Holocaust survivor Edward Mosberg to be awarded Poland's highest honor

The 93-year-old Holocaust survivor, who is philanthropist and educator, will be honored with the medal, which is the highest distinctions given by the President of the Republic of Poland.

By ILANIT CHERNICK
Holocaust survivor Edward Mosberg will be awarded Poland's highest honor this week (photo credit: FROM THE DEPTHS)
Holocaust survivor Edward Mosberg will be awarded Poland's highest honor this week
(photo credit: FROM THE DEPTHS)
Polish President Andrzej Duda will award Holocaust survivor Edward Mosberg, 93, with the Order of Merit, his country’s highest civilian distinction, From the Depths has announced.
The medal will be awarded Wednesday in Krakow, the philanthropist and educator’s birthplace.
Returning to the city where he was born to “receive such a decoration is an amazingly moving event for me,” Mosberg said.
“I accept this award on behalf of myself, my wife, my children and grandchildren, and most importantly, in honor of my mother, father, siblings and six million Jews, brutally murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust,” he continued.
“It is important that those who come after us are our witnesses and be sure that the tragedy of the Holocaust will never be forgotten.”
Mosberg added that he was also “dedicating the distinction to those who gave away and risked their lives to save Jews during the war, like the Ulma family from Markowa, and hoping for better relations between the Jewish and Polish people.”
From the Depths is a nonprofit organization whose aim is to build a shared future between Poles and Jews.
The foundation cooperates with survivors from the Holocaust and with Jewish communities from around the world, especially from Eastern Europe.
For decades, Mosberg has contributed to the deepening of the dialogue between Jews and Poles, and tirelessly worked to promote education about the Holocaust around the world.
“He is one of the last living survivors of Płaszów and Mauthausen,” explained Lena Klaudel, From the Depths Eastern Europe Office director.
When World War II broke out, Mosberg was 13 years old. In 1941, his family was sent to the ghetto in Krakow.
In 1943, the ghetto was liquidated, and his mother went to Auschwitz, where she was murdered. Mosberg and his siblings were sent to Płaszów, and from there to numerous German Nazi concentration camps, including Mauthausen, Klaudel explained.
Infected with tuberculosis, he spent many months in an Italian sanatorium following the war. In spite of everything, “the 19-year-old swore to live a full life again [and] he made contact with Cesia Storch, a young woman from Krakow imprisoned in the camp barracks with his sisters. With a Gr. 7 education and $10 in his pocket, Edward arrived in New York City in 1951 with his new fiancée, living in Harlem with their 18-month-old daughter.”
Mosberg simultaneously worked three jobs, including suturing pocketbooks, earning 50¢ an hour, before becoming a successful property developer. Today, he speaks throughout the world about his personal experiences in the Holocaust, participates every year in the March of the Living and works closely with the Shoah Foundation, Yad Vashem, the From the Depths Foundation and other organizations that preserve the memory of the Holocaust.
Edward and Cesia have three daughters and six grandchildren, and reside in New Jersey.


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