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