Sara Mendelsson was born in 1920 in Pilica, Poland. Sensing the coming danger in Nazi-occupied Poland, Sara married her fiancé, Israel Mittelman, on January 2, 1940 and immediately fled east toward Soviet-occupied Poland. As they made their way east they were arrested by Soviet forces and sent to Russia where they spent the remainder of the war in forced labor. After the war the Mittelmans, with their son who was born in Russia, began making their way west to look for survivors in Poland. When they reached Poland they were warned not to enter Sara’s hometown because local Poles were killing returning Jewish survivors. The Mittelmans made their way to the displaced persons camps in Germany where their son was born. They remained there until they were able to immigrate to the United States.
Of Blessed Memory
1917 – 2014
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©2013 Midwest Center for Holocaust Education
Testimonies may be used for individual research with proper citation. All other uses require written permission from MCHE. The above video testimony is edited from a full-length testimony that may be viewed onsite at the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education or at the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale University