Irene Skolnick
Birthdate: August 22, 1937
Birthplace: Przemysl, Poland
Religious Identity: Jewish
“One of my father’s sisters didn’t feel she needed to wear the white armband with a blue Star of David which was mandated in Poland. She was stopped by a Ukrainian Militia man. A check of her papers revealed she was Jewish so he asked for a bribe which she refused to pay. She was imprisoned for a month, during which time the family tried to buy her freedom unsuccessfully. At the end of the month all the prisoners were taken to the forest and executed.”
Irene Skolnick was born in Przemysl, Poland. She and her family came under Nazi occupation on June 22, 1941 when Hitler attacked the USSR. In December 1941, the family was forced to move into the ghetto. As life became ever more precarious, Irene’s mother decided that the family’s only chance of survival was to change their identity. They obtained false papers and passed themselves off as Catholic Poles. The family left the ghetto in August 1942. Irene and her older brother were briefly sheltered by former friends of their parents.
The family then moved to Lublin where Irene’s father was employed by Poles who were very helpful. Through his work, her father obtained permission to move into a small, primitive single-family home on the outskirts of the city less than half a mile away from Madjanek, the second largest concentration camp in Poland. In that two-room house with no electricity or indoor plumbing, Irene’s parents hid up to eight members of her father’s family in the attic and cellar. After the war, Irene and her family moved to France where they lived for six years. They emigrated to the U.S. in 1952, when Irene was 14 years old.
“I met [my husband Leon] in 1959; the facetious answer he likes to give is he met me in a tree. We both attended a
young adult summer camp run by the 92nd Street Y and we went on a hike. I liked to climb trees, and I was up in the tree when he decided to take a picture of me.”
-Biography adapted from “In Celebration of Life: The Living Legacy Project” (2016)
Once a Jew was trapped under Nazi occupation there were only four ways one could hope to survive: with luck one could survive the camps, one could be hidden by a courageous gentile, one could escape and live in the forest with partisans, or one could change one’s identity, pretend to be Catholic and blend into the ambient population. This is what mother decided would be our best chance at survival. This was not an easy undertaking. To blend into the Polish community it was essential not to look Jewish; not to sound Jewish; to know a fair amount about Catholicism; and be able to think on your feet when unexpected events occurred. Above all one needed to be lucky. With counterfeit documents we changed our name and moved to Lublin, the site of Majdanek, the second largest concentration camp in Poland. At that time I was five years old and my brother was seven. We had to learn new names and to never reveal our past. No sooner we got settled that members of my father’s family descended on us seeking shelter. In a small, primitive house we hid up to eight members of my father’s family.
Learn more
Irene is featured in volume three of CHUTZ-POW! SUPERHEROES OF THE HOLOCAUST. Published in 2018, this third volume, The Young Survivors, tells the stories of men and women who survived the Holocaust as children. Some were invisible, hidden children who stayed out of sight. Others were visible, hidden children who assumed a false identity and had to learn new customs and new names. Some children survived concentration camps and ghettos, while others were able to escape with their families intact. Heroes emerge in each story – a mother who acquired false papers for her family against the wishes of her husband; another mother who stood up to Nazi guards to protect her children; non-Jewish families who took in Jewish children, risking their own lives. Shop here.
More about Irene
A survivor’s voice: Irene Skolnick on the trauma of the Holocaust and the ongoing fight against antisemitism | Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle
Holocaust survivor shares family’s experience of growing up in Nazi-occupied Poland | WLOX News
Pittsburgh woman tells South Allegheny students how family survived Holocaust | TribLive
Holocaust Survivor Brings Her Story to the Classroom | PA Distance Learning Charter School