Romanian-born Holocaust survivor Lou Hoffer was dedicated to putting a spotlight on the plight of Romanian Jews deported to Transnistria, a region of the Ukraine known as ‘The Death Trap,” during the Second World War.
He died in Toronto on Jan. 10.
“Lou was an eloquent survivor speaker who captivated the audience’s attention, especially students. He often started his talks with a bit of a geography and history lesson before diving into his personal experiences in the Holocaust, as most people didn’t know the area he originally came from and was deported to,” said Mary Siklos, who worked closely with Hoffer and other survivors at the Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre in Toronto. “He was a passionate advocate for educating people about Transnistria.”
Hoffer estimated he was born in 1927 in Vijnitz, Romania, where half of its prewar population of 8,000 was Jewish. His records and documentation were lost during the war. He attended classes at Jewish and secular schools where he was recognized as an excellent student, played soccer and travelled to the Carpathian Mountains for excursions.
Hoffer’s ordeal started in 1940 with Russian occupation. A year later, Germany invaded the Soviet Union and Vijnitz was under German control. More than 250 Jews were killed in a pogrom that lasted for three days. Hoffer’s grandfather was one of the first Jews murdered.
By the end of 1941, Hoffer, his parents and his younger brother were deported in overcrowded cattle cars. Their first stop was a town called Ataki, on the banks of the Dniester River across from Ukraine. Hoffer and his family took shelter in homes that were abandoned by Jewish residents.
In a 2014 interview Hoffer told The CJN that the Jews left messages on the walls of these empty houses. ‘We are being killed. If you survive, please tell the world what happened to us. Say Kaddish for us and don’t ever forget us.’ Hoffer committed himself to doing this if he survived.
The family were moved to a region called Transnistria, meaning ‘beyond the Dneister River’, controlled by Romania. In an interview that Hoffer did with the U.S. Holocaust Museum, he described what his family experienced during the war.
“During the first 10 days of deportations, 38,000 Jews were killed on both sides of the border. Many were just driven into the river and shot.”
The Hoffers survived the transport and arrived in Shargorod, an ‘unofficial’ ghetto. The new arrivals joined some 2,000 local Ukrainian Jews who lived there. “We were now stateless, homeless and we didn’t know what to do next.” Hoffer and his family traded clothes for food whenever possible with local Ukrainian peasants who had potatoes, milk and cheese.
“We battled typhus and dysentery,” Hoffer said. “There were 10 people living in two-and-a-half rooms. Germany had a formula to kill Jews with gassing and mass executions. But Romania was trying to save bullets, so they simply deprived Jews of food, water and shelter. And they would shoot a few of us. The Germans would occasionally come to the Romanian side to get Jews for target practice.”
In April 1944, after Hoffer and his family had suffered in Shargorod for three years, the Russian army appeared. “A tall, powerful man dressed in a military uniform started to speak. In perfect Yiddish he said that in most of the territory that his army liberated there were very few Jewish survivors. He said that the ‘heroic Red Army will eradicate the Nazi beast from the face of the earth.’ My brother and I were so overcome with emotion that we both cried uncontrollably.” Hoffer, his brother and his parents had survived.
Nearly half of Romania’s prewar Jewish population was deported to Transnistria, which became known as ‘The Death Trap’. Over 400,000 Jews incarcerated in concentration camps and ghettos in Transnistria were murdered or perished from starvation and disease. About half were deportees from Romania, while the remainder were Transnistria residents who became trapped there with the German-Romanian invasion.
In 1948, Hoffer arrived in Canada through the Canadian Jewish Congress’s orphans’ program and began a successful business career in Saskatchewan. “They taught us how to operate a tractor and gave us $50 a month and a room.” Hoffer married his wife Magda Pressburger in 1959 and in 1966 they moved to Weyburn Sask., where Hoffer worked in the auto-wrecking and cattle industries and they raised their family.
In 2003 they moved to Toronto to be closer to their grown children and grandchildren and Hoffer reconnected with his past as he became involved with the Transnistria Survivors Association where he served as president for three years. He also was a sought-after speaker at the Toronto Holocaust Museum.
“Lou enjoyed working with students,” said Siklos. “He served as a mentor in the Holocaust Centre’s bar/bat mitzvah project, patiently preparing the students for the difficult tasks of remembering child victims of the Shoah. He was also instrumental in arranging the inclusion of the Transnistria Landsmanshaft information on the bridge between UJA’s Lipa Green building and the Gales Building.”
The Transnistria Survivors’ Association disbanded in 2014 but during its 10-year existence it worked to create public awareness that Romania and its citizens were one of Germany’s key allies in the oppression and murder of Jews.
Through the Jewish National Fund, Hoffer and his wife Magda planted 1,000 trees in the Transnistria Grove in the Aminadav forest near Jerusalem in memory of his parents and those who died there.
“Our job as survivors was fulfilled 100 percent,” he said. “Our stories, our legacies with be around for 1,000 years. The world isn’t going to forget.”
Hoffer is survived by his wife of 64 years Magda, children Michelle, Anthony, and Mark and eight grandchildren. He is predeceased by his son Garry and his brothers Joe and Sam.
