Bronia Brandman was born in 1931 in Jaworzno, Poland, into a family of six children. She was just eight years old when World War II began. In March 1942, her oldest brother was taken to Blechhammer labor camp, and in August of the same year, her parents and another brother were deported to Auschwitz, never to be heard from again. Bronia and her three sisters fled to Sosnowiec before being relocated to the ghetto.
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In August 1943, the four sisters were deported to Auschwitz, where Bronia narrowly escaped the gas chambers by running away from her assigned line and joining one of her sisters in another line. Tragically, her sister soon developed typhus and was sent to the gas chambers. Bronia remained in Auschwitz until January 1945, when she was forced on a death march to Germany, sick and delirious with fever.
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Despite her condition, Bronia survived the march and was liberated from the Neustadt-Gleve camp by the American and Russian armies in May 1945. Today, Bronia is a retired public-school teacher. She volunteers her time as a member of the Speakers Bureau of the Museum of Jewish Heritage—A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, sharing her story and preserving the memory of the atrocities she endured.
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Bronia Brandman interview at Yeshiva Har Torah - 2023-2024
Yeshiva Har Torah