Rita Gluzman

Born in Chernovtsy, Ukraine in 1948, Rita Gluzman is the eldest daughter of Paula and Leib Shapiro. Leib and Paula are survivors of the Holocaust. Being a child of Holocaust survivors, Rira Gluzman had a different interpretation of the world compared to non-Jewish children. After having watched the horrors of death of their closest family members and dear friends in and by Nazi hands, Leib and Paula came to consider life as an immeasurably precious gift. By themselves, Rita’s parents were forced to hide their faith as well as their identity and this made them more fearful of the world they existed in.

The Holocaust was a horrific time of mass murders, concentration camps and gas chambers, and Rita Gluzman’s parents witnessed those atrocities and still, by some incredible twist of faith, survived and lived to tell the tale. The only open town in Stalin’s Soviet Union then was Chernovtsy. Rita Gluzman’s parents got stuck in Chernovtsy for another 23 years because before they could get to Vienna, the border closed. During those more than two decades, the family attempted to obtain permission to immigrate to Israel but their efforts came to naught.

Rita and her younger sister were left by their mother so she could relocate next to the prison camp to help their father, who was imprisoned in the Ural Mountains, survive. Rita’s mother brought frequent gifts to the prison administration to keep the family patriarch alive. Left with the sole responsibility of caring for her younger sister, Rita Gluzman did her best to ensure they both had enough to eat. Stored in the attic of their 8-family unit home were empty bottles. These she sold to get money for food for her younger sister and herself.

Even then, in the darkest of their days as a family, Rita Gluzman demonstrated how the strength of the spirit always serves as a way to brighten up the gloom.