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Rena Ferber Finder 1929 - 2023
Subject
- History
Language
English — USUpdated
Rena Ferber Finder was born in Krakow, Poland in 1929, and survived the Holocaust as a part of the famous Schindler’s List. She was a founding survivor in Facing History & Ourselves' and spoke in classrooms all over the United States. For over four decades, Rena inspired thousands of young people struggling to make the right choices in their lives.
When the Germans invaded Poland in September, 1939, life as Rena knew it was upended. Nazi troops forced Jews like Rena and her family to move into the ghetto, isolated from the rest of the city. As prejudice, fear, and intolerance began to seep into daily life, it was not uncommon for former neighbors to turn a blind eye to what was happening to their Jewish community members and friends. After Rena’s family relocated, the Gestapo came for her father, taking him away – he never returned. Eventually, the SS evacuated the ghetto, ordering all of its residents to move up the hill to the Plaszow work camp.
For Rena, hope came in the form of Emalia, an enamel kitchenware and ammunition factory owned by the German industrialist Oskar Schindler. Unlike other businessmen, such as the managers of Krupp and I.G. Farben, Schindler did not take advantage of slave labor in the SS camps or mistreat his workers. Instead Schindler, a non-Jew, did everything in his power to provide the Jews that labored in his factory with sufficient food and accommodations. With the help of a relative, Rena and her mother went to work at the factory and for six months had the good fortune of being Schindlerfrauen, women working at Emalia under far more humane conditions than those in other workshops at Plaszow.
In 1944, when Rena was 13, the SS ordered Schindler to shut down Emalia and ordered that the women working there be sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
Aware of what would happen if his laborers moved to Auschwitz, Schindler negotiated with the SS and was able to relocate his factory to Brunnlitz, Czechoslovakia. He wrote out a list, which became known as Schindler’s List, with the names of former workers who should be kept off the trains headed to Auschwitz. Rena’s name was on the list and, along with her mother and thousands of other Jews, she traveled to Brunnlitz to work at Schindler’s new plant.
After the Russians liberated Brunnlitz in May, 1945, Rena and her mother went to live in a displaced persons camp. The following year, Rena married, and in 1948 she and her husband, Mark, received visas to move to the United States. After emigrating to the US, Rena and Mark lived in Massachusetts, where they raised three daughters, Anita, Marilyn, and Debbi. Rena was also the proud grandmother of six grandchildren and four great grandchildren.
Rena Finder died on December 23, 2023, at age 94. Her legacy will live on in many ways including through her work sharing her testimony and standing up against hate and injustice.
Explore Videos
Hear Rena Finder speak about her life and experiences in the following videos.
Explore Photographs
Learn more about Rena Finder’s life through this collection of personal photographs.
Explore Photographs
Learn more about Rena Finder’s life through this collection of personal photographs.
Explore Photographs
Learn more about Rena Finder’s life through this collection of personal photographs.
Explore Photographs
Learn more about Rena Finder’s life through this collection of personal photographs.