Yehoshua George Shainfarber

Visual History Biographic Profiles
George Shainfarber was born on January 4, 1927, in Lodz, to Jacob and Sara Shainfarber. He had one sister, Shaindel. His father was a leather goods manufacturer in a factory in Lodz.
George went to public school which he
remembered had only Jewish students. Life
changed dramatically after the Nazi
occupation;
synagogues were destroyed and Jews were beaten

on the streets. Some Of his cousins were killed by the Nazis.
In the beginning of 1940, Jews were forced to
move into the Lodz ghetto. They received very little food and were always hungry.
. Jacob was able to keep his job at the factory
 located just outside of the ghetto. George managed to continue his education until he was fifteen at which time the school was closed down and he was then forced to work in a tool shop building and fixing equipment for the German troops. His grandfather died of illness because there was no medication. His grandmother died shortly after from starvation.
. In 1942, George and his family learned that the Germans were sending large groups of Jewish people to the extermination camps.
To avoid deportation, they hid for a few weeks
in the factory where Jacob worked because it was safer than their own apartment. The family was amongst the very last to leave Lodz. It was already at the time when the Nazis were losing the war and the Red Army was coming near Poland.
The Lodz ghetto was liquidated and the remaining Jews were forced to go on the trains.

.
In August 1944, the family arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau. George and his father were imidiatly separated from his mother and sister. The women
were sent to the gas chambers.
. George and his father were assigned to a barrack which was so over crowded they had to sleep on the floor. George was there for a short time before he was transferred without his father to Wolfsberg
concentration camp in Germany where he performed mechanical work in an aircraft factory
until he was liberated.
Afterward, George and a friend of his from the camp went into the town of Friedland, Germany, and found a place to live.

In May 1945, George was reunited with his father
who, after his own liberation, had traveled to
Friedland looking for George. Jacob then
returned to Lodz where he obtained a job in a
factory nearby. George followed him a few
months later. In 1950, George immigrated to the
United States. He went to New Haven,
Connecticut via New York.Ten months later, his
father followed him with his new wife, another
Holocaust survivor. George worked
as an electrician in New Haven
where he met his future wife, Edna Guberman.
On June 26, 1960, the couple was married and moved to Hartford where
George worked in sales. George and Edna had two children, Gayle and Linda. In 1981, George went to a meeting of survivors in Israel. He
remembered it was difficult for him to comprehend why he had survived and others had not; prior to the survivors’ gathering, he had not spoken
about his experiences very much. At
the time of George’s interview in 1998 he and his wife had five grandchildren: Jessica, Zachary, Allison, Emily, and Aaron.
Shainfarber, George (joshua)
August 23, 2004
Shainfarber, George (Joshua)
George J. Shainfarber, 77, of West Hartford, died Saturday, (August 21, 2004) in Boston, MA with his family by his side. He was the beloved husband for 44 years of Edna (Guberman) Shainfarber. Born in Ludz, Poland, he was the son of the late Jacob and Sarah (Lewinski) Shainfarber. He was a holocaust survivor. He worked for Sears as a salesman for many years. He was a member of Agudas Achim Synagogue in West Hartford and served on it's board of directors. He was also a member of the Jewish Historical Society. Besides his wife Edna, he is survived by two daughters and sons-in-law, Gayle and Andrew Nadler of Potomac, MD and Dr. Linda Jaffe and Jeremy of Newton, MA and six cherished grandchildren, Allison, Aaron, and Daryl Nadler, and Jessica, Zachary and Emily Jaffe. Funeral services will be TODAY, 10:30 a.m., with Rabbi Shlomo Yaffe officiating. Interment will follow at the Agudas Achim Cemetery, Cleveland Ave. Ext., Hartford. Shiva will be observed at his home through Friday, August 27. Donations in his memory may be made to the Agudas Achim Synagogue, 1244 North Main St., West Hartford, CT 06117., or the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 44 Binney St., Boston, MA 02115. Funeral arrangements provided by Hebrew Funeral Association, 906 Farmington Ave., West Hartford, 06119.