Carol is a Holocaust treasure and the only member of her family who survived the Holocaust.
She went to five different death camps over five years, including Auschwitz.
So how did she survive and was not deathed in the five death camps? A miracle.
She says she weighed 45 pounds at 17 years-old when liberated.
Remembering the 6 million
April 19 ceremony recalls the Holocaust
BY DIANE C. BEAUDOIN CHAMPION CORRESPONDENT
April 17, 2009
Leominster Champion
Carol Sojcher is a survivor.
She was only 12 when Hitler's troops invaded her native Poland. The Nazis killed her mother, father and brother, and sent her to Auschwitz. Carol persevered under horrific conditions, and on Sunday she will participate in a special ceremony to help commemorate those who were not so fortunate.
On April 19, the Congregation Agudat Achim of Leominster will hold a special remembrance of the Holocaust at 7 p.m.
Rabbi Alan M. Alpert said this will be the 11th service to remember those lost during the Holocaust.
"Each year we hold the remembrance service. During the service, we light six candles to commemorate the six million Jews who were killed during that time," the rabbi explained.
Rabbi Alpert said there is also a community-wide candle lighting that will take place, and the traditional prayer, called Kaddish, will be recited.
The Leominster synagogue has a few Holocaust survivors within its ranks who will also be in attendance at the somber ceremony.
Carol Sojcher, a Leominster resident, is a living piece of history as she is the only family member who survived the Holocaust. After her family was killed she was sent to live in five different camps over five years, including Auschwitz.
"The Nazis came and murdered my family, and I went through hell with a capital 'H'," she said softly during a telephone interview.
Carol is not sure why she was chosen to be the sole survivor of her family, but said she was determined to live.
"I ended up after the war going to Denmark then Sweden. I say I was a mess, at 17 years old I weighed only 45 pounds. The people of Sweden took care of me and nursed me to health," she recalled.
Carol came to the United States in 1945 after relatives she had in New York found her name on a list.
"Jewish names were on lists, and my relatives saw I was the only one alive. I came here to live with them," she said.
After arriving in America, Carol said she was not going to sit around and do nothing, so she pursued her education.
"I must say the Nazis did a job on me. I had a lot of problems, but I had to get through it," she noted.
She recounted living in Poland at the beginning of the war. Her family members were forced to wear the Star of David on their clothing on the front and back so they could be identified as Jews.
"We were stopped from going to school. The people of Poland were mean to us, and they would point out our houses to the Nazis, like my house," she said.
Carol had a number tattooed on her arm for many years after the war. She said her son once asked her if it was a telephone number. A family friend who was a surgeon in New York removed the tattoo so it would not be a constant reminder of what she went through.
Carol married and has a son and a daughter. Her son is named after her father and her daughter is named after her mother.
"My son is a lawyer in Boston and our daughter lives in New York and works for an international company. I always worked so they could get an education. That was important to me," she said.
Carol will light one of the six candles at Sunday's ceremony at Congregation Agudat Achim.
"Every year they ask me to light one of the candles in remembrance of all the Jews who were murdered," she said.
Sunnie Epstein was born in Cologne, Germany in 1924, but due to her father's foresight and knowledge, her immediate family fled to England just prior to Hitler's reign of terror.
"We were in England when the war broke out, but members of my family, my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins were all killed during the Holocaust," Sunnie said.
She said if it had not been for her father, none of them would have made it out.
"I don't know how he did it, but he was able to put money in foreign countries before we left. He was a businessman in Germany, and did lose a lot of money. He sent my brother first to England as boys' education was more important, then he, my mother and I went," she said.
One condition of England taking Jewish refugees was that they would not earn a living so they would not take income from British citizens. "My father agreed to that," she noted.
Sunnie had to learn to speak English in Northampton, where they were evacuated to from London.
"I learned to speak English in a hurry. I was pretty much celebrated in the school as the only refugee kid that was there," she quipped.
She was taken in by an elderly couple who cared for her like their own child.
"I was treated very well by them. They would save up all their gas rations so once a month they took me somewhere in England that would give me memories of my time there. They took me to Stratford-Upon-Avon where Shakespeare lived, and other places that had meaning to a kid going to America," she said.
She recalled her uncle writing to her father during the war from a town in Holland, and telling her father to come there instead of England.
"My father always said Holland was not far enough away from Germany, and he was right. That part of our family was killed by Hitler when he took over there, too," she said.
Sunnie has visited the Holocaust Museum in Boston to trace family members and has found names of many of her relatives who were killed.
"They have a good amount of information, and I have found a lot of my family that was not lucky like we were. I've been able to find when and where some of them died, and the names of others that in Hebrew says they do not know how they died," she said.
She considers herself very fortunate to have escaped Nazi Germany.
"I don't know if I feel like a real survivor, as we were very lucky to get out when we did. We had just gotten to England when war broke out and Hitler began his persecution of the Jews. It is part of my life, and I just consider myself very, very lucky."
