THE 20 CHILDREN

Ruchla Zylberberg

Ruchla Zylberberg was born in Zawichost, Poland, on 6 May 1936. When German armed forces occupied Poland, her father, the shoemaker Nison Zylberberg, was able to flee to Russia with his brother Henry and sister-in-law Felicja. The rest of the family was supposed to follow, but the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 put paid to their plans. Ruchla was deported to Auschwitz, together with her mother Fajga and little sister Esther; Fajga and Esther were murdered there.

Ruchla Zylberberg’s father Nison survived the war. He emigrated to the USA in 1951. His brothers Josef and Henrik, and their wives, moved to Hamburg. When the German magazine Stern published the series “The SS doctors and the children” in 1979, the Zylberbergs discovered Ruchla’s photograph amongst the images of the 20 children. When Ruchla was murdered in Bullenhuser Damm, she was eight years old.