Rochelle Sable
"I am a speaker at the Holocaust Memorial Center. I speak a little differently. I say to the students, why hate other people, don’t hate. I never did anything wrong to any Germans. Do you have an answer I ask? It is absolutely horrible to hate people that never hurt you. A boy wrote an unusual letter. I feel guilty I dislike people I don’t know, I hope when I grow up I wont do that. If I see a person being degraded, I hope I will do something to help... (continued below)"
Name at birth
Rachela Greenspan
Date of birth
07/23/1925
Where were you born?
Where did you grow up?
Dlugosiodlo, Poland
Name of father, occupation
Yitzchak,
Had a little hardware store
Maiden name of mother, occupation
Chana Bursztyn,
Homemaker
Immediate family (names, birth order)
Parents and four children: Manuel, Mendel, Yakov, Shmuel, Rochelle
Who survived the Holocaust?
Nearly everyone survived
I went to two different schools, a Polish school and a religious Jewish school for girls, Bais Yakov, that my mother helped organized in our town.
When I was only 14, my family was forced from their home by the Nazi’s. I survived by fleeing Poland with my family.
When I was only 14, my family was forced from their home by the Nazi’s. I survived by fleeing Poland with my family.
With no home of their own, our family wandered throughout the war and nearly everyone survived. During this hardship, my mother would encourage me saying, “Rochelle, tomorrow will be a better day.”
Though it was hard to believe it at the time, this kept her going.
When the day arrived for the Jewish people in the town to leave, the German soldiers told us "we don't want the Jewish people here, we want you to go," and we had two hours to pack our belongings and leave. I remember my mother telling the family to stay together.
The family was then transported to an unnamed labor camp in Siberia and my father was asked whether he would like his family to become Russian citizens and receive passports. My father refused because we were Polish. We learned later, that the families who accepted the passports were exterminated in concentration camps.
My family was separated from my oldest brother during the journey. We didn't know what happened to him until we were reunited five years later. During my five years at the camp, I was forced to haul bricks and stack them on pallets. My family worked every day, without showers and we were constantly hungry.
It was terrible. During the time in the labor camp, my grandfather died.
After the war, the Polish government reclaimed its citizens and my family received visas to move to Costa Rica to live with an uncle. After learning Spanish, living and working in Costa Rica for 11 months, I moved to Oak Park to live with my aunt.
When I came to America, I spoke four languages and none of them were English. However I was a fast learner. I “Americanized myself.”
I used my own experience to later help other immigrants, most of them Russian to acclimate to life in the United States. I opened my home to them, I translated for them, I helped them apply for jobs, getting them to the doctor’s and so on.
Name of Concentration / Labor Camp(s)
Spouse
Norman
Children
Shlomo (Steven), Nannette (Nachama), Rivka (Randi)
Grandchildren
Five
What do you think helped you to survive?
That I had my family with me always. We worked together, mother telling us tomorrow will be a better day. I am very optimistic, don’t want to live in the past, I want to do for other people. I wanted to be positive, I was always positive, never insulting, never talking behind people’ back.
What message would you like to leave for future generations?
I am a speaker at the Holocaust Memorial Center. I speak a little differently. I say to the students, why hate other people, don’t hate. I never did anything wrong to any Germans. Do you have an answer I ask?
It is absolutely horrible to hate people that never hurt you. A boy wrote an unusual letter. I feel guilty I dislike people I don’t know, I hope when I grow up I wont do that. If I see a person being degraded, I hope I will do something to help them.
Interview with Charles Silow, portions taken from “The Alpena News” – May 25, 2010.
Interviewer:
Charles Silow
Interview date:
05/25/2010
