- Biography
- Sheva Zilberberg (born Cesia Alszuld) is the daughter of Izak Mosze and Estera nee Laski Alszuld. She was born on July 25, 1925 in Dabie (or Dombie), Poland where her father owned a wholesale iron and coal store. Her mother helped with the business and took care of the children. Cesia had three older siblings: Aron Wolf (Wolus, b.1917), Jenta Jetka (b. 1920) and Gilt Gucia (b.1923). All the children attended Polish schools, but in the afternoon the girls attended a Beit Yakov religious girls' school to study Hebrew and Judaism. The Alszuld house was religiously observant. Aron Wolf, the oldest brother, completed his army service between 1935 and 1937. The Germans entered the town of Dabie in early September 1939 and six weeks later they confiscated four Jewish businesses, including Izak's store as well as those of his brothers, Szaja and Szmul Jojne Alszuld. A few weeks later Sheva's father and uncle were arrested as hostages along with a Polish priest and pharmacist. In the late summer or early fall of 1941, the Germans arrested Sheva and her sister Gucia and sent them to the Dabrowka labor camp where they worked mostly in agriculture. The Germans closed the camp in October 1942 and transferred the sisters were transferred to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Gucia contracted typhus and was taken to an infirmary. She never returned. When the Germans liquidated Auschwitz in January 1945, Sheva was sent on a death march to Breslau-Hundswelt, where she worked 12 hours every day in an ammunition factory. From there she was forced to march to the Gross Rosen concentration camp. Afer Sheva injured her leg on this march, the Germans operated on her without any anesthesia. In March Sheva was transferred to Mauthausen and finally to Bergen-Belsen where she was liberated by the British Army on April 15, 1945. Sheva immediately traveled back to her hometown of Dabie, where she met her aunt by marriage, Bela Bajla, wife of Szaja Alszuld. Sheva found out that her mother, brother and sister Jetka were deported to Chelmno death center in 1942. She discovered that her father and uncle Szaja were deported to Auschwitz in 1943 and murdered there. In Dabie, Shewa met Meir David Zilberberg, a good friend of her brother Wolus, who survived many camps. They married in 1946 and moved to Warsaw. In Dabie, Sheva visited Weruncia, a Polish maid who worked for the Alszuld family for many years and who hid many documents and photographs throughout the war. In addition she hid a "Megilat Ester", written by Sheva's maternal great grandfather Aron Wolf Laski, and after the war she gave it back to Shewa. Shewa and Meir David have two children: Marek and Ester, both born in Warsaw. In 1950 the Zilberberg family moved to Israel and settled in Haifa. Meir Zilberberg died in 1976, and in 1979 Sheva moved to the USA and settled in Los Angeles near her children and grandchildren.
