Luba Elbaum

"I helped my friends and they helped me."

Name at birth

Luba Laks

Date of birth

12/24/1922

Where were you born?

Lublin, Poland

Where did you grow up?

Minkowice, Poland

Name of father, occupation

Yitzhak Laks, Owner of fruit business, farmer

Maiden name of mother, occupation

Dora, Homemaker

Immediate family (names, birth order)

Parents, four brothers and two sisters

How many in entire extended family?

Who survived the Holocaust?

Only me in my immediate family, all in extended family perished

When the war broke out, I worked with my family for the Germans. While my family was taken to the ghettos in Lublin and Belzyce, I worked on a farm for the Germans. In 1941 I was deported to Budzyn and was a housemaid for the Oberscharführer (Senior Squad Leader) Felix. A year later, I was deported to Plaszow for work detail, then to Auschwitz. In 1944, I was transported to Bergen-Belsen; selected along with 300 other girls to be deported to Aschersleben to work. I was then forced on a six-week death march to Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia; liberated on May 8, 1945. Arrived in the United States in 1951.

Biography taken from University of Michigan-Dearborn, Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive and interview with daughter, Dora Jackler.

Name of Concentration / Labor Camp(s)

Aschersleben / Auschwitz Birkenau / Bergen Belsen / Budzyn / Krakow Plaszow / Theresienstadt

Where did you go after being liberated?

Lived in DP camp Heidenheim, Germany

When did you come to the United States?

1951

Where did you settle?

Canton, Ohio (1951), then Detroit, MI (1951-2000)

Occupation after the war

Homemaker

When and where were you married?

1946 in Lublin

Spouse

Gedale Elbaum, Painter

Children

Faye Wolkowicz, works for a doctor; David, dermatologist; Dora Jackler, JCC Health Club

Grandchildren

Eitan and Noam Jackler; Jeremy, Kevin, and Gregory Elbaum; and Danielle, Shira, and Matthew Wolkowicz

What do you think helped you to survive?

I looked like a gentile having blond hair. I was the oldest in family and a hard worker. I was a strong girl before the war. I took every opportunity to get food. I helped my friends and they helped me.

What message would you like to leave for future generations?

I helped my friends and they helped me.