Felicia Fuksman was born in Lodz, Poland. She lived with her parents, two brothers, and two sisters. Felicia's father was a tailor. The family was very poor. Felicia was studying to be a nurse when the Germans attacked Poland. Her father and brother Simon were seized on the street and taken for labor. They weren't seen again. Felicia worked in the ghetto as a "nurse" in a fur factory, where she received extra food. Her older sister Rachel died of tuberculosis. Her younger sister Esther froze to death begging for food on the street. In August 1944, Felicia was deported to Ravensbruck concentration camp and, several months later, to a Nazi labor camp at Wittenberge, Germany. Throughout her long ordeal, Felicia was helped and inspired by her friend Bronia Lewkowitz. After the war, Felicia returned to her family's apartment in Lodz and was cruelly rebuffed by a Polish woman, the new occupant. Felicia was the one in her family who survived. In 1950, she immigrated to New Orleans where she met Max Fuksman, a fellow survivor from Lodz. They married and had three daughters.
This series was funded by the Rita and Harold Divine Foundation, the Siggy Boraks Family, and made possible by the generous contribution of video production services of WDSU-TV in New Orleans.