28 August 1900 | Josef Leib Schneider, a Polish Jew, was born in Narol. In the 1920s, he moved to Antwerp, Belgium, where he married Debora Sandbank. They had two children: Luis and Regina.
When the war broke out, the family fled to France. Josef was captured and sent to Drancy, from where he was deported to Auschwitz on 4 September 1942.
During the Death March, he was evacuated from Auschwitz to Buchenwald. He was eventually liberated at Theresienstadt.
According to his granddaughter, Shelley English, Josef’s answer to the question, “How did you survive?” was that he kept the image of his wife and children in his mind, knowing he had to survive to be with them after the war.
After the war, Debora, Luis, and Regina were reunited with Josef, and in 1948 they emigrated to the US. Josef earned a living as a tailor in New York City. He passed away in 1981.
“He was a good man — humble and private, with simple needs. All he wanted was to live in peace with his family and see his grandchildren thrive. He found that peace on Second Avenue in New York City, watching his children and grandchildren live out what was called ‘the American Dream.’ He never met his great-grandchildren, but they all know how blessed they were to be born into relative freedom, and how Joseph and Dora Schneider never took that freedom for granted,” said his granddaughter.