During the Holocaust, Jewish couple Jonas and Valerie Eckstein found a way to not only save their baby daughter, but also to assist and rescue many other Jews.
Amid the first wave of deportations from Slovakia in 1942, Jonas helped feed Jews from Bratislava who had been rounded up and imprisoned in Slovak assembly camps prior to deportation.
He also hid people in a bunker under his own home—and cared for and fed multiple groups of hidden Jews, including people hiding in the main synagogue in Bratislava and orphans from Poland (posing with him in the second photo).
Meanwhile, Valerie gave birth to their daughter, Tova, in 1942. The family initially remained together, but then separated as the situation deteriorated. Fearing for Tova's life, they found a family in a nearby town to hide her.
Jonas and Valerie were eventually caught and deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto, where they remained for several months until liberation. After liberation, they reunited with Tova and lived in Bratislava until moving to Australia in 1948.
Photos: USHMM, courtesy of Tova Teitelbaum




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