Holocaust survivor Josef Lewkowicz, who has passed away in Jerusalem aged 98. was one of the last Polish survivors possessed of an intact and adult memory able to vividly recall six years of terror, loss and torture at the hands of the Nazis.
Born in Dzialoszyce, Galicia and growing up at the epicentre of Jewish life in Kazimierz just a couple doors away from the famous Remo shul, at the age of 13 he was part of the first Jewish slave entail assigned to set up Plaszow concentration camp on the site of the former Jewish Jeruzolimska cemetery. All his family, numbering over 150, were transported to Belzec death camp to be murdered. Only Joseph and his father made it to Plaszow where his father was also murdered, leaving Joseph as the sole survivor of his large family.
Later, as an inmate of Plaszow, he came face to face with Amon Goeth, the infamous Butcher of Plaszow, brandishing a pistol in his face. Miraculously saved by the head Kapo Wilek Chilowicz, Lewkowicz subsequently endured the most harrowing suffering in Auschwitz, Mielec, Amstetten, Mathausen and Ebensee. Twice in the camps Joseph’s resourceful nature saw him volunteering to become a shoeshine boy in order to save his life and gain extra protection. Once in Plaszow, for Chilowicz, and the second to the Commandant of Mielec concentration camp, Julius Ludolf.
Aged 19, Lewkowicz was liberated at Ebensee slave labour camp in Austria in May 1945. After discovering that he was the lone survivor of his family he resolved to devote himself to two selfless missions in the aftermath of the war. Based in the DP camp established in Bad Ischl, Austria, he deftly managed to persuade the newly formed communist regime in Poland to supply him with a band of armed officials to assist him in repatriation of “dispersed families”.Unbeknown to them he searched high and low for Jewish toddlers handed over by their parents to gentile families for temporary safekeeping. The parents were never to return.
Working together with Jewish Agency officials, Dr Yitzchak Refael and Elazar Ungar, based in Paris and with the blessing of then Chief Rabbi Herzog, Lewkowicz’s efforts gathered 600 lost Jewish children in Rabka-Zdroj from where the Zionist ‘bricha’ (underground movement helping Jewish survivors escape post-war Europe) transported them to Trieste and eventually by boat to Palestine. His other heroic mission was to work with the CIA searching for Nazis hiding from justice in post-war Europe. Working in this manner he was instrumental in locating, identifying and testifying against his former monstrous tormentors Julius Ludolf and Otto Streigel, commandants of Mielec, Johannes Grimm, Hans Kreindel and the greatest catch of all – the Butcher of Plashow, himself – Amon Goeth.
In 1946, forgoing the opportunity to become part of those struggling to make a Jewish State a reality, Lewkowicz decided, instead, to search for the only remaining family he knew of in the world, travelling to locate a distant cousin he believed to be in Argentina. Eventually he went into the diamond business and married Perla Lederman, settling in Colombia where children Ziggy and Sheila were born. A few years later the family moved to Montreal where Lewkowicz felt he could more adequately provide his young family with a good Jewish education and community for which he yearned. His youngest son, Tuvia was born there.
Lewkowicz remained a man of faith throughout the Holocaust, returning to full religious observance immediately after the war. For decades he chose to live a normal Jewish life, refraining from talking about his experiences and loss in the Holocaust, focusing instead upon bringing up an observant Jewish family and always seeking to help Jewish communities wherever he lived, predominantly Colombia and Montreal.
Ever the ardent, religious Zionist, after the Six Day War he was one of four initial investors to found the Arzei Habirah neighbourhood in Jerusalem. However, radical economic restructure and devaluation of the shekel caused them to lose their investment. Lewkowicz retained one small apartment to which he made aliyah in 2014, just a few years after his beloved wife Perl succumbed to a three-year coma, which he mainly spent by her bedside. It was during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza. The threat of war did not deter him. He was 88 years old when he finally received his Israel ID at Ben Gurion airport, accompanied by a grandson serving in the IDF and the press corps all of whom came to greet him .
It was around this time that I met him, and recognizing the power of his epic story and unusual powers of communication, I invited him to become a regular lecturer to JRoots groups of students and lead educational Jewish journeys to Poland.
I have interviewed hundreds of Holocaust survivors. Reb Josef was remarkable for both the experiences he endured over six years and an unusually robust physical nature intertwined with incredible faith, charm and even humour. Even when personal tragedy struck again in 2021 when Joseph’s youngest son Tuvia was hit by a car in New Jersey, once again Lewkowicz managed to respond with indomitable courage and faith, expanding his engagement with students, lectures and JRoots journeys in the face of such unimaginable pain and suffering.
A resounding “lechayim” became synonymous with Reb Yosef Lewkowicz during the past years of his life. It was a proclamation resonating with a remarkable zest, passion and faith in a life of full Jewish observance; a life that the Nazis destroyed and he definitely brought back with a vengeance. His epic story has been immortalised by a JRoots documentary Survivors Revenge and Penguin bestseller, The Survivor.
I asked him once if he was ever in fear for his life. He replied: “Fear and worry are like a rocking chair! People think because they are moving, they must be going somewhere! They are not! I don’t worry and am not afraid of things that don’t get me anywhere!”
He would often recall words in Polish from his mother “na grzecznowski nikt nie traci – be nice, polite, be a mensch, you’ll never lose.” In the camps he would steal food and share with other inmates. As he grew older he passionately threw himself into passing on his story and values to the younger generation. In his death he charged us with life. Lechayim!
He is survived by Ziggy and Sheila.
Josef Lewkowicz: born 1926. Died December 26, 2024
