“My mother, my sister, my father and me, I had underground, a cellar. It’s like today, I would say a basement, but it was dark, no windows. Everybody was quiet. It was very cold and probably very filthy.” – Zahava Rendler
Early memories of Zahava Rendler’s life are made of scenes like this – with her family in Poland taking drastic but necessary measures to try and avoid deportation by the Nazis. When she was just an infant, Zahava’s family went into hiding in that bunker. In order to avoid detection, Zahava’s parents gave their daughter sleeping pills, but eventually the risk became too great to keep their baby with them in hiding and they made the difficult decision to send their youngest child into hiding with strangers. At first, she was placed with a family nearby, then later a Catholic convent. Her family survived the war thanks to the help of upstanders and she went on to start new chapters in Israel and later in the United States.
Zahava joined Jackie Congedo, CEO of the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center, for this episode of Hear My Story to share the experiences that have shaped her life and encourage others to stand up to hate and injustice.
This episode is part of the Cynthia & Harold Guttman Family Center for Storytelling. Subscribe so you don’t miss an episode https://www.youtube.com/@holocaustandhumanity
Our gratitude to Margaret & Michael Valentine for their ongoing support of this series.
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Episode Resources
Learn more about the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center and plan an in-person visit. You can see more of Zahava’s story on display in our museum.
Watch Zahava’s video of her open letter to the people of Cincinnati and beyond
Read about how Catholic convents played a role in hiding Jewish children like Zahava during the war https://www.yadvashem.org/righteous/resources/rescue-of-jewish-children-in-polish-convents.html
Find out more about the Atlit detention camp in Israel where Zahava lived when she arrived in the country https://shimur.org/sites/atlit-detention-camp/?lang=en
Read about the trial of Adolf Eichmann, which Zahava recalled watching with her newborn son https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/eichmann-trial
