60-Year Reunion for Holocaust Survivor

January 21, 2009

Sozanska and her widowed mother and five siblings hid Rozia Rothshild, her brother, father and aunt. “I cannot fully express how grateful I am to Wiktoria and her mother Anna. They opened their home and their hearts to me, risking their own lives in order to save me,” said Rozia. ”Their bravery is what has allowed me to live and build a wonderful family of my own, with three children and four grandchildren. I am so thankful to them and the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous (JFR) for making this extraordinary reunion possible.”

In the fall of 1942, the Jews of Turka (now Ukraine) and the surrounding villages were ordered by the Germans to move into the Samberg ghetto. Rozia’s family, the Seifert family, was among this group of 5,000 Jews. When Wiktoria Jaworska came with her mother Anna, a widow with six children, to look at the furniture, her mother saw Rozia and her brother Lucien and wondered what would become of them. When she heard they were going to be sent to the ghetto with her father and aunt who were disabled, she said, “We will take care of you. You will come with us.”

“In the many years we have worked with survivors and their rescuers, I remain awestruck by the heroism of the thousands of rescuers who risked their lives to save others. By holding true to their values, these individuals saved Jews from certain death,” said JFR Executive Vice President Stanlee Stahl. “We owe a great debt of gratitude to these men and women, and through our work, hope to improve their lives and preserve their stories,” he added.

Excerpts by Ynetnews.com

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