Sole Survivor
featured:
Steve Hilton, Son of Holocaust Survivor and Windermere Child, Sam Hilton)
August 27, 2021
Born in Warsaw, Poland on September 23, 1929, Sam Hilton experienced tragedy at an early age, with the loss of his mother. After his father remarried, Sam and family experienced the bombardment of Warsaw and subsequent Nazi occupation. Later, Sam was forced to live in the horrific conditions within the Warsaw ghetto; welcome the arrival of his sister in 1942 and then the mass deportations from the ghetto.
From Sam’s account he can recall the song in the ghetto about Treblinka, hiding in a basement bunker during one round up, the loss of his stepmother and sister, the ghetto uprising in 1943, being deported to Majdanek with his father, the selection process and lying about his age (he claimed to be 16 when he was only 12), being in Majdanek for three weeks, being sent to Buchenwald in June 1944, being sent to a work camp in November 1944; the liquidation of the camp in March 1945; being sent on a death march; And then going to Theresienstadt where he was liberated.
Following the war, Sam made his way to Prague, Czech Republic, then to Rotterdam, Netherlands and then finally to Windermere, England for recuperation. Later, he immigrated to the United States, finally settling in the American Southwest. In this seminar, Steve Hilton retraces his father’s steps and discusses Sam Hilton, the sole survivor.