Holocaust Museum - 3G

Don and I traveled on a bus trip with a local synagogue to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. Through a chance meeting, Sue, our leader, learned grandchildren of Holocaust survivors tell their stories through the group 3G. She connected with Rachel, whose grandfather William Loew was the only member of his family to survive.

The third generation, or 3Gs, is a movement to preserve the memories of their grandparents.

This was Rachel's first time sharing his story at the Holocaust Museum. Her aunts were in attendance, which would have made me extra nervous. She has told his story to school groups.

Her grandfather was born to a prominent Polish family in 1925. They were winemakers. Today Rachel and her family are keeping that tradition alive at Loew Vineyards in Maryland. His story is preserved on their website. My notes are not as powerful.

William Loew was born Wolf Low. He was Rachel's favorite person in the world. In the end she shared pictures of him, and a brief video. His smile lit up a room. Looking at him in his 80s and 90s, you would not imagine the atrocities he saw.

In 1939 war broke out and life changed. Poland was divided between the Germans and the Soviets. His city of Lvov was on the Soviet side. Their business was forced to close. Curfews were instituted. Life went from being great to becoming difficult. 

In 1941 war broke out again. The Ukrainians were in charge. The moved into the Lvov ghetto. Young Wolf (later William) had tuberculosis. He survived and got a job working a roofing paper company carrying 65kg of asphalt into trucks. His boss took a liking to him. Wolf had papers allowing him to move in and out of the ghetto to his job. Pietr (his boss) told him of a home where he could hide if things turned. In the Spring of 1943 there were mass roundups of Jews. He went to find his mother hiding in a specially built couch.

In the summer of 1943 there were rumors the factory would be liquidated. Wolf went into hiding in a home with five other Jews. He stayed there for eight months until January 1944 when he walked to move to Hungary (which was unoccupied at the time). There he enjoyed a brief respite. He was a refugee, but Budapest was free. He had nothing, but himself. He became a courier for the Resistance.

In July 1944 while out delivering a message to Romania with the scantest of information who to pass the message onto, he was captured. Since he spoke multiple languages they thought he was a spy. He was interrogated and beaten for three weeks before being sent to Auschwitz on September 12, 1944 and tattooed with the number 193229. Placed in Barrack 20, which was for infectious diseases, he felt somehow he was protected. Once he was in the line to be murdered and was pulled into the other line at the last moment after someone noticed his number. After that he considered #13 his lucky number.  

In January 1945 as the camp was being liquidated, he was sent on a 12 day trip without food or water in an open cattle car. As the passed under overpasses, locals threw them loaves of bread. For the rest of his life he said the Czechoslovakians were the nicest people. 

From February 1945-April 17, 1945 h was in Flossenberg and sent on a death march. On April 23, 1945 the 99th division of the US Army freed them.

"Bittersweet" was how he described being freed. He was the sole survivor of his family. He lost friends, he was in poor health, and did not have much education. Worked with the US Army as a translator (quickly adding English to his list of languages) and moved to the United states in 1949. In 1954 he met his future wife (Rachel's grandmother).

The sweet smell of honey mead in barrels haunted him for the rest of his life. Today the family makes that in honor of their family. In 1982, as he was nearing retirement, he bought 37 acres of land and built the vineyards.

He found hope in the sky. "I had to survive because someone had to tell" what happened.

This 45-minute session was the most powerful of the day.