Writing and Art Competition: About Sala Sarna Kryszek
Sala was born November 15, 1926, to Aaron and Esther Sarna. She grew up in the small town of Warta, Poland, with three brothers and three sisters. Life was difficult in pre-war Poland. There was a great deal of prejudice against Jews. Yet Aaron and Esther raised their children in an observant and loving Jewish home. Sabbath was a special family time when they shared Sabbath dinner, sang, and included less fortunate friends in their celebration. Sala went to public and Jewish school during the day. When she was not studying, she worked in the family bakery. She loved to sing and dance, having inherited her beautiful voice from her father. Sadly, Sala's mother died when she was eight.
World War II began in 1939, shortly after her father remarried. At first the Nazis allowed the family to remain in Warta, but they were eventually forced to leave home and move into the Lodz ghetto. Everyone had to work hard just to survive. Fortunately they had food because her father and older brother worked in a bakery.
Later the Nazis liquidated the Lodz ghetto. Men were separated from women, children from adults. The sisters were torn from the rest of the family and found themselves on a torturous journey to the Auschwitz death camp. Sala and her sisters stuck together -- their survival throughout the war seemed to depend on it. Yet they never revealed their true relationship to anyone for fear they would be split apart.
Conditions at Auschwitz were horrifying. The girls were housed in an overcrowed barrack near the gas chambers. They knew their existence was precarious. Sala was frequently beaten. Hunger was ever present. Food was so scarce that she risked being shot to dig potatoes with her bare hands or scavenge food from garbage. She shared what little she found with family and friends in the camp.
The only way Sala could survive was to leave Auschwitz. Escape was impossible, but an opportunity appeared when a farmer came to find workers. Initially, Sala was selected but the other sisters were not. She took an unbelievable chance when she refused to go without them, and it paid off.
Life on the farm was difficult for the girls, but better than Auschwitz. Work in the fields was hard. They had little clothing and only rags for their feet, but were fed three meals a day. The sisters worked in many other places after the farm. Conditions were insufferable, but the alternative was worse.
When Germany's defeat seemed inevitable, Sala, her sisters, and many others were force-marched through winter snows to a camp. The Nazis were preparing to kill them all when they were liberated by the Russian army.
With the war still raging and persecution rampant, a Jewish Russian officer suggested the girls work in a hospital to avoid harm by soldiers or deportation to Russia. Sala worked as a nurse's aid, until a doctor advised her sisters to flee to Poland for their safety.
After the war, Sala returned to Lodz searching for family. She discovered that her stepmother and a brother died in the camps. Another brother was shot at Bergen Belsen two days before liberation. His "crime" was taking two potatoes from a cart to fend off starvation. Sala's father survived to see Bergen Belsen liberated, only to die from typhus before doctors could help him.
Sala's younger brother was alive in Hanover, Germany. She followed one of her sisters there, where she met and married Jakob Kryszek. They lived in Hanover until moving to Portland in 1952, joining one sister and her brother. The couple arrived with few possessions and no knowledge of the English language. Jakob hoped to find work in the knitting industry, but economic conditions were tough. Sala was luckier, finding work first at Acme Rag and later in a cannery. Eventually, Jakob also found work, and the other two sisters arrived in Portland. In 1954 my parents had my brother Albert. Three years later they had me. From then on, Jakob and Sala worked very hard, in time building a family business.
Sala was generous, kind, and a loving wife and mother who cared about her friends, family and the community. She passed away in 1986.
Jerry Kryszek
November 1, 1992