Holocaust survivors have volunteered at the Museum on a regular basis across the institution—engaging with visitors, sharing their personal histories, serving as tour guides, translating historic materials, and more, since the Museum opened. Their presence has been an invaluable asset, and their contributions vital to the Museum’s mission.
Learn about volunteering at the Museum.
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Samuel “Sam” Ponczak
Born: December 14, 1937, Warsaw, Poland Died: December 7, 2022Before the age of four, Sam Ponczak and his mother had escaped the Warsaw ghetto, had crossed a frozen river into Soviet-occupied territory in Poland, and had been arrested and sent to a labor camp in Siberia.
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Morris Rosen
Born: November 10, 1922, Czestochowa, Poland Died: December 12, 2020, Baltimore, MDOne of 11 children, Moniek grew up in Dabrowa Gornicza, an industrial town in western Poland. His father, Jacob, owned a general store, which he was forced to close in 1938 as the result of a boycott by local antisemites.
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Sylvia Perelmuter Rozines
Born: January 20, 1935, ŁÓDŹ, POLAND Died: February 4, 2023, ROCKVILLE, MDSylvia Rozines was born Cywia Perelmuter on January 20, 1935, in Łódź, Poland. Her father, Isaac, was a salesman, and her mother, Haya, cared for Sylvia and her elder sister, Dora, who was eight years older.
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Tania Rozmaryn
Tania grew up in Smorgonie, a Polish town where Jews constituted more than half of the population. Her father was a successful businessman. Her grandfather, an affluent merchant, traveled frequently and brought the first truck to Smorgonie.
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Rifka “Rita” Lifschitz Rubinstein
Born: December 12, 1936, Văscăuti, Romania Died: February 9, 2023, Rockville, MDRita Rubinstein was born Rifka Lifschitz on December 12, 1936, in Văscăuti, Romania (now Vashkivtsi, Ukraine) to Abraham and Tabel (née Meerbaum) Lifschitz. Her father operated a dry goods store and small factory alongside his brother-in-law. Rita was raised in a multi-generational household, which her family shared with an aunt, Abraham’s sister, and uncle and their two children, as well as with her paternal grandmother, Tzirel, and her aunt’s mother-in-law. The house was equipped with modern amenities such as electricity and a radio. Rita attended synagogue services every Shabbat alongside her father, who was an observant Jew.
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Hans (John) Sachs
Born: May 8, 1920, Decin, Czechoslovakia Died: June 23, 2013, Redding, CTHans was born to a Jewish family in the Sudetenland, a region of Czechoslovakia that had a large German population. In 1922 the Sachs family moved to Vienna, Austria, where they purchased a dry goods store. Hans attended public school and had many non-Jewish friends.
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Sam Schalkowsky
Born: May 23, 1925, Kovno, Lithuania Died: January 6, 2015, Chevy Chase, MDSam Schalkowsky is the son of Yitzhak and Chaya Kupershmidt Shalkovsky. He was born on May 23, 1925 in Kovno (Kaunas) Lithuania where his parents owned a shoe store. Shmuel was the youngest of six siblings, two of whom died at a young age. Three of his older siblings moved to Palestine in the early 1930’s.
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Charlene Schiff
Born: December 16, 1929, Horochow, Poland Died: January 19, 2013, Alexandria, VirginiaShulamit, known as Musia, was the youngest of two daughters born to a Jewish family in the town of Horochow, 50 miles northeast of Lvov. Her father was a philosophy professor who taught at the university in Lvov, and both of her parents were civic leaders in Horochow.
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Alex Schiffman-Shilo
Born: December 15, 1933, Strasbourg, France Died: November 19, 2021, Washington, DCAlex Schiffman-Shilo was born in Strasbourg, France, to a Jewish family who had emigrated from Galicia, Poland. His father, Feibisch, was a traveling salesman who sold leather goods, and his mother, Henia Tauba, was a certified Hebrew teacher who worked as a seamstress for Feibisch’s business. She also took care of Alex and his older sister, Madeleine. For work purposes, Alex’s father moved the family to Paris in 1938.
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Lore Schneider
Born: October 10, 1924, Bochum, Germany Died: September 17, 2017, Springfield, VAAfter Lore’s father was fired, disbarred and beaten in an alleyway for being Jewish, he decided that it was time for the family to leave Germany before conditions became worse.
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