Roisman, Goldy (Shupak)

Survivor/Camps
Radzin (Poland), Suchowol, Majdanek, Auschwitz

Mrs. Goldy Roisman was born in Radzin, Poland in 1914. She lived with her father, Chaim Josef, mother, Rachel Leah and four siblings: three sisters and one brother.

Her family was Orthodox and observed all the holidays.  On Shabbos, they gave food to the poor.

In 1939, they ran from Hitler to her husband’s city which was seven miles away.  Her husband Max Roisman was a tailor who knit sweaters for the SS.  A Gentile family took them in for six months before the Ghetto, Suchowol, from 1941 to 1943.  Afterward, they were taken to Majdanek for three months in 1943 where they worked with one hundred men and sixteen women.  The weather was bad and they were starving.  Mrs. Roisman was supposed to go to the crematorium, but ran away, later being caught and beaten by the SS.

She smelled burning flesh all day and night and knew what the fate was.  Next she was sent to Auschwitz where she lived for two years, bartering cigarettes for bread while working.  She remembers a very young rabbi who prayed for them daily.

In January of 1945, there was a camp selection that took a group of girls to Bergen-Belsen.  Mrs. Roisman hid under a bed. Within days of this selection, she and a group of girls were marched out of Auschwitz where eventually she was liberated by the Russians in April of 1945.

The Germans began running away and many said, “You’re free.”  She then walked with two to three thousand women, going to the train station.  When she got there, a man told her that her husband was alive.  Mr. Roisman returned, walking with crutches and returned to their city.  They couldn’t find any Jews, but found about twenty people who were shocked and happy to see her.  They remained for six months.

Before the war, there were five thousand Jews and five thousand Poles.  Those who had escaped to Russia survived, but few from the camps did.

Her tattoo from Auschwitz read #49633.

Her mother died at the age of fifty four of illness and her  father died of pneumonia while in a labor camp. Her sister Kayla, together with her children, was killed in Tarnopyl.  Her sister Esther was killed in Radzin. She also lost uncles, aunts and cousins.

Mrs. Roisman has two sons, Josef and Hubert and two grandchildren.  She has constant nightmares.

Interview information:
Date: May 10, 1992
Interviewer: Rabbi Charles Rosenzveig
Length: 47 minutes
Format: Video Recording