Hebrew Day student honored by Legislature for her essay on Survivor Gussie Zaks

Celia Benchetrit

SACRAMENTO (Press Release)– Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School 7th student Celia Benchetrit was an honoree Monday at the state capital for her essay (printed below) on Holocaust survivor Gussie Zaks.

The essay on Zaks, who lives today in San Diego,  is printed in a book that was presented at the annual Holocaust Memorial Project and distributed to survivors and veterans, legislators, libraries and community organizations. 

Celia gathered with Holocaust survivors and WWII veterans who helped liberate concentration camps for the Sacramento ceremony at 12 p.m. Monday, April 19.  The occasion was  co-hosted by San Diego State Assembly member Marty Block of the 78th District.

Survivors, veterans and their guests from around the state attended, sharing stories of survival and memorializing those who lost their lives. During the event in the Capitol, Assembly Concurrent Resolution 31, which formally proclaims April 12 to April 18 as California Holocaust Memorial Week, was presented on the Assembly floor.

As part of the state Assembly’s annual Holocaust Memorial Project, the ceremony was hosted by Assemblymembers Marty Block (D-San Diego) and Ira Ruskin (D-Redwood City).

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Gussie Zaks – Miracles at the Right Place at the Right Time

By Celia Benchetrit

 Gussie Zaks was from the first generation of the holocaust survivors and was born in Poland in 1926. She lived her whole life in Poland with her family in a city called Klobuck. Klobuck was the city with the highest orthodox Jewish population in Poland. Gussie had lots of siblings. Her father owned a butcher shop and all the kids helped with the work. Both of her parents were born in Poland and their last name was Ungik.

Gussie Zaks experienced many situations during the holocaust where she felt she was saved by being in the right place at the right time.  Those miracles that were given to her, gave her the feeling she was saved by Hashem. She felt that Hashem was always watching over her, giving her hope, much the same as Elie Wiesel wrote about in his book, Night.

On the day that the Germans came to Gussie Zak’s house to pick up her family, she wasn’t home. It so happens that on this particular day Gussie had told her mom in the morning that she wanted to go and do some volunteer work because she was bored at home. Her whole family was sent to a camp on that day. Several of her family members did not survive that camp. However Gussie was sent later to another camp, a work camp. This is one of the ways that Gussie felt helped her survive the holocaust.

During the time she spent in the work camp, she had a reputation for being a good, hard worker and was liked by the “Chief” of the camp.  One Friday, going back to camp from the fields where they worked, she saw some potatoes growing nearby.  “A raw potato to eat was better than an apple today.”  She told herself that on Monday she was going to get those potatoes.  At lunchtime on Monday, with five armed SS women watching her, she went to get the potatoes while the SS women were resting.  Gussie got lost and couldn’t find them.  She became very anxious and started running down a hill with the five SS women watching her.  A train passed by and the guards started shooting at her, thinking she was trying to escape.  She was only fifteen years old and “didn’t understand what escape means at that time.”  

She came back to where the SS guards were and they beat her up. They told her that, when they got back to the camp, the chief SS woman was going to read her number and she would be sent to Auschwitz.  All the other girls said goodbye.  The “Chief” of the camp told her he was very disappointed that she would do this.  While he was telling her this, she was thinking “who cares what he thinks, I am going to die anyhow.”  But he saved her life. He talked to the head woman of the SS and told her what a good worker she was and they never called her number.  The other girls in the camp waited for a week for her to be killed. They wouldn’t look at her or speak to her, and they did not want to be associated with her for fear of being killed themselves.

During the interview Gussie told me; “The holocaust can’t be told one hundred percent. You had to live through it to understand.”  Those words really penetrated my body and made me think how true it was. After each of the amazing stories she shared, she said she had her mother to thank for teaching her how to be strong and to always think of others before herself. She said if her mother did not teach her those things, she did not believe she would be in this world today.  Her mother told her; “You cannot live through yourself; you have to do mitzvoth in order to survive.” 

She told me an account of how her mother lived her life and what she taught Gussie. One day Gussie was sitting on her doorstep, and saw a poor family sitting on the ground across the street from her. Gussie’s mother came out, pulled some money from her pocket, and gave the money to Gussie.  Her mother told her, “go and give the money to this poor family, you will save the girl’s life.”

The oldest daughter was ill with tuberculosis but they did not have the money to take her to the hospital for treatment. When Gussie handed the money to the family, their eyes opened wide and they thanked her. The family was able to take their daughter to the hospital, although it was too late to save her.

Gussie Zaks told me how her mother used to tell her you may not be rewarded right away for what you’ve done, but you will be rewarded later on in life or in the world to come.  Gussie believes the only reason she survived was because of the kindness her mother taught her.

There are many other stories that she told me. I chose these to be the ones that really had a true meaning to me as thirteen-year-old girl. After hearing all of her stories, it took awhile before I could say anything. I was just thinking about how it was possible for such a young girl to experience so much ugliness and whether I would’ve been able to survive and handle the situations as well as she did. I was not able to talk or express my feelings for a while. It was too much to digest.

Every story she told me was so amazing that all I was able to say afterwards were words like “wow” and “I’m impressed.”

Gussie Zaks is an amazing person because of what she has been through and what she still accomplishes today. I am so impressed that she remembers everything so well, and is able to talk to teenagers the way she would talk to her own children.

 Today, Gussie is eighty five years old and does volunteer work for several organizations, giving freely of her time.  She has always given to charities.  Gussie Zaks survived the holocaust, this remarkable woman now gives so much of herself.  She lived, and has made a difference in people’s lives. 

She volunteers her time to talk about her experiences with middle and high school students.  She has had many mothers of students she has spoken to call her and thank her for being the person that changed the direction of their lives. 

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Preceding press release and copy of Celia Benchetrit’s essay provided by Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School