Mania Salinger

"Know the details about Holocaust. I have lots of guts, I was lucky. "

Name at birth

Manya Tenenbaum

Date of birth

02/23/1924

Where were you born?

Radom, Poland

Where did you grow up?

Radom, Poland

Name of father, occupation

Tobias, Owned a shoe factory

Maiden name of mother, occupation

Szajndla Kasztan, Homemaker

Immediate family (names, birth order)

Parents and three children: Rella, me and Jacob

How many in entire extended family?

50, cousins, my father’s family lived in town

Who survived the Holocaust?

My sister Rella and myself. My mother and brother Jacob were sent to Treblinka to their deaths.

In Bergen-Belsen, I was dying. I desperately needed water. I said to G-d, please help me live.

This was springtime, I figured it was around Passover. I said to G-d, if I survive, I promise I will always remember this miracle and will make Passover the most special holiday for me, and so I do till today.

I left my barracks and was looking for any kind of water. I looked up and noticed that there were no Germans in the guard towers. I started to tell people that the Germans were gone. Then the British soldiers came to liberate us. We ran to the fence to greet the British troops.

I was liberated by British soldiers on April 15, 1945 at Bergen-Belsen, I was then transferred to the American zone. Later, my sister Rella Wizenberg found my name on a list and we were reunited.

(Mania’s autobiography is called, Looking Back by Mania Salinger)

Name of Ghetto(s)

Radom

Name of Concentration / Labor Camp(s)

Auschwitz Birkenau / Bergen Belsen

Spouse

Martin Salinger, an American GI who I met soon afterwards and we married, he was an angel, we were married 35 years. Remarried to Micky Hearn.

Children

Susan, Joan, and Debra

Grandchildren

Three

What do you think helped you to survive?

A German soldier saved my life, among 25 to 30 girls. I had knowledge of German.