Eddie Hoffman, Auschwitz Survivor from Seylesh

The show presents an interview with Eddie (Avrum)
Hoffman, who survived Auschwitz, slave labor at a Krupp
factory in Breslau (Wrocław), a death march, and the last days at
Ebensee, the brutal Mathausen subcamp.Eddie Hoffman was born in
February, 1929, in Sevluš, Czechoslovakia, one of three brothers.
The town was in the Subcarpathian Ruthenia part of Czechoslovakia
and was also known in Yiddish as Seylesh (סעליש) and in Hungarian
as Nagyszőlős. It is now called Vynohradiv and is in Ukraine. His
father ran a small shoe manufacturing business, and his mother
ran a small general store. In 1944 his father left the family to
join the partisans fighting against the Nazis, never to be heard
from again, and he and his mother and brothers were deported to
Auschwitz. He was the only immediate family member to survive the
Holocaust. He eventually settled in Los Angeles, where he owned
and managed several bars and restaurants. He now resides with his
wife in Orange County, near Los Angeles. The interview took place
at his home in October, 2021.


The interview with Eddie is dedicated to the memory of
Arthur Machlovitz ע״ה, also an Auschwitz
survivor from Subcarpathian Ruthenia, from the town of Iza. He
was long-time friends and a former business partner with Eddie
and was friendly with Yiddish Voice host Meyer Dovid, and so he
introduced them in a way: they met at Arthur's funeral in the
summer of 2021.


Also on this show we sadly announced the passing of Mrs.
Margaret (Matele) Friedman ע״ה, who died just
two days earlier (Feb. 21, 2022). She was friends with Yiddish
Voice host Meyer Dovid, had been featured on several of our
broadcasts over the years, and was known in the community for her
wonderful singing ability, especially in Yiddish. Also an
Auschwitz survivor from Subcarpathian Ruthenia, after the way she
returned to the area and married and started a family in Seylesh,
and lived there for more than twenty-five years under the
Soviets, before the family moved to the US in the 1970's.
‮געבענטשט זאָל זײַן איר אָנדענק!‬


Music:


The following were sung by Matele Friedman and recorded by
The Yiddish Voice on Jan 1 2020:

Fraytik Tse Nakhts (Composed by Shuli Hollender, Matele's
first cousin, who died right after the liberation.)

Vu Nemt Men A Bisele Mazl

Af Dem Pripetshok (Oyfn Pripetchik) (Words and music by
Mark Warshawsky)



Intro and Outro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS, an
instrumental track from the CD Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz



Extended episode: this episode is slightly
longer than 1 hr 23 minutes. Thanks to the generosity of our
radio station WUNR 1600 AM (Brookline, MA) for
allowing us to exceed our usual one-hour time slot.


Air Date: February 23, 2022