Tola Cukier

Of Blessed Memory 1924 – 2005

Tola Gottlieb was born in 1924 in Sosnowiec, Poland to an observant Jewish family. One of four siblings, Tola remembers that though her family was not wealthy, they had what they needed and they were happy. As a teenager Tola was forced into the Sosnowiec ghetto where her family was gradually taken away until she was left with just her younger sister. When Tola was deported to the Auschwitz camp complex she was consigned for forced labor, first at Gleiwitz and then, following a January 1945 death march, in Ravensbrück. After her liberation, Tola made her way to Paris where she eventually met and married Iser Cukier. The couple, and their son Jeanot, immigrated to the United States in 1952.