Shalom Stamberg, one of the last survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto, died from COVID-19 complications on Tuesday at the age of 98 at the Bnei Zion Hospital in Haifa. Stamberg had been vaccinated with the third vaccine dose.
He survived five concentration camps – including Auschwitz – by the time he turned 16. His whole family perished in the Holocaust.
“I went through all the destruction in the world and was left alone,” he told Ynet in 2019.
Stamberg immigrated to Israel in 1948.
“To this day I miss the family I had,” Stamberg told Ynet at the time. “Since I immigrated I have had memorial candles lit in their memory day and night.”
Stamberg volunteered for many years for the Yad Ezer l’Haver organization that provides meals and other support to Holocaust survivors. He was also a lecturer for students and delegations from abroad. In his lectures, he spoke about his experiences at Auschwitz.
Upon learning of his death, Yad Ezer director Shimon Sabag said, “He would lecture students from expeditions from abroad and tell them about his courageous survival in the Auschwitz extermination camp.”
Stamberg celebrated his Bar Mitzvah with Yad Ezer when he was 93. He had been robbed by the Nazis of that opportunity during the Holocaust, Ynet reported.
Yad Ezer, founded in 1995 and based in Haifa, also provides survivors with residential assistance, food, physiotherapy and social activities.
Stamberg’s funeral took place on Tuesday evening at the Joshua Field Cemetery in Haifa.
He was married to Zelda. He had two daughters, Esther and Chaya, seven grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren.