2023 30thAnniversaryCommemorativeBook SINGLEPAGES-small - Flipbook - Page 70
OVERCOMING
INHUMANITY
Bernard Aptaker was
born in Zakrzówek,
Poland, where he and
his brothers, Stanley
and Moshe, grew up in a warm,
observant household. Bernard’s family
survived day to day until the fall of 1942,
when they were ordered to report to
the nearby Jewish ghetto.
After being turned out in fear by a
sympathetic Polish farmer who had
initially hidden them, the family was
forced to turn themselves in. Moshe and
his mother, Sarah, were condemned to
the Auschwitz gas chambers. Bernard,
Stanley, and their father, Murray,
were dispatched to the labor camps
of Budzyn and Wieliczka, where they
endured unimaginable barbarity, illness,
and hunger. In Budzyn, Bernard was
beaten with a lead-filled whip while his
father was forced to watch.
As the Allies advanced, the Germans
transferred them and their fellow
emaciated prisoners to Flossenbürg.
From there, the Aptakers survived a 50mile death march to Dachau. They were
freed when American forces liberated
Dachau on April 29, 1945.
68 l UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM LEGACY OF LIGHT GUARDIANS
Thanks to Bernard’s ability to speak
more than six languages, he worked
with US intelligence units for two
years in Europe to identify and capture
German war criminals. He immigrated
to New York in 1947, first working in a
delicatessen and later in a dance studio.
After relocating to Houston in 1970, he
bought his first apartment properties,
launching what became an exceptionally
successful real estate business.
The emotional scars left by Bernard’s
concentration camp experiences shaped
his views of humanity. After witnessing
firsthand the hatred and cruelty
perpetrated by one group of people
on another, he chose not to marry
or to father children. Yet he had an
extremely kind heart and generous soul.
After Bernard’s passing in 2015, the
Museum received a much larger than
anticipated gift of more than $30 million
from his estate. This extraordinary
support of the Museum’s vital work
of remembrance and teaching in
perpetuity reflected his passion for
philanthropy, particularly in fostering
religious tolerance and understanding.