H EADLINES
Cantor, Survivor David Wisnia Dies at 94
OB ITUARY
ANDY GOTLIEB | JE MANAGING EDITOR
AUSCHWITZ SURVIVOR
David S. Wisnia, who served as
cantor at two area synagogues
and also spoke about his
wartime experiences, died
June 15 at a senior facility in
Langhorne. He was 94.

“It’s so hard to sum him
up because he was such a
big personality, such a large
character. It made him such a joy
to be around,” his grandson, Avi
Wisnia, told Th e Philadelphia
Inquirer. “It was like there was
some kind of magic around him
and it made people fall in love
with him and, in turn, he loved
everyone that he met. Most of
all, though, when I think about
his life, the thing that runs
through it is music.”
Wisnia was born Aug. 31,
1926, in Sochaczew, Poland,
west of Warsaw. He attended
the Yavneh-Tarbut Hebrew
School System, learning multiple
languages and gaining vocal
training from renowned cantors.

Wisnia sang in synagogues,
theaters and on Polish radio aft er
his family moved to Warsaw.

Wisnia spent three years
in Auschwitz-Birkenau aft er
Germany invaded Poland in
1939 — a day aft er he turned
13; three years later, his parents
and brother were murdered,
and another brother was never
seen again.

He told the Jewish Exponent
in 2015 that his fi rst job there
was to clear out the bodies in
the ditches of those who were
gunned down for trying to run
away, a job he did for the fi rst two
or three weeks — until, he said,
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“they found out I could sing.”
One of the cell block leaders,
a Christian Pole, came into their
barracks and said he wanted
some entertainment.

“He yelled out, ‘Who can
sing here?’” Wisnia told the
Exponent, and the men in his
barracks responded, “Wisnia
sings!” and pushed him forward.

“I didn’t care what I was
singing, I know German songs,
French songs, Yiddish songs ...

If I had to continue doing what I
was doing the fi rst two weeks at
Auschwitz, I would have never
made it,” he said.

Aft er his fi rst performance,
Wisnia became a “privileged
prisoner,” which allowed him
extra rations. He wrote two
songs while he was there, one in
Yiddish and one in Polish, which
are now housed at the United
States Holocaust Memorial
Museum in Washington, D.C.

“Singing was my life, and
that’s how I survived,” Wisnia
said then.

He later was transferred
to Dachau in late 1944, but
escaped a few months later — a
fi rst attempt failed — and was
rescued by the American 101st
Airborne Division.

“One fi ne morning, I found
a column of tanks,” he remem-
bered. “Believe me, if I ever
prayed, I prayed, ‘Don’t let there
be a swastika on there.’ Instead,
I saw a star.” Scared at fi rst that
it was a Russian star, he went
up to the soldiers manning the
15 or so tanks to fi nd out more,
Wisnia said. Th e man he met
was Capt. James L. Walker from
South Carolina.

He later joined the 506th
Parachute Infantry, serving
as an interpreter — he spoke
Hebrew, Yiddish, German,
Polish, French and Russian —
and engaging in combat.

He remained in touch
with the 101st, however, even
performing the National
Anthem for them in Tampa,
Florida, at a 2015 reunion.

Wisnia returned
to JEWISH EXPONENT
David Wisnia speaks at Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy in 2019.

Photo by David Prusky
It’s so hard to sum him up because he was
such a big personality, such a large character.”
AVI WISNIA
Auschwitz several times later
in life, singing at the 70th and
75th anniversaries of the camp
liberation. Both times, he sang
with his grandson Avi.

His story was chronicled
in 2015 in a memoir entitled,
“One Voice, Two Lives: From
Auschwitz Prisoner to 101st
Airborne Trooper.”
In the fi rst-person narrative,
Wisnia details his transforma-
tion from a young prisoner in
Auschwitz to an American G.I.

“Th at’s what makes this book
so diff erent,” Wisnia said then.

“Th ey all tell you how tough it
was; we know it was tough. I
talk about better things.”
Upon arriving in the United
States in 1946, he worked an as
encyclopedia salesman.

He and his late wife, Hope,
moved to Bucks County and,
taking advantage of his voice,
served as cantor of Temple
Shalom in Levittown for
28 years, then cantor at Har
Sinai Hebrew Congregation of
Pennington, New Jersey for 23
more years.

It took a while for Wisnia to
get comfortable telling his story,
he said in 2015.

“I threw away my whole
past,” he said. “It’s the only way
I fi gured I was going to be able
to survive.”
He got his tattooed numbers
removed in 1946 when he got to
New York, though a “6” was still
slightly visible on his forearm.

People asked him about his
numbers when he fi rst moved
to the city. He would tell people
it was his telephone number
instead of explaining where it
was from.

But ultimately his story was
so diff erent, and his experience
was too important to keep quiet.

“Th ere are many Holocaust
stories, but none of them —
I ended up as a G.I. in the
American Army!” he exclaimed
then, adding, “I became very
profi cient with a machine gun.”
Wisnia is survived by his
two sons and daughters-in-law,
Rabbi Eric and Judith Wisnia,
Michael and Misa Wisnia; two
daughters and sons-in-law,
Karen Wisnia and Kirk Wattles,
and Jana and Lee Dickstein; and
fi ve grandchildren. ●
agotlieb@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0797
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