Sisterhood and Survival: Reflecting on Sophie Klisman’s Testimony

By Arial Greene
From the blog series titled, “The Endurance and Relevance of Survivor Testimonials in the 21^st Century” by students of Professor Sylvia Taschka’s ‘Nazi Germany’ class at Wayne State University. In partnership with the Appelbaum Family Compass Fund.

Sophie Klisman was only ten years old when Nazi occupiers, in 1939, forced her and her family to live and work in the Lodz ghetto in Poland. Sophie was then transported to the concentration camp Auschwitz. She then was moved from one concentration camp to the next, facing illness, starvation, and coerced labor.

Despite the terrible and abusive conditions of these camps, Sophie and her sister survived. They were finally liberated on April 14, 1945, and then relocated to Detroit in 1949 where Sophie met her husband, Bernard. Before listening to Sophie Klisman’s story, I did not know that many Jewish Holocaust survivors immigrated to the Detroit area.

Sophie and Her Family

Sophie’s testimony focused a lot on her family. She was the youngest of four, her parents, Berek and Luba Teich, and her eldest brother died while in Lodz, she then lost her other brother at Auschwitz. Miraculously, Sophie and her sister Felicia were able to stick together throughout the Holocaust. Their story shows the power of sisterhood and displays how gender roles impacted the experiences of victims because the camps Sophie and her sister went to were separated by gender.

If I were to interview Sophie today, I would ask her more questions regarding her sister and how having her by her side affected her experience. I wonder how going through these horrible times together with Felicia contributed to her hope and survival. I do not have a sister, but I could imagine having my brother, John, with me in their situation would make the terrors they faced and the family they lost more bearable.
I feel that Sophie’s testimonial displays the importance of gathering stories about Holocaust survivors.

Keeping Human Memory Alive

Primary accounts and oral histories allow a historian insight into the emotional experiences of those who lived through the event. While studying history, I have always been drawn to primary sources. They give you a better understanding of an event and provide a narrative you can follow and feel invested in. With a primary account, a historian can recount a more comprehensive history of the Holocaust. However, primary accounts taken decades later do rely on human memory. This is when historians look for patterns, which can be seen in Sophie’s testimonial.

Sophie, unfortunately, experienced the horrors of the Holocaust such as the death of family members, being transported in cattle cars to uncertainty, and dehumanization on a physical and physiological level. Sophie’s story also displays the pattern of resilience and pride of survivors and the gratefulness for family.

Proudly showing off pictures of her children and grandchildren, Sophie stated at the end of her testimonial: “Somehow that’s the end of my story, a beautiful ending.” This is the core message I took away from Sophie and her story. Sophie held on to hope throughout the Holocaust and carried on the legacy of her family through her children and grandchildren.