On September 12, 1939, barely two weeks into the German invasion of Poland, the childhood of nine-year old Nathan Poremba came to an abrupt end when his father was murdered outside his hometown of Wieliczka. For the next five and a half years, Nathan managed to outwit the Nazis through determination and sheer will. Repeatedly tempting fate, he refused to wear the required Star of David armband, snuck around Wieliczka, and purchased illegal train tickets. After obtaining false papers bearing the name of a dead Christian boy named “Staszek Surdel”, Nathan worked at various jobs and survived two concentration camps, convincing Poles and Germans alike that he was Polish. It would take him half a century to begin talking about his harrowing ordeal. Joel Poremba’s account of his father’s improbable Holocaust survival, published in book form in 2021, constitutes a fitting tribute to a life of extreme hardship and endurance.

• 2023-04-26

• Poremba, Joel

• UCSD-TV (Television station : La Jolla, Calif.)

Lou Dunst Memorial Lecture

• Lou Dunst Memorial Lecture Series

• Poland
• Wieliczka, Poland

• Poremba, Nathan

• Children of Holocaust survivors
• Hidden children (Holocaust)
• Hiding
• History
• Holocaust survivors
• Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
• Jewish children in the Holocaust
• Jews
• World War, 1939-1945

• image
• text
• video

Primary associated publication

• Poremba, Joel. My Name Is Staszek Surdel The Improbable Holocaust Survival of Nathan Poremba, the Last Jew of Wieliczka. Sunbury Press, 2021.

• UC Regents

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2024-02-01