"As Long as I Live and Breathe" The Story of Holocaust Survivor Sara Leicht-Weinstein

Sara (Lili) Leicht was born in 1929 in Oradea in north-western Romania, and lived in nearby Tileagd with her father Ignace (Yom-Tov) and mother Ferenzi Hermina. Her father – a religious teacher and scholar, and a merchant – had six children from his previous wife, who had passed away prematurely. One of his children, Adolf (Erped) fought in the ranks of the Austro-Hungarian army during World War I. Her mother Hermina, worked farming ducks and geese and selling their products – liver and meat – to the wealthier Jews of Oradea, who observed strict dietary laws ("Glatt Kosher"). Sara went to a general public school, and studied religious studies three times a week with the village Rabbi. In April 1944, a few weeks after the German occupation, Sara's family was deported to the Oradea ghetto and from there to Auschwitz. In May 1944 upon arrival at the camp, Sara was separated from her family, who were sent to be murdered. After being rescued from the gas chambers, she was sent to Fallersleben, where she worked at a weapons factory. With the advance of the Red Army, Sara was transferred to a labor camp in the city of Salzwedel, where she was liberated by the American army. Sara returned to Tileagd and in May 1946, immigrated to pre-state Israel on the illegal immigrant ship, "Max Nordau". With the outbreak of Israel's War of Independence, Sara joined the "Palmach" unit of the then-underground army, fighting with the 6th battalion of the Harel Brigade in Jerusalem. In May 1949 she married Alexander Leicht, and the couple went on to have two children. Sara studied at the WIZO school of nursing and worked as a certified nurse in the pediatric surgery ward and the maternity ward at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem.