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Blanca Schreiber Borell*
I was born in Krakow, Poland on May 6, 1920 to Adele Finder Schreiber (1896-
My sister Sonia and I are the only survivors of an extended family of 84.
In September, 1939, Poland unsuccessfully fought against the invading German armies. When my childhood sweetheart, Norbert Borell returned from the front, we were married in hiding. We suffered the indignities and restrictions of the early persecutions for two years before being herded into the Krakow Ghetto. My mother was taken to Belzec where she was killed along with many members of Norbert’s family.
From the ghetto we walked to Plaszow, a slave labor camp built on top of Jewish cemeteries, where we remained for two years. Norbert and my father were deported to Mauthausen in Austria where my father was murdered a few weeks before the end of the war.
After unspeakable experiences in Birkenau, Auschwitz, Sonia and I were forced on
the ‘death march’ to Bergen-
After liberation in May, 1945, Norbert and I were miraculously reunited. The three of us were a family. We had witnessed six years of executions, brutality and starvation followed by three years of Displaced Persons Camps. In 1948, Norbert’s uncle, Harry White, found us and brought us to Peabody, MA.
While we were still rebuilding our lives, Norbert died in 1974. Norbert and I have two children and five grandchildren.
* deceased -