https://youtu.be/Csgj3hlgxw0 This video that captures the cantor singing and photos from his life, is a fitting and moving addendum to the article
95
“There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.”
- Thomas Aquinas
Thank you for telling this story.
101
A story of horror and hope. And every time I read about Jewish refugees in Europe, I think about the children in cages on our border and how badly they are treated. Some, have even died in those cages. Children. Alone and in pain in America. And so now the horror continues - but by America. My hope is that for the story of those children, of all refugees, to end as well as it did for the two lovely people in this story.
194
Amazing. This should be made a movie.
119
Precious. Simply precious.
39
I have had the honor and privilege of meeting Cantor David Wisnia and hearing his story and song in person. He graciously accepted my invitation and came to speak and sing accompanied by his grandson on the piano to my 8th grade students about a year ago. I have seen first hand how his sharing of history in this intimate and deeply personal manner has changed perspectives for young students by bringing the momentous historical context to life and making it relevant for children today. Thank you to the New York Times for sharing his story on a global level so many more people can be touched as I and my students are by his life experiences and historical perspective. Thank you as well to Ms. Spitzer for aiding in Cantor David Wisnia's survival. I care very much for the entire Wisnia family and am so grateful they are all here today.
213
This is without a doubt, the most extraordinarily moving story of survival, love, the resilience of the human spirit that I have ever read, concerning the Holocaust .
Congratulations Ms Blankfeld on the research and photos that make this a treasure of incalculable value . I am at a loss for words to adequately acknowledge this astounding story.
141
The search for love flows like blood through our veins from childhood till death - one can't see it, touch it, hear it - but it's above all the most important part of our life. Such a bitter-sweet story.
78
My grandfather was 1001t Airborne. I am glad to hear of his unit's connection to this story. Shalom to all survivors and their families.
92
My family and I have twice had the life-affirming opportunity and privilege to hear Cantor Wisnia address our congregation, Rodeph Shalom in Philadelphia. His story encourages us to be strong in the face of evils we cannot imagine. This part of it, which he did not speak of to us, encourages us to continue to find love even amidst such evil. I was fortunate, such as it is, to grow up among survivors. Thank you a million times, Cantor, for helping my children understand. I wish you only good things.
83
I am Asian American and abhor the rise of antisemitism now after the horrors of the holocaust. To those survivors still with us and their descendants, I send my best wishes. I am glad Ms. Spizer and Mr. Wisnia finally met again one last time. They are an inspiration now and in their lives!
122
This is a beautiful story, as many have written, but it is also a complicated one. As Atina Grossman notes, in getting David off the "bad transports" someone else almost certainly went in his place. Zippi was an amazing person whom I very briefly knew. I think she would have objected to sentimentalizing what happened. The love story was interwoven with stories of very unusual privilege (in the context of Auschwitz) and moral complexity. What is most inspiring is that they used their privilege for the good--in a range of other ways not included in the article--as that was possible in that place.
147
Thank you for this extraordinary story. What is best in humanity endures. It is a deep comfort to remember this.
47
Love, it’s the most powerful emotion. It is also the one which is most enduring.
I cannot imagine what each of these individuals went through. Telling and sharing their stories is what will keep this history alive once all the survivors have passed on.
33
Wow. Thank you.
33
Yes, beautiful story, but my thoughts and my sorry go to all the ones who didn't know how to sing or be good at "design", didn't have anybody to watch after them and save them from "bad shipment", these people who were, each of them, somebody, and yet...
87
@Eric You make it sound as though you do not think the survivors suffered.
23
@Karen
I agree. One cannot qualify suffering.
26
Stories like these need to be preserved forever. We must never forget what happened - all of it; the good, the bad, the unspeakable as well as the few stories such as these when love flourished amongst the horror.
33
oh my god ive heard hundreds of survivor stories. Like others this one made me cry, but its the first that made me smile; the length people will go for the ones they loved. Thankyou for publishing this story. Bless both of them (and zippi, may her memory be a blessing) And may we all find such love in their lives
38
Beautiful.
17
“There are few people left who know the details,” he said.
“As the memory of World War II, the Holocaust and the Gulag fades, so too does the antipathy to the illiberal ideologies that spawned Europe’s past horrors. This is evidenced in the rising electoral success of populist authoritarian parties of the extreme left and right, none of which have anything new to say, yet claim the mantle of ideological innovation and moral virtue.” James Kirchick, “The End of Europe”
34
This breaks the heart.
32
Am I the only one who wonders why this is considered a love story? Bless them both, and their loved ones, but he left her as soon as he had his freedom, and didn’t visit her after this visit, in her state.
They had a pact to meet at Warsaw - he ignored it, deciding his future was more important. Her husband died in 1996 and although they had a mutual acquaintance, he hardly cared for her.
I don’t consider this a love story at all. I believe that she did love him, but his love is not true love, at least in my books. Honestly confused.
59
I’m dismayed by your comments. To be so judge-mental. Have you considered what it was like back in those days. It was about survival, it was about recovering from such a horrible and frightening experience. There was hardly, if any way to communicate. Yes, they made a pact, but’s let’s remember, they were, in essence, kids.
I believe they both loved each other, I believe there was a deep understanding on each other’s part about how their life played out. When a person seeks out another person they moved loved after 72 years, that’s because of an enduring love. So, yes, this is a love story.
116
This is the story of this holiday season - nothing could be better and more heart warming than this story. Thank you for writing and sharing.
19
I am filled with tears to know one more story of this era.
My father landed at Omaha Beach D-Day+1.
He was wounded twice amidst terrible fighting. But even after returning home, he never said one word about the war.
Not one word in all the days of the rest of his brief life, dead at 55.
Not to his wife or his kids.
We were just left with the rubble of a man he was when he returned -- broken, angry, psychically wounded.
With each one of these stories, I learn and I heal.
131
So hard to remember, bad memories.
In the early ‘70s, I moved from Atlanta to Miami to manage the office of a design-products rep firm. A local restaurant on 40th Street was a favorite after-hours gathering place for the design community.
I came to know a man who owned a factory on 36th St. He had built a keystone building a half-block from the bar. A center for designers. We spent many hours over a few years simply being friends. The tattoo of his concentration camp number was the first I had ever seen on a real person. I had read much about camps, the holocaust and such markings. Never spent time talking about his past, but there was something there – from time to time, he would look at the numbers, look at me, and smile – then move on in conversation about some local subject.
One day, he walked out of his 36th street facility to his car. A young man approached and demanded money. I don’t know what this man, this gentle man, who had faced death and bore its number on his arm, said to him, but that boy-man shot my friend. He was able to get in his automobile and drive to the entrance of a Jai Lai fronton. The parking attendant approached. The door opened. The driver, who survived Nazis, fell dead out of the vehicle, murdered by a child of his adopted nation.
I have since viewed life and death very differently. Unfortunate the Holocaust fades from memory-only the symbolism and hatred remain. I am not Jewish. But even I can ask: What can we do to remember – Never again.
88
I had the privilege of briefly knowing Zippi. She never stopped being "her own woman" and, I'm guessing, would have been that way whatever the specifics of her life history. She was a force!
59
This is the kind of thing I pay for a subscription to the NYTs.
I fear that part of the rising anti-semitism in the US and Europe is at least partially due to the fact that there are so few survivors left and same with military personnel who liberated the camps.
I'm Gen-X so I was always very aware of the Holocaust and the horrors of it. My Grandfather liberated at least once camp and the experience of what he saw was burned into him.
Wonder if by any chance Mr. Wisnia by any chance ever knew my grandfather, Lt. Frank Kievit. He was attached to the 101st during that time.
49
O was fortunate enough to have family survive the camps. My cousin Sonia met her husband in the camp and lived many years together in Bayonne NJ. They are both gone now it was a wonderful love story and they were happy till their deaths.
27
Beautiful.
13
That is one beautiful story. Thank you, New York Times.
26
Just beautiful,
Thank you for this story!
13
This wonderful, gentle story, about times in a brutal hellish place where the name sauna is an ephemism for gassing to death parasites, then later humans.
The entire story progresses on gentle little feet. We are always learning, and about the horror of the past which is the Holocaust, a little light comes back.
New images. Camp inmates men or women committing suicide by self-electrocution?
That the Nazis did anticipate retribution for their murderous conduct is also curious. I think modern made for Movies Made for TV and even in shallow history textbooks, leave out the rush to cover up the evidence that the concentration camps made.
22
My dad was one of the troops that liberated Dachau. I wonder if he knew I was reading adult nonfiction about Hitler et al starting at age 7. (He never slept well.) He pulled me out of Hebrew school about the same time. Very mixed blessings being a Jew.
20
For those that want to hear Mr. Wisnia speak, I copied this address for you to click on https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn43244
and you should be able to hear him being interviewed in 20111, audio only. Wonderful heartbreaking history, God Bless the two of them.
33
Thank you for bringing this story to life.
13
Thanks for such a beautiful story and a reminder of how evil and wickedness can destroy innocent lives.
In a time like now we are experiencing such hate towards our fellow human beings. Every day you read about a new plan or strategy by "our" government to inflict hardship or harm to people the president considers not a part of his base.
Today I visited a slave castle in Ghana, West Africa and had a tour of the castle and it boggles my mind how the human heart is able to conjure up so much evil and inflict it on another group of people.
It happened during the Holocaust, during the Transatlantic slave trade, the Arabian slave trade and today in America and Europe.
45
How extraordinary, how beautiful.
So many faced incomprehensible sufferings, but they still held and shared their indomitable spirits with one another.
Phenomenal.
13
I would never judge anyone
who survived such an
incomprehensible horror as
The Holocaust. We should respect
the manner in which they
wish to tell their story or not
tell their story. After liberation
there was a lack of empathy for their
plight. I would imagine that many people
felt isolated and misunderstood and got
on with life as well as possible. I thank
you for this moving story. Bless the survivors.
45
In life today to think that the horror was comment by the human race is a fact that i can`t get over. I married a Jewish woman and her Grandparents wore in the camps. I never meant the grandparents but i wish i could have to talk about there experience and find out what they thought the Nazi`s would accomplish. In my thoughts there is no subhuman RACE PERIOD.
16
What a beautiful and moving story. Thank you for sharing this with us.
14
Both sides o my family left Germany,Russian and Latvia well before either World Wars.... but this would have been the fate of them all if they had stayed.
I had to keep reminding myself to breathe. Thank you for this wonderfully moving piece.
24
Giving thanks, and prayers too, that we still live in a world where there's space in our hearts for a story like this.
16
A story of beauty midst the ugliest horror of an atrocity that
WE MUST NEVER FORGET.
37
What a lovely story.
At least they had some sort of closure.
10
What a beautiful story. Loved blossomed under the most horrible of circumstances.
There are parallels between their stories and my father-in-law's story. He was from Slovakia and he was a prisoner at Auschwitz. He was a U.S. citizen at the time. His father had gone to the U.S. and became a citizen and then went back to Slovakia to get married. When the war started they were unable to get passports from the U.S. embassy. My father-in-law arrived at Auschwitz in April, 1942. He was the only one in his family to survive the Holocaust. He was eventually sent to Warsaw after the uprising as part of the crew who cleaned up the ghetto. Eventually he was rescued by the U.S. army troops who saw he was American and sent him to a U.S. army hospital and then he came to the U.S. However, since he never was in a displaced persons camp he never got reparations, so he sued the German government and they finally settled.
25
My father was in some of these same places ... including Dachau and Berchtesgaden. 24th tank battalion, 13th armored division. He spoke Yiddish fluently. He never spoke of what he saw - and took those memories with him to his grave.
Thank you NYT and Mr. Wisnia for sharing the story. Never Forget.
49
Amazing story, brilliant article. There's nothing like the NYT...
28
The Talmud says “save a life and save the world.” By saving Mr. Wisnia’s life five times Ms. Tichauer allowed the lives of Mr. Wisnia’s children, grandchildren going for generations and ages forever. None would exist without Ms. Tichauer’s love. She has saved the world in saving Mr. Wisnia. She has fulfilled the Talmud by her acts.
114
@Ken Watchel. Thank you.
17
There are Guatemalan and Honduran kids who will tell similar stories in the years to come.
56
A movie must be made of their lives, extremely moving!
25
This is a beautiful tale of love, loss. and luck in a time of terror and brutality. As I read the comments I think of so many survivors who did not speak of their loss and hardship until many years later, if ever. Many soldiers who liberated them kept the sights they saw unknown to their families, as well. What we now recognize as PTSD must have gripped entire generations of Survivors and many military personnel who bore witness to their suffering. How our society can forget this I can’t fathom. But for every one of us who reads this, and perhaps tells others about it, we can add to the millions and millions of us who believe and affirm these words: Never Again. Never Forget.
56
I would like to recommend the SPIELBERG ARCHIVES of Holocaust survivors accounts. Some of these can be accessed on line.
15
Thank you Kati, I am going to share this with all my friends. I had known many of these stories were on YouTube, but had not known there were gathered together.
2
Back in the mid 1990s I belonged to the same organization with an older Jewish gentleman. I am a black African immigrant, but we felt something in common, so we clicked. He told me a story of being in a Nazi concentration camp as a kid with his family during WWII.
Then suddenly one day, his family had a visitor. They were taken to the exit where his uncle was waiting for them. His uncle transported them to the train station, they boarded a train, and rode in long silence out of Nazi territory. There were numerous Nazi check points along the way, but each time Nazi guards would talk to their uncle, inspect his documents, and let them through. They were incredibly amazed and frightened because the uncle himself ordinarily ought to have been in a concentration death camp with other Jews.
It turns out the uncle was a high-ranking Freemason; he used his masonic connections with the Germans not only to save himself but also his family.
72
Amazing story filled with the humanity and its sacred paths. Although I wish they had reacquainted and had a family it wasn’t to be. Instead, their separate paths perhaps helped to broaden the footprints of survival.
28
What a beautiful story and food for thought in the world we know today. I hope the lessons of history are not lost on the young.
25
A very sweet and moving story. Brought tears to my eyes.
20
@MICHAEL PLISKIN - agreed. I was fine until the very last paragraph, with the thought of him singing to her at essentially her deathbed such a poignant act. Amazing story!
17
The Holocaust's legacy impacts the next generation in ways not always understood from when they were kids. My ex-fiance, son of a Holocaust survivor, said he was always diving into the pool as a kid to see how far he could swim underwater without coming near the surface. He said it was really important to him, and he never knew why. While I could be wrong, perhaps it was this: his father told stories of being in a death camp, and the prisoners would be told to jump into a lake after which the soldiers would shoot at them, for entertainment. One never knew who would climb out. My heart choked up at his father's original story and again at his son's bafflement over his own childhood memory.
52
It is his mind protecting him from the connection of the two stories.
7
It might interest fellow NYT readers to know that Helen Spitzer Tichauer, or, "Zippi," gave one of the earliest recorded Holocaust witness testimonies ever--in the year 1946 to Dr. David P. Boder--decades before survivors began publicly sharing their experiences. You can find the translated interview online with a quick google.
I was halfway through reading this heartening article, before realizing that I had drawn upon Mrs. Tichauer's 1946 testimony for my graduate thesis at the University of Michigan. What a privilege to learn something new about a subject I'd studied in 2015, and who has since passed away. May her memory be a blessing.
Thanks, Keren, for publishing this moving story.
90
Beauty in the face of evil. Never heard of a more touching, moving love story.
29
What an Amazing story!! Humanity, Love, Courage, and Resiliency - all in the face of the worst atrocities.
20
What a touching story
10
Sounds like it was basically a sexual relationship, but it's amazing that the force of life that is sexual desire could flourish such horrible circumstances. Ms. Spitzer was an extremely able and purposeful person
7
Please do not trivialize their relationship, did you not read Zippi telling him that she went to Warsaw and waited? You don’t do that for ‘sex’, you do that for love.
38
Amazingly, some say that the holocaust did not take place. That six million Jews and millions of others did not die at the hands of madmen and their cohorts in crime.
The holocaust did happen. It is one of the blackest spots on human kind ever and it is our responsibility to make sure that this crazy world never forgets.
What has always made me most sad is that the 6 million have no names. It is always just six million. This wonderful story of survival and love shows that individuals--millions and millions of individuals--perished at the hands of the Nazis and their friends in arms.
41
The fact that either of them had anything like a sex drive in that hellish environment is amazing--and inspiring. A powerful human spirit is notoriously hard to kill. It will find a way.
17
Like many others, I could not read this without crying. I think of that famous phrase--oh, the humanity--or invert it to think of the Nazi murderers--oh, the inhumanity.
14
In addition to always remembering, it becomes just as important, as the years roll on, to keep in mind why we should not forget.
Questioning why we should never forget is itself an argument to remember. People who think the Holocaust is not relevant to them, today, should understand that if humanity could do this, then all who share humanity are responsible for ongoing awareness and prevention.
25
So beautiful.
8
Absolutely heart-rending; what a beautiful tale of love, tenderness, survival, grit, and grace. This is why we happily subscribe to the Times. Thank you for the lovely reading.
20
Thank you so much for this loving story. My eyes are filled with tears!
8
What a story! Wonderful that they got to finally meet in one stop almost at the end of the road. Too bad she waited so many years after becoming a widow to see him. Although romantic love may have passed and faded, there must have been a friendship bond that could have lasted and be renewed. Unless it was too hard to revive those times. I love the part that he sang for her the old song that she had taught him and represented their bond. (And what a resourceful woman Ms. Tichauer was and continued being in her post captivity life.)
23
We who have had our hearts shattered and, as much as possible, mended in reading this astonishing story must be mindful that such an utterly complex and epic piece of journalism was rendered by a person, a writer worthy of great praise for weaving what for most of us would be ineffable into a fully comprehensible, moving and enlightening gift to we who have read it. Thank you, Keren Blankfeld.
47
The attrocities done in the Holocaust make speechless and stories like this appear like unbelievable and moving wonders. How much unbelievable suffering has been created, how was such unhumanity possible? How can we prevent this from happening again? We must never forget, we must always remain alert for signs of antisemitism, intolerance and inhumanity.
34
Weeping after reading this. At the end of the day, through pain, suffering, indignitys, and atrocities beyond the minds comprehension. LOVE PREVAILS.
18
The most interesting line for me in this amazing story (besides the one from Ms. Tichauer about what they "did" together) was Mr. Wisnia's mega-understatement, “Our boys were not so nice to the SS”. I prefer to interpret this to mean that he feels some remorse or shame for what even they did. These horrible realities on the ground go back and forth. But they are ultimately the products of institutions and organized efforts of immoral individuals who rarely get their hands dirty.
An Austrian acquaintance of mine and former member of the SS told me his story of a "death march" from Lower Austria through the Bohemian Forest as POW of the Russians, who traded the Americans for them (when their train stopped between stations and they were taken off).
The Russians, who where Cossacks (even on horseback) were paid per head for each POW they delivered to Bratislava. They had to kill Czech villagers along the way who came out to stone, etc. the Nazis POWs. He told me that 6,000 men started the march - and he was one of 2 or 4 thousand that arrived in Bratislava. (I can't remember exactly; he didn't know how many Czech villagers died along the way.)
I guess my point here is that the depravity of war is the product of social institutions and enterprises run amok. Those at the top (with their systems of social control) are far more responsible than all those at the bottom, in the trenches.
19
Those who live by the sword, die by the sword.
4
@carl bumba
My dad told of guarding a small group of SS prisoners and seriously considering just shooting them. He decided against it. He was a good Jew.
9
@PRKS
Yes. That's actually my point - and that the pen is not just mightier, it's safer than the sword. Those wielding pens rarely die by the pen.
7
I will never forget in the 1960s as a middle class, American, non-Jewish child being invited, along with other neighborhood children, to the home of a neighbor (Mrs. Yasmer), who was a school teacher, and her telling the story of her adolescence and loss of her family in a concentration camp, and showing us "her number" tattooed on her arm.
Fifty-plus years later, I can still recall the shock and fear I felt in that moment when personally hearing and seeing the atrocities humans are capable of doing to one another.
52
@NMV
Where I lived, in New Jersey, the Deli Counter men had long tattoos on their arms (wearing short white sleeved shirts, and white aprons). I could not understand them because they were only numbers. I asked them, what those numbers were about. I learned.
There were many holocaust camp survivors living nearer to the area of NYC, after the war.
16
A truly inspiring story. Sad that 72 years passed by. She taught him how to be a man. Then he acted like a man and marched toward his future. Funny how life happens.
18
What a beautiful story. In every way. Thank you.
15
"Ms. Spitzer’s account of her journey immediately after the war was deliberately vague. She alluded to smuggling Jews across borders through the Bricha, an underground movement that helped refugees move illegally across Eastern Europe and into Palestine."
This reminds me that we use the term "illegal" carefully today. People fleeing lives of horror and desperation need all the help the "surrounding populations" can afford to provide. They don't need our judgement and cages.
51
I think Steven Spielberg has found his next production in this great, totally human story.
17
Beautiful. Please make this a movie.
11
Is it possible to keep tears from flowing after reading this?
14
I don’t know, for me the tears would have gone on for the rest of the day so I had to make the choice not to cry. It has not been easy at all. Hang onto this, they lived! Not only that, Zippi saved many many lives during and after the war, and if we all pass this story onto to everyone we know, thus opening eyes to the truth of Nazi Fascism, Zippi will CONTINUE TO SAVE LIVES!
7
Fantastic Story.
7
And yet, we have an anti-semite whispering daily in the ear of the racist misogynist commander in chief. As a direct result anti-semitism is on the rise, again, in the US.
Shame.
Mr. Wisnia - some of us do not forget.
56
I wonder, if he did not try to meet her in a hotel lobby, mayby she would be more zippy to attend. Just wondering
1
WOW. Just WOW.
6
Read this story and tell me that the Holocaust was not real.
12
"...he happened upon a hand shovel. He struck an SS guard and ran."
Sam, My father's cousin related a similar story. He was a prisoner in some concentration camp, and for no reason told to me, a guard ordered Sam to follow him outside the gate.
They proceeded to the nearby field where the guard handed Sam a shovel and, pointing his rifle, ordered him to dig his own grave. In the midst of this grim chore, Sam looked up to see that the guard's back was to him and the man was enjoying a smoke.
Thinking "I have nothing to lose," Same crept up behind the guard and swung the shovel with all his might at the guard's helmeted head. The fellow crumbled to the ground like a bag of bricks and Sam ran as fast as he could towards the nearby thick, dark woods, expecting to feel a bullet enter his back the whole time.
Obviously, he lived to tell the tale. To this day, I wonder what the guard told his superiors about the Jew who got away.
930
@LarryAt27N I'm guessing the guard dug a makeshift grave and never told a soul it was empty.
121
For years, Cantor Wisnia led the Passover Seder at Green Acres Country Club in Lawrenceville, NJ. My dad was also an Auschwitz survivor, and I know they shared stories as they were both exactly the same age. We haven’t seen the Cantor in several years, so I was happy to hear he’s still singing and sharing his story. May he continue to go from strength to strength and live to 120!
A must beautiful love story... many thanks for sharing.
46
Thank you for this incredible story of love, resilience and fortitude. Brought tears to my eyes on a peaceful Sunday morning. We take for granted what so many have endured and sacrificed. As an immigrant in the US, we had a role that the world used to treasure and respect. We must always remember.
36
@Jaime
Thank you for your comment...I was going to write something that tried to express each of those elements but you did it much better.
11
Powerful and incredibly moving.
Several years ago the grand prize winner of a 3-minute German film contest had a similar theme -- and a similar emotional impact.
7
Wow. This is such a great story. This is why that generation was called the Greatest Generation. I would have loved to listen or read their story. Wow.
6
I can’t say anything as majestic as other commenters, so I will just say that this was such an outstanding story on so many fronts. Thank you for showing me this glimpse of beauty in an otherwise horrific world.
19
I was totally intrigued by this beautiful heartwarming love story! My mind went to my late husband. I'm crying as I write this, for the love I've got for my wonderful late husband has kept me going during the holidays. Which for me are so hard. This real life love story has struck me like no other. God kept them both alive to teach us all the many life lessons, we all need to appreciate and cherish. Never has a history and love story effective me like yours Thank you and God Bless you both.
23
May the loving soul of your husband embrace you and shower you with love this holiday season. Yours too was a great love to have endured even in his death.
14
As the daughter-in-law of survivors, I am disturbed by the comment about “professional” survivors.
Some survivors had both the drive and the talent to produce memoirs. They deserve our gratitude and respect. Without them, our knowledge of the horrors of the Holocaust would be reduced to numbers. While we don’t know exactly how all 6 million lived, we know how some did. That there were some brave enough and talented enough to do so gives some voice to all the murdered. Never forget. Never again.
44
Beautiful story, beautifully written. In times like these, with so much evil in the world, it's a blessing to know that, in even worse times, goodness and love still exist.
19
It strikes me that, in survivors' stories such as these, much depended upon luck. What if Mr. Wisnia had run into the Soviet army, and not the Americans? Worse, what if the American soldiers who heard his story had not been so willing to listen, had not been so kind? I think of the Navy SEAL, Gallagher, and the way he treated a fifteen-year-old prisoner, compare his behavior to the behavior of the men in the 101st Airborne, and wonder why the U.S. is now producing and encouraging soldiers like Gallagher. I cringe to think that he was pardoned. What if Mr. Wisnia had run into a Gallagher, and not the good-hearted men of the 101st Airborne?
51
@Tired
After discovery of nearly a hundred murdered unarmed American POWs at Malmedy, many US and Allied outfits showed a bit of revenge. British troops gunned down SS at one camp liberation, US Army machine-gunned a dozen SS men at another. When court martial papers for the later reached Gen. Patton, he conveniently lost them.
War is like that. Nor was any army, any side perfect in any war. Bless the 82nd and 101st for being as incredibly good as they were,
19
@Tired
But he and everyone else in the camp were aware of the Russians and or the Americans coming. The camp detainees were compelled to assist the Nazi's destroy the evidence of the mass incarceration, murder, and incineration of their bodies. Not all the 1.1 million corpses, or skeletal remains in Mr. Wisnia's camps were recovered.
I haven't seen any documentaries that have focused on that aspect of the Nazi preparation for surrender, if they ever did.
3
@drbobsolomon: Right, war is hell. But some people make it more hellish than others.
4
Just like the movie An Affair to Remember, waiting at a time & designated place... And waiting, and waiting...
I'm sure Ms. Tichauer was heartbroken.
While a beautiful story, Mr. Wisnia and his "110% American" once he was with the GIs, IMHO should have at least tried to have met her or reached out to her...
But I'm a romantic, maybe his decision not to turn up at the designated time & place was not explained as well as it could have been.
Anyhoo, who has the film rights, that's what I want to know!
13
She saved his life, loved him, and waited in Warsaw as they had agreed, while he took off for America and abandoned her. Lucky guy but not really a love story. The article romanticizes his story a bit and glazes over the whole abandonment thing. She sounds like an amazing woman who despite her beloved's abandonment went on to find another love and did good works for the rest of her life. I wonder if she actually "finally" consented to his visit or yielded to pressure. She had chosen not to see him at least once before in New York. They had a mutual friend... she could have (and chose not to) get in touch with him for 72 years. His one question might have been to ask her to forgive him.
41
@Martha I was thinking he was a bit of a schmuck for not even looking for her. On the other hand, she found a better man and was able to live a good life, so maybe that's how it was meant to be.
18
He was a 17 years old kid, traumatized and happy to be alive, cut the man some slack.
40
Given the choice to *maybe* meet a woman 8 years his senior who no doubt caused him to pinch himself at each meeting, who, *if* she survived, *might* have been in Warsaw, or join the Americans and leave the nightmare to join his only remaining family in a country relatively untouched by WWII, he made the only rational choice. He also continued to hold her dear for 72 years.
32
What a story... Love in devil's time..
7
I haven't wept this hard in decades of working on Holocaust internet fora.
Love, dedication, memory, and honoring another mean so much, don't they, still, today: I wonder sometimes. What models these people are. And what devotion to loe and life they showed amid such dehumanizing such incredibly hard decisions. May they be of blessed memory to all of us.
25
My parents were Holocaust survivors. It was like the Holocaust itself was a family member, always there, always present, always warning that as safe or good the world seemed, it could turn on a dime in a flash.
1052
@Sharon Levine, mine too. Well put.
60
It is a bittersweet story. The Hollywood version would be different. I cry that they reconnected only once- why she failed to show up is a mystery. There is beauty in how they connected in love in such a terrible place. 2 survivors- Amazing but sad. I wish they had met in Warsaw and spent those 72 years together. Not in this lifetime.
8
@Quadriped No mystery--he failed to show up in Warsaw; by the time he thought it was a good idea to see her again, she had married a better man and wasn't eager to potentially mar her marriage by meeting up with a former lover.
15
“She had access to official camp reports, which she shared with various resistance groups, according to Konrad Kwiet, a professor at the University of Sydney.”
She therefore had first-hand knowledge of the early reports of the death camp atrocities word of which was said to have been passed through these very Resistance organizations.
And she certainly possessed that knowledge herself, contemporaneously. Bad transport indeed.
4
After reading this story to my Mexican wife, thinking about my Jewish greatgrandparents who escaped the pogroms in former Soviet Georgia, I was shocked by the irony reading an email from the ACLU;
“The Trump administration has illegally trapped nearly 60,000 asylum-seekers in Mexico, and is forcing thousands more to wait for weeks and months to even apply. These attacks have broken with decades of bipartisan policy and are endangering vulnerable people who are looking for shelter at our doorstep.”
The difference with the detention camps in Aushwitz and those of the drug war today is we don’t see beyond our borders entire nations and towns made into prisons. Where US sanctions starve children in Venezuela. Or the DEA shoots up a water taxi full of innocent tourists in Honduras to cover up the drugs they’re stealing from local cartels. And instead of wealthier Americans feeling the rations and burden at home of a made to fail drug war, only the poor, mostly minorities suffer the punishment, incarceration and injustice.
We are privileged to hear the love stories of survivors of such terrible tragedy. They remind us how love will conquer hate in the encampments of today.
37
Thank you! A thousand times Thank you for such a comprehensive, succinct, and appropriate response. The means are a little different, the motive is similar, and the inhumanity is exactly the same.
18
@Pass the MORE Act: 202-224-3121
There are differences. Auschwitz an other Nazi camps were hellish. Have you seen Shoah?
I agree, we, the US are committing crimes when detaining in wretched conditions, children and adults, for months now going into a full year on end.
5
I like that the grandchildren went along for the trip. At least second hand witnesses to history, that’s another 70 or so years that revisionists and deniers won’t be able to get away with hiding the truth.
30
An extraordinary, wonderful story of timeless love and faith, with two lovers who shared a horrible holocaust experience. Just brilliantly told here, and deeply moving. "Shalom"!
11
Beautiful story thank you ...
4
This is so beautiful.
7
America the beautiful
God shed his grace on the
And crown thy Good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
Thank you NY Times for sharing this wonderful story
9
Which Hungarian song was it?
12
As a Gentile from the Bronx who grew up with Holocaust survivors and next door to a synagogue, I don't know how anyone, any Jew could ever trust another human being again (outside of his or her own family) after the European atrocities of the 1930s. Perhaps beautiful music and song are elements that sooth the mind into also reminding itself of the occasional beauty contained within the human condition - I don't know, I could never imagine what happened to those chosen but condemned people. But, I do know one thing - I'm begginning to understand all too well the answer to wondering as a child, why people didn't speak up in the face of treachery.
27
A beautiful love story. Thank you Keren Blankfield.
6
It is tragic and at the same time heartwarming to read this about the life of two ordinary people who were caught up in a war not of their own making. It is as if Herman Work’s ‘Winds of War’ has become alive with real characters. Praying that Zippi is happier wherever she is
7
For once the news carry good news, hopeful news...as it should also do but rarely does...
3
A wonderful story, thank you NYT. While my relatives did not suffer the horror of the camps, they perished as civilians in the horrors at Stalingrad.
7
This piece is one of the many reasons that I love this paper!
18
I cried reading this moving article. These personal stories, both horrific and inspiring, of love and hope triumphing over evil, need to told and retold - the urgency has never been greater.
It is wrenching to read that ‘good fortune’ or ‘luck’ at the time meant running into American tanks or being enlisted to work for the Nazis.
14
I didn’t cry until the end - but then lost it. Wow. The stories people have and we have no idea and don’t often enough ask. Wow.
15
What an amazing story! I'm so glad they connected before her death. What amazing strength on both their parts! They survived through luck, talent, and love. But they also went on to reinvent themselves and help others, new countries, new languages, new careers, and long lives! Those are rich lives despite the Nazis. L'Chaim!
17
The stories that keep emerging from this dark period continue to amaze and inspire. Several years ago I wrote a book about a man named Louis Bannet, who survived two years in Auschwitz/Birkenau by playing his trumpet for his Nazi captors. Thank you Karen Blankfeld for telling this story about the indisputable power of love and the strength of the human spirit.
17
Mr. Shuldman, thank you for commenting. I will gift your book, Jazz Survivor: The Story of Louis Bannet, Horn Player of Auschwitz to several this Christmas.
6
Beautiful- such a touching story !! Love and hope in the midst of murder and the stench of death .
9
Wow. What a story. Powerful. I don’t remember the last time a NYT story brought me to tears.
5
It was hard to read that after all she went through, she ended up alone, blind and deaf on a hospital bed.
17
Stories like this, and stories of Holocaust survival in general, are always so moving and inspiring, perhaps never more so than today, given the prevalence of reactionary trends. Unfortunately, it's the people who might benefit most from reading stories like this who won't. Maybe we need to figure out how to reach the humanity that hopefully lies within everyone, as difficult as that seems these days.
11
Such a lovely story, and one that left me weeping at the end. There is simply no excuse for anyone not recognizing and remembering the holocaust.
10
Almost unbearably beautiful and sad. Like Garcia Marquez's Love in the TIme of Cholera, but real, and with a back drop of Holocaust horror. May both these wonderful souls be a blessing to all. And may this story be remembered forever!
9
I read this story and it gave me some hope.
The hope that even today there is still some love left in human beings.
7
What a remarkable story. I am always so pleased to read about holocaust survivors who are blessed with long lives as these been. They lived to bear witness to the atrocities inflicted by the monstrous criminals who overtook the German government. Let their experience be a lesson of what can happen when authoritarianism prevails.
17
cc Maya
should be sent to all of Trump's enablers, it's what can happen when decent people become members of a cult!
16
It is critical to note that fully 1/3 of the Holocaust survivors in the U.S. live at, or below, the poverty line, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA). Here in Portland, they receive direct services from the Jewish Family and Children Service (JFCS). I urge those who read this to research how they might help the Survivors in their own community. How tragic to survive the horrors of Nazi tyranny, only to have no quality of life in the Land of Plenty.
30
@Susie - Typo alert: That should be "Jewish Family and Child Service" - not "Children."
3
The Grinch of the Day wants to know... since for every person she saved another had to die... how did she choose?
And wouldn't survivor's guilt be more justified when one is personally snatched from the jaws of death by somebody, and it's not merely arbitrary good luck?
4
A moment in time,the human passion and spirit to survive, a testimony against all odds ,Al Tidom.
4
Love in the midst of horror - proof that there is hope for humanity, after all.
3
Absolutely beautiful story in an absolutely hideous, evil place
6
Difficult to see the screen through the tears.
9
What a beautiful story.
BUT!
Why on earth did Mr. Wisnia leave her behind, without an afterthought?!!?
I find that detail extremely troubling, and selfish in the extreme.
7
he was a teenager. the story is nice, human and imperfect
18
@Robert J. Wlkinson probably because there was no American presence in Warsaw.
4
Please look at the good they did. They both worked for the liberation of other Jewish people and met lovely people they built wonderful lives with. It’s not tragic that they didn’t end up together. It’s beautiful that they both lived and loved and eventually met again.
15
In an age of increased antisemitism around the world, including shooting at synagogues, and attacks on anyone who is an "other", we should consider the goodness and bravery of these two people in the face of such horror. Even though the victims and memory of the Holocaust are fading, we must continue to vow " never again" and make sure it is more than a vow.
21
wonderful...but with tragic undertones.
2
I visited Dachau when in Munich. It’s a Short train ride and when you get off there are buses that take you there. You can read a lot of books and articles about concentration camps but nothing compares to seeing it. It was so big. It’s almost incomprehensible to understand what was done there. I walked around in utter silence thinking about all them people who died there. All being born in the wrong time Andy the wrong place. I guess no one (even today) someone would haul you to a camp and kill you. Now we know that it can happen. And can happen again.
18
"He took her hand and sang her the Hungarian song she taught him in Auschwitz. He wanted to show her that he remembered the words."
Out of the raging flames and menacing shadows of unconscionable hate, a beautiful memory. Wow!
12
WW II showed America at its best, saving severely oppressed people.
Then, we dropped nuclear bombs on Japan and our country lost its soul.
Since then, we have been adrift with no moral compass.
11
@Roy G. Biv My reply to that is always: Don't start wars you can't afford to lose.
And it wasn't that first bomb that caused Japan to surrender, it was the second, on Nagasaki. The Japanese gov't was willing to accept the many more lives lost and the destruction of infrastructure that the invasion and continued fighting would have cost. It's too easy to condemn decisions from 70 years down the road.
11
@Roy G. Biv my Jewish father served in the Pacific during WW2. My parents always defended Truman's decision because they were certain that the loss of life would be immense if they had to invade Japan. They honestly felt they owed their entire lives, their children and grandchildren, to that decision. My father’s career introduced him to a world of Holocaust survivors and though he didn’t serve in Europe I know he felt he played a role in helping them. Its tough to judge that historic decision from where we sit today.
8
It's interesting that, beneath an article on the holocaust, people still feel able to excuse the mass murder of civilians. Perhaps the innocent civilians that endured that particular horror in Japan were far enough away from the USA to make their suffering seem a price worth paying to save American lives. Of course the Nazis had that their own excuses for mass murder.
5
I find it difficult to understand that with all that death they were surrounded by how they managed to make their own little world.
3
i can't stop my tears. Why don't they teach about the Holocaust in schools anymore like they did when I was attending school decades ago? Is it because of privatization? History is so vital, so we don't repeat our mistakes, why do they keep rewriting the truth or obliterating it completely? This was an amazing, life affirming story of history. Their are millions more. We shouldn't hide them and we shouldn't forget them.
21
Incredible story! Wow.
3
Thank you, thank you, thank you for publishing this story, New York Times.
7
Simply amazing
1
What does "bad shipment" mean? Is that a euphemism?
2
In a concentration camp, every shipment is a bad shipment. I’m surprised that it is not understood by all. But perhaps I’m older and was taught the history of that tragic time. I’m glad these stories, heart-wrenching as they are, are being published.
6
@Brian extermination orders.
4
@Brian "bad shipment" simply means what it says.
No euphemism.
If you were a part of a "bad shipment', you had been marked for death.
Mr. Wisnia had been marked five times, for a "bad shipment".
Love had saved him, every time.
8
I just feel so tremendously sorry what my grandparents generation did to all of humanity. As a German, I want to apologize. Nothing to add.
Except: despite these unique human stories we should never forget the bleakness and sheer horror of murder on an industrial scale. And the fact that ordinary people have been able to build and execute this machinery. There is a picture of Germans having fun in front of Auschwitz which illustrates this point. Growing up in Westgermany, we learned to be suspicious of any sort of German patriotism. Nie wieder. Never again. This is a lesson for the world. It might not be jewish Germans, it might not be in factories, but the same fascist ideology at work
31
I meant Jewish Europeans of course
1
Beautifully said.
6
It just bowled me over; I see in my mind's eye the concentration camp inmates, throwing themselves against the electrified fences, into eternity.
I also see those thin shadows, bribed with what; a potato, an apple? Standing guard over the lovers.
She plucked this virile 17 year old out of the masses, possibly driven by a smile, a turn of the head, but really by the phenomenal life force that strives and compels us all but here ratcheted up a hundred-fold in the world's worst pit, defiantly climbing up some boxes; making a little nest for themselves while surrounded by gray steel helmets and massive guard dogs straining against their leashes.
So there it is on dramatic overwhelming display; the powerful forces of eros and thanatos, playing themselves out between the ovens.
14
Amazing history of these two people. Makes you embarrassed to think about what we're moaning and complaining about today.
14
Beautiful
3
Using words like "lovers" and "Auschwitz" could be considered an oxymoron. The depths the Germans took gassing women (some pregnant), children, elderly and the sick after traveling in packed tight railroad cars for hundreds of miles shakes the human soul. All a by-product of nationalism, religious dark ages tropes, scapegoating, war & economic migrations and the United States not aware that being bystanders would cost our country dearly.
9
L’Chaim!
6
This piece demonstrates why The New York Times is our favorite newspaper and the world’s best.
Prejudice is a sickness that ails the ignorant and those that fear differences. We favor education and we value differences.
I wish I knew the last name of my father’s father. Wishing to protect his son and grandchildren, no doubt, he took Lewis and declined my request. I only asked once. Max Lewis was his name. Salim was his son’s first name. And mine. And our first.
Max was born in Russia or Poland. He arrived as a teenager, married in Boston to an orthodox lady born there of German heritage. He fled pogroms.
His son, my father, did not discuss Judaism with his oldest. We were baptized. I’d never heard of Jews till Bruno Bettelheim gave me Anne Frank’s diary. I did not believe what I read.
My favorite professor at U Chicago was Izaak Wirszup from Vilnius. We donated in his name. He lost 60 in the Holocaust. His wife Pera was born in Poland, she lost 60. He asked me to speak at his retirement. I addressed intolerance. We spoke for years on Sunday.
Jews are again threatened. My mother was episcopal. She married three Jews. Her mother was prejudiced.
I am Jewish to antisemites. My wife’s maternal grandfather was Nobel James Franck. She, too, was baptized in 1936 in Berlin. Defensively. Franck spoke out in 1933. He fled then.
Our 6 are Jewish. And proud of it.
Bless The New York Times. Bless the Jews. Bless the tolerant and courageous.
Bless this loving couple.
18
@S B Lewis
Thank you, for your kind and wise words.
The Jewish people have been around since the beginning and, come what may, will endure forever.
We are here to witness to man's essential goodness in the face of unspeakable hate and darkness.
In the Torah we are told that because of this we will always be persecuted.
Have a Happy Hanukah, the festival of Light amidst the darkness.
4
Such an amazing, wonderful, heartbreaking, redeeming, life affirming story. The tears are running down my cheeks... thank you.
5
An Auschwitz story with a happy ending, how unusual.
3
Really sweet story and I’m sure their spouses enjoyed the reunion as well, like as much as I enjoyed having my stepdaughter’s wedding in our backyard and congratulating her father, my wife’s ex-husband.
4
@John Doe
Ms. Tichauer née Spitzer's spouse had passed away in 1996, 20 years prior to the reunion.
4
Rick and Ilsa, together again, in Paris, of course.
1
Mensches.
3
Amazing.
2
So much in life hinges on fate, contingency. That Zippi saved David five times from the deadly transports is a miracle. That two of David’s grandsons were with him at the moment he learned this is another miracle. That David’s wife was named Hope strikes me as so altogether fitting. It is articles such as this one that keep me returning to the pages of The New York Times. Thank you.
22
The author wrote that two of David’s “grandchildren” accompanied him when he visited Zippi in New York, and that is the word I should have used in my comment as well.
Note to self: be more careful and do a better job of proofreading and correcting your work.
1
My heart aches at the thought that in the near future holocaust survivors will have all died and anti-semites will rewrite history.
19
Words fail me again as I read such a story. Wow. Just wow.
5
She waited for him in warsaw, why didnt he show up? Rings true about a lot of men even today.
7
A touching and beautiful story. But I very much doubt that In the Forties, the lady was "now known as Ms. Tichauer." Is "Mrs." now verboten in the New York Times to the point of sacrificing historic context and accuracy?
6
What a beautiful story and how wonderful Mr Wisnia and Ms Spitzer are. It brought tears to my eyes. It never ceases to amaze me to hear true tales of the Holocaust. We must never forget.
I see staunch Trump supporters as people who may have been swayed by Hitler back then, and it frightens me. What if something like that happens again. People are gullible and only believe what Trump and his allies in Congress want them to believe. It's like a cult following. We must not let this happen in the USA. Get out and vote in 2020.
22
Alas, it IS happening. Oh, there are no crematoriums or trains but, make no mistake, those brown skinned people on our southern border are being punished for who they are.
9
Only 2000 survivors of Auschwitz remain alive.
7
freakin onions.
4
I’m not crying. You’re crying.
4
Tears came to my eyes after reading this story. The stories from the holocaust should be part of every school's curriculum. Shame, shame on holocaust deniers and anti-semites!!!
14
Empathy mostly for sick or dying or dead Jews. Almost never empathy for live ones esp. Israel. That's today's world and local sad fact.
2
wow.
2
Almost impossible to read this remarkable story with dry eyes. Let the Holocaust deniers read this personal memoir and rethink their mindless denial.
8
NY TIMES, please, please continue publishing stories like this, about real people.
11
I love these brave resiliant people. This is a great lesson in the
possibilites of what human beings are capable of , love, perseverance, grit and hope.
5
What an amazing story of dedication and love !!
5
After 72 years, how did this couple even recognize each other? This past month my college graduating class of 1985 reunited via WhatsApp. It was a large class of over 50 students. We posted our current pictures. More than 90 percent of those guys, I could have sat right next to them in a restaurant without any clue of who they were.
1
My parents were young concentration camps survivors. I grew up without knowing any of my grandparents, who perished in the Shoa. I grew up with the Holocaust being a presence in my life, and when my son was young I pondered way too much being a mother in a camp.
The story of these Auschwitz lovers is like a small flower among ruins - an act of defiance, the victory of hope. I can now imagine that there were many others who fought the Nazis by this basic weapon of life.
968
Thank you for this amazing, moving story. As the grandson of Eastern European jews who had many family members perish in the war, I like many others here was moved to tears. It is in these individual stories that we find our connection and re-connection to the love in humanity writ large. Many blessings.
827
My grandparents were both survivors. There stories were riveting. I can’t even fathom one second under those conditions and yet the human spirit shines on. We must never forget. As the last of the survivors passes these stories will disappear with them and the cruel and merciless hatred of us Jews will keep on rising as the deniers of our history amass even Hitler didn’t get a pass from our haters. This is a riveting story that I wish I could see in a movie.
482
A story like very few. Beautifully written, i could not stop until I finished it. I have been teaching my 15-year-old about WWII, the value of freedom, the virtues of humanity, compassion, solidarity, courage, and love by visiting places including Auschwitz-Birkenau this coming spring, watching movies, and reading amazing stories like this one. It is a powerful story masterfully told.
Thanks.
604
What a beautiful story of how love and humanity can exist even in the most horrific conditions.
What a blessing that they not only survived the concentration camps but went on to live long righteous and loving lives with their spouses and have a final reunion.
13
I love this story. Even with so much pain involved. My parents came from France to NY. My fathers cousin saved his life - my dad was fighting at age 16. His cousin Augustin Gasrel died in Auschwitz. We never spoke about the war growing up. I learned things as I searched for family I never knew. And then some people think Auschwitz never happened...I’m glad if only briefly you were able to meet your love again. Blessing to you. Thank you for sharing your story. We need to hear. To know. To Never Forget...
605
The phrase gets bandied around a lot, but this really made my day. Thank You for covering this
8
My heart is breaking over this bittersweet story of the passion that found expression amid the extreme horror in which Mr. Wisnia and Ms. Spitzer were imprisoned.
That their love for life and humanity blossomed in their post-war existences is a powerful testament to their own and human strength.
L'Chaim!
16
My father-in-law, Benno Strummer, also survived the camps because of his voice. I know he was in Auschwitz and he escaped from there with a couple of other inmates, just before it was liberated by the Allies. It would interest me if Mr Wisnia knew my father-in-law. Benno ended up in Canada (Winnipeg and Vancouver) where he became a successful hair dresser and did a lot of singing. This is a bittersweet story and must be told. Obviously, we are losing the links to this time period and it is not being taught in most schools. Our grand children do not know what our parents fought for. When we’re gone - who will remember? Who will stand up and put a stop to the next tyrant who wants to wipe out an entire race of people?
715
@Linda Strummer To my knowledge, the Holocaust is part of the social studies curriculum in NYS and Maryland. If it is not taught in your area, perhaps you could work toward its inclusion. I can’t imagine any course in modern European, Asian or American history that would omit study of the Second World War.
77
@Linda Strummer I can ask David if you like to see if he knew your father in law as I talk with him at least twice a week.
98
@Lawyermom
True.
But the Holocaust? I can hear it already: "well, there were some good people on both sides. We hafta look into that."
77
During my childhood, David Wisnia was my cantor at Temple Shalom. He had a joy about him, and a lightness to his singing. He is the standard by which I judge other cantors. I knew early in my life that he was an Auschwitz survivor, as were some others in our temple. This article is a gift to me. I am grateful to Helen Spizer for saving him so my family could know him.
1529
@PCh Hi PCh. This is Neil B. Hope all is well with you.
30
It is just a warming feeling to find and read such a valuable article when noise is so high in media and when news are unsettling. Stories like this, do empower, give belief in good, and reroute the focus to the most important things in life : love and compassion.
Dear NYTimes, please share more of the good that is with us.
23
Survivors families are filled with stories of love, loss and individuals who overcame unimaginable heartbreak to start new lives. My father was a 3rd generation farmer in Slovakia with 3 sisters, parents and grandparents all living on their farm. My father's sister Arunka, married the love of her life, the son of the local department store owner and together they had a little boy. When my father's family were separated upon arrival at Birkenau, Arunka's little boy was sent to the gas chambers with her mother. She never saw her husband again. After liberation, she returned home to find her in-laws had all perished. The only survivor was her brother-in-law, a physician who had also lost his wife and family. They found consolation and love with each other and started a new family. They were married for 40 years. My Uncle Joseph lost his wife and children and started a new life with my Aunt, and had two beautiful children and were married for over 50 years. My mother survived the loss of 3 siblings and her parents, Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, 4 other camps and a death march. She was married to my father, a survivor of Dachau, for 68 years. The ability of survivors to persist after years of terror, hard labor, starvation, and grief to build new lives, new families, love and to prosper is truly amazing.
1141
@Leslie Green Thank you for sharing this sad but beautiful story.
69
@Leslie Green And here you are, Leslie Green, the beneficiary of much pain and perseverance; a blessed woman. Reading the story of your brave ancestors and your appreciation for them touches my heart.
86
@John Pinckney There is no lack of PTSD among survivors. It just isn't talked about. However, generational PTSD has been studied. Here's a link to get you started. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/descendants-of-holocaust-survivors-have-altered-stress-hormones/
64
My five aunts and uncles and my grandparents died in Auschwitz and other camps (but my parents escaped). I read these stories to get a glimpse of what they endured and to try and understand the unimaginable. It always remains incomprehensible.
May the memory of all those who perished be a blessing.
922
Wow. This story touches me because I have known David Wisnia's son, Eric, as my Rabbi for 35 years. In fact Rabbi Eric married me last year to my husband Allen Gerber. To think Rabbi Eric would not have been here had it not been for the brave Zippi saving his father 5 times. Rabbi Eric is also an amazing, loving and awe-inspiring human being. All of this is due to Zippi saving his father. What a beautiful story.
1393
@Jody Siano
Our country is blessed by such people as David Wishnia and Zippi Spitzer Tichauer coming to our shores. We continue to be blessed by new immigrants. How can so many refuse to understand this?
259
I was so touched by the bravery and resilience of these heroic souls. My uncle was a survivor and the rest of my father's family were killed in Poland. My father came to the US before the war. He read numerous survivor stories and in his opinion the one thing they had in common was pure luck. But, I think it was luck combined with courage!
We must never forget!
1350
@Carol Selick: You're so right in saying that luck is compounded by courage and that the lessons of this portion of history should never be forgotten. Unfortunately powerful forces are committed to erasing those lessons and are gaining traction on a daily basis. Part and parcel of that effort it seems to me is the debasing of the meaning of the word "survivor". I feel like a cranky old man but it should be reserved for special circumstances such as these and not apply to everyone who has had a bad experience.
126
@beenthere I agree 100%
37
@Carol Selick-Never forget for me is a daily protest against a so-called leader who is actively separating children from their parents and locking them up in cages.
100
Extraordinary. Beautiful. Yes this would make such a wonderful film! Thank you New York Times!
11
Their story would make an amazing movie. Thank you for such a beautiful profound love story of two amazing people.
15
Filled me with awe and wonder at the crazy beauty possible living this life. What a story! Thank you!
13
I'm in tears such a lovely well written article on two wonderful human beings surviving horrors of the Holocaust where their love for one another gives them Hope. They also help others where their love expanded to assist the needs of other Holocaust survivors. This is what we call Humanity at it's best. Bravo for True Love !!! I'm glad they got to see each other one last time before she died. She was an exemplary woman and wife.
21
@Amber Lynn Im crying too. That they survived , loved , lived, saved others and them at long last found each other. Its amazing what people can do when we are focused on others. it gives me hope.
4
As the Holocaust passes from living memory, there is an urgency to capture as many of these stories as we can and tell them.
Not only are anti-semitism and Holocaust denial on the rise; we live in a time when it is U.S. policy to dehumanize refugees, allow them to die of the flu rather than vaccinating them, and to cage their children in the freezing cold, among the perpetration of other atrocities that should be abhorrent to any civilized people. America today proves the adage that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. We need to hear every story and learn from it.
Thank you for finding this story and writing it. For me, as the child of a Holocaust survivor, it’s a story about the fundamental humanity of every person, a humanity that allows love to flourish in even the worst possible circumstances. It made me cry, for what happened then, and for what happens now.
57
I just cried more than when I watched E.T. for the first time.
10
This is an absolutely beautiful story. Well done. I’m so happy they got to spend a little time catching up, and that he got his question answered. I wish I had known Ms. Zippie. I would have loved to sit with her and hear some stories about her experiences both in and out of the camps. I really thank both of them for making the world a better place.
13
This very moving story is written as a romantic thriller with WWII in the background. As the grand-daughter gazed Auschwitz victims, it greatly bathers me.
26
Yes, and I love at the end of the article when the heroine displays her five fingers! Great storytelling!
23
@Suzy sandor so sorry it bothered you.
It is a beautiful and very sad story that needed to be shared. (I am Jewish, second generation )
19
Yes, I had to go back and reread it. Really a questionable sentiment.
What an utterly incredible, moving story! Thank you for this article!
15
The perspective of what we consider hardship ....these survivors and their stories remind us the endurance of the human spirit .... Of good. Of hope. Of kindness. Of patience. Of risk. Of friendship. Of love.
21
Love does conquer hate!
In the depths of horror these two people survived because of their love and devotion to each other.
They each found a new life but their moving story shows they never forgot how they were always bound to each other.
A beautiful and heartwarming story about enduring love.
13
True love not only endures the test of time but also the most horrifying and unimaginable circumstances. So thankful that the two did have the opportunity to meet again. May their love story live on...
15
May the NYT always have a love story on the front page rather than its journalists elaborating on what is wrong with the world or how one side is right and the other wrong. The heart is more powerful than our intellect and endless analysis. Human stories, such as this one, reminds us of our capacity to love, to care, to dare, to be adventurous for the sake of love and passion, and to embrace the mystery of what life holds for us. May all your readers find their "happy surprises" in life starting this joyous season!
50
What a moving story. I'm sure she would have been living now if they were living close to each other.
10
What a profound, deeply affecting, and substantial story this is. An acknowledgement to the journalist who wrote the article is in order, because the tonal conveyance of this remarkable tale isn't merely run-of-the-mill or by assignment only.
55
Thank you so much for sharing their incredible story. The exponential gifts of Ms. Tichauer and Mr. Wisnia as well as other survivors. And the exponential loss given the millions who didn't. How is it that we have not found a way to address the root causes of anti-Semitism, of racism, of an unwillingness to understand versus demonize our differences?
34
I have tears in my eyes reading this story and thinking what they went through and how they managed to survive. True love flourishing under the most barbaric inhumane conditions. Thank you NYT for publishing this story.
63
What a beautiful story of survivors. One of my father's friends was of an age with Mr Wishnia and looked much like him. He never talked to me, a little kid, about his experiences during the War, but I think they were similar. I thought of him as an uncle, a lovely man.
I twice have driven on the highway a few miles north of Auschwitz and could not bring myself to visit the horrid place. I am half Polish, not Jewish, but of Christian descent from Southern Polish immigrants coming here early in the 20th century. It is tragic that America did not welcome European Jews before the War; by that rejection we lost so many fine people.
59
@VJBortolot
Yes, America of that time believed that Jews were a liability. My father, who died at 98.5 years and fought with the US Army in Europe during WW2 returned to a land where he could not find a job in his profession because, as the want ads in the NYT and other papers proclaimed, White, Christian, Male only.
Jews have never been accepted for whom we are. It is part of our history.
Thank G-d, we now have Israel. At least we can now defend ourselves.
12
My husband and I are sitting here, over our morning coffee, with tears flowing down our cheeks. This piece is so beautifully written - the story both heart-wrenching and life-affirming. Thank you for writing it.
85
So many people moved to tears by this beautiful story of romance. Well, that's one thing we've got....
Let's find more.
31
I visited Auschwitz and Birkenau this year, a thoroughly heart-rending experience. The tours are deeply somber and highly informative. And yet, this powerful tale of survival, love and human decency taught me so much that I had not learned even from being there in person. I’m profoundly grateful for this story. Thank you so much.
40
David's son, Eric, was our Rabbi and bar/bat mitzvah'd our children. A wonderful rabbi, an inspiring person and a truly remarkable family. His father's story is truly an inspiration of the human spirit and epitomizes the circle of life that Eric talked about so frequently in services. Best wishes, Rabbi to you and your family.
62
The resilience required to survive the camps is hard to comprehend. There were however small miracles, courageous acts, and selfless deeds performed every day. This story is one example...however heart breaking.
46
@Harley Leiber the odds of his escape plan working seem infinitesimal. And that’s just one miracle.
3
Thank you so much, NYT, for sharing this gripping tale of love, life, and survival!
43
What a wonderful,heart breaking story of love!
37
@Mark Bantz
I cried. Heart breaking is the right word.
16
A beautiful, poignant and touching story . In many ways it reminded me of Victor Frankel's book , " The Meaning of Life . " Both of these incredible people did what it took to survive Auschwitz . and both went on to be productive forces for good in the world . How wonderful that they were able to reconnect 72 years later and share their memories together .
45
I’m reading Frankel’s book now and wholeheartedly agree that there are parallels between his book and this beautiful story of a couple who survived, perhaps because they were able to find meaning in their circumstances, of helping others and the ultimate—love.
6
This remarkable story fills me with sadness and the astonishing buoyancy of love.
The human spirit is indomitable and profound. Without love, we are nothing.
Thank you for this story. We must never forget.
75
Sophocles
"One word frees us of all the weight and pain in life. That word is love."
60
Wonderful story, what more could I add to it that other commenters have not already said.
It is sad to think, though, that politics has become so all consuming that some commenters could not resist the urge to bring politics into what is a remarkable and beautiful story on its own.
17
A word about politics and equating it to this bittersweet, beautiful story of love, hope, bravery and perseverance in the face of overwhelming evil and hatred:
Those who do not value history, and learn from it, are doomed to repeat it. With antisemitism on the rise, it’s the perfect time to read how about the rise of the Hitler and the Nazis. The NYT has written excellent articles explaining it all.
When you read about it, you will find countless frightening correlations to today’s political climate. It’s piling one on top of another every single day. And it is chilling.
11
Everyone seems to love this story and of course it is incredible, and the writing is the best possible, but I am heartbroken. "she had waited for him in Warsaw. She’d followed the plan. But he never came." She definitely loved him, not sure if he loved her the same.
26
@Chris I believe Bob Seger sang this song first. "Night Moves" was on his eponymous album in 1976.
3
@Chris Bob Seger Night Moves
@Chris I think you mean Bob Seger
What a heartbreaking and life affirming love story. Riveting! So glad for the happy reunion that truly touched my heart and prompted tears.
23
Reading this story has me thinking how many others could be told similar to this. It was a horrific time, yet remarkable stories emerged.
14
@Marshall Every survivor has/had his or her own story of survival. All are worth telling.
21
on a grey day in Pittsburgh wishing for the sunlight to shine through the clouds I happen upon this essay of love throughout time and unending proof of bashert. They save each other's hearts, spirits, and the threads that wove this story are spun gold that is brighter than any sunshine could be today. Blessing and grace for telling it and for inspiring those who need to read it.
41
This made me cry. So touching... such a beautiful story.
21
Flat out remarkable. The human will for life and good is the essence of our existence.
22
Amazing story, and history. Actually very inspirational on many counts. I am very pleased and blessed to have visited this site today...thank you The New York Times!
22
Great story brought to life by excellent writing. Kudos also to NYT editors who let this piece be as long as it needed to be, full of details. I really feel as if I've met Mr. Wisnia and that I won't soon forget his story.
41
I want to hear the Hungarian song he sang to her . . . after so many years. Truly a touching story. When she lifted up her hand and showed him how many times she saved him from being sent to "bad" places, (five times! ), he must have given her the embrace of a lifetime. Star-crossed lovers, indeed.
42
A universal love story: she waited for him. He didn’t show up.
35
@citizennotconsumer I hear you, but OMG such cynicism! Would it also apply if the genders were reversed?
2
@DB
certainly it would apply! It has nothing to do with gender. Love of any sort under the most horrendous circumstances turns out to be a lifesaver. That doesn’t mean that one remains attached to that love after the horror has passed. That seems to have been his choice. She kept her promise. He did not. It could have been the other way around. This happens all the time in love, regardless of gender.
6
So moving. Such resilience. I can’t believe the amazing lives they both lived. Stories like this show you the best in the human spirit. Thank you.
25
While politics may only bring tears, love and loyalty bring hope. Thank you for this touching reminder.
31
That’s a fantastic story and very well told.
28
What strikes me as amazing and a triumph of human spirit is how resilient they were and how they could rebuild their life after living through so much brutality and despair.
There was no whining about how bad life had treated them. They took whatever positive in life came along and expanded on it. We should learn from them to do the same on our everyday life. We should teach this our children.
80
Thank you all for this story of hope, perseverance and survival. Zippi's "bad shipment" quote chilled my bones.
This fine story about humanity and dignity in the face of evil also makes one think about our current state of affairs, as a nation, where we willingly separate innocent children from their parents at our borders, as well as our overall treatment of refugees.
How far we have fallen. But it is never too late to do the right thing.
88
I was very touched by, among many other things, the compassion of Mrs. Wosnia, who was still living at the time of Mr. Wosnia's visit to Ms. Tichauer, and whom her husband had long ago told of his relationship with his fellow inmate. She must have been a truly great-hearted lady.
55
This exceptional tale of love and courage, of strength and integrity, of resilience and thriving unfolded over so many years; and would have been worthy at any time of being included in the canon of Holocaust literature, added to the survivors' stories that have so touched our lives and taught us about humanity in all its shades. That record the history of the Holocaust and fascism so that we never forget. Or repeat. So that we guard against, always.
But this particular pearl remained hidden until now when we needed it most. When we needed a reminder and a lifeline, at this dark hour.
Grateful that Mr. Wisnia gifted us with his and Zippi's story.
82
Teenagers growing up with a parent who is a non-native English speaker often are not able to hear their parent's accent.
15
@Caroline True for me, too. I never realized that my father had an accent although my friends certainly did.
3
Could you clarify your point? Not clear if you are casting doubt on this story?
3
Stories like this from a disappearing generation are important to hear. Beautifully and movingly told by Keren Blankfeld. I discovered online that she is the grandchild of Holocaust survivors.
63
Their stories bought them finally where? To the United States of America.
Is this the same nation that welcomed them, that merged their stories once more in remembrance?
We know it isn't.
We need to change that.
178
I think nowadays it is extremely important to retell stories that prove how strong the human spirit is. Tales of survival, will, faith and love are what we need to feel inspired. What a beautiful story.
63
Such a wonderful and deeply moving story. With only a few survivors remaining, we ought to collect their memories and keep them as a testimony of what man did to other men in these dark pages of history. Thanks NYT for doing this work, it reminds me of Lanzman’s Shoah I urge anyone to watch. I am in tears but in an odd way you made my day.
45
@SGR There are thousands of collective memories of survivors - the Spielberg database. You can access it online I believe. Google Spielberg Holocaust Foundation.
6
That's an amazing story. Thank you, NYTimes for sharing it.
60
Incredible, true and should be made into a film to remember. It reads like a screenplay and I think I should start writing now! Thank you Karen Blankfeld. Beautiful.
40
@mh storycorps.org would it right-- see their Danny and Annie
1
@mh This story has just been beautifully told. Leave it as it is. A film would not make it better, and might make it worse.
7
I imagine he must often honor the five who went instead. Plus one candle for his loving friend.
46
...thank-you for sharing...so beautiful and so sad how short life is ...how short is the life even of the survivors. If my parents had not survived I would not be here and writing this.
We really have not learned very much for since details change we fail to see the essence of problems being the same.
So very many wanted to forget, maybe psychologically needed to forget or at least not speak of it all. Survival was difficult mentally after the War. It is the responsibility of the Baby Booms to still push for the details, now theirs included of the times they spent with their parent survivors, to now still act on their behalf. It is so very hard, and, yet, so very satisfying that through the details we might find some hope of seeing the world around us for what it is.......
38
Almost unbearably beautiful. Stories like these are what matter in life.
166
If David and Helen could survive their ordeal, we shall survive our present trial in America in the 21st century. I only pray we emerge with the strength and resilience they did.
113
@Dennis Smith We must all survive the horror of America and the world today. Its about love and staying strong. God bless all those that survived this tragedy so that they could tell their story."never again"
5
What an amazing story! I also have an amazing story about MY parents reuniting after the war by chance. I’d love to share it with The NYT as well
45
@Julie Thum Write it and submit it. You have nothing to lose.
3
@Julie Thum Please, please do contact the NYT and share your story.
5
Beautifully written and so important that the World never forgets. Thank you Keren.
32
Wow! This story is heartbreaking on about 20 different levels. Thank you, NYT. I needed a good cry.
65
@Perry Brown I totally agree with you. I needed a good cry as well. In fact, I am still crying...Thank you NYT for a beautifully written story. Well done.
5
What a beautiful story. There should be a story of life in the camps every week. It is the number one bulwark against Holocaust deniers. Movies cannot convey this reality. And theirs are unique stories of a kind one does not hear often.
59
Life often conspires to cheat us of happiness. Its a shame things did not work out for these two strong and admirable people, caught in a whirlwind of evil.
12
@RM But they did find happiness, and things did work out. They both had long lives, apparently good marriages, and contributed to the world.
7
Ok, a lovely story. Only a few corrections are necessary. When Miss Spitzer was taken from her homeland, it was not Slovakia but Hungary, her native city was not Bratislava but Pozsony and her deep accent at the end of her life was not Slovakian but Hungarian. The fact that she thought her young lover a Hungarian song and not a Slovakian song speaks to the fact that her mother tongue was Hungarian.
32
Sorry, but your timing is off. From 1918 until 1939 it was Czechoslovakia (and Bratislava). Then it was briefly the Slovak republic and still Bratislava. After the war it returned to being known as Czechoslovakia. The city is still known as Pozsony in Hungarian of course and there remain many Hungarian speakers. She may have come from a family that aligned with Hungarian culture thus explaining the song, etc., but it was not Hungary when she was deported.
17
@Joshua Pines I beg to differ, since I was born Rimaszombat, Hungary in 1944. After the shameful and heartless Yalta agreement by the victorious allies, Hungary was portioned off to neighboring nations. Today my hometown is in Slovakia. We have visited several times, to see the the house my parents and grandparents lived in, to see the church my parents got married in and I was baptized in and listen to Hungarian being spoken still on the town square.
I am a Hungarian citizen by birth, with a Hungarian birth certificate, not Slovakian by heart, ethnicity or language.
14
never forget, never again
except that love can exist anywhere
timeless, ageless,
let the deniers deny this
40
Very moving and a story that must be told. I do find one observation by Dr Grossman harshly formulated. “For everybody you saved, you were condemning someone else.” While mathematically accurate - if the SS demanded 100 names to go to the gas chambers, 100 names had to be submitted - they were condemning these prisoners, not the prisoner in charge of delivering the list. In this impossible circumstance, saving family members or friends or lovers was as moral a choice as simply choosing randomly. We would all do the same.
64
For people like me, who only know what history has recorded but have no personal family connections with the Holocaust, stories like this are critical. No one with any depth of human kindness can read this story without being deeply moved and resolving to be open to others no matter how different they are in beliefs, orientation or ethnicity. We need to care about others, especially now that there are so many forces of hate and prejudice rearing their ugly heads.
74
@Logical: I wish that it were so! How about Mr. Trump, his blind and tone-deaf supporters, the Republicans and his smitten Evangelicals?
4
@Logical - well said, and very like and expected by a "mid-westerner"! Shine on and speak up - Mid-westerners truly do value kindness to others.
7
“...Love! Is a many splendored thing...”
—
What else is there to say?
14
Decided to skip the political stories today and read this instead. So happy I did. A remarkable story of love, courage, resiliency in a horrible time in history. I am humbled.
56
A shining example of the human spirit, of our ability to sustain and connect even surrounded by misery. The unbelievable junctures in their journeys and the fact that they were able to reunite and find closure, and that we got to learn of it.
Thank you NYT. This story will stay with me.
30
An amazing love story
The scene of their meeting once a month for a 30 minute reprieve, between the ovens was so graphic to me and chilling.
I can still see her hand held five times I saved you
God bless the helpers
44
One of the most romantic stories I’ve ever read. Tragic, beautiful, meaningful.
As these witnesses of human history’s darkest days leave us we must keep reading and sharing stories like theirs. It is the only way to stop the madness happening again.
59
Absolutely real and beautiful. “2,000 survivors of Auschwitz are alive today.” Please keep publishing their stories.
95
Thank you both for surviving and making America a better place.
36
And how about Mr. Wisnia's wife, Hope? He had told her about Zippi "his former girlfriend". She was gracious in her support of his relationship and passed this on to their offspring, culminating in his son helping him to contact Zippi, and grandchildren all in on the reunion event.
86
Beautiful.
19
If this isn't a movie, don't know what is.
21
Shhhh... Even when provided with the perfect story Hollywood finds a way of messing it up ;)
1
If only humans will renounce violence and embrace love, they kind that is not made for stories but daily, constant, such as 'there as many kinds of love as there are moments in time'...
17
This is a wonderful read—in times marred with violence and hate, this story of life and love made my day. Regrettably, I can't help but feel sad and angry at what the holocaust represents—millions of potential illustrious stories all shattered, based on some superficial differences. We are all human, aren't we?
27
Two amazing stories today in the Times has left me sobbing each time.
24
The more time puts us further and further away from this and other Holocausts, the more important it is to shout out to the world that humanity, love, perseverance does exist and does survive longer than the despicable events and perpetrators.
The concept of hope and faith is nurtured by this, as is the sense of profound loss.
24
Beautiful, amazing, moving story.
When is the movie coming out?
It's got all the elements: romance, violence, Nazis, GIs, profound good and evil, Europe & America, etc., even sex!
16
@aholianmode AND MUSIC, I should add!
1
The worst, most evil, racist, dangerous side of humanity in such contrast to the best, most glorious compassionate, loving, selfless side. Good ultimately won then, for a time. Which will win now?
24
@Karen
The juxtaposition is breathtaking, yes?
3
The story was so endearing I had to translate it to my Mexican wife.
No matter what propaganda, political violence or fascist coups we endure, love is always stronger than pride.
29
What stuck me about this story was the power of song. That's what saved Mr. Wisner's life when young and what he devoted himself to thereafter.
26
I can’t stop crying. What a wonderful, beautiful, powerful story. Thank you.
23
Thank you for this incredible story of humanity. Never forget.
37
Growing up in a mainly Irish-Jewish neighborhood in the Bronx, I knew and knew of many Holocaust survivors. Even as a little girl and spared some of the more ghastly circumstances, I was always deeply affected by their stories. The owners of our local candy store were survivors, he was gruff, understandably, she was incredibly sweet. A son had been born in the camp and he was never quite “right”. Most of the kids didn’t realize what they had been through: I read this now, living in a predominately JEWISH neighborhood now, and am still profoundly touched by this story. I am neither religious nor a practicing catholic, but this story should be told to everyone, to show the humanity of all people, and to remind those who are or choose to be ignorant of the past, that bigotry and racism can be overcome, with love and knowledge
119
Spellbound from beginning to end of the chronicle of Zippi and David. My heart goes out to them and loved ones.
48
For me the eyes have it. The photograph taken when she was still Helen Spitzer in the summer of 1945, shortly after liberation, says it all. Take a moment to look into those eyes. I'll leave it to you to interpret them. For me they speak of a strength, an intelligence, and a fierce love of life which account for this remarkable woman's survival and her capacity for saving others.
You know, nowadays with the impeachment hearings, there are a lot of inspiring people around -- and many of them, I'm proud to say, are Jewish. From Col. Vindman to Helen Spitzer. What strength of character. What integrity. Humbling.
121
@Barry Schreibman You are wrong to say those things, because it says that the victims did not have those same qualities, which they likely did. This happened because it was possible, and we cannot ascribe more to it without insulting the memories of those who died.
15
@Joshmo I didn't mean to say that at all. I should have added that, as in all war, Ms. Spitzer (and the other survivors) were the beneficiaries of a good deal of luck. The bullet that had her name on it passed a millimeter to the right instead a millimeter to the left. The millions who didn't make it certainly didn't lack strength, intelligence, or a fierce love of life.
22
@Barry Schreibman
Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity. All of us are prepared to live, but few prepared to die.
2
I’m a Jew who lost most of my family to the war. America saved us. I weep at the vision of our current administration that thinks the gates to freedom should now be closed and barred. Shame on you, Stephen Miller.
531
I just finished reading “Wayfaring Stranger” a novel by James Lee Burke... occurring post WWII. One if the last lines:
...”you could hear orchestra music that was always collective in nature, a celebration of ourselves and the victory over nationalistic forces that would have made the world a slave camp.”
It would be wise today for us to remember.
38
An amazing, touching and beautiful story of Holocaust survival. Thanks, Keren.
27
Auschwitz. Such a tragedy. Our US government continues to do thing in this country and around the world that is harmful, hateful, and horrific in a different kind of way.
Over the next 11 months, do everything you can to elect a President that represents human dignity, love, respect, honor, assistance, possibility and change. We've seen enough!
Time is now. Otherwise many will suffer.
126
Oh, my, what a story! What people will do to save each other, and to find just a little humanity within the cruelty, my eyes are full of tears and my heart full of sadness. War is a horrible destroyer of people, yet they still survive, one kindness at a time.
29
A wonderful, bitter sweet story. In today’s America, I can’t but help wondering: would they have been allowed to lawfully enter our country? Would his 110% Americanism get him passed the Statue of Liberty and Steven Miller’s immigration proscriptions?
62
@Regards, LC
Miller is a twisted, self-loathing, lost soul. Perfect fit with the current administration.
9
@Regards, LC Jews fleeing Europe before the war were turned away from our shores, just as refugees from horrendous conditions in Central America are being turned away now. Our gov't shames us.
16
What a touching story. I am not a cryer, but this tale snuck up on me. A big bubble of delight that rose so suddenly to the surface that it leaked from my eyes. My husband sitting across the table said, “Are you crying? Where are the onions?”
“I’m just noticing the lifetime connection between two human beings. That is all.”
“You’re crying.”
And we held hands for a while, warm with love.
40
And once again you’ve made my eyes leak.
18
What a beautiful, well told account, of the human spirit. As antisemitism and racial hatred in general are on the rise, we must not despair and lose hope about the human condition. NEVER AGAIN!!
33
America is a prayer for freedom, a guiding light for all us. We must never again allow a mad man to become our President. We must never again allow the Republican Party to violate our human rights.
Our vote is our voice, our breath, our freedom.
God Bless America.
57
Wonderful. Thank you.
9
This love story makes me think things weren’t as bad as claimed back in the day! But I did visit that concentration camp in 2000 on a General Tours trip. What I remember most was the basement of the 3 or 4 story SS barracks where the punishment chambers were. Tiny stalls made of brick with a small entrance hole at the floor level where prisoners were beaten as they squirmed up inside an airless enclosure capable of holding one, but had to hold two men facing each other. Even three if the SS guards were bored. If one died during the night the other had to force the corpse out somehow at morning roll call. If the punishment were more than 2 nights, few survived in their already weakened condition. This was just one of the horrors in that macabre place. I wondered too how the SS could sleep well at night living on the top floors of that former Polish cavalry barracks? The over used word “ horrific” really does apply to that evil place...
26
In no way did this make feel like things weren’t so bad in the camps. These two found a light within each other in the midst of the horror and brutality and cruelty you describe. Theirs was a snapshot of a decent moment in the panoramic portrait of the loss of millions of innocent souls. Never forget.
5
Beautiful,
6
This should be compulsory reading at every high school.
27
Beautiful ..Tragic ...Beautiful
11
I recently read Elie Weisel's book "Night". Wow. We should not forget. We cannot forget or it will happen again. Is it happening now in the immigration camps?
24
What a beautiful story.
7
Right up there with the Sound of Music story ...
5
In the displaced camps the women were all pregnant. I loved that.
7
@Deirdre All to often, the women had to give themselves to the camp guards just to survive. Food, medicine, whatever - just to live. I doesn’t surprise me one bit. Life was cheap and desperate.
23
@Linda Strummer Many people, who had lost all of their families, got married very quickly after liberation. My understanding is that large numbers of survivors married only days after meeting. More information is coming out now about sexual abuse of inmates, a subject no one talked about for decades, but I think most of the babies born to Jewish women in displaced persons camps were born to Jewish couples desperate to start rebuilding their families immediately. Certainly, that would be true of babies born more than 9 months after liberation. In addition, starving women do not get their periods and cannot conceive. I am not denying that some women were kept as sex slaves, but the majority of survivors could not become pregnant until their periods resumed after the war.
9
@Linda Strummer :
I think the comment refers to chosen pregnancies by survivors, and their loved ones.
Nazis were not allowed to have sex with the "non human" peoples like Jews....see Schindler's List for this, that is how HE got in trouble, for kissing a Jewish worker on the lips.
4
Never forget this happened, and don’t blind yourself with the bromide “It can’t happen here.” It is happening, albeit more subtly, if Americans don’t do the homework the Constitution requires of a free citizenry and tolerate mendacious sleaze.
88
So moving, so sad and so happy
14
Real life stories are always better than movies.
13
Two beautiful souls.
11
So deeply human and moving! Why, oh why, are we Jews the world’s scapegoats seems to an eternal question: hatred of self projected outwards upon innocents. It is, in fact, hatred or the shadow side of an individual that they cannot or will not process that becomes externalized. It’s the great misfortune of the Jewish people that they have become the target of that rage and divided self. Thank you for this wonderful story of luck, courage, resourcefulness, love, persistence, and redemption.
20
Beautiful. Thank you.
5
Thank you NYT!!!! We all need to remember the heroes and lovers that fill our difficult world.
21
As the son of Polish-Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, I read “Lovers in Auschwitz” with great interest. I have to take issue, though, with the reporter’s statement that Ms. Tichauer “never gave speeches and said she despised the concept of the Holocaust as a business.” I’m not sure what exactly Ms. Tichauer said or intended, but the reported statement carries unfortunate echoes of the anti-Semitic canard associated with the odious phrase, “the Holocaust industry” -- that Jews exploited the Holocaust for commercial gain. This meaning is reinforced by the quoted praise of Dr. Grossmann that Ms Tichauer was not a “professional survivor.” My father gave talks about the Holocaust and wrote about it, for no money. He and other survivors wanted to bear witness for those who perished and to warn the world of the evils that can flow from the hatred of others. No one should question the good motives of Holocaust survivors who did the world this great service.
153
@Martin: Deftly pointed out that labeling those that speak, write or make movies about the Holocaust as exploiting it, is veiled anti-Semitism. Despite respecting Ms Tischauer greatly, if she herself felt that survivors in the post-war era became "professionals" when testifying, I am at a loss.
My mother who was at 18 years of age, both an Auschwitz and German slave labor camp survivor, never gave talks about the Holocaust. She was too traumatized to speak at length about it.
In my retirement from Pediatric Neurology I've written short stories, but not exclusively, about Jews and Jewish Holocaust survivors, but failed to find much interest from literary publications. I've had stories about Columbus' (a marrano) first voyage and an semi-autobiographical story about my first year of Medical School in Graz, Austria published, but the Holocaust "sells" very poorly right now. Indeed, I believe no one wants to hear about it anymore.
So, I give Keren Blankfield much credit for her NYT's touching story.
14
@Martin Thank you for your comment. I too was put off by Dr. Grossman's reference to "professional survivor" . Although I am sure he did not intend it as such, I found it reminiscent of antisemitic comments by those who deny or minimize the Holocaust. That reference to "professional survivors" would include Elie Wiesel, Primo Levi, Victor Frankl and thousands of others who are less known and dedicated much of their lives to the mission of Never Again. Many Holocaust survivors found it too difficult to speak about their experiences, hoping that by suppressing the memory the pain that accompanied memory would disappear as well. When I was growing up, my parents only socialized with other survivors. There was no need to painfully retell your story to friends who had lived the same horrors as you. We should be grateful to survivors who took the time to speak out about their experiences in front of the pubic and especially in schools. Ask any student what made the deepest impression on them, reading about history in books or hearing from a survivor first-hand? Historians are important, but we should never denigrate those with the courage to testify to the consequences of unchecked hatred and state sponsored bigotry.
30
My heart felt this very deeply. Stunned with ache and love... 😭 ❤
10
Such a privilege to learn an insiders perspective of the during and after....
8
Could you record the song for us?
25
@Lars +1!!
4
The story of the two lovers is heartwarming in this day and age. However, the line that hit home the hardest, for me, was "As the Holocaust fades from public memory and anti-Semitism is once again on the rise...," just days after another Jewish Cemetery in France was vandalized filled me with fear and dread. As the memory fades, it makes me wonder how, when, or where, another Holocaust will take place.
As it is written in the Haggadah, "For not just one alone has risen against us to destroy us, but in every generation they rise against us to destroy us..."
44
@Catwhisperer
And, with faith in G-d and in loving memory of those have who suffered and died, we rebuild our individual lives and our Jewish communities here, in Israel and around the world. May we continue to strive to help heal & bring light to a broken world.
6
Just speechless. Admirable how can one survive those horrors and still manage to build a life. Wow
22
Although I am a 2nd/3rd generation European Jew, far removed from my ancestor’s struggles and journey to America, this story deeply touched me. It reminds us of the humanity and courage that existed even when evil—the deepest most depraved evil—enveloped these people’s world. L’chaim!
25
Beautiful. Still crying.
10
Where are my tissues? Both of them have led such incredible lives, but their brief affair tied them forever together, creating something even bigger than the two halves. Their story would make an incredible movie
12
Thank you. My parents met in Feldafing.
21
Deeply rich story of the nobility of the human person; of their love. Tragic yet so profoundly beautiful.
Thank you to Mr. Wisnia and Ms. Tichauer for lives so well lived. BRAVO
17
I finished reading this, put down my coffee, and sobbed for a few minutes. Tears of sorrow, joy, love—this story was so moving.
14
First, I cried after reading this. Now I have 2 questions: is/ was Mrs Wisnia still alive when Mr Wisnia went to this meeting? (Just wondering).
And I had never thought or read before about how many concentration camp prisoners committed suicide in the camps. This really struck me in this article, and I will try to learn more about it.
20
@CTMD Yes, Mrs. Wisnia was then alive; however, she passed away in March of 2018.
2
Faith, love and Exemplary life's.
3
A story for our times, when we fear the specter of fascism and need hope. Human love and decency triumphant.
16
Anti-Semitism is resurfacing globally. We need many more reminders like this one to educate younger generations on the danger of complacency.
38
Poignant. Especially difficult in these dividing and historic political times. We can learn from the history in Auschwitz ..the spirit, hope and will to live is a powerful force. Let’s visualize America coming back to a middle ground.
11
The most astonishing story I have ever read!
11
Makes me weep. This sort of love...Epics were written about it...so few of us will experience it.
However, there is now whole other generation/s, where such stories will likely arise. Look to all the Immigrants camps around the world, even in this very country! Where the dispossessed, those fleeing war, genocide, exploitation, being enslaved, etc...some will survive with such stories.
Its a shame really, a huge burden of sin on humanity...that so many people will suffer so much, a few will find solace in another person's arms, only to lose them...to maybe never know the fate of their lover.
14
My heart breaks
6
Thank you. We need this so much now.
8
Incredibly moving.
6
So sad to read this story. Love, hope, despair, life and death. Excellent job NYT!!!
8
Simply beautiful, let love rule. Thank you, Keren Blankfield for your passion.
7
It's an important story. Although I find myself thinking about Zippi waiting in vain for him in Warsaw..
27
@jack I had the same thought...I guess going to America was more important to him at the time.
4
Love in the face of pure evil! A beautiful, tear provoking story. What a reunion. I can hear soaring strings and see a Broadway musical.
5
I visited several synagogues during the recent Jewish holidays.
All of them had security guards or police in attendance.
Security cameras were evident in each of them.
20
@A. Stanton
Hatred of Jews is on the rise.
It masquerades as tirades against Israel or telling us we are capitalist or socialist tools.
In the meantime, real people are trapped in the crosshairs.
My synagogue also has security; our congregation.
We cannot afford cameras or guards.
The rabbi receives no salary and works three jobs.
The congregation is made up of elderly people who have seen it all.
And as Jews we continue on.
4
As we say in Ireland “life is “terrible beauty “. Thank you for this story
18
The best kind of journalism. Thank you for this.
14
Thank you, NYT, for sharing this story with me and with the world.
9
A wonderful human story. I’m so happy that these two reunited and had a happy chance for closure. I have to admit though that this one statement, "As the Holocaust fades from public memory...”, chilled me to the bone.
19
Made me cry. How can beauty survive against such terrible odds. God bless brave people.
13
Such a powerful story of love and survival. It's sad to see all that evil and hate is beginning to return
13
wonderful story ....thank you
6
Read Man's search for meaning, find this story touching.
We must not walk the same route again.
14
This will be a movie someday, like Schindler’s List, a moving best picture candidate if done right. Mr Spielberg take note!
10
This hauntingly beautiful story of a love born amidst the horror, terror, fear, violence & absolute madness of Auschwitz, as the grim cycle of death continued around them. This story resonates with the irrepressible spirit of you. They had hope that they w
4
Love conquers evil, but not time and the whirl of events. Still, that's enough.
9
I plan to marinate in this beautiful love story for the rest of this day. I want it to stay with me. I’ve no need to read anything else today.
15
Heartbreaking sweetness amid horror.
6
It is a wonderful recounting of what surely happened to others although each is unique. As we read it we likely think not only of these two lovers but of ourselves and long lost, but not forgotten, lovers in a peacetime America. Love is universal. Tales of the Holocaust will endure forever. It seems that we will never be without love, even in the darkest of times and somehow cannot banish evil.
8
I can’t help thinking that each of those five times she saved him from “bad shipments”, she switched someone else onto the list in his stead because she wanted him to survive for her ....
I suppose that in that position, most of us might have done the same ....
13
Beautiful. Life affirming. More.
2
Not much to add to the other comments on this remarkable story, except that I hope somebody in the movie business is also reading the Times this morning.
8
Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks Please turn this into a much needed film!
2
I had the pleasure to meet David Wisnia a couple of years ago at Reading airshow. Anyone interested in this story should read his book, “one Voice, Two Lives; From Auschwitz Prisoner to 101st Airborne Trooper”. Reading it is an unforgettable experience.
25
@Wayne Thank you for reminding us about the book--it will be my next purchase.
2
Amazing. Heartwarming. Just AMAZING!
3
The New York Times should enter this moving story for a Pulitzer Prize in Journalism for Karen Blankfeld. I was moved to tears. And please, if anyone has a connection to Steve Spielberg, send this to him, as it would make a great film as a companion piece to Schindler's List.
13
Epic, hope-nurturing story of love and its ever widening ripple effects. Captures in few words the grand sweep of lives spared during the Nazi genocide. Like many others, I hope for a movie to come—and an opera, as one commenter suggested, to memorialize their courage and inspire us to do better. Remembering the holocaust through its survivors’ stories helps us stay vigilant through this shameful period in our own history, as racism, violence, greed and injustice resurge.
12
Such a fantastic, moving story.
8
With tears in my eyes and tugs on my heartstrings thank you for sharing.
12
The tears flow as so much of their lives were fraught with luck and love but so much luck. A beautifully written account of humanity surviving travesty. Thank you.
14
Deeply moving story. Thank you for sharing it. Do wonder though why the past was erased and we met a Ms. Tichauer, and not the Mrs. Tichauer she would have been.
5
@dark brown ink: Really?
1
It’s a beautiful story.
8
AF - NY Thank you for telling your story...Both beautiful and heartbreaking.
5
It's such a wonderful story, so moving and well written. Impossible not not to get touched by this account in which life imitates art.
9
A tragic but beautiful love story. Very inspiring. God bless them both. Very few of us will never truly understand real survival. I read the stories of Holocaust survivors, and weep every time. They truly are people of God.
19
This isn't just a story this is an expression of circumstances and the almost miraculous ability to rise up and continue to survive in spite of them. "Therefore choose life..."
29
Oh, my heart...and the tears. You can read about these things, but to imagine living this, as they did...and for most others who were in these camps, it was far, far worse...and fatal. Tragic, bittersweet story, yet ultimately uplifting.
Thank you for telling it.
48
In this era of inhuman behavior, it's so nice to read a story of people being more than human, kind, brave, noble. Thank you.
30
Incredible.
Beautiful.
Heart-breaking.
Thank you David Wisnia, Helen Spitzer, Keren Blankfeld and NYT.
67
What an incredibly moving and beautifully written story. It brought tears to my eyes.
16
Thank you so much for this story. It proves that people can rise above the most horrendous circumstances and live good lives. I cried because this story is about true love. Such devotion!
22
A profound story wonderfully told.
24
Thank you for sharing this deeply-moving story.
22
Terribly sad, beautifully hopeful. Crying softly. Thank you so much.
25
What a profound story, and so beautifully written. I wept.
27
Amazing, beautiful, and tragic. Despite the horrendous conditions of Auschwitz, there was hope, love and giving. Inspirational. Thank you Zippi, David and Karen Blankfeld.
31
A beautiful story, beautifully told. I, like many of the other readers who commented, cried. But remember the costs: “For everybody you saved, you were condemning someone else,” Dr. Grossmann said. The whole story is always so very complicated, but yes, of course, we must celebrate the beauty of survival and humanity in the midst of such incredible pain.
42
A beautiful story! If we in America don’t wake up, it’s going to happen again. All of the signs are there, time to wake up!
106
What an absolutely stunning, beautiful, and affecting story. We know, of course, that the lives of people in those evil camps was horrific--almost so horrific that it's difficult to allow oneself to imagine the personal relationships between and other truly human (in the midst of the unimaginably inhuman cruelty of the Nazis) details of the prisoners' lives. I just fell in love with both Mr. Wisnia and "Zippi" (if I'm not mistaken, that nickname comes from the Hebrew word for "sparrow," no?).
It seems that every day now I'm asking myself how people can commit, apparently in all carelessness, such atrocities against each other, and against the creatures of the world and nature itself. It would be nice to think that the Holocaust was an aberration, but we know better. Or we'd better figure it out pretty quickly.
Maybe it takes stories like this one, rather than broad historical renderings, to help us remain truly awake to both the devils and the angels that live within all of us, and work toward nourishing the latter in all aspects of our lives.
(I also have to say that the idea that the camps would have use for graphic designers was not something that would have ever crossed my mind! But, again, it's the details...)
65
@NGB
Zippi is a nickname for Zippora, a popular first name for girls in Israel - a Zippor is a bird. The "z" is pronounced "ts".
4
@BJM , yes. Tsipparon is the word that comes to mind for the plural--more or less correct? I love that word. It seems like an appropriate nickname here.
2
Wow!
I've never read anything like this before. They were both fortunate and heroic. There are other stories of survival but none like this one. In Harrisburg PA, a survivor and escapee of the concentration camps raised his two daughters and lived humbly as a tailor for many years. Everyone knew he was survivor but few knew that this little man fought bravely with the Russians after his escape from a death camp. He married another camp survivor, both enjoying their Judaism and living modestly. Mr. Posner, didn't look like a likely hero or warrior. But he exacted his revenge on the Nazis fighting until the end of the war. I recall the tattooed numbers on his forearm. Mr. Posner died a few years ago and only then was his story told. One of his daughters and several grandchildren survive him.
David Wisnia and Helen Spitzer are heroes that should always be remembered and honored. There are many more stories of survival yet to be told.
77
This story identifies, without naming or explaining it, the pilot light of humanity.
I thank God, in whatever form in which such a being may or may not exist, for directing me to it.
May a raised hand, regardless of its number of fingers or lack thereof, always represent the love and altruism of Zippi.
38
@John Roche "the pilot light of humanity" -- I like that. Beautiful! Inspirational. Thank you.
14
@John Roche
Your comment is beautiful and poetic.
9
What a marvelous Birthday gift. A great story, well told, and I didn’t want it to end. My very best wishes to Family and Friends.
Thank you.
19
Such an uplifting story of love and hope! Let us not forget, however, that this sort of introduction to love must never, never happen again.
26
This is a very well written account of a complex, moving story. Well done.
28
Reading this story brought tears to my eyes. What these people went through and survived, is beyond comprehension. Amazing story! Then they both went on to live such rich full lives, which I imagine was a way to show that they were still here, still human, still able to show compassion to their fellow man. WOW.
70
Romance was in full fervour in those dark days. Old age brings back nostalgia what Mr. Wisnia must have felt to reunite with the first love. All in all a wonderful tale.
21
Wow! What an amazing love story! Steven probably knows it...I hope he makes it a movie.
14
I was in tears when I finished the article. Thanks NYT for this incredible story. I wished it would be published in German.
52
@Lothar Meinerzhagen: And in Hebrew, please.
15
Thanks for running this moving story. Courage!
19
Wonderful story. My fear is with people like this dying, history is repeating itself. We see it everyday in the news.
79
What a remarkable and uplifting story!
The story of navigating Auschwitz with indoor jobs and surviving the aftermath is very similar to the experience of members of my extended family.
They arrived at Auschwitz in 1944 and were assisted by a family member who had “learned the system” in the camp.
The family emigrated to the U.S. after the war. The youngest member is still alive at age 92.
64
I had the opportunity to listen to a Holocaust survivor. He had been in seven camps, including Auschwitz, which he saw from a transport train. He was a strong eighteen-year-old when he was taken. At one point he said that everyone who lived had to do things to survive. He did not specify and no one was rude enough to ask. I keep this man's testimony in mind when reading the stories of others who survived. The conditions were inhuman and incomprehensible.
93
A fabulous piece of journalism. Thank-you.
50
Oh my what a beautiful and heart wrenching love story! And he married Hope. Life is so full of strange and beautiful twists and turns.
39
A beautiful story, perfectly written.
38
What a beautiful story. Thank you NYT.
31
What a great love story. Thanks for sharing it with us. I am always reading about war world two because it reminds me why we still here in a free world
25
Beautiful read. Two leaves in a storm.
37
It's amazing to see that Love is so powerful and happens even during the most difficult situations. Love does not have barriers and drives inspiration, it is truly pure. Amazing grace.
32
@Edgardo Gonzalez Perhaps the truest ideal of the purity of love without barriers is Mr. Wisnia's wife, who (though we are not explicitly told this) "granted" her husband's visit to Mrs. Tichauer. If that was the case, THAT is true love, and we should all learn a lesson from her grace.
16
I hope that someone makes a documentary or full length movie to memorialize this story. Incredible!
29
Thank you for telling us this incredibly moving story.
42
In times of so much tumult - this story serves as a reminder of the wonders of true love and the remarkable feats that humans can achieve. May these individuals continue to bestow the blessings of their grace. Truly wondrous!
41
A truly moving and inspiring story. It was a great read and also a great reminder that the many freedoms we enjoy today are are result of the courage and sacrifices that others before us made. Something I plan to talk to my tweenagers about today.
33
Wow. Just...wow. What an incredible story, I am so very grateful to now know of both of these amazing people. Thank you for writing it and telling the world about them.
She is my hero. I will carry her in my heart, to give me courage when my privileged life goes awry. If she could face all that, to help so many people in that time of horror and afterwards, I can face what troubles come to me.
And she went to Warsaw and waited. And then moved on to live a brilliant, giving life.
Thank you again for telling their stories. I am dumbfounded that people could survive that and then thrive in their long lives after, continuing to help others.
Zippi, you are my hero.
108
@Concerned Citizen
Unfortunately I have read of many Holocaust survivors who were unable to have children whether due to malnutrition, medical experimentation, or being exposed to harmful chemicals. Since it sounds like Helen never went into great details about her experiences, we really don't know. It may not have been a "choice" for her.
23
@Concerned Citizen : Oh, I didn't make myself clear. I could have written about her heartbreak, I'm sure she was, when he didn't arrive in Warsaw. But.....she accepted it and moved on with her life, going on to do many great things for the people in this world. She wasn't the kind of person who let that stop her (like maybe I would have!).
No, I expect she was heartbroken. But she didn't allow it to bring her down into misery.
8
One of the most touching, profound, and important stories I've read in the NYT in a long time. We must always remember. We must always pay homage.
70
Hard to read through my tears.
Truly amazing people.
Thank you.
42
The truth of the story strikes me. We are all so afraid of speaking and acknowledging the truth---of what we did and what was done to us--usually because of our misconceptions or sometimes actual conception of what others might think and do.
Truth is in short supply and thank goodness we have people who speak it and put out facts that help guide others in their lives.
39
Many good fictional stories don't stand up to this real one. Heartfelt thanks to the author for documenting this and writing it. Never forget!
57
Lovely, albeit sad story. Thank you.
21
What strikes me most about this beautiful story is not only the epic love, but the intense courage these of these people. She could have just used her talent and intellect to just save herself, but she used her position and skills to save others. He could have (understandably) wanted to leave that country far behind as soon as he escaped, but he joined American forces to liberate others. Thank you to all who shine the beacon of courage and goodness... we need that light in our world today.
160
Love, courage and dedication. A beautiful account of two such people. There are millions more as well.
39
How incredibly, beautifully, hauntingly sad. It's stories like this that seem to say to the universe, "There, here we are, in spite of you or because of you, here we are."
78
Thank you for this beautiful article of love and heroism in dark times. Wow. She saved him five times without his knowing and he remembered the song she had taught him 72 years earlier. Beautiful story.
129
In the midst of our National angst, this war-time love story should remind us to hope for peace, love and enrichment of the goodness within each of us.
Thank you NYT for this article and the ones like it. More apolitical news and inspiring articles would be a welcome relief. This type of inspiration and remembrance of love conquering evil might help lead our Country toward a course as a World leader once again - a leader that stands up against hate and anti-love in all its forms.
135
Like many other commentators, I am overwhelmed by the power of hope, tenacity, and love.
I was unaware that prisoners were given such authority and responsibility at the camps. Another instance of the cognitive dissonance between espoused ideals and practical realities.
27
A story--both in what it chronicles and in how it is written--that restores one's humanity in all its complexity.
Keren Blankfeld should receive a Pulitzer Prize for this article.
And as readers, may we all take from it a renewed sense of the importance of staying engaged in the struggle for individual decency and humane democracy, no matter how difficult the struggle.
189
@SA You are 100% correct.
8
Ms. Blankfeld would have my vote for a Pulitzer. A beautifully told story of hope and tenacity in the face of evil. And what is the human sensiblity that creates both sides of story?
4
Excellent article, very well researched and very insightful.
31
I am overwhelmed and inspired by this story.
This is a remarkable example of how destiny plays a role in the lives we all share.
"The Target Draws The Path Of The Arrow".
A story of perseverance, fortitude and the gift of living with passion and an enduring spirit for life.
32
Are you related to my Grandma Irma Goldsmith Freschl, daughter of Theresa Greenebaum Goldsmith(1860Germany) and Samuel Goldsmith(1851Germany)...They lived in Chicago
1
I needed to read this amazing story of the human spirit and the power of love when two souls met. In today’s age of such devisiveness, I wonder what lies ahead of us. Will our devisiveness become an even bigger problem. Then I read this story about how two people connected by their love for each other, were able to survive the tragedies of the war and how their spiritual connection sustained their hope.
This story gives me hope that love is still the magical and powerful force as it was back then and hasn’t been impacted by our changing society. There is hope still.
The only thing I would have wished for, was for the two to have reunited sooner. Still, the fact they did reunite after such a long time is a testament to the power of love. Truly an inspirational story, the miracle of love. I have witnessed the power of love before but this story truly defines the power and sustainability of the human spirit. This is one of the reasons why I look forward to reading the New York Times. The world needs more of these true stories.
64
Thank you so much for this beautiful and deeply moving story! It proves that, at the end of our lives, what we really remember are those we have loved. I pray, also, that humanity will never forget the horrors of the Holocaust.
61
Beautiful story; history, really.
Yes, I'd go see the movie.
19
Marvelous story of human endearment, profound melancholy to see we will resurrect the demon that created the Auschwitz scenario and must stay alert and continue to be vigilant and do all within our society to stop such a repeat in out life time at least. Thanks for sharing the story NYtimes.
61
Heart wrenching and beautiful. Thank you for sharing such an amazing story.
46
I don’t tear up easily but looking for the tissues now. The story connects us each with preciousness of our human experiences.
55
Beautiful love story. Could be made into a great movie.
22
@Catherine Better than Titanic too.
2
Thank you for this beautiful story.
20
I am to lucky that I had the opportunity to read Mr. Wisnia's book. It was a remarkable story told with humor through the horror. Look for it, and read more of the story of the lovers, and of the human spirit.
39
Beautiful, just beautiful.
21
NYT, the most beautiful and fascinating story. Thank you !
33
Even the horrors everywhere and full oder of deaths in the concentration camp could not suppress the triumphant power of love of a Man and a Woman. It is truly a beautiful story which surpasses the demonic power of concentration camp. Their love has lived out in various forms in their lives making them active member of the society and redeeming force of the history. I wept and thanked God when Mr, Wisnia and Ms.Tichauer could meet again and he could sing the Hungarian song Ms.Michauer taught in the camp... Ah... the trembling moment.. It will live forever. Love will prevail always. Thanks for the story. It made my day.
84
What a heartfelt story. It should remind us all of what is possible through love, sacrifice and determination.
39
Worth noting that Mr Wisnia was rescued by the Band of Brothers. HBO did a remarkably good show on these men. Worth watching the 10 part series that follows them through boot camp to the end of the war, including the liberation of detention camps. Would put this couple's experience into context.
125
Thank You, Thank You, for this beautiful story. My tears flowed upon its ending. I am drawn to human stories surrounding WW II and the Holocaust period. So much we can all learn from this historical, devastating, tragic time. Blessings on all victims of hatred and violence. Your stories give me strength in my beliefs on nonviolence, peace, pacifism, and an end to hatred.
84
I have been to the Holocaust Museum, an entire day alone. My Father, born in 1908, served with the field artillery in 3rd Army in France and Germany. Thank you so much for this wonderful story.
38
Tears of joy for the triumph of Love! Wow, I am so moved and in awe of the resilience, bravery and humanity of these very special people.
Excellent, well written story NY Times! Bravo for running it! The entire world should have the chance for this story to enter their hearts.
44
100 years from now, we will continue to find survivors and heart warming stories.
16
This is why I keep my NYTimes subscription. I don't necessarily trust the news, but these stories are just amazing, and they are so incredible, it gives me hope.
61
This story, this is what my soul needed to read today.
With so much bad news and divisiveness in the world, this was the tonic of hope, resilience, compassion, decency, and humanity that I need to awaken to, so thank you New York Times for this gift of the season.
104
Such a beautiful story. But I have one question: Why did they not see each other again after their reunion?
12
Well, she died only two years after their reunion. She was clearly extremely ill, on her hospital bed, and he was very elderly and probably not as mobile as he’d once been. They may have not felt it necessary to keep meeting up. I can imagine many reasons.
36
What a story! She sounded like a remarkable person. Him too.
Made me cry.
45
As the son of an American WWII veteran who saw lots of action in the European theater (but never talked about it until the last few weeks of his life), I’ve spent years reading and learning about all aspects of the War and it’s impact. I don’t ever remember reading a more moving of more meaningful story than this one. Let’s spread this around so we can all learn.
148
With all that is happening in the world, much of it not good, comes a story about raw human emotion and the power of love.
I am happy that the pair got the chance to meet one last time, and bring their relationship full circle.
Wonderful story. Thank you, NY Times.
118
@Kathleen
As you point out, much of what is happening around the world is not good: a rise in racial/ethnic/religious hatred, a growing attraction to authoritarian, bellicose political leaders, a denial of objective fact-finding, all of which increase the chances that the world will stumble once again into another planet-wide armed conflict.
This moving story is but one example of the agonizing costs of continuing on the course we're on. If for no other reason than self-preservation, the zealots among us need to dial back the rhetoric and decide to learn to co-exist with their perceived enemies. The alternative is too awful to contemplate.
38
Wonderful story.
Thanks so much.
16
Tears flowing. What a testament to human spirit and devotion. To think she saved him five times, from ‘bad transport’.
They both made a life worth living, filled with love and purpose. Triumphed over their captors and survived, not only for themselves but also for those that perished.
To think how many lives were taken, people that could have lived and loved. Taking their lives was one evil, robbing them of a life of happiness and love was the ultimate cruelty.
What was the purpose? The motivation?
That this gentle and caring man had to witness and drag dead bodies from the electric fences, at just 17, is horrific.
He was brave and daring and she too. That they shared their stories bears witness to their bravery and their commitment to the human spirit.
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@Andrew B
Both continued serving others after being released from the camps. He joined the US Army in an unofficial but meaningful way and she worked to help others in countries around the world. Special people both. I am so glad they survived and were able to reconnect after so many years.
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This is what courageous love looks like. Romance was alive and well in the most life threatening of situations.
35
What a poignant reminder of the difference one person can make.
Is there a way to hear the Hungarian song she taught him?
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I would love to know the song as well. It must be a beautiful metaphor of their story.
18
I’ve just finished reading this and I have tears in my eyes.
33
Beautiful stuff. Made me cry.
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@Conan Smith Me too!
2
I doubt if anyone could read this story without tears flowing. I've read many heartfelt articles about survivors from the very worst period in history, this one touched me the most.
One of my grandmothers ( Hungarian ) maiden name was Helene Spitzer. David and Helen were remarkable and their beautiful story must not be forgotten.
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A wonderful story. David's a great soul.
He was also the cantor at my bar mitzvah.
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What a beautiful story of love, courage and survival. And what wonderful people they both went on to be. Rest in peace Zippi.
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My dear parents, both very recently deceased, married in 1942 but in the US where things were bad enough for Jews. They were married for 72 years before my mother died in 2015 (my father died 3 weeks ago today at 97). This poignant story made me think how very fortunate they were to have shared those 72 years together, as Mr. Wisnia and Ms. Spitzer might have if circumstances had been different. What a tremendous story of courage and strength of character in a situation that must be remembered, never forgotten.
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This is one of the most moving features I've ever read in the NYT, proof that love - in even the most abominable conditions- wins. Triumphant, brave, moral, intelligent people, role models for us all. May we remember their legacy as we move full steam ahead into the dark abyss of our dying democracy.
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@Sarah Strohmeyer agreed - it can happen here and we are well in our way.
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@Bjh Do something about it. Get involved.
4
This beautiful story teaches us everything about the true human spirit when tested under the most horrific circumstances: Resilience, courage, love.
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I am in tears after reading this.
Although I have read many heartfelt stories in the NYT, this is a both a heartbreaker and uplifting.
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A beautiful sorrowful heart wrenching experience. It can be difficult to remember sometimes that there’s more than just the terrifyingly bad news of the modern world that seems to pour out of every device and in to our heads throughout our waking hours. There’s a human side as well....humanity. In many ways the news, in its various forms, paints a picture that forms our broader reality. Our social perception of the world at large is sculpted by various media sources and the news is most significant of them all with the greatest responsibility. You effect how we perceive each other, how we interact. It can’t be overstated the role in our social evolution the news fills. You exist to cast light, expose wrongs, report truth and you assure that society remembers all the things we can never allow to be forgotten and never be permitted through action nor inaction to occur again. Humanity, it’s atrocities, it’s callousness and it’s ugliness at times is a part our story. The love, hope, care and all the other goodness in us is our beautiful dichotomy, our contrast, our miracle. A miracle oblivious to color or culture or religion or socioeconomic status or sex or sexual preference or any of the countless other meaningless differences I could name. A miracle fundamental to us. Fundamentally human. It is exactly this we must remember and what we must see when we look at those around us.
(I know....A bit “preachy” but I just feel like someone’s gotta say something....right?)
Thanks.
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@Kennethg "Preachy, right?" Oh no!! A clear invitation for us all to recognize, embrace and exercise are born-in impulse to love, care-for all beings and things on the planet now suffering from our woundings...we need more, not less from you...
13
Thank you for sharing such a beautiful story of love and survival in the face of overwhelming adversity and tragedy. A poignant reminder to be open to opportunity and to share your good fortune along the way.
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A beautiful, poignant story. The juxtaposition of love amid horror is stunning and fascinating and heart wrenching all at once. The history contained in this story - with intricacies of concentration camp politics, choices made by those prisoners granted privileges, how people survived mentally, physically and emotionally - is so important so that we never forget, so that we realize how easily hate can easily flourish. But also how humans can overcome such hatred, how love is so much more than hate, how love helps us survive war, brutality, ugliness.
I fear we as a world society are forgetting the Holocaust and other historical harms. It happened and can happen again. Thank you to the survivors for their courage in telling their story to us and to the author for telling it and to the NY Times for publishing it.
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My dear wife of 52 years and I just finished reading this beautiful love story. We are in tears. Neither of us experienced Auschwitz, and have lived a life of comparative great comfort. But we grieve deeply for all who suffered so terribly, and pray that the hatred never, ever be permitted to surface again.
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@Richard Langer I just had to respond to you. I had just finished reading this amazing story on my laptop and was reading the comments when my husband of going on 62 yrs this month entered the room to tell me there is an article on the NYT times he knew I would want to read. Needless to say I did not have to ask what article he was referencing. I met my mothers cousins survivors of Auschwitz when they arrived in US in I think 1948. The few survivors of our family became amazing citizens with their contributions to our country. I do not feel free to say their names or what they have done without their permission. I do think you have heard of them. We need to always remember the horrors of the holocaust and tell the amazing stories of the survivors and their ethics and morality and love in the worst of times. I am now going to see if David Wisznia still performs as a cantor, as I live near to Levittown Pa. Thank you NYT for the story.
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@RichardLanger-we can start replacing hate with love by voting D, and saying A Dios to Trump and his minions.
44
I'm humbled by these 2 people and their incredible life experiences.
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Aha! I knew Zippi went back to Warsaw and waited for Mr. Wisna before she revealed her story.to him, Zippi is a strong confident woman who loved fully and lived fully. There are not that many people who can be like her. I admire her!
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With tears I read this. Despite the years and separation, when you love someone, it truly never dies. For those of us who will never have a reunion as tender as this, we have our memories which we treasure. How remarkable it is that, that specific memory does not fade. Perhaps that is how the love endures.
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@JBell I agree. Zippi shines through this story as a woman who would not be made a victim, who arranged life, as much as she could in any circumstances, to make the best of it for herself. An inspirational woman.
31
What a beautiful, heartfelt story. Thank you for sharing.
31
what a beautiful story of two remarkable people.
31
We are in danger of forgetting the horrors of authoritarianism and war, ignoring the signs all around us. Thank you.
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Wonderful! Thanks for sharing!
16
A beautiful piece of humanity, both during WW2 and all those years later. Bravo to those two who loved in such a place as that.
55
Very touchng story, very beautiful. True love endures, no matter what happens in life. This kind of love is a treasure.
37
Thank you, Ms. Blankfeld for telling this remarkable story.
34
Brilliant. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
This is why I subscribe to the New York Times. What a wonderful story to read out to my wife and children on a cold Sunday afternoon.
186
Our lives are shaped by the various people we meet along the way. No truer words can be said for this article. Thank you for a lovely article amid all the bad news. And it's a reminder that people can love more than one person in their lifetime.
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Overwhelming.
What is in the human spirit to continue living during and after such a catastrophe?
More than a movie, this story should be the source of a new opera, since music was part of their bond.
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@David G
That's a wonderful idea!!
9
Sometimes when you read a story like this, the story of two amazing lives, you realize how wonderful a life is .
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"Love is best."
Thank you for a beautiful and inspiring account.
23
Mr. Wisnia's need to ask Ms. Spitzer (Zichrahno Livracha) if she had saved his life is terribly familiar. It is an iteration of the question that haunts most of the Holocaust survivors I've worked with: how is it they stayed alive when others, even those with identical "advantages" did not?
By any measure, Ms. Spitzer was an extraordinary woman. It was Mr. Wisnia's great luck to have crossed paths with her, someone who saved his life not once, but five times. And luck? That is the only answer Holocaust survivors I've known give to the question of how they survived.
May Mr. Wisnia have found peace in Ms. Spitzer's reply.
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Like others I was brought to tears by the story, but more so by what should have been but wasn't. One can only hope those sweet emotions from a younger time sustained these two remarkable people.
58
Please someone, make this beautiful love story into a beautiful film. I want to see an adult worthy movie for a change.
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@Deborah Anderson
See Remembrance - a film about another real life couple who escaped the camps and meet decades later.
24
Thank you so much for publishing this incredible story. We need more like this.
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"And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night."
Among the most beautiful, heartbreaking love stories ever.
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@Ric Fouad Apt, yet I think there's a profound combination of faith and pragmatism in Mr. Wisnia that transcends Arnold's lovely sad imagery.
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@Ian Yes, a pragmatism that left the woman who loved him and kept him alive waiting in vain...
1
@MC Easy to judge others from the comfort of your warm house. If you had experienced 10% of what David went through you would have refrained from posting.
3
Thank you for this beautiful story. Love is always love, no matter how long the absence.
44
Wonderful story. I'll bet it becomes a movie.
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@Thyra Porter
Remembrance (2011), a German movie, directed by Anna Justice, based on a true story. Somewhat similar to the story in the article.
1
Wow. This is the most incredibly amazing and romantic story I have read in some time. Beautifully written, too. Well done, Keren. That this human connection could have survived all these years is beyond incredible and gives us hope that even in the darkest of times, love, amidst all the daily chaff around our lives, can stand out as a beacon of hope. Thank you for sharing this most striking of stories.
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The story brought tears to my eyes. Thank you to the Times for sharing it with your readers.
77
Tremendous piece of writing that weaves horrific history with hope and love.
159
That love could blossom and flourish among so much hate is itself a testament to the real power of love. Thank-you for telling this story.
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An amazing story about some beautiful loving moments when death was everywhere. Thanks for sharing.
47
We need to hear and remember this story, and others like it to see our way through the darkness and growing hatred that is resurgent in our time.
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Thank you. While I normally avoid stories that are sentimental, I am glad I read this one. Best wishes to you and to David
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@Voisin Sentimental? This is an epic hero's journey. No sentimentality here.
9
Thank you for this inspiring story. Perhaps today, just one day, we can act with charity and love towards all we come in contact with?
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@Elizabeth Another inspirational and powerful story of survival. Working her in Portland with different asylum seekers, it is sadly a fact that the cruelity of hatred still exists around the world. Will we ever learn from history or just keep repeating it.
30
A beautiful story that had emerged from something so horrific.This should be made into a movie!Thank you!
38
Great story, great life, my respects to both Mr. and Ms.
30
Extraordinary, amazing, and deeply moving story. But, alas, extremely exceptional.
I was touched by how, after so many years, and with a bare thread of her senses, she still had a feeling of guilt.
24
My goodness. What a beautiful and moving story. I tear up pretty easily so, needless to say, my eyes were definitely moist after reading this.
29
Moved to tears by this beautiful story, thanks Karen.
51
Such an incredible wonderful story. True love at its best. Glad it was shared.
37
Thank you for publishing this article.
I rarely cry....but this one got to me.
Two people, brought together in a real-life horror story, display courage, passion and decency.
Two lives well lived.
219
This beautiful story moved me to tears.
60
Speechless after such a wonderful tale of life. Thank you
55
I can't remember ever being as moved by a story as I am this minute. I can't ever remember tearing up, either.
Keren Blankfeld, you have given us a masterpiece with writing that captured -- really captured -- the incredible lives of two people who survived and never forgot. Thank you.
545
I, too, am teary-eyed.
8
Keren, you did a remarkable job in translating this experience to us all... thank you so much for that. When working with survivors in the Ben-Gurion Society in Miami during the late 80's, their stories changed my life dramatically. I never thought I'd hear another told in the manner and impact I know so well, and you did it.
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As I wipe away tears, I’m sure this will be the most poignant article I read in today’s paper. Thank you for sharing their story.
232
Love overcomes all. God Bless them both.
53
I read Modern Love column in NY Times. This story can easily one of the top Modern Love story.
I am so touched by how two souls can remain in love in spite of all that comes their way. To experience such love is truly a GIFT.
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What an incredible story. Thank you, NYT, for publishing this.
79