International March of the Living mourns the passing of Holocaust survivor and educator Adele Besserman.

Adele first joined the Broward County delegation to the March of the Living in 2012, and proceeded to participate in the program six additional times until and including in 2019.

A native of Lodz, Poland, Adele had a happy childhood there, until Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939. Fortunately, Adele and her family escaped the ghetto, making their way via Bialystok, with the help of partisans, to Siberia. Despite the harsh conditions, the family survived and even had 3 siblings born in Russia.

Each time Adele returned to Poland on the March of the Living, she took her young participants to her hometown of Lodz. She shared with them stories of her wonderful life in Lodz before the war, eagerly showing the students the house she lived in and where she played as a child.

“We remember such immense joy when she travelled with us – 7 times – never tiring of telling her story, hugging, crying and laughing with us. We remember visiting the Survivor Park in Lodz, where we arranged for a tree to be planted in her honor and how she cried when the mayor of Lodz presented her with a proclamation and how she “hugged” her tree”, remembered March of the Living Consultant, Rochelle Baltuch who accompanied Adele on the March.

“We learned so much from her. She lived life to the fullest. She admonished us not to hate, to try to make the world a better place. She was loved and will be missed by so many,” she added.

Adele Besserman passed away at the age 95, but the stories and lessons of her life will live on in the hearts and minds of the many young students whose lives she touched for years to come.

May her memory be for a blessing.