Frieda Weinschenker Tabak was born in Lipcani, Romania. When she was nine years old, an agreement between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union led to her family moving to the city of Chernowitz. After Germany invaded in 1941, the Nazis forced the Jewish population into a ghetto and began sending them to a region called Transnistria. Frieda’s family was allowed to stay thanks to the local mayor, but life was very hard, and her father was eventually sent to a slave labor camp.
The Soviet Union freed Frieda in March 1944, but her troubles were not over. Her father was held in another labor camp for nine more months, and when he returned, the family used fake documents to travel to a displaced persons camp in Germany. In 1947, the family immigrated to Chester, Pennsylvania, where Frieda went back to school after a six-year gap and went on to earn a chemistry degree from Temple University. She is widowed and has three children and three grandchildren.
