Paul Edelsberg

My name is Pinchus Edelsberg, but my family called me Pinya when I was growing up. Today my family calls me “Paul”.

I was born on February 2, 1925 in Wlodawa Poland, near the Russian border. Wlodawa was over seventy percent Jewish before the Holocaust. In fact, Wlodawa had three synagogues, The Great Synagogue at 7 Czerwonego Krzyza Street, the small synagogue next door at 5 Czerwonego Krzyza Street and the Hasidic synagogue at Pilsudskiego Street.

My father was Yosel Edelsberg and my mother was Blima Edelsberg (nee Wildman). I had two sisters, Etel and Tema. We practiced orthodox Judiasm.

My father owned a hardware store. We lived in an apartment above the store. I attended public school and then attended cheder from the age of five until I was fourteen. Unfortunately, in 1939 when I was fourteen, the Germans invaded Poland and I could no longer go to school.

In March of 1942, my father Yosel was taken by the Nazi’s when walking home from synagogue. He, along with other men from the town, were brought to Sobibor to build the Sobibor Death Camp, where he was eventually killed.

After my father was taken, I began working for a harness maker and my sister Tema began working for the Germans irrigating the local swamps. My mother and sister Etel worked in the fields on a farm in Adampol.

In the Fall of 1942, my sister Tema was taken during a roundup at the swamp where she was working. Unfortunately, Tema was brought to Sobibor extermination camp where she was executed. At the time when Tema was taken from the swamp roundup, I was outside of town working for the harness maker. After Tema was taken, I ran away into the woods and met up with the Jewish Partisan group- Lichtenberg.

I fought with the Jewish Partisan group Lichtenberg for approximately three months at which time we joined efforts with a Russian group of partisans and moved into Russia. I fought with the Russian underground until the end of 1943. During the time I was fighting with the Russian underground, my mother and sister Ethel were unfortunately killed on the farm where they were working. The Germans surrounded the farm where my mothers and sister Etel were working and shot all the Jews on the spot.

In 1944, the regular Russian army “recruited” my group of Russian underground fighters and trained us for the Russian army. After they trained us, we fought with the Russian army in Poland and Germany. In February 1945, I was wounded and had to be hospitalized in Poland. I remained in the hospital in Poland for approximately three months and was at the hospital when the war ended.

After the war ended, I returned to Wlodawa. After four months of searching, I was unable to locate any surviving family members. I decided to go to Germany where DP camps were being set up. I lived in a displaced person camp in the town of Bad Reichenhal for a year. I moved out of the DP camp after a year and lived in the town of Bad Reichenhal for an additional four years.

The Joint distribution committee sponsored my immigration to the United States. On October 14, 1951 I immigrated to the United States. I was sent to Des Moines Iowa, where I worked in a garage until 1952. In 1952, I moved to Chicago where I had friends.

I worked at a variety of jobs until 1961 when I started a business manufacturing pet supplies. In 1968 I was introduced to Carole Gerberding by a friend. We were married in 1969 and in January of 1971 our daughter, Tema, was born. Carole died in December of 1974 after fighting cancer. I met my current wife, Sally, through a mutual friend in July of 1978. We were married in February of 1979. Sally (formerly known as Zelda Kamenieczki) came to the US in December of 1949 from a DP camp in Neu Ul, Germany. Today we are fortunate to be able to spend lots of time with our daughter, Tema, her husband, Mark, and our four wonderful grandchildren: Miles, Caroline, Annie, and Phoebe.