This is the memoir written by Bella Kuligowska Zucker, the only person in her family to survive the Holocaust. In September 1939, Bella was a carefree teenager living in Poland when the German army struck. She was rounded up with her friends and family and sent to a series of grim Jewish ghettos. After loved ones were separated and lost through the war years, Bella survived by changing her identity.
Narrowly escaping death each time, she moved from place to place, odd job to odd job, new name to new name. After finding the birth certificate of a Catholic girl five years her senior, she became Sabina Mazurek. Then she went into the eye of the storm, Germany, where she believed she might be safest. Sabina is her story.
As in Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank and Night by Elie Wiesel, Bella Kuligowska marshaled unexpected resources to manage as a teen during the horrors of World War II. Sabina offers a different perspective on how many Jews survived outside of the concentration camps, in more familiar yet infinitely hostile settings, with the help of others along the way.
Rapkin, Grace: - Grace Rapkin is a respected leader in the nonprofit world with extensive experience in museums, the arts and higher education fields. Grace established and directed the marketing and communications department at The Jewish Museum in New York and worked there for over 20 years. She held full-time marketing positions at the 92nd St. Y and Macaulay Honors College at CUNY, both in New York City. In the consulting realm, Grace has completed projects for a number of local arts and national social service organizations, among them Planned Parenthood, Carnegie Hall, and United Way. Grace is the principal of Grace Rapkin Associates, a marketing consulting firm located in New York City. The firm is engaged with a variety of projects with local and international non-profit clients. Grace recently published her mother's Holocaust memoir entitled Sabina in the Eye of the Storm, available for purchase on Amazon in paperback, e-book and audiobook formats. Grace holds a B.A. and M.B.A. from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. She is a member of the Alliance of American Museums and Council of Jewish Museums. Grace has volunteered as a board member and mentor for the American Marketing Association, and presents to school children as part of the Museum of Jewish Heritage's "Heritage Testimonies" program.
Zucker, Bella Kuligowska: - Bella Kuligowska Zucker was born in Serock, Poland in 1925. She grew up in a happy home with her five brothers; everyone working in her parent's bicycle business. She was a carefree Jewish teenager when World War 2 began and the Germans occupied Poland in 1939. Bella was rounded up with her friends, neighbors and family and sent to a series of grim Jewish ghettos. After loved ones were separated and lost through the war years, Bella moved from place to place, narrowly escaping death many times. After finding a birth certificate of a Polish Catholic girl five years her senior, she changed her identity and became Sabina Mazurek. She spent the remaining war years as a Polish volunteer on a farm in rural Germany, never revealing her true identity. After the war, she tried in vain to find her missing family members. She was the lone survivor. Bella met her husband in her travels around Poland after the war and emigrated to the US in 1951. Bella spent many years perfecting her English and writing skills to share her memoir in the book entitled: Sabina: In the Eye of the Storm. Bella passed away in 2008, but her two daughters are proud to share Bella's inspiring story of survival.
