My Soul is Filled with Joy: A Holocaust Story

Born in 1920, Schmulke (Sam) Goldberg grew up in a small village in Poland called Bagatele village. Sam and his parents and siblings ran a small farm. After the start of World War II and the partition of territory of the Second Polish Republic between the Third Reich and the USSR, the new border lay so close to Sam’s home that he and his family decided to seek shelter in the territoy conquered by the Soviets. The Goldberg family was granted Soviet citizenship and Sam was then soon drafted into the Red Army. On June 22, 1941, Sam found himself in German captivity and returned to his parents. However, the family split up and in early June 1942, Sam was among 135 Judenrat (young men assigned to work) and was transported to Treblinka II, an extermination camp. On August 2, 1943, a revolt broke out in Treblinka and Sam was one of the few people who escaped. During his escape, he met Esther Wisznia, who had been hiding in the Polish forest with a teenage companion. They hid together until the Red Army entered the area. The 2, Sam and Esther, got married in December of 1944 and spent the rest of their lives together and had a daughter, Faiga Bracha. Esther died in 1997 while Sam died in 2003. But their memory lives on in a book by his daughter-in-law, My Soul is Filled With Joy, a book about their journey together.