"Had Father Not Returned" The Story of Bracha Wiener

"Bracha Wiener (née Mandel) was born in Staszow, Poland in 1927 to her parents, Chaya and Szulim. She had a sister and two brothers. Bracha's father owned a lumberyard and had a good relationship with his Polish workers. After the Germans entered the town in early September 1939, the family had attempted to escape. As mainly Jewish men at the age of work were being targeted, her father went into hiding and she, together with her mother and siblings, returned to Staszow. Several months later her father returned as well. On June 15, 1942, a ghetto was established in Staszow. Believing that work would grant her protection, her father was able to arrange for a working place for her at the ghetto's sewing workshop. In early November 1942, following rumors of the upcoming liquidation of the ghetto, her father was able to get the family out of the ghetto using his connections with his Polish workers, and arranged for them, as well as other Jews from the town, to be hidden in different hiding places. However, as a result of a denouncement, Bracha's older sister was caught and killed later that month. For the following two years, Bracha, her mother, and two brothers were moved by her father between different Polish families and bunkers in the surrounding countryside, until they were liberated in August, 1944. They eventually reached the town of Lezajsk, where they were victims of a pogrom committed by Polish nationalists in February 1945. The family immigrated to Uruguay in 1948. A year later Bracha married Chaim Wiener, a young man from her town who had been in hiding with her. The two married in 1949. They had two children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. They moved to Israel in 1979. Bracha lives in Jerusalem.
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