Holocaust Survivors Reunite After 72 Years Apart

In August 2016, former lovers that met in Auschwitz during the Second World War reunited in an apartment in New York 72 years after being separated. Their story is a tale of hope and ambition during a time of extreme fear and terror.

A Prisoner in Auschwitz

In 1943, David Wisnia was a Jewish prisoner from Poland working in the “corpse unit” in the Auschwitz concentration camp. At just 17-years-old, Wisnia’s job was to collect the bodies of prisoners that had committed suicide.

The Most Distressing Job

Mr. Wisnia had the agonizing job of gathering the bodies of his fellow prisoners that had flung themselves at the electric fences surrounding the camp.

However, word got around the camp that Wisnia had a gifted operatic singing voice, which promoted him to entertainer for the Nazi officers.

An Unexpected Encounter

Now considered to have a privileged prisoner’s job, David Wisnia would sing for the Nazi captors at the SS building known as the Sauna. One day while at the Sauna, another prisoner with a privileged job spotted Wisnia and insisted on meeting him.

Who Was It That Caught His Eye?

Fellow prisoner and one of the first Jewish women to arrive in Auscwitz, 25-year-old Helen Spitzer (Zippi) was the camp’s graphic designer.

Born in Slovakia, Spitzer was fluent in German which worked to her advantage and secured her an office job in the camp.