Salomon Wainberg Biography

 Salomon Wainberg was born in Zelechow, Poland in 1936. The town's ghetto was established in 1940 and eventually housed 15,000 Jews, including Salomon's family. In 1942, a relative escaped from the train to Treblinka and came to his father, warning him about the camp; this prompted his father to ask a gentile friend for help. Their plans were interrupted when the ghetto was liquidated, trapping Salomon, his brother, and his mother inside the ghetto for two weeks. Eventually they made their way to a farm, where the family was reunited. They, along with other relatives and another family, were hidden in the farmer's cellar for two years, until June 1944, when some bandits attacked the house. The Wainberg family escaped and hid in the fields until August, when they encountered the Soviet Army and were taken back to Zelechow. Eventually they decided to leave Poland and made their way first to France, then to Costa Rica, where the family settled. Salomon and his brother attended school in the United States and immigrated permanently in 1959.  Salomon Wainberg passed away on February 22, 2012.