David Newman (9) (1919–2002)

David Newman (originally Najman) was born to a large extended Jewish family in the historic town of Chmielnik, Poland. He had three sisters, Tova Leah, Faigele, and Rokhelle. His father Itchele taught Yiddish and Hebrew and organized theater productions for the town's children. He encouraged his son's acting and singing. David also became a teacher. After Nazi Germany invaded Poland in World War II, he was separated from his family and deported to the forced labor camp at Skarżysko-Kamienna, Poland, and then sent to Buchenwald in Germany. His gifts as a musician and teacher helped carry him through years of brutality, as he wrote songs, poems, and satires, and gave lessons to the children in the secret school. In January 1945, as the end of the war neared, the Nazis forced the prisoners on a brutal death march. It stopped in Manětín, Czechoslovakia, where David and some of his friends escaped with the help of local partisans. After the war, he moved to Paris with his wife Anna (Hanka), with whom he had two children. In 1951, the Newman family emigrated to Canada, where they settled in Toronto. David performed in Yiddish theater productions and taught Yiddish to many students. His memoir, Hope's Reprise, was published posthumously in English in 2015 as part of The Azrieli Foundation Series of Holocaust Survivor Memoirs.