Schoschana Rabinovici

Schoschana Rabinovici
The Last Witnesses, Burgtheater 2015 Foto: Christian Michelides
Born	November 14, 1932 Paris, France
Residence	Tel Aviv, Vienna
Occupation	Author

Schoschana Rabinovici (née Suzanne Weksler; born in 1932) is a Holocaust survivor and the author of Dank meiner Mutter, which was published in the United States in 1998 under the title Thanks to My Mother. Of Lithuanian-Jewish heritage, she survived Vilnius Ghetto, Kaiserwald and Kaiserwald concentration camps as a young girl (ages 8 to 12).

Susanne Weksler was born in Paris on November 14, 1932 where her parents were completing their studies. After the Wekslers returned to Vilnius, Weksler attended Jewish school until the German occupation of the city in June 1941. Weksler's parents owned Bon-Ton, a clothing store in Vilnius. Her father, Isak Weksler, and mother, Raja Indurski Weksler, were divorced when Weksler was just seven years old. A short time after Bon-Ton was nationalized during the Russian occupation of Vilnius (1940–1941), Raja married Julek Rauch, a Polish Jew from Przemyśl, where Julek had attended a German school.

Grandfather Weksler and grandfather Indurski owned businesses in Vilnius and, as they were considered wealthy, the Indurski and Weksler families barely avoided deportation to Siberia during the Russian occupation.

Two days after Germany invaded the Soviet Union, when Weksler was eight years old, Germans occupied Vilnius and her father, Isak Weksler was arrested as a Jew and was eventually sent to his death at Ponary.

In early September 1941, Weksler and her extended family were incarcerated in the Vilnius Ghetto. Upon liquidation of the ghetto beginning on September 24, 1943, Suzanne and Raja survived a brutal selection in the Christian Rasos Cemetery. Raja passed the selection of those fit for work with Suzanne hidden in a canvas bag she carried on her back. They were sent for forced labor to the Kaiserwald concentration camp near Riga, Latvia. By standing on her toes at roll call and later wearing a turban and high heels, the 11-year-old appeared tall enough to pass as an adult. During one selection of the weak for executions, the Wehrmacht sergeant in charge of the work detail grabbed Weksler's arm and forced her into a coal bin, which stood next to the stove in his room, thus saving her life.

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