Throughout his childhood, Joel Poremba tried unsuccessfully to get his father Nathan to share the details of how he had survived the Holocaust. Nathan Poremba avoided his son’s persistent questions, but Joel promised himself, and even pledged in his bar mitzvah speech, that one day he would tell his father’s story.
In 1998 Nathan agreed to be interviewed by the USC Shoah Foundation, sharing for the first time his childhood experiences during the Holocaust. Joel listened in on a few minutes of his father’s testimony and watched as Nathan tried to control his tears. It was the first time Joel ever saw his father cry. Unable to bear seeing his loving father so sad, Joel could not listen to any more of the four-hour testimony. Only after an inspiring trip to Israel 21 years later was Joel finally able to watch the testimonial video. Determined to fulfill his bar mitzvah promise, Joel began interviewing Nathan about the details of his wartime survival, and in July 2021 he published My Name is Staszek Surdel: The Improbable Holocaust Survival of Nathan Poremba, the Last Jew of Wieliczka.
Nathan was nine years old in 1939 when he watched the Nazis take his father and dozens of other Jewish men away from their Polish town of Wieliczka. He later learned that the Nazis executed them all in a nearby forest. When deportations to concentration camps began in 1942, Nathan fled with his youngest sister Fela. They moved in and out of several ghettos, at one point sneaking into Krakow to get food and taking cover in the crowd of Jews on their daily trek to Oscar Schindler’s enamel factory.
Nathan obtained false papers of a dead Christian boy named Staszek Surdel and adopted his identity. He worked as a shoemaker’s apprentice and then fled to the countryside where he found work on a farm. A confrontation with a German officer resulted in Nathan being sent to the Bergen-Belsen and then to Plazsow labor camp, still under his false identity. The Polish farmer was able to arrange his release after a few weeks, and Nathan remained on the farm until the war ended in 1945.
Nathan was 15 years old when the war ended. His parents, three sisters, and most of his extended family had been killed. He made his way back to his hometown of Wieliczka where he found a Polish family living in his family’s home. There, he miraculously was reunited with Fela, his one surviving sister. Eventually, Fela and Nathan were permitted to travel to New York, sponsored by an uncle who had moved there before the war.
When asked why it took so long for him to tell his story, Nathan responded that sharing that painful period of his life exposed him at his lowest and most powerless. Eventually, he realized that by staying alive, he proved his power, and that by talking about his past he was able to honor his parents, sisters, and the Jews of Wieliczka.
On October 4, 2021, Nathan Poremba passed away surrounded by his loving family. His extraordinary bravery and determination made him a hero to all who knew him, and his triumphant life will be an inspiration to all who read his story.
Joel Poremba will be speaking at the Merage JCC as part of the OC Jewish Arts Festival on Wednesday, November 10, at 6 pm. To purchase tickets, please visit: https://www.jccoc.org/pages/arts-festival/ or email nicoler@jccoc.org.