Rena Margulies Chernoff
Rena Margulies Chernoff | |
---|---|
Born | 1933 (age 90–91) Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Poland |
Known for | Author, Holocaust survivor |
Rena Margulies Chernoff (born July 6, 1933) is a writer and
Early life
Rena Margulies Chernoff's hometown is Tomaszów Mazowiecki, formed in 1788 in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland by industrialist Tomasz Ostrowski. She is the daughter of Avram Chaim (Albert) Margulies, born March 8, 1909. Avram was a tailor and opened his own Parisian tailor workshop on August 10, 1931. Avram married Hinda Tenenbaum, who was the daughter of Hershel Tenenbaum and Raizel Kozlowska Tenenbaum, who were observant Orthodox Jews. Hinda became a dressmaker, and together with her husband worked in their tailoring shop, Tres Chic.[4][5]
Rena Chernoff was raised with the help of a Polish nanny, a rare luxury for Jewish families during this time period. Her younger brother, Romek, was born on August 24, 1935.[4]
Surviving The Holocaust
In the years leading up to World War II, millions of Jews were forced to live in urban
Chernoff's hometown of Tomaszów Mazowiecki, had nearly 14,000 Jewish residents prior to World War II; only 250 survived the Holocaust.[6] Chernoff was six years old when Germany conquered Tomaszow. As a ten year old, she toiled in the Blizyn slave labor camp, 57 miles from Tomaszow in the Radom district of Poland, and was later moved to Birkenau, within the Auschwitz camp,[7][8] where she was tattooed with the identification number A-15647.[4]
Life in the United States
At the war's end, Rena Chernoff and her mother had both survived the Holocaust. She and her mother returned to Tomaszow. There, they confronted anti-Semitism from local townspeople. They left Tomaszow in June 1946 to reside in a
The Tailors of Tomaszow: A Memoir of Polish Jews
Rena Margulies Chernoff and her son Allan Chernoff authored The Tailors of Tomaszow: A Memoir of Polish Jews, published in 2014.[4][10][11] Rena Chernoff used this book to reveal her own experiences from the Holocaust, as well as a collective memoir of other survivors of Tomaszow.[11] The Chernoffs believe the history of Holocaust is essential, and Allan has said that "if that history were not written down, if it were not recorded, it would be lost."[11]
In the first part of this book, Chernoff describes her childhood, family, and the city of Tomaszów Mazowiecki. The second part of her book covers the history of Tomaszów Mazowiecki and the Holocaust. She was one of the youngest survivors of the Holocaust and one of only 250 survivors from her town.[12][8] In the book she wrote that this was a painful and unforgettable memory for her, her family, and in the history of Polish Jews during WWII.[12][4]
References
- ISBN 978-1-4214-1433-1.
- ^ S2CID 131845261.
- ^ a b Roman, Rafael Pi (2014-08-20). "The Tailors of Tomaszow: A Story of Holocaust Survival". MetroFocus. WNET New York Public Media. Retrieved 2018-10-31.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-89672-879-0.
- hdl:2047/D20204931.
- ^ Joseph, Simone (2015-10-29). "Journalist and Holocaust survivor give voice to small Jewish town". YorkRegion.com. Retrieved 2018-09-21.
- ^ Chernoff, Allan (January 27, 2015). "My mother was a child of the Nazi death factory". CNN.
- ^ a b c "Allan Chernoff". Allan Chernoff.
- ^ Chernoff, Allan (27 January 2013). "Coming back to life after the Holocaust". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2018-09-21.
- ^ London, Shira. "The Tailors of Tomaszow by Allan Chernoff". Jewish Book Council. Retrieved 2018-10-31.
- ^ a b c American Ancestors (Feb 3, 2015). "Interview with Allan Chernoff, author of "The Tailors of Tomaszow"". youtube.
- ^ a b Kurson, Rebecca (April 2, 2014). "A Polish Town Wiped off the Map". Observer.