Faces of the Holocaust: Sam Heider, Survivor

Sam Heider was born in 1924 in the small village of Biejkow, one of six children of Yankel and Chaja Hajder. Unlike most Polish Jews, the Hajders had been farmers for generations and owned their own land. In 1941 the farm was confiscated by the German occupation forces, and the family moved to the ghetto in nearby Bialobrzegi. In 1942 the ghetto was liquidated and Sam’s parents went to their deaths at Treblinka. Sam escaped because he had already been sent to a work camp at Radom. All he had left of his family was a photograph of his sister, which - remarkably - he was able to keep with him by hiding it under his arm, even in the showers. He still has the photograph.