Sarah Radzeli photograph collection

Sarah Schneider Radzeli was born in Czechoslovakia, and was 10 years old at the time when Germany occupied her hometown. Her family moved to her grandfather's hometown, which was in an area as yet unoccupied by the Germans, but which was later annexed by Hungary. Her family was eventually forced to move into the Jewish ghetto in that town, and eventually deported to Auschwitz, where she, along iwth her mother and sister, were assigned to forced labor. Toward the end of the war, she was transported with prisoners of war to a munitions facotry in Czechoslovakia, where they were liberated by Soviet troops in the spring of 1945. After the war, she reunited with her brother in Budapest, and together they attempted to immigrate to Palestine in 1946, but were captured by the British and interned in a displaced persons camp in Cyprus, where she met and married Bezalel Ben-Ami. After contracting tuberculosis, she was sent to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem for treatment, and remained in Israel until immigrating to the United States in 1960.

Louis Radzeli was born in Vilna, Poland (now Vilnius, Lithuania). His parents were Moishe and Ita Radzeli, and he had at least one sibling who married and had children prior to the beginning of the war. Though Louis survived the war, his immediate family all perished.

Bezalel Ben-Ami was born Bezalel Fromowitz in Tačovo, Czechoslovakia (now Ukraine), to Moishe and Gittel Fromowitz. He was one of at least nine children, of whom two--Bezalel and his brother, Meyer (later Mark)--survived the war. After the war, Bezalel married Sarah Schneider, also of Berezovo, who survived Auschwitz. They attempted to immigrate to Palestine together, but were stopped and taken to a displaced persons camp in Cyprus. They lived in Israel from 1948-1960, and immigrated to the United States in 1960 with their son, Michael.