Sandy Goldwasser Berenbaum was born in 1946 in Pocking, Germany, the second largest displaced persons camp in the American sector, located in Bavaria not far from Austria. The camp was a former sub-camp of Flossenberg concentration camp, and Sandy and her family lived in Nazi barracks attached to a Luftwaffe airfield.
Conditions in the camp were harsh, with widespread disease including typhus, typhoid fever, and smallpox, until the Harrison Report brought attention to the crisis and pushed for improvements.
Her mother had survived a Soviet work camp in Siberia, where her parents actually met, while her father survived a Nazi slave labor camp because of his skill as a shoemaker and leather worker. His trade literally saved his life, as the camp commandant tested him by having him measure his feet twice and comparing the results.
Back in his hometown of Malava, Poland, a city that was once home to over 6,000 Jewish families, approximately 81 members of his family were murdered during the Holocaust.
In 1949, Sandy and her parents immigrated to the United States aboard the SS Marine Flasher, a converted troop transport ship, arriving through Boston before settling in Brooklyn, New York. The early years were difficult, with the family living in a boarded-up storefront while her father attended night school to learn English, eventually working his way up to becoming a factory foreman.
As a second-generation survivor, Sandy feels a deep responsibility to keep her family’s story alive and to speak for those who no longer can. Her message is one of pride, gratitude, and strength: “Be proud of who you are. Don’t be a victim. Be a survivor.”