David Faber (author)

For other people named David Faber, see David Faber (disambiguation).

David Faber
David Faber
in May 2006
Born(1926-07-27)27 July 1926
Nowy Sącz, Poland[1]
Died28 July 2015(2015-07-28) (aged 86)
San Diego, California, United States
NationalityPolish
Occupations
  • Educator
  • author
Spouses
  • Lina Faber
  • Tonia Faber

David Faber (25 August 1928 – 28 July 2015) was a Polish Jew who survived nine concentration camps in occupied Poland and Nazi Germany. He was also an award-winning educator and lecturer on The Holocaust.[2][3][4]

Life

He witnessed the murders of friends and family, the people they were staying with, and some of his extended family, at a dinner table by the Gestapo. He was sent to nine concentration camps in Germany and occupied Poland. Amazingly, he survived. At age 13, he was a fighter with Soviet partisans. Faber recalled seeing many horrible actions in the concentration camps, ranging from seeing a baby thrown into an oven to losing every friend he made in camp. Faber also recalled the horrors of seeing most of his family dead.

He remembered how an Italian friend named Finci ran into his father's arms and his father was shot right then (in front of him). When he was liberated from Bergen-Belsen in 1945, he was 18 years old and weighed 72 pounds. Faber said "I was a living skeleton". He said he could not resist anymore, and as soon as he was liberated he gave up on living. He was found at the side of a road and taken to a hospital.[5]

After the war, Faber moved to England to live with his sister Rachel, the only other survivor of his immediate family, and worked as a pastry chef in London, including at the House of Commons. During that period, he married his first wife, Tonia, and had a son, Solomon. In the 1950s, he moved to the United States, working as a pastry chef in Springfield, Massachusetts, and being called to offer testimony against Nazi war criminals. He and his wife later moved to San Diego, California. After Tonia Faber's death, Faber remained in San Diego with his second wife, Lina.[6]

Faber wrote his memoir, Because of Romek, in 1997, in memory of his older brother, who was murdered by Gestapo interrogators. Faber's book is required reading in some schools.

Faber died in San Diego on 28 July 2015, at the age of 86. He is buried in King David Lawn at Greenwood Memorial Park in San Diego.[7]

Works

  • David Faber; James D. Kitchen (1997). Because of Romek: a Holocaust survivor's memoir. Granite Hills Press. ISBN 978-0-9638886-2-4.

References

  1. ^ Faber, Because of Romek 2nd edition, 2006; pg. 202
  2. ^ Jennifer Toomer-Cook (14 September 2005). "Holocaust survivor recounts Nazi-perpetrated horrors". Deseret News. Retrieved 15 October 2010.
  3. ^ "Holocaust survivor David Faber shares experiences". Elon.edu. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 15 October 2010.
  4. ^ "Part III - Faces and Voices of Holocaust Survivors". Isurvived.org. Retrieved 15 October 2010.
  5. ^ "I met David Faber, Holocaust survivor, today at a book signing". Democratic Underground. Retrieved 15 October 2010.
  6. ^ "David Faber - Tuesday, July 28th, 2015". amisraelmortuary.com.
  7. ^ "David Faber - Tuesday, July 28th, 2015". amisraelmortuary.com. Archived from the original on 31 July 2015. Retrieved 31 July 2015.

External links

Media related to David Faber at Wikimedia Commons