Sam and Frieda Weinreich
Sam and Frieda Weinreich were Holocaust Survivors who met in a displaced persons camp after the war and later emigrated to Memphis, TN.
Sam was born on September 3, 1919 in Łódź, Poland. Shortly after the war began, the Nazis sent his family to the Łódź ghetto and in 1944, Sam was deported to Auschwitz. He was soon transferred to Dachau, where his beautiful voice moved the Jewish doctors to tears. Sam received extra food rations from the doctors because of his singing. In 1945, the Allied Army started bombing the train tracks outside of Dachau. Sam escaped into the forest, where he was eventually liberated.
Frieda, also from Łódź, was born on July 22, 1924. Frieda had five brothers and sisters, loving parents, and a home in which she felt safe. Just months after her fifteenth birthday, the security she had known was gone. "The war broke out, and the Germans came to Lodz and began beating people up," she recalls. "Synagogues were burned down; schools for Jewish children were destroyed."
Sam and Frieda met in a displaced persons camp in Landsberg, Germany. They married in the DP camp on Sam’s birthday, Sept. 3, 1946. Both the sole survivors of their families, Sam and Frieda moved to Memphis in 1949 where they had their children and enjoyed their many grandchildren and great grandchildren. Both Sam and Frieda were active in the Memphis Jewish community with Sam singing the “Partisan Song” and “Ghetto Song” for nearly 60 years at the annual Yom HaShoah commemoration. The interviews linked below are their last. Frieda, of Blessed Memory, passed away on February 10, 2024, only months before her 100th birthday. Sam, of Blessed Memory, passed on September 10, 2023, shortly after his 104th birthday and their 77th wedding anniversary.
Full Length Edited Video (55m32s)
List of Video Segments (with links):
Critical Thinking Questions and Writing Prompts are meant to accompany the full length video interview linked above (55m32s).
Critical Thinking Questions:
- At the beginning of her testimony, Mrs. Weinreich says, “There was antisemitism all over.” What does she mean? Why is that important to understand?
- What does Mr. Weinreich remember about the Nazi invasion of Poland? What does Mrs. Weinreich remember?
- Throughout their testimonies, Mr. and Mrs. Weinreich describe moments when they tried to help others (family, friends, other prisoners) during the Holocaust. What are some of the ways that Mr. Weinreich tried to help? In what ways did Mrs. Weinreich try to help?
Writing Prompts:
- Compare and contrast how Mr. and Mrs. Weinreich’s experiences in the Lodz ghetto. Write a short essay that examines their daily lives in the ghetto. What similarities are there in their experiences? Differences? What work did they undertake? What factors do you think allowed them to survive when so many people died in the ghetto?
- and Mrs. Weinreich both experienced imprisonment at Auschwitz death camp, and concentration camps. Write a short essay in which you assess their experiences at the different camps. In what ways was Auschwitz different from the concentration camps they experienced? What do they say about their liberation from the camps in 1945?
- At the conclusion of her testimony, Mrs. Weinreich says, “What I want you to know…that the way it looks now, it (the Holocaust) can happen again…this needs to be told and retold.” In short essay explain what she means. Why do you think Mrs. Weinreich believes another Holocaust is possible? Do you agree or disagree? Why?