Irene Zisblatt
Irene Zisblatt nee Zegelstein was born on December 28, 1929, in the resort town of Polyana in present-day Zakarpattia Oblast, Ukraine. Raised in a modest household, she experienced anti-Jewish restrictions at a young age, including being expelled from school in 1939 due to laws that limited Jewish movement and freedoms. In April 1944, during Passover, Irene and her family were forced into the Munkács ghetto, where they lived in makeshift conditions. Soon after, they were deceived into boarding a train for work, only to be transported to Auschwitz.
At Auschwitz, Irene was separated from her family, becoming the sole survivor among her 40 relatives, who perished in the gas chambers. Her mother, in a final act of care, gave her four small diamonds to buy bread if she ever escaped. Irene repeatedly swallowed these diamonds to protect them from guards. Surviving brutal conditions and medical experimentation, she eventually escaped during a forced death march and was later found by American soldiers. She was adopted by an American family two years later.
Irene’s story was highlighted in The Last Days, a 1998 Academy Award-winning documentary directed by James Moll and produced by Steven Spielberg. The film captures her emotional return to the sites of her childhood and the locations where she faced unimaginable trials during the Holocaust.
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