20 | JANUARY 14 • 2021 

L

ike so many others, the 
pandemic has been an 
especially lonely and chal-
lenging time for Lola Jerome, 
95. Holed up in her apartment 
in Windsor, Canada, with safety 
only allowing limited masked 
visits from her local relatives 
and unable to see her relatives 
who live across the border, Lola 
has been feeling “gloomy.
”
“I don’t remember anything 
like this in all my lifetime,
” she 
said.

And Lola has lived through 
a lot. She was born in 1925 to 
a religious family in Czeladz, 
Poland. In 1940, two Germans 
came to her house, grabbed her, 
threw her in a cattle car and 
sent her to a camp located in 
the Aloys Haase factory, a sub-
camp of Gross-Rosen concen-
tration camp. There she made 
spools of thread for the next 
four-and-a-half years.

 It was through a series of mir-
acles that Lola survived. One 
day, a pair of scissors dropped 
on her foot, which quickly 
became infected due to lack of 
medical care. Incredibly, the 
lagerführerin (female German 
camp manager) lied to the 
Nazis about how long she’
d been 
in the hospital so she wouldn’t 
get taken to Auschwitz. 
 Soon Lola was hopping and 
limping, forced to walk five 
kilometers each day with a bad 
foot while trying to hide her 
injury from the Nazis. When 
it was especially painful, her 
friends, though skinny and 
weak themselves, dragged her 
between them so she wouldn’t 
have to walk on her foot. 
 “It was bashert [destiny] I am 
here. Nobody survived from 
my family. I believe in bashert; 
if it is meant to be, it’s going to 
happen,
” Lola said during her 

Living History interview for the 
Holocaust Memorial Center in 
2016.
 After the liberation, Lola set 
about trying to rebuild what she 
had lost, marrying her husband, 
Itcha Jerosolimski. They later 
changed their name to Jerome. 
Relatives who had moved to 
Canada before the war spon-
sored Lola and Itcha.
 “Like my aunt used to say, 
Canada is a goldene medina
(golden country), but you have 
to work really hard to make a 
living.
” 
They raised five sons togeth-
er, and though Itcha passed 
away in 1998, she still enjoys 
nachas from her children, 
eight grandchildren and 10 
great-grandchildren. 

Lola’s son and daughter in 
law, Allan and Julie Jerome of 
West Bloomfield, unable to visit 
her since March, created email, 

Facebook and Zoom accounts 
for Lola to better keep in con-
tact during this challenging 
time. They were excited when 
a long-lost connection was 
discovered which gave Lola a 
much-needed boost.
 “I’m in a Bedzin-Sosnowiec-
Zawiercie Area Research 
Society Facebook group,
” Julie 
shared. “I keep my ear out for 
anything that my mother-in-law 
might find interesting.
“In November, I saw some-
one had posted something 
about her aunt, Minga Feldman, 
being a seamstress before the 
Holocaust. My mother-in-law 
was an extremely talented 
seamstress, even when she was 
a child. I asked my mother-in-
law if she recognized the name.
”
Lola did not, but she remem-
bered a Tauba Feldman — who, 
it turned out, was Minga’s rela-
tive. Allan and Julie set to work 
trying to organize a reunion 
Zoom call between Lola and 
Tauba, who now lives in Israel. 
There was a slight language 
barrier. Lola speaks Polish, 
English and Yiddish; Tauba 
speaks Polish, Hebrew and 
Yiddish, and neither Lola’s 
caretaker or Tauba’s niece, who 
helped with the call, speak flu-
ent English.
Allan, who has been gath-
ering information about his 
family tree and connecting lost 
family members from around 
the world since 2012, participat-
ed in the call, too.
“They needed some guid-
ance; I think they felt shy at 
first. But when I shared old 
photos on the screen, both 
became very engaged,
” he said. 
Most fascinating was when 
they discovered both Lola and 
Tauba spent some of the war 
years in the same camp. 
Allan is hoping that with a 
little more prep work and jog-
ging of childhood memories, 
their next reunion call will be 
even more gratifying for both 
parties. 

ROCHEL BURSTYN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

IN 
THED
JEWS

COURTESY OF JEROME FAMILY

A pandemic Zoom 
reunion for local 
Holocaust survivor.

Lola Jerome and 

her son Allan

Years
 Later
Years
80

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