H EADLINES
Philly Faces: Sophie Don
P H I LLY FACES
JARRAD SAFFREN | JE STAFF
AT JUST 29, Sophie Don
manages one of the most promi-
nent Holocaust memorials in
the United States.

Don is the senior manager of
programs for the Philadelphia
Holocaust Remembrance
Foundation, which oversees the
Horwitz-Wasserman Holocaust
Memorial Plaza in Center City.

For the Cheltenham native,
connecting students, politi-
cians and residents to that
important history is a passion.

But it’s also deeper than that.

Don’s grandparents,
Samuel and Shirley Don, were
Holocaust survivors who put
up some of the money for
the statue in the plaza. Upon
opening in 1964, the structure
became the fi rst Holocaust
memorial in the U.S.

Samuel Don died before
Sophie was born but wrote
a book about his Holocaust
experience. Shirley Don is
still alive and close with her
granddaughter. “My grandfather wrote
about the importance of telling
the story,” Don said. “Bubbie
said that’s what I’m doing.”
Tell us about your grandpar-
ents’ Holocaust experience.

Bubbie was from a tiny
town, Dorf. During Passover
of ’44, Hungarian soldiers told
them to prepare to go to the
Tuesday, December 7th, 2021 at 6:30 pm
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DECEMBER 2, 2021
JEWISH EXPONENT
Sophie Don, right, with her bubbie, Shirley Don.

Courtesy of Sophie Don
We all need to be aware of what can happen
when people don’t stand up for each other.”
SOPHIE DON
ghetto. In May of 1944, she was
taken to Auschwitz.

She asked a woman, who
was directing people where
to go, where their family was
going. Th e woman pointed to
the smoke and the crematoria.

In April of ’45, she was on
a death march. Th en she was
liberated by English soldiers
on May 3.

We call that her second
birthday and we celebrate it
every year.

Zayde was in prison by
standards we wouldn’t consider
criminal. Disobeying Nazi law
about whatever he could or
couldn’t do in the ghetto.

He was transferred to
Birkenau in December of ’42
and then to Auschwitz. He was
there until he was liberated.

Th ey met at a displaced
persons camp in Germany.

He saw her being chased by
another boy, so he started
talking to her.

He wanted to go to Israel.

She was like, ‘I’ve got family
in Philly. If you wanna be with
me, we’re going to Philly.’
What was their life like in the
United States?
Th ey started a bakery.

But also coming here with
so little family, and all the
survivors that had come here
and had lost their families. A
community formed among
people who were having kids.

Luncheons. Figuring out
how to get jobs. Having the
kids hanging out.

Then, once they got
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