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Holocaust Memorial Education Center

Shimon and Sara Birnbaum Jewish Community Center

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Descendant Profile

SUSAN GREENSTEIN

SUSAN

GREENSTEIN

(SECOND GENERATION)

DESCENDANT:

SUSAN GREENSTEIN, DAUGHTER

  • DESCENDANT BIOGRAPHY BY SUSAN GREENSTEIN

    I was born in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, New York in the early 1950’s where we lived in a small apartment within walking distance of my father’s grocery store.   The birth of my brother Howard, followed three years later.  In 1955 we moved to East Flatbush in Brooklyn where my parents purchased their first home.  In this area we were surrounded by other Holocaust survivor families as well as American Jews who were sympathetic to our tragic history.   I attended Talmud Torah for two years at our local Temple.  When I began Junior High, I was given a choice of three foreign languages, among them Hebrew which I chose.  I was in the Hebrew language program for the three years of Junior High and the 4 years of High School.  It was wonderful being totally immersed in Jewish culture and Hebrew language in a totally secular environment. After I graduated High School, I later moved to Canarsie, another area in Brooklyn.  

    I attended Brooklyn College in Brooklyn New York and graduated with degrees in Early Childhood and Elementary Education and went on to a Master’s Program in Special Education.  In 1977 I married Ira Greenstein, (who was a native Staten Islander), and we moved to Staten Island where our younger son was born.  Our oldest son was born in Anaheim California where we lived for two years.  

    In 1992 we finally moved to Bridgewater New Jersey. Our oldest son Michael is Director of transportation for the Camping Association of America, married and the father of two children.  Barry is a Pension Consultant for a company in Bridgewater, New Jersey.  He is married and the father of two children.

    I taught secular studies for four years at the Jewish Foundation School in Staten Island New York. Following my father’s entrepreneurial spirit and my artistic talent, I started a Chocolate Business in the early 80’s, creating unique one-of-a-kind chocolates and operating a Chocolate Birthday Party business.

    In July of 1992, upon joining Temple Sholom, I was presented with the unique opportunity to teach Hebrew School and to share my love of Judaism and the Hebrew language with young children in a vibrant Jewish community.  I continued teaching all grades of Hebrew School for the next 30 years as well as joining the office staff as an Administrative Assistant to the director of Education at Temple Sholom.  I continue to be an active member of Temple Sholom.  

  • DESCENDANT SUBMISSION(s):

    My father, Sam Szarfarc  (Salomon) was born December 24th, 1923 in Sosnowice, a rural town in Western Poland. His father’s name was Jonas, and mother’s name was Sarah.  He was one of 11 children of an Orthodox Jewish Family.  The family had a modest leather tanning business. 

     

    His hometown of Sosnowice, was occupied by the Germans in 1939, and he was thrust into forced labor, which was quite unfamiliar to him.  He worked on “laying a railway”.   He was 16 years old.  He said it was backbreaking work.  His father died here, being unable to do the hard work. His  mother died of hunger in Sokoanice.

     

    My father performed this heavy work until the beginning of 1942.  He was then taken in a small transport to Grunberg Labor Camp located in Schlesien Germany.  (This was a sub camp of the larger concentration camp system known as Gross-Rosen).  Here he did forced labor of the hardest kind at the company called Deursche  Wollenmanufactur  Company.  Here they produced textiles for soldier’s uniforms, army coats, parachutes and blankets for the army.  Conditions were atrocious.  He carried coal, and “loaded and unloaded” the coal.  Here he feared for his life and people were shot in front of his eyes.  The food was terrible and only made up of bread and soup.  

     

    In 1944 my father was sent to Kittlitztrebben (part of Gross-Rosen). Here he was called a Muselmann, a person who is starving and weak and resigned to their impending death. Then he was sent to Buchenwald, where he fell ill with typhus.  He was in the camp hospital for three months and was finally liberated by the allied forces in 1945 from Buchenwald.  

     

    After liberation, in 1945 my father went to the Landsberg DP camp am lech.  He was married there in 1947 to my mother, Rene.  He stayed there four years searching for survivors.  He found two of his brothers and a cousin that had survived.

     

    In 1949, he traveled on USNS General LeRoy Eltinge, a military ship sponsored by a Jewish charity and landed on the West side of Manhattan. He found his first job in America, stuffing feathers into pillows in Brooklyn for $0.25 cents per hour.  He was able to get a small loan from relatives and opened a Grocery store in Brooklyn.  In the early 70’s he sold his newer grocery store (a Superette), and purchased a failing leather finishing shop in the South Bronx reconnecting him to the trade he left behind in Poland.

     

    My father had virtually no formal education, but he wrote and spoke four different languages.  He admired the United States and always reminded my brother and me how lucky we were to live in America.

  • Sources and Credits:

    Credits:

     “Testimony” and digital, historic and family photographs  provided by Susan Greenstein, daughter of Samuel and Rene Szarfarc .

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