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Regina Goldfinger

Regina Goldfinger describes the conditions in the women’s barracks of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Regina Goldfinger (née Schenker) was born in 1923, in Radomyśl, Poland. She enjoyed a happy childhood with her parents Moses and Rachel, and brother Mendel. The family lived a religiously observant life and was active in Zionist circles. When the German army invaded Poland in 1939, their lives changed forever.

Regina and her family were forced into the Dombrowa ghetto where they endured harsh living conditions. She eventually escaped the ghetto and hid in the forest, living in makeshift bunkers dug into the forest floor. Regina was eventually captured by German soldiers and sent to Montelupich jail in Krakow for interrogation. After several weeks of brutal interrogation, she was deported to the Płaszów concentration camp, and later to Auschwitz-Birkenau and from there to the   Ravensbrück camp in Germany.

As the Second World War drew to an end, Regina endured a death march and was forced to walk from Ravensbrück to Leipzig. After liberation, Regina met and married her husband in Linz, Austria and together they immigrated to Canada in 1948. Together they worked very hard to build a new life, establish a successful business and became proud Canadian citizens.

Regina Goldfinger died in 2016 and her full testimony is part of the Canadian Collection of Holocaust survivor testimonies. It is preserved in the USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive and accessible through the Ekstein Library.

Regina Goldfinger

I think my mind, the power of my mind was so strong to survive