Zahava Burack

Surviving the Holocaust

In 1942, at the age of 9, Burack, her parents, and her sisters Miriam and Sarah were forced into hiding after German soldiers instructed the Jewish residents of Nowy Korczyn to march to the railway station for "relocation". Her parents, aware that this was a euphemism for deportation to concentration camps, slipped out of the line unseen to escape. In the confusion, her 15-year-old sister Rita became separated from the family and boarded the train; she was eventually taken to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

The Radza family sought refuge with a Polish Catholic family, Stephania and Jozef Macugowski. Jozef was an old friend of Louis Radza's, and had previously offered assistance if the family ever required it. To hide the Radza family, the Macugowskis dug a secret trench beneath the floorboards of their home. The crawlspace was no more than 5 feet wide, 7 feet long, and 20 inches deep. The family would spend the next two and a half years hidden within, their presence a secret not only from the outside world, but from the Macugowskis' children and elderly parents as well.

Over that span of time, several other Jewish people sought refuge with the Macugowskis. Eventually, nine refugees, including a cousin of the Radzas, were packed inside. Much later, Burack's sister Miriam described their packed state to reporters: "When one turned on his side, the others would have to do the same. We were like sardines." The Macugowskis would come down at night to bring bread, water, and a bucket for waste. The Radzas, despairing their situation, sometimes begged them for poisoned food or a gun to end their misery, but the Macugowskis refused. Burack later recalled that they insisted, "As long as we are alive, we will save you.''

In 1945, the German High Command took over the Macugowskis house as a headquarters and forced the Macugowskis out. According to Burack's recollection, the Radzas took out their prayer book, said Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead, and "all thanked God that we were going to die." However, the Macugowskis were able to convince the German soldiers that they should be allowed to stay on as the home's caretakers. Once or twice a week, after waiting until all the German soldiers were asleep, Jozef and Stephania were able to bring a small amount of supplies for the family.

At one point, the Germans were overheard discussing efforts to track down one remaining Jewish family rumored to still be hidden in town. Jozef was able to spread a rumor in a nearby town that this family had drowned in the Wista River while fleeing the Nazis, and the search was called off.

Liberation and move to Israel

In 1945, the town was liberated by the Red Army. The Radza family at last emerged from the crawlspace beneath the Macugowskis' home. It was the first time they had seen daylight in two and a half years, and it burned their eyes at first. Their legs were so wobbly that Soviet soldiers believed they were drunk and beat them, thinking they were hiding vodka.

Jozef took the family to a town some miles away where no one knew them, and made them promise that they would never reveal who had protected them. Nearly six months after the war, the family was reunited with Rita, who had survived the camp at Bergen-Belsen. They eventually lost track of the Macugowskis.

Burack was given false papers and smuggled into the part of Palestine that would soon become the state of Israel. She was the only member of her family to emigrate to Israel, and would remain there for twelve years. While there, she served for two years in Haganah, the Jewish paramilitary organization that in 1948 became the Israel Defense Forces.

Political activism in the United States

After twelve years in Israel, Burack moved to the United States in the 1960s to work for the Israeli Consulate in New York City. She eventually settled in Westchester County, New York, where she would marry her husband, Robert H. Burack. The Buracks resided in Westchester for the remainder of their lives; Robert passed away in 1988. Her sisters had also settled in and around the New York area with their families. Through her adult life, Burack maintained her search for the Polish couple that had saved her and her family.

Burack was politically active for her entire adult life, and used her wealth philanthropically to further Jewish, Israeli, and Democratic causes. She is known to have worked with the United Jewish Appeal, the Westchester-Putnam Boy Scouts of America Council, the Mental Health Association of Westchester County, and the David Yellin College of Education, among numerous others.

She met Jimmy Carter in 1975, before he was officially nominated as the Democratic Party candidate for the 1976 election, and later organized his election campaign in Westchester. Burack was a marcher at Carter's inauguration parade after he won the 1976 presidential election.

In 1981, Burack ran as a Democrat for a seat in Westchester County government, but was defeated by the incumbent, John L. Messina, by 2,500 votes.

In 1984, Senator Joseph R. Pisani introduced a resolution to the New York State Senate to honor Burack for her long record of service to the Westchester community.

In 1986, Burack finally made contact with Stephania and Jozef Macugowski. In collaboration with the David Yellin College, Burack arranged for the Macugowskis to be flown to New York for a special recognition ceremony. The Polish couple was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations, an honorific given by the State of Israel to denote non-Jews who risked their lives to protect and shelter Jewish people during the Holocaust.

Zahava's husband Robert died in 1988. Zahava died from cancer on September 28, 2001.