Jack Sittsamer (z”l)

December 30, 1924 – October 26, 2008

Jack Sittsamer was born on December 30, 1924, in Mielec, Poland. He lived with his parents, Moses and Perla, and his four siblings: Israel, Joseph, Devorah and Gitla. While the family was Orthodox Jewish, the children attended Catholic School because there was no public school. Jack was 14-years-old when the Nazis invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. They reached Mielec ten days later on the eve of Rosh Hashanah.

Every member of Jack’s immediate family was killed during the Holocaust. Jack survived six concentration camps in Germany, Czechoslovakia and Austria:  Mielec, Wieliczka, Flossenberg, Letimeritz, Mauthausen and Gusen II. He was liberated from Gusen II, a sub-camp of the Mauthausen concentration camp near Linz, Austria, in May 1945, weighing just 72 pounds at 19-years-old. He immigrated to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1949 and worked as a sheet metal worker.

In 1953, Jack married Maxine Feldman. They had two children, Paula and Murray. He initially struggled to talk about his experience during the war, but became active in Holocaust education after his retirement, speaking at schools and events. He also served as President of Pittsburgh’s Holocaust Survivors’ Organization and worked with the Jewish Assistance Fund as a board member and trustee.

Jack passed away on October 26, 2008.

More about Jack

Jack’s Obituary | Tribune Review

Obituary: Jack Sittsamer / 100,000 heard his account of Holocaust’s horrors | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Sittsamer Family | The Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania by the Rauh Jewish Archives

Grip of the past: Mazel, at Jewish Theatre of Pittsburgh | City Paper

As Holocaust survivors pass away, their legacies and lessons live on | The Oracle

Guide to the Jack Sittsamer Papers, 1949-2008 | Historic Pittsburgh