Jack Waksal photograph collection

Jack Waksal was born Yitzhak Wakszal on 15 September 1924 in Jedlińsk, Poland (immigration paperwork incorrectly lists his birth year as 1921) to Schlomo David Wakszal and Pessa Schemara Wakszal. His father Schlomo David Wakszal worked as a Kosher butcher (shochet), and was an active Zionist and member of the Jewish community of Jedlińsk. He married Pessa Schemara through an arranged marriage. Jack had one brother, Yechiel, and two sisters, Yochevet and Brucha.

After the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, Jedlińsk was occupied by the Nazis, and a ghetto was established. Jack’s family was moved to Kruszyna labor camp in 1940, where work identification cards were issued. Jack escaped the labor camp in November 1941 and hid in the nearby woods. He later snuck into Wsoła labor camp, where his brother coincidentally was also located. They were transferred to Pionki labor camp near the end of 1942. Jack was reunited with his childhood friend and future wife, Sabina Koslowska, while in Pionki.

Jack, his brother Yechiel, and 13 others escaped the camp around May 1944 and hid in a nearby forest until liberation by the Russian Army in January 1945. Several members of his group were killed, including his brother and Yechiel’s fiance Chavah Wakszal, and his cousins Yechiel Kirshenbaum and Pearl Lindzen.

After liberation, Jack worked for the Russian Army until the end of the war, and then returned to Jedlińsk to search for any surviving family members. He was reunited with Sabina, who was a survivor of Auschwitz and several other camps, and his uncle Moshe Wakszal, but the rest of his family perished. They received permission to go to Germany, and all three went to Regensburg displaced persons camp. Jack and Sabina married in the camp on 28 April 1946. Their son Samuel was born 8 September 1947 in Paris, France. The family immigrated to the United States in November 1950 and settled in Dayton, Ohio. Jack’s uncle Moshe immigrated to Israel.