Harold Katz a"h - NNN 2022

Harold was raised in a large family of five brothers and four sisters in Tarn, Czechoslovakia. His home life was warm and loving, where religious observance and education were important. Tarn was a small town with only 100 Jews, but contained a synagogue and Jewish cheder, school. In 1941, the Hungarian Nazi troops came into town and forced all the Jews of Tarn into the shul, synagogue building, right before Harold was to celebrate his Bar Mitzvah. From there they were deported to Poland where his family lived with an aunt for a short time. This was the last time the family was all together. His family was sent to Auschwitz; Harold made it into Budapest where he connected with an underground Zionist resistance group that gave him false identity papers. He was arrested three times, but managed to escape each time. Harold was deported to the Kistarsca Concentration Camp. He was able to organize work for himself there, first apprenticing with the camp barber and then helping to unload the arriving cattle cars trains. Miraculously, Harold managed to hide underneath the train cars and ran away from the concentration camp. After the war, Harold was able to reunite with his brother, Maurie, and eventually made his way to Chicago. In his later years, Harold finally celebrated the Bar Mitzvah that he could not have in 1941. He donated a Sefer Torah to Chabad of Wilmette and celebrated his Bar Mitzvah with his family at the age of 89.