As the world recalled the horrors of World War II on Yom Ha-Shoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) this past April, Sonya Oshman, an 87-year-old resident at the Jewish Home Assisted Living in River Vale for the past year, remembered her childhood in Novogrodek, Poland. It was a happy one… she was the oldest of five children, and her parents provided their children with a good and loving home.
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Unfortunately, their happiness came to an abrupt end when the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939. Before long, the Jews were rounded up – some were shot, others were herded into trucks, including Sonya’s grandparents whom she never saw again. Sonya, along with her mother, brothers, and sister, were imprisoned in a ghetto. Her father, she learned later, died in a concentration camp, and two of her brothers died – one of starvation and one from a gunshot.
Sonya survived a number of selections by the Nazis, but in May 1943 luck ran out for her and her family. Since death seemed imminent, Sonya’s mother urged her to jump a five-foot, barbed wire fence. Sonya did so, but she never saw mother and sister again. Eventually she was caught and imprisoned again in a ghetto. Sonya said, “I knew I was going to die,” so she and the other prisoners decided to try to build a tunnel to the outside world. They spent their days working and their nights digging. On a rainy night in September, “we decided to crawl out… we took a chance, and if anyone survived, that person could tell the story. I was one of the lucky ones,” Sonya explained.
Then 20, Sonya made it out of the ghetto with three companions – one was Sonya’s brother, another Aaron Oshman who later married Sonya, and Aaron’s brother. After six weeks of walking and hiding, they made their way to Naliboki Forest where they joined up with the Bielski Brigade, a group of partisans led by Tuvia Bielski and his brothers. The group fought the German occupation and rescued hundreds of Jews from execution by the Nazis. The Brigade’s story became the basis of the recently released movie “Defiance.”
At the end of the war, Sonya and Aaron made their way to Italy, finally reaching Florence. The young couple married and lived in Florence for five years, giving birth to their first son, Matthew. In 1950 the Oshmans moved to the U.S., settling first in Brooklyn, where their son Ted was born, and then in Elizabeth, N.J. where they became part of the community. “ I lost my family and God compensated me with another family. I thank G-d for saving me,” she said.
Sonya, now a widow, frequently spoke at meetings about her experiences. In fact, she moved to JHAL after falling on the ice on her way to a speaking engagement. Today she is getting around well and enjoying the daily activities at the facility. We are happy she is part of our family – the Jewish Home Family!