"In the last months of World War II, Lola Kantorowicz tried her best to hide her pregnancy. She succeeded, up until nearly the end, because most of the prisoners at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp had bellies that were distended and bloated from extended starvation. As she went into labor, in March 1945, the Russians were advancing through Germany, and Bergen-Belsen was in absolute chaos. Her daughter, Ilana, was born on March 20, 29 days before the camp was liberated by the British."
"Now 81, Ilana Kantorowicz Shalem is one of the youngest Holocaust survivors. She survived only because she was born towards the end of the war, when the German leadership was in disarray. Now, more than eight decades after the end of the Holocaust, Shalem is starting to share her story, realizing how few Holocaust survivors are left to bear witness."
"Shalem's parents met as teenagers in a ghetto in Poland. After spending several years in the ghetto under hard labor conditions, including losing family members, they were shuffled through several camps, where they were able to continue meeting clandestinely for several months. Eventually, the couple was separated. Hersh would eventually perish in a death march just days before the war ended."
Lola Kantorowicz hid her pregnancy in Bergen-Belsen because many prisoners' bellies were distended from starvation. Ilana Kantorowicz Shalem was born on March 20, 1945, twenty-nine days before British liberation. The late birth enabled survival as German leadership unraveled. Now 81, Ilana is among the youngest Holocaust survivors and has begun sharing her experiences as survivor numbers decline. International Holocaust Remembrance Day is observed on January 27, and the U.N. established an annual commemoration in 2005. About six million European Jews and millions of others were killed, including roughly 1.5 million children. Commemorations occur amid a recent rise in antisemitism.
Read at ABC7 Los Angeles
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]