Sheindel Bierman Elbaum
Sala (Sheindel) Bierman Elbaum was born on February 14, 1926 in Olkusz, Poland. Sheindel had one sister, Chanka, and three brothers, Volve, Itcha and Motcha. Her parents were Shlomo and Temme. Shlomo sold grain and had two workers. Sheindel grew up in a small apartment with a big kitchen and one bedroom, while her paternal grandparents lived downstairs in a separate apartment.
The Nazis occupied Olkusz in September of 1939. By 1940, the Jews of Olkusz were segregated into a ghetto and were required to wear yellow stars. They were forced into slave labor and often did not have enough food to eat.
At age 15, Sheindel and her sister Chanka, who was 18 at the time, were deported to Klettendorf, a labor camp in Germany. They were separated from their parents, grandparents and brothers – all of whom, besides their brother, Volve, they never saw again. In Klettendorf, they were forced to sew uniforms for the Nazis. They were able to sew some clothing for themselves too.
At the end of 1943, Sheindel and Chanka were sent to Ludwigsdorf, in Germany, a subcamp of the Gross Rosen concentration camp network. At Ludwigsdorf they worked in an ammunition factory. Their health suffered from working with so much gunpowder. They worked alongside Sheva Elbaum, the sister of Izak Elbaum who later married Sheindel. They were often naked, cold and always hungry. Sheindel was always helpful and resourceful in the camp. She was able to get extra food for herself and Chanka. They endured beatings and were forced to lift heavy weights. It was in Ludwigsdorf that Sheindel became very sick with typhus and was unconscious for three days.
Sheindel and Chanka were liberated from Ludwigsdorf on May 9, 1945. They had no place to go so they moved into a building that the Germans used to live in. Izak Elbaum came to Ludwigsdorf looking for his sister, Sheva. He met Sheindel and they married in 1947. Their first son Steven was born in 1948 in a Displaced Persons Camp in Schwandorf, Germany. In 1949 they came to the United States through support of the JOINT Distribution Committee and they had two more children, Trudy and Danny. Sheindel and Izak’s grandchildren, Ben and Sarah Gottesman, are graduates of the Heschel School.
