OUR COMMUNITY

16 | NOVEMBER 4 • 2021 

Lodz Ghetto to Auschwitz-
Birkenau in August 1944. The 
reunion was short-lived, as 
upon their arrival, Srylek was 
separated from his sisters and 
was never seen or heard from 
again. 
After only 15 days in 
Auschwitz, Sophie and Felicia 
were sent to Bergen-Belsen 
for six weeks. Finally, on 
to Salzwedel concentration 
camp for nine months before 
being liberated. 
Thankfully, in 
the absence of her 
parents, Sophie 
had Felicia, eight 
years her senior, 
who would nurture 
her baby sister to 
survival like her 
own mother.
Sophie and 
Felicia would 
eventually 
immigrate to the 
U.S., settling in 
Detroit in 1949. 
They began life 
anew, started 
families of their 
own, finally free 
to share many 
happier and ful-
filling years together. 
However, Sophie didn’t 
share her sister Felicia’s desire 
to revisit and discuss their 
past and, for the remainder 
of their lives, very little con-
versation occurred between 
the two in that regard. Felicia 
passed away in Sunrise, Fla., 
in 2016. 
I can’t adequately describe 
what it was like to observe 
Sophie walking through the 
exhibit, “The Girl in the 
Diary: Searching for Rywka 
from the Lodz Ghetto,” 
reflecting and reliving the 

horror that was hers and 
Rywka’s childhood. I had no 
reference point to fully com-
prehend or compare the trau-
ma they had experienced.
When Sophie and Rykwa 
were 10 years old in 1939, 
they were in a battle for sur-
vival having been forced to 
move into a cramped, filthy 
ghetto; child slave laborers, 
hungry, weak and forced to 
witness the annihilation of 
their families before their 

eyes. When I was 10 
years old in 1965, 
I was experiencing 
a move of my own, 
from the peace and 
tranquility of an idyllic life 
growing up among the beau-
tiful Dutch elm-lined streets 
of Detroit to a new home in 
the suburbs.
That is the constant 
reminder you receive every 
time you walk through 
the doors of the Holocaust 
Memorial Center. It is, as 
Mark Mulder said previously, 
“giving survivors and victims 
of the Holocaust a voice.” 
For everyone else, it gives 
us a much-needed perspective 
that can never be taken for 
granted or forgotten. 

Awakening Her Daughter’s Search for Understanding 
the Holocaust. The mileage representing the dis-
tance between West Bloomfield and Lodz. 
“I feel strongly about education and remembrance,” 
said Lori, a retired speech pathologist. The book is 
available at Amazon.com, with proceeds support-
ing the Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of 
Genocide and Mass Atrocities.

SPEAKING AT HMC
Witnessing the courage to begin sharing her story 
had a profound impact on Sophie’s daughter-in-law 
Anne Klisman. Anne suggested to Sophie that she 
should share her story with visitors of the Holocaust 
Memorial Center. Sophie responded to Anne: “If you 
will be a docent, I’ll start speaking, as difficult as it is.” 
A deal was struck and for the last several years, vis-
itors to the HMC have been the beneficiaries of this 
mother-in-law/daughter-in-law volunteer duo.
In 2019, another powerful chapter was added 
to Sophie’s legacy, when the Friends of the Israel 
Defense Forces (FIDF) gave her the high honor of 
returning once again to Poland, this time chaperoned 
by Israeli soldiers during their “From Holocaust to 
Independence” mission. 
“I’ll never forget walking into the gates of 
Auschwitz,” said Sophie of her escort by 45 Israeli 
soldiers. “The Israeli flag, the Torah, and to come 
back with such a delegation that the Jews and Israel 
survived and thrived.” The last leg of that FIDF mis-
sion finishing in high symbolic fashion with a trip to 
Israel for Sophie aboard an Israeli military plane.
The FIDF story received press coverage around 
the world. Local press caught the eye of, now 
97-year-old, Doug Harvey of Sterling Heights. Doug 
was a member of the 84th Infantry Division that lib-
erated Salzwedel, the final of three concentration 
camps where Sophie was imprisoned. He reached 
out to Sophie and a reunion ensued which to this day 
remains an endearing friendship between the two. 
Sophie and Doug were together again during their 
recent visit to the HMC and the “The Girl in the Diary: 
Searching for Rywka from the Lodz Ghetto” exhibit. 
“He’s a very modest man, but he and the 84th, liber-
ated and gave me a life,” said Sophie of Doug, whom 
she describes as “my hero.” 
Doug is a reluctant hero who never fails to men-
tion that he was “just one of thousands” who helped 
liberate the camps. He does, though, recognize the 
significance and impact of sharing the horrors of the 
Holocaust he witnessed.
“I’m thoroughly in favor of not letting people forget 
that this happened,” he says. “So, if I’m some small part, 
that’s great. I’m happy to do it,” adding that it’s “been a 
great privilege, my time with Sophie and her family.” 

continued from page 15
continued from page 15

Sophie Tajch Klisman 
views photos on display 
at the exhibit.

Save the Date for the Trip of a Lifetime!
March 12 to March 21, 2023 

Get ready! We’re going back to Israel as a community for the fi
 rst time in over a decade and want you to join us. 

Here’s your chance to experience the heart and soul of Israel and the Detroit Jewish community at the same 
time. To explore the history, beauty, tastes, sounds, magic and wonder of the Homeland together. 2023 is Israel’s 
historic 75th Anniversary, too. 

Am Yisrael Chai. Together again in Israel in 2023!

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There’s much more to come as details of this remarkable adults-only mission are fi
 nalized. Let us know 
you’re interested and we’ll keep you up to date and alert you when registration goes live.
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