Survivor of Holocaust dies at age 87
Miriam Grossman wanted others to know about the Nazis' atrocities.
BY KEVIN COLE WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
After surviving the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp, Miriam Grossman decided to devote herself to the celebration of life.
Grossman, 87, died Saturday of congestive heart failure after being in poor health for the past year. Graveside services will be held at noon today at Mount Sinai Cemetery, 78th Street and Crown Point Avenue.
Grossman had been a nurse before the war but chose to raise a family afterward instead of returning to medicine.
She and her husband, Ignac, a Czech machinist, met in a camp in Austria for the displaced. They were married in 1947. In 1948, their son, Alex, was born. The family immigrated to the United States in 1949.
Her daughter-in-law, Mary Sue Grossman, said Miriam Grossman never regretted her decision to leave medicine.
"She had a doctor that really wanted her to go back into nursing because she was an excellent nurse, but she said, 'There are many, many people that can be nurses, but Alex has one mother,' " Mary Sue Grossman said. "She was also very involved in the Omaha PTA and served on the Juvenile Protection Committee. She was very, very proud of that work."
When the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939, Grossman - then Miriam Golomb - was 23 and living in Lodz.
With limited food and medical supplies, no heat and several families packed into a room, many died daily of starvation, she said. Others were plucked from food lines and shipped to concentration camps.
In late 1944, the Nazis shipped Grossman and other Jews in cattle cars to Auschwitz. "It is unimaginable what happened there," she said in a 1991 interview.
On arriving at the death camp, the Jews were ordered to strip and their heads were shaved. They were sent to showers, given one garment and housed in animal stalls to await their executions in the gas chambers.
Grossman said before her turn came, she was selected in a nude lineup before Dr. Josef Mengele - dubbed the Angel of Death by survivors - to be sent to a German factory. Those not selected for the factory work were sent to their deaths.
About 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis during the war.
Preceded in death by her husband, Grossman lived at the Rose Blumkin Jewish Home for the past serveral years.
"The big thing for her was that whenever she was asked about it, when someone wanted an interview with a Holocaust survivor, she would always go," her daughter-in-law said. "She wanted people to understand so that it would never happen again. And she wanted people to know that she had a tremendous respet for people of all backgrounds and cultures."
Other survivors include three grandchildren.
World-Herald staff writer David Hendee contributed to this report.
GROSSMAN-Miriam, age 87. Miriam, a Holocaust survivor, was active in the Omaha community as a Holocaust educator, State Life Member of Nebraska PTA, and served on the OPS Juvenile Protection Committee. After her husband's death, she taught English to Russian immigrants and was a volunteer for the Anti-Defamation League. Preceded in death by husband, Ignac. Survived by son and daughter-in-law, Alex and Mary Sue Grossman; grandchildren, Sarah, Joshua, and Daniel.
Graveside Service Sunday, August 24, at Mt. Sinai Cemetary, time to be announced. Memorials to Beth Israel Synagogue or charity of your choice. JEWISH FUNERAL HOME 556-9392
