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Survivor Itka Zygmuntowicz Dies at 94
OB ITUARY
SOPHIE PANZER | JE STAFF
EVEN AFTER SHE experienced
the horrors of Auschwitz, Holocaust
survivor Itka Zygmuntowicz did
not hate anyone.

As she told the Jewish Exponent
in 2019, hating the Nazis would
mean letting them win.

Instead, she channeled her
energy into raising her family,
writing poetry and teaching
students how to have hope in
the face of tragedy.

“So many mountains, so
many streams/ So many hopes,
such endless dreams./ I yearn to
fill my empty cup/ And drink
life’s joy and never stop,” she
wrote in her 1967 poem “Life’s
Dream.” Zygmuntowicz died in
her bed in her Northeast
Philadelphia home on Oct. 9.

She was 94.

She was the author of the
poetry books “You Only Have
What You Give Away” and “The
Power of Words and Deeds.”
In 2016 she also published a
memoir, “Remember, My
Child,” which tells the story of
her life through photos, narra-
tive and poetry.

“She felt this incredible
responsibility to be a witness,”
her son Samuel Zygmuntowicz
said. Zygmuntowicz was born
Itka Frajman in Ciechanów,
Poland in 1926. She credited
her interest in poetry to her
mother, who was a Yiddish
theater actress. When she was a
child, her grandmother taught
her, “You only have what you
give away.”
She was 13 when Germany
invaded Poland in 1939. Two
years later, she and her family
were deported to the Nowe
Miasto Ghetto and then to
Auschwitz-Birkenau. “Yitkele, remember, my
child, no matter what they
do, don’t let them make you
hateful and bitter, don’t let them
destroy you,” her mother told
her before they were separated.

She would never see her mother
or her younger siblings again.

Even as she endured
i n hu ma ne
conditions, Zygmuntowicz remembered
her mother’s words and fiercely
reminded herself that she was
“Yitkele” when the Nazis called
her by the number on her arm.

The Swedish Red Cross
liberated her in 1945. She was
sent to recover at a hospital in
Sweden, then to a displaced
persons camp. In 1946, she
met and married Rachmil
Zygmuntowicz. They moved
to Philadelphia through a
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Cover of Itka Zygmuntowicz’s
memoir Photo by Selah Maya Zighelboim
Courtesy of Samuel Zygmuntowicz
Itka Zygmuntowicz in her home in
Northeast Philadelphia
particularly strong reaction to
Zygmuntowicz’s story because his
family survived the Cambodian
genocide. “He shared that with her, and
broke down into tears in front
of, you know, 50-plus students
because of what happened to his
family, and she said, ‘Come here
and give me a hug,” she said.

“We were all in tears.”
Itka Zygmuntowicz would
endure even more tragedy with
the loss of her husband and
her son Michael in separate car
accidents. She became physically
disabled in her later years after
she broke her back falling down
the stairs in her home.

Samuel Zygmuntowicz said
that after years of confine-
ment, personal freedom was
extremely important to her,
and she was determined to live
in her own home rather than an
assisted living facility. Despite
relying on a cane to walk and
needing assistance to leave her
home after the accident, she
remained active and regularly
attended KleinLife programs.

He said his mother never
let tragedy change her loving
personality. “It was about not being hateful,
taking tragedy and transforming
it into something that bolsters
your humanity,” he said. l
relocation program in 1953.

The couple had four sons
together: Erland, Jerry, Sam and
Michael Zygmuntowicz. Erland
Zygmuntowicz described his
mother as an anchor, a singer
and a talented cook.

“She created this feeling
of beauty and peace in our
family,” he said. “And she really
taught us the values she learned
in her family in Poland, about
the meaning of menschlichkeit,
humaneness.” She brought her values of
menschlichkeit into classrooms
and museums during the 1970s
when she began speaking publicly
about her experiences surviving
the Holocaust. Lise Marlowe,
chair of the education committee
at the Holocaust Awareness
Museum and Education Center,
said her words helped students
understand that it was possible to
endure struggles and go on to live
a happy life.

“She gave students so many
stories of hope, of how to be a
tolerant person and how to be
a kind person, and how to love
people. She just was really good
at giving so much love where
you felt so special when you
were with her,” Marlowe said.

Marlowe, who is a sixth
grade social studies teacher in
Cheltenham School District, spanzer@jewishexponent.com;
said one of her students had a 215-832-072
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