International March of the Living mourns the recent passing of beloved Holocaust survivor and educator Paula Lebovics.
Over the last few decades, Paula lived up to her lifelong motto, “silence is not an option”, volunteering at the USC Shoah Foundation, speaking at events organized by the Holocaust Museum of Los Angeles and the Museum of Tolerance, and addressing school, church and synagogue audiences throughout Los Angeles.
As well, Paula participated in six journeys with the BJE Los Angeles Teen March of the Living.
Dr Shawn Abraham, a 2007 MOTL alumnus, noted after her passing that: “She changed me and all those lucky enough to meet her.”
Paula Lebovics (nee Balter) was born in 1933 in Ostrowiec, Poland. After the outbreak of WWII, in 1940 Paula and her family were banished to a single room in an open ghetto. Her older brother Herschel created a hiding place for forty people under a chicken coop during the selections. Tragically, two of her sisters, aged 16 and 18, who believed their work papers would keep them safe, were murdered in Treblinka.
Pessa hid in an attic during the day and eventually in an abandoned brick factory. She endured gnawing hunger and numbing cold before being captured by Ukrainian soldiers and delivered to the Germans. At one point, she was made to wash floors at a Hitler Youth camp.
At just ten years old, Pessa was herded onto a cattle car and sent to Auschwitz. She survived on meager rations of watery gruel and black bread, and by singing to bolster the spirits of her fellow prisoners. She practiced invisibility when Dr. Josef Mengele selected subjects for his experiments. She found her brother across the electrified fence, and when their mother fell gravely ill, he passed food to Pessa through the fence. At one point, Paula found two mismatched felt boots, one too large, but to her, she still felt rich.
In January 1945, as the end of the war approached, the adults in Auschwitz were forced on a death march, leaving Pessa with the younger children. For ten days, her only food was a moldy piece of bread.
On January 27, 1945, the Red Army liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau. About 7000 people remained in the camp, too sick or too young to go on the death march, including many children – among them 12 year old Paula.
Paula appeared in a famous picture on that day of liberation, surrounded by 12 other child survivors standing behind the barbed wire of Auschwitz in their striped prison uniforms.
In 2015, Paula along with many other Holocaust survivors returned to Auschwitz to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz – and her own liberation as well.
On January 26, 2015, four of the thirteen child survivors depicted in a Soviet army photo taken after the liberation of the camp met in Kraków, Poland, for a reunion photo. From left to right: Paula Lebovics, Miriam Ziegler, Gábor Hirsch, and Eva Kor. [Photo: USC Shoah Foundation]
Following liberation, Paula and her mother registered with the Red Cross and returned to their hometown. The caretaker of her grandfather’s building greeted them with, “Jew, they didn’t kill you?” Herschel once again came to their rescue, taking them to a displaced persons camp in Germany, where Pessa, at age 12, attended her first real school— a Hebrew school.
Herschel emigrated to Australia in 1950, and Paula and her mother arrived in Detroit, United States, on March 1, 1952. She changed her name to Paula, married in 1957, and went on to have two children.
“I am proud to be a Jew. I see myself as a teacher of history and tolerance, and I hope that the people who hear my story will be inspired to do the same,” Paula shared with her students on the March of the Living.
Monise Neumann, National Consultant for International March of the Living, traveled with Paula on several MOTL programs. After her passing she noted:
“Paula imbued in all of us the understanding that the Holocaust is not a myth and should never become one. We will continue to honor Paula’s legacy by sharing her story with future March of the Living participants, and honor her lifelong message that “silence is not an option”.
May her memory always be for a a blessing.
In January 2015, 70 years after her liberation, Holocaust Survivor Paula Lebovics, identifies herself in famous photo from Auschwitz-Birkenau taken by Soviet troops on January 27, 1945. Paula Lebovics was attending commemoration ceremonies held in Auschwitz on the 70th anniversary of its liberation.
Left to right: Paula Lebovics with 2018 BJE MOTL Staff, Candace Brand, Monise Neumann & Maya Aharon
Paula Lebovics with LA teen student participant on the March of the Living.
Photo Credits: BJEMOTL
