WJC Teens: Conversation with Esther Geizhals, Holocaust Survivor

March 22, 2022, 6:00 pm
Westchester Jewish Center
175 Rockland Avenue
Mamaroneck, New York 10543

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(Dinner 6:00 – 6:30 pm)

Meet Esther Geizhals, who as a teenager, survived a Nazi death march and was smuggled to safety. Speak to her about what it was like to have her whole world turned upside down as a youth, how she escaped and what it was like to rebuild her life. We encourage all teens to take the invaluable opportunity to hear a survivor’s story in person!

About Esther Geizhals, Holocaust Survivor

Esther Geizhals was born in Lodz Poland in 1929. At the age of 10, she and her family were moved to the Lodz ghetto where they lived under terrible conditions until 1944. At that time Mrs. Geizhals was transported to Auschwitz extermination camp. Six weeks later she was moved again to Bergen Belsen and on to Rochlitz concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. In 1945, as the allies were advancing, the whole camp was made to walk for days without food or drink and just a few hours of sleep in fields. Many died and later this was known as the death march. Mrs. Geizhals and four other people escaped during the death march and worked their way to the next village where they were liberated by the Russian army. Eventually she managed to get back to her hometown of Lodz in the hope of finding any survivors of her family. She was very fortunate to find her father who was the only survivor of her family and relatives. Mrs. Geizhals smuggled her way from Poland to the American zone in Germany, where she lived in a displaced persons camp until 1947 at which time she came to the United States with a youth group.