Mrs. Edith Einhorn, a survivor of the horrors of Auschwitz who maintained a unique positivity and optimism, and the mother of Rabbi Moshe Yosef Engel of Long Beach, CA, passed away.
Mrs. Edith Einhorn, a survivor of the horrors of Auschwitz who maintained a unique positivity and optimism, passed away.
She was 97 years old.
Born Esther Leah Leibowicz, in the shtetl of Kal’nyk, 16km from Munkacs (today in Ukraine), in 1926. As an older teenager, she went to join her 3 older siblings in Budapest. When the Nazis arrived in Budapest a short while later, her siblings urged her to get the train back home. During the journey, she was arrested by the SS. Her parents and younger siblings were all murdered.
Through the clear hand of Hashem, she survived the horrors of Auschwitz and the notorious Death March out of that evil place.
After the war, she met her husband, Sender Engel, in a DP camp in Germany. Her aunt and two sisters, who had also survived, went fishing and returned with a small bucket of tiny fish, from which they made one roll of Gefilta fish – which served as their wedding feast. The whole DP camp population joined the dancing.
Her husband, Sender, never fully recovered from his experiences in the camps, passing away in his mid-30s, leaving her widowed with two young children, for whom she worked to provide for their needs.
After her children married, she herself remarried Mr. Moshe Einhorn. At the age of 78, after Mr. Einhorn passed away, she retired from her job at ‘Mauzone’, a kosher deli in Lawrence, NY, and moved to Eretz Yisroel, joining her daughter and son-in-law Frumie and Shmuel Siegel, in Kfar Maimon.
She was an amazing woman who, despite her difficult hardships, lived her 97 years to the absolute fullest.
In the later years of her life, she took great pleasure in her nachas, daily reviewing the names of her over 100 direct descendants, and kveld in their visits and phone calls.
She maintained a unique positivity and optimism and possessed a true simchas hachaim – joy in life. She had a special ‘chein’ and a great sense of humor and was loved by all who knew her.
She is survived by her son, Rabbi Moishe Yosef Engel of Long Beach, CA, her daughter Mrs. Frumie Siegel of Kfar Maimon, Israel, many grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.
Rabbi Engel is sitting shiva in Israel until Tuesday morning. Messages of Nichum can be sent via WhatsApp to 714-863-1426 or email [email protected]
Baruch Dayan Haemes.
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