
(11) Anna, August 1, 2005 12:00 AM
I was crying
I was reading this story and imagining, how terribly hard it was for Vera. I am parying to God that there will be no horrors for our people anymore.
(10) Anonymous, August 1, 2005 12:00 AM
Stories like that..
It is hard to think that people could do this and hate Jewish women so much..
(9) Anonymous, July 31, 2005 12:00 AM
A very moving story - important for history.
This was a very moving story and I join others who are glad the story is out. I hope all Holocaust victims publish their stories to bear witness to otherwise unbelievable events of the Holocaust.
(8) Anonymous, July 31, 2005 12:00 AM
You are a hero.
This touched my heart. You are a voice for the others who did not survive. Your mother was a hero.
(7) Anonymous, July 31, 2005 12:00 AM
mind boggling miraculous story
wow! My grandmother also gave birth in Auschwitz. She never was told what happened to the baby girl, that was taken from her, by Mengele y'msh, right after birth. Who knows?
(6) Jaime Wasserman, July 31, 2005 12:00 AM
Beautifull story
After I read the story,I just said "Oh my Good" God really exists,and He is always doing miracles for jewish people fron generation to generation.Thank God.
(5) Anonymous, July 31, 2005 12:00 AM
WOWW...
Thanks for sharing this important story with us. Vera Polgar was a true hero, G-d bless her soul and all of her family!
(4) Anonymous, July 31, 2005 12:00 AM
I was born in 7/9/1943 in Mogilev, Transnistria, my parents were deportated there from Romania, they did not like to speak about it we survived because my father was a medicine doctor, and the doctor of the camp told his chiefs that he needed te work of my father, can I know more about this place, there is still something to see there, now? Thanks if you will answer
(3) Anonymous, July 31, 2005 12:00 AM
the level of courage was profound
i once read there is no vocabulary to describe the holocaust, as hunger as we know it is not hunger, cold, not cold when you have a thin rag in the snow etc. Thank you for sharing this.
(2) Mary Bernath, July 31, 2005 12:00 AM
Remembering
Yes,this story brings me back memories.I am also hungarian,born in 1947.My parents were holocust survivor.
I recall going to a summer camp when I was about 10 or 12 yers old at the lake Balaton.If I remember correct Angela was at the same camp.We at that time heard her story and since we were so naive we did not comprahend her history.Now I am 58 years old and when I read this story the memories rushed back.Please contact Angela for me and give her my Email address to contact me.My maiden name was Grunfel Marika and I am from PAPA Hungary.Maybe she also remembers me.I live in Phoenix,AZ with my husband.I left Hungary in 1966 and living in Phoenix since 1978.
I am looking forward to receive a response back from you.
(1) B. Zeller, July 31, 2005 12:00 AM
It is good that you write,how holocaust really was.That should not be forgotten. You know the newspapers write lies about things whitch happen in Israel. Nearly the whole world is enchained in lies against Israel.