Yom Hashoah: Bubbie Edie's Guide to Survival

In commemoration of Yom Hashoah, I share the wisdom of Edie Eigerman-Schiff, may her memory be for a blessing. Edie was the grandmother of my dear friend Daniella, and I first heard Edie’s story when Daniella spoke to my son’s religious school class a few years ago. The embedded short video tells the little-known story of the women on the Nazi’s first official transport of Jews to Auschwitz and was created following the 2017 journey of three survivor families to commemorate 75 years since the transport. Daniella is the singer at the end of the video.

Downloadable one-page PDF: Bubbie Edie’s Guide to Survival

“No one survived 3 years in Auschwitz.” German reparation rep to a survivor. March 25, 1942, 999 unmarried, young Jewish women boarded a train to go to a work camp. Nobody knew their government had sold them to the Nazis for slave labor. Nobody knew they would never see their daughters again. Nobody knew they were going to Auschwitz. This is the untold story of the First Jewish Transport to Auschwitz and the 999 young Jewish women sent to Auschwitz as slave labor to the Nazis. Unearthing the political intrigue and treachery that sent their mothers to Auschwitz, three families return to their homeland to discover the truth behind the First Women in Auschwitz and meet one of the last living survivors of the First Transport: Edith Grosman.