Happy Birthday Sonia

Acknowledging birthdays and other milestones helped prisoners to endure the demoralization they faced on a daily basis, and maintain their humanity.

This cross-stitched case bearing the name "Sonia" in red stitching, made from a discarded sugar bag, contained a small broken comb. It was a gift given to Sonia Ferder (later Sankey) on the occasion of her 19th birthday on 23 April 1942 in Stutthof concentration camp.

Sonia was born in Grodno, Poland on 23 March 1923. When she was a baby the family moved to Vilna, an intellectual town with a strong Jewish culture. Sonia lived with her parents, three siblings and grandfather. She and her family were forced into the Vilna ghetto after the Germans invaded Poland. Sonia was deported to a labour camp at Vilna-Kailis, where she worked in a factory. When the camp was liquidated she was transferred to Riga-Kaiserwald concentration camp, then Stutthof and finally Magdeburg-Polte, a subcamp of Buchenwald. In April 1945, the Gestapo ordered the inmates at Buchenwald to march to an unknown destination. She escaped during this march by hiding in a barn with a friend. They travelled to Zehdenick (north-west Germany) and worked briefly on a farm until the Germans surrendered. She was 22 at the time of liberation.

After liberation, Sonia crossed the Elbe River to escape from the Soviet occupied area of Germany. She travelled to Paris where she stayed for three months. In Paris she began to inquire about her family, and met with a cousin. She then moved to Israel. She learned that her mother Malka was murdered during the Ponary Massacre (1941-1944) and her father, Fishel, died in Stutthof concentration camp, possibly from Typhus.