Ruchla Zylberberg

Ruchla Zylberberg was born on May 6, 1936.

She lived with her family in Zawichost,
a small Polish town by the Vistula river.

Ruchla was hanged on April 20, 1945, at Bullenhuser Damm in Hamburg.
She was eight years old.

When the Wehrmacht occupied Poland, Ruchla’s father Nison Zylberberg, a shoemaker, was able to flee to Russia with his brothers Jankel and Henryk, as well as his sister-in-law Felicja.

Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union in 1944 made it impossible for others - like Nison’s brother Jozef - to follow.

Ruchla was deported to Auschwitz with her mother, Fajga, and her little sister, Esther.

They were all murdered.

Ruchla’s father, Nison, managed to survive the war and return to Poland.

In 1946, he moved to Germany and became the father of two new daughters, Frieda and Rosa.

He eventually immigrated to the United States with his new family in 1951.

His brother Henryk, after returning to Poland after the war, emigrated to Hamburg, Germany, with his family.

Jankel׳s fate is unknown.

Jozef survived the Shoah in Poland and first emigrated to Germany and then to Bolivia