Sam Pivnik

Sam Pivnik was born to a Jewish family in Bedzin, Poland. He was an active, boisterous boy who was barely aware in childhood of the looming threat of World War II. In early 1943, the Nazis forced the Pivnik family into the Jewish Ghetto in Bedzin, and later that year deported them to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Sam's parents and all but one of his siblings were murdered on arrival. His older sister Handel survived only for about 10 days. Sam Pivnik worked in the camp and managed to survive. He also survived being forced to march to another camp and work there due to the advance of the Red Army in early 1945. In May of that year, Pivnik and other former prisoners were put aboard the former German cruise ship Cap Arcona. Within hours, the ship was attacked by the Royal Air Force and sunk. As one of the last to board the ship, Sam Pivnik was on an upper deck and was able to jump from the ship and eventually swim to shore. He was one of only 500 out of approximately 7,000 prisoners on board who survived. He was liberated by the British Army in Neustadt on May 4, 1945. After the war, Sam Pivnik fought for the state of Israel with the 79th Brigade in the 1948 War of Independence. Eventually, he went to live in London, where he worked initially as a tailor before becoming a respected art dealer and restorer. His memoir "Survivor: Auschwitz, The Death March and My Fight for Freedom," was published in 2012.