“Irene Zisblatt eloquently speaks and inspires today’s generation with her story of remembrance and survival”. These words, written by film director and producer Steven Spielberg, appear on the back cover of Irene’s autobiography “The Fifth Diamond”. I recently heard Irene speak at the Chabad Jewish Center of Coral Springs and was captivated by her inspiring words of courage and hope. I visited Irene in her Plantation home where she shared her story.
Photo by Linda Chase
“I was born Chana Seigelstein on December 28, 1929 in the resort town of Polyana, Hungary (in what is now Ukraine). My father’s name was Moshe and my mother was Rachel. I was the oldest of six children. I had four brothers (Mendel, Mayer, David and Leizer) and one sister, Hinda. My father owned a spa in Polyana. The town is located in the Carpathian Mountains. My father was afflicted with polio as a child and developed treatments for resort clients suffering from muscular ailments using natural mineral water produced in Polyana. When I visited the spa in 1998, I brought home cases of the mineral water that my father developed. In the winter, the resort functioned as an orphanage for children. As Germany began to threaten the region, my father swapped the spa for a hotel in the city’s free zone that was owned by a Christian hotelier. In March 1944, Hungary was invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany troops. On the second night of Passover, April 8, 1944, my family was moved into the Munkács ghetto. The ghetto was established for the purpose of preparing the city’s Jewish population for deportation to extermination camps. The Nazis ordered my 25 year old cousin to round up 3,000 children to be sent to the camps. He committed suicide when he realized the children were going to be deported to extermination camps. The Germans deceived me and my family into believing that we were being transferred to work in the vineyards. Instead, we were sent by train to Auschwitz. When we arrived at Auschwitz, Josef Mengele, the infamous Nazi doctor who performed medical experiments on children was entranced by my mother’s beautiful blue eyes and wanted to use them in his experiments. When my mother insisted on keeping all of us together, Mengele became so enraged that my mother had disobeyed him and separated me from my family. I was the only one of 40 family members to survive. My parents and siblings were all sent to the gas chambers. Mengele chose me to be a human guinea pig. Some days he would give me 12 injections in an evil attempt to change the color of my eyes. One day I was selected to go to the gas chambers with 1,500 girls at one time. I was the last one to enter the chamber and remember digging my nails into the door of the overcrowded space. I was thrown out because the door wouldn’t close but knew I would surely be selected soon enough. Since I only weighed fifty pounds at the time, I hid in between the ceiling of the gas chamber and the shelter roof, and then a miracle happened. A young Jewish man tasked with working the gas chamber found me. He covered my naked body with his jacket and helped me board a train leaving Auschwitz for a labor camp in Northern Germany. I remember him saying, ‘I only have three more days to live, so if you survive, live for me. I live a little for him everyday. In the labor camp, I worked alongside 3,500 women in a munitions factory where we sabotaged the bullet casings that were sent to the German front. My friend, Sabka, who I met during one of Mengele’s experiments, reconnected with me at the labor camp. In January 1945 the Germans sent us on a death march wearing nothing more than a blanket and wooden shoes. 5,000 women were sent on the march and the two of us were among only 200 still alive in April. Sabka and I were certain this was the end for us until planes came over the mountains and bombed everything that moved including the German trucks disabling them. With the Germans distracted, we hid in a ditch until dark and then made our escape. The next day we came across an abandoned farm where I dug raw potatoes from the ground for us to eat and found fresh running water for us to drink”.
Irene recalled being liberated.
“The same day Sabka and I discovered the farm, we were liberated by American soldiers. At first I didn’t realize they were Americans because I couldn’t speak English. One of the soldiers spoke German and identified them as Americans. Another soldier wore a mezuzah with his dog tags, therefore we knew he was Jewish. Until then Sabka and I thought we were the only two Jews still alive in Europe. At first the soldiers didn’t know who we were. I’m sure it was shocking to see us with no hair, clothes or shoes. During my imprisonment I was always yelling at God. On the morning we were liberated I remember thanking God for watching over us. The soldiers asked us what we wanted to eat and Sabka wanted scrambled eggs. I just wanted a loaf of bread we wouldn’t have to share with 10 people. The soldiers scrambled eggs in their helmets for us and I settled for crackers since there was no bread available. A Red Cross ambulance provided us with clothing, beds and linen. The next morning Sabka didn’t wake up. Unknown to me, she had been very sick for a long time and died of typhus in her sleep. The medic told me she is no longer sick or hungry and she knows that you are free. I asked the soldiers to bury her by the brook where they found us and gave us a chance to be human again. Sabka will always be in my heart. I was taken to Austria and stayed in a displaced persons camp for two years. Before leaving Europe at the age of 16, I was given the name Irene by the Immigration service”.
Irene reflected on immigrating to America.
“In 1947, my uncle who lived in New York, sponsored my move to the US. I settled in New Jersey and got a job working on the assembly line at RCA. The company sent me to Rutgers University where I studied to be an electrical engineer. When I came back from college, I worked as a troubleshooter at RCA and was soon named foreman of a new department. As a result of my troubleshooting, I was given an $8,000 bonus, which was a lot of money in the 1950s. To me it seemed like I was given a million dollars. I also served as president of BBYO in South Orange, New Jersey. My chapter aided soldiers throughout the world. I met my future husband, Herman, at an Israel Bonds drive. He wooed me by buying $10,000 in bonds that I was selling. He introduced me to everyone at the benefit and the diner we went to afterwards. He owned a scrap metal business in Newark and knew everybody. I remember when we were dating and he took me to a Harry Belafonte concert and we went backstage to meet him. Although I remarried after Herman’s death, Herman was the love of my life. I have two children: a son, Mark and a daughter, Robin. I also have five grandchildren”.
Photo by Linda Chase
Irene expressed why it’s important to share her Holocaust experiences.
“I did not share my story with anyone for 50 years following the war. After ‘Schindler’s List’ came out in 1993, I knew it was my duty to share my experiences as a lesson for humanity. I also participated in my first of 19 March of the Living trips. The children are my support because they are willing to learn and to listen. After touring the gas chambers, the children are suddenly different people. I always tell the children how important it is to be who they are and to be grateful for what they have. I relive the experience every time I visit Auschwitz. I was approached during the March of the Living and was told that my story should be shared with Spielberg’s USC Shoah Foundation. The nonprofit organization is dedicated to making audio-visual interviews with survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust. A few years later the foundation contacted me and said Spielberg wanted to feature my story along with the testimonies of four other survivors in the documentary he was producing titled ‘The Last Days’. I responded that I would only be involved in the project if the film was used strictly to educate people. The crew began filming in my Pembroke Pines home (where I lived at the time). Spielberg informed me we would travel to Budapest to resume filming. In Budapest I reconnected with a cousin I didn’t know was still alive. With Spielberg and his crew, I visited the Hungarian Parliament Building and the Danube Holocaust monument. I was astonished that I had to tell some high school kids having lunch near the memorial what it actually represented. A street artist asked me if I would like to have him paint my portrait. Since I was busy, I told him I would come back the next day. Thinking I was trying to get out of it, he responded, ‘You’re just like all the Jews, you don’t want to spend money’. At a state dinner that night, Spielberg seated me next to the Hungarian president and I told him, ‘I would like you to make some changes in Budapest that includes implementing Holocaust education in both public and private schools. The state leader told me that he would follow through with my requests”.
Irene shared her words of wisdom.
“It is important to confront and fight hatred because hate causes all the problems we have in this world”.
