Saul Dreier and Ruby Sosnowicz are Holocaust survivors. They came together to start the Holocaust Survivor Band.
They are returning to the birthplace of their most haunting memories — and dozens of sympathetic strangers are helping pay their way.
Two musically inclined Holocaust survivors are heading to Poland on July 21 to play their favorite tunes outside Auschwitz, one of the most notorious death camps of World War II.
Saul Dreier, 91, and Reuwen “Ruby” Sosnowicz, 86, founders of the Holocaust Survivor Band, call it the trip of a lifetime.
But it would not be possible without $11,000 in donations from people who read about their story, said Dreier, 91, who survived three concentration camps and now lives in Coconut Creek.
Along with the money came notes of thanks.
“They say, ‘God bless you. You are so special. Good luck to you. Thank you for what you are doing,'” Dreier said.
Esty Schleifer said she couldn’t help but send a check.
Holocaust Survivor Band founders Saul Dreier (right) and Reuwen “Ruby” Sosnowicz will travel to Poland July 21 to play outside Auschwitz. (Susan Stocker/Sun Sentinel)
“It makes my heart feel good,” said Schleifer, of Tamarac, who sent a note along with her donation. “I told them I hope you entertain everyone there and everyone has a smile on their face. At that age to make that trip, good for them. God bless them.”
Boca Raton resident Vera Ripp Hirschhorn also sent a donation to help the band get to Poland. Also going is Sosnowicz’s daughter, Chana Rose Sosnowicz, a percussionist and soloist with the band.
“I’m a daughter of beloved parents who were Holocaust survivors and wanted to donate to Saul’s musical mission to Europe in their memory,” Hirschhorn said.
Coconut Creek resident Shirley Birk was also touched by the story and sent a donation in memory of her late husband, a World War II veteran from Louisville, Ky.
“I think it’s good that they are going,” Birk said. “I feel good about it because it will help out the people over there and put a smile on everybody’s face.”
Chana Rose Sosnowicz says the band’s two leaders have made it their mission to return to Poland and play the tunes they learned in childhood.
“It’s music from their hearts,” she said. “It’s music to soothe the soul — not only survivors but everyone else.”
For Ruby Sosnowicz, of Delray Beach, this first return to his homeland will be bittersweet.
“I don’t want to go because of the very bad memories I have, but I have to go,” he said. “I have no choice, this is my dream, to see where I was born and where I grew up. It will be a big trip.”
He plans to play music from the old days, he said, “what our mothers used to sing to us.”
Dreier, a native of Krakow, says he will bring his own drumsticks and rent a set of drums once he arrives in Poland.
Warsaw-born Sosnowicz plans to bring his accordion, a German-made Hohner from the 1930s. The instrument’s previous owner was a Jewish man killed by the Nazis, according to Sosnowicz’s daughter.
On July 24, the band will play at Auschwitz, the notorious Nazi concentration camp that is now a museum and memorial to the more than 1 million who perished there. The next day, they will fly to Warsaw, and then on to Israel. They plan to return Aug. 11.
Neither man was sent to Auschwitz during the war. They want to play there, they say, because it was the largest death camp.
“I am going to give something from my life,” Dreier said. “I am going to dedicate my music to the people who lost their lives and also for those people who are still living.”
Originally published HERE
