The Man, the Myth, and How He is Responsible for My Life
featured:
Bruce Klasner, son of Holocaust survivor & Schindler Jew, Samuel Klasner
August 29, 2024
Samuel Klasner was born on September 8, 1917, in Wolbrom, Poland, to Bella and Jozef Klasner. Sam was born into a loving family with two sisters, Lola (b.1905 & fled Europe in 1932) and Rachel, and three brothers, Wolf (b. 1896), Adolf, & Bernard (b. 1910). Sadly, Sam’s dad, Jozef, was killed during an anti-Jewish pogrom in 1926. Following his father’s murder, Sam became an active member of a Zionist youth organization.By summer of 1939, Sam was drafted into the Polish Army and shortly after, on September 1, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland with eminent surrender. Unfortunately, Sam was sent to a POW camp & his captors discovered he was Jewish; he was sent to the Jewish ghetto in Krakow. Less than two years later; June 2, 1941, Sam was sent to Reichshof (Rzeszow) forced labor camp and then later, in September 1942, he was transferred to Płaszów forced labor camp near Krakow where he worked in a textile factory. Krakow-Płaszów was a brutal camp, led by the infamous Commandant Amon Goeth, who oversaw the daily arbitrary beatings/murders of those imprisoned. As a tailor, Sam sewed false bottoms in his tool pouch as he hid potato peelings and became friendly with an SS officer who gave Sam food in exchange for items Sam knitted for the man’s wife.
On one occasion, Sam was caught taking potato peels by another SS guard, and the other guard intervened. It was winter (February); the guard took him outside, doused him with cold water, and left Sam to die. Following Plaszow, Sam was transferred to Gross Rosen concentration camp. By Aug.1943, the SS converted Płaszów to a labor camp. Oskar Schindler was given permission to make Emalia a subcamp, and in October 1944, Schindler relocated his factory to Brunnlitz (Brnenec) in Moravia. Schindler’s workers from Płaszów were transferred to & processed at Gross Rosen. Sam was mechanically skilled & was invited to become a worker at Brunnlitz and have his name placed on Schindler’s list. Schindler left the camp on May 7, the day Germany surrendered. The camp was liberated on May 9 by Soviet forces who gave the prisoners vodka and cheered Stalin.
Following liberation, Sam went back to Poland to search for his family, and the antisemitic feelings towards Sam continued, as he was nearly killed in a pogrom. He went to a displaced persons camp in Regensburg, Germany, in the American zone, where he learned that his mother Bella and sister Rachel had been murdered at Treblinka death camp. His brothers Adolf and Wolf, as well as Bernard’s families, were killed in Auschwitz. To make money, Sam dismantled German equipment and smuggled it into Czechoslovakia. A short time later, he went to Palestine to assist the Jewish underground in their fight against British rule. He returned to Germany and, in July 1949, left for New York.Sam settled in Texas and continued to work at a machine factory. In 1950, he went to New York where he met Lida Cipliskia Flaum, where they got married on June 17, 1951. Sam went on to operate a grocery store until his retirement in 1979. Sam was one of the survivors from Schindler’s list. After the film’s release in 1993, Sam began speaking about his wartime experiences. In May 1994, Sam attended a reception for Emilie Schindler, Oskar’s widow, who was in Florida on a trip from Argentina sponsored by the Women’s International Zionist Organization. Sam asked her if she remembered him, and she responded, “Of course, I do, you’re Blue Eyes,” which had been her name for him. He cried and said he thought of her as his “second mother because I’m still alive today because of her…. I remember there were days she would pretend it was our birthday and give us bread. She gave us life.”