Roza (Rozyczka) Ludwika Lerhaft was born on November 25, 1925, in Krakow, Poland. Her father, Wiktor, was born September 1, 1893, and her mother, Adela Stiglitz, was born in 1900, also in Krakow. Her brother, Tolus, was born on September 2, 1932. Her mother’s family lived nearby and were daily presences in Roza’s life. Her maternal grandmother, Regina Stiglitz, born 1876, and her three maternal aunts: Mania Ader, born 1892, and her daughter, Alinka, born 1937, Rozalia Klajman, and Roza Sperling, born 1901. Except for her grandmother, the family were not observant Jews. Her father was a director of the Jewish Cooperative Credit Bank and her mother worked in an import-export office and later helped run the Hebrew school. The family participated in the Women's International Zionist Organization (WIZO) and the Zionist social club, Ezra Chalutzim. Roza attended Polish elementary school and then the Hebrew Gymnasium. When the Germans invaded Poland in 1939, her father was mobilized into the Polish army. He was soon captured by the Germans and imprisoned in the Oflag XI, a prison camp in Altengrabow, Germany.
In 1941, the Germans established a ghetto in Krakow and all Jewish inhabitants were forced to relocate into the Podgórze district which was then sealed. Roza and her extended family lived together in a two room apartment. During the day, her aunt, Roza, a physician, used one room as a medical practice; she also worked in the ghetto hospital. Another aunt, Rozalia, operated a restaurant using black market food; a dozen men regularly ate there. Roza worked in a sewing shop repairing blood stained uniforms.
On June 8, 1942, the Germans conducted a deportation Aktion. SIx thousand Jews were deported to Belzec death camp, including Roza’s mother. There was another Aktion in October. Roza returned home from work and discovered that her three aunts, grandmother, brother, and cousin were gone. Seven thousand Jews were deported or killed during that Aktion and were sent to Belzec and Auschwitz extermination camps. The Germans continued to rid the ghetto of all inhabitants. In January 1943, Roza was deported to the Płaszów labor camp where she worked repairing uniforms. Gentile friends from Krakow sold the Lerhaft’s possessions and bought Roza food and smuggled it into the camp. She became friends with a fellow inmate, Genie Friedlander, and the two girls kept each other’s spirits up.
The Jewish prisoners were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in October 1944. The prisoners did not suspect what was waiting for them; they sang songs and smoked cigarettes during the long journey. Arrival at Auschwitz was a shock. Roza was traumatized and did not speak the entire week that she was imprisoned there. The Germans tattooed her, gave her rags to wear, and transported her to Auschwitz I. As Soviet forces were advancing quickly in the region, the camp was evacuated in January 1945 and the prisoners were sent to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. They traveled in open cattle cars and sat on piled up snow, which they ate to quell their thirst. Bergen-Belsen was a dumping ground for thousands of sick and starving prisoners evacuated from other camps. Disease and hunger were rampant and killed thousands. Roza was next transported to Gellenau, a sub-camp of the Gross Rosen concentration camp. She worked in the kitchen and had access to extra food rations. She contracted typhus but recovered.
In March 1945, Roza and the other prisoners were taken in open wagons to Mauthausen in Austria. They traveled for a week without food. At one stop, Czech villagers approached the train offering kielbasa, apples and bread. The German guards gave the prisoners one piece of each, then took the rest. At Mauthausen, the prisoners were housed in a large barn for a week and fed beet soup. Then came “the magic day” when all the German guards suddenly disappeared. And on May 5, 1945, three American soldiers entered the camp in Jeeps. Roza and three friends left the camp soon afterwards. They walked to town, burned their prison uniforms, and sewed new clothes from blankets. For a few days, the girls settled in a workshop, living on vegetables from nearby fields. They eventually returned to camp and got bunks and jobs in the infirmary building, the former SS men’s barracks.
Upon learning that her father was living in Krakow, she left the camp and was reunited with Wiktor. They moved to Bydgoszcz and changed their name to Lirski to hide their Jewish roots. However, living under a false identity after years of tragedy and destruction was abhorrent to Wiktor and Roza, so they left Poland. They resumed using the Lerhaft surname and moved to a displaced persons camp in Wiesbaden, Germany, and later rented a room in town. Wiktor worked for the Jewish Community of Wiesbaden. They were joined by Wiktor’s sister, Regina Landersdorfer, and her daughter, Irenka, who had survived the war in hiding. These were the only family members who did not perish in the Holocaust.
Wiktor Lerhaft was born on September 1, 1893, in Poland. He worked as director of the Jewish Cooperative Credit Bank in Krakow which loaned money chiefly to orthodox Jews in the Kazimierz district. He married Adelia Stiglitz, who was born in Krakow in 1900 to Regina and Naftali Stiglitz. She worked in an import-export office. They had two children, a daughter, Roza, born November 25, 1925, and a son, Teodur Tolus, born September 1, 1932. The family was not religiously observant but they were active in various Jewish groups, including the Women's International Zionist Organization and the Zionist social club, Ezra Chalutzim. In September 1939, the Germans invaded Poland and Wiktor was mobilized as a lieutenant in the Polish Army. He was captured by the Germans soon after and spent the remainder of the war in the Oflag XI.A prison camp in Altengrabow, Germany.
After liberation in May 1945, Wiktor returned to Krakow where he was reunited with his daughter, Roza. The Germans had occupied Poland and the family had been forced into the ghetto established for Jews in Krakow. His wife, Adele, was deported to Belzec death camp on June 8, 1942. His son and all the members of their extended family had been deported and murdered in the camps in October of 1942. Roza was deported and imprisoned in a series of labor and concentration camps. After being reunited in Krakow, Wiktor and Roza moved to Bydgoszcz. Feeling the need to still hide their Jewish origins, Wiktor changed their surname to Lirski. However, he and Roza decided that they no longer wanted to live in a country where, after their horrible ordeal, they had to conceal their ancestry. After nearly a year, Wiktor moved them to a displaced persons camp in Wiesbaden, Germany. They later rented a room in town and Wiktor worked for the Jewish Community of Wiesbaden. Wiktor’s sister, Regina Landersdorfer, and her daughter, Irenka, who had survived the war in hiding, joined them in Weisbaden. They were the only family members in Poland who did not perish during the Shoah.
On May 9, 1949, the family left Germany for the United States on the USS General Howze, along with 1,000 other displaced persons. Mrs. From, a good friend from Wiesbaden, welcomed the Lerhaft’s in New York, bringing them fruit, wine, and gifts. A representative from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JOINT) assisted the Lerhaft’s on the final leg of their journey by providing train tickets and $1.00 for incidentals. Wiktor had a sister who, with her husband, had left Poland for the US long before the war, and the Lerhaft’s joined them in New Jersey. Roza met and married Sam Orenstein, a survivor of Majdanek, Ravensbrück, and Płaszów, from Hrubieszow, Poland, in November 1949. They had two children. Wiktor died of a heart attack in 1964 in Israel, aged 71. (Source: USHMM files)
