Holocaust survivor’s amazing story retold

“First One In, Last One Out: Auschwitz Survivor 31321,” a book written by longtime Hewlett resident Marilyn Shimon about her great-uncle, Murray Scheinberg, was published this year.

Shimon, 61, who has lived in Hewlett for 35 years and who previously lived in Bellmore, took about two years to complete the book after researching, translating and sifting through her family’s resources, including her mother’s notes and her great-uncle’s diary. Scheinberg was one of the first Jewish people to be sent to Auschwitz, and survived in concentration camps for nearly six years. 

Shimon’s mother, Shula Hirsch, chronicled his story in a book for the purpose of educating high school students about the Holocaust, but her work was rejected in the 1960s by a publisher who did not believe the story was true. 

 “I don’t view myself as an author,” Shimon said. “I view myself as a storyteller. Our roots make us who we are.”

Scheinberg, who died in 1996, was the only one in his immediate family who survived the Holocaust. His parents, wife and two children all perished. “My uncle wanted the world to know,” Shimon said, recalling his enthusiasm for the book and the fact that he always sported an American flag pin on his lapel, wore short sleeves to show his concentration camp tattoos and scars and openly spoke about his experiences.

“‘First One In, Last One Out: Auschwitz Survivor 31321’ is a harrowing tale of endurance, courage, luck, egotism and morality, one man’s story of survival in the face of Nazi brutality and anti-Semitism,” Abraham H. Foxman, national director emeritus of the Anti-Defamation League, said in a testimonial. “Murray Scheinberg’s memoir of survival through the Nazi Holocaust symbolizes man’s determination to live no matter the odds. But it also represents the degradation of the human spirit imposed on the Jews of Europe by the evil Nazi machine. It is both an uplifting tale and a sorry one about human nature in the face of evil.” 

Shimon, a lecturer and volunteer gallery educator at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan, Shimon said, “I’m telling everyone’s story. Let me explore this with my own uncle.” 

For several years, Shimon lived and taught English and music in Israel. After returning to Long Island, she settled in Hewlett and worked as a translator for the Israeli government in New York. Later she became a teacher, and taught for 30 years at P.S. 175 in Rego Park, Queens, and served as director of educational services in District 27. She now gives piano and violin lessons. 

Her family moved to Bellmore in 1955, where her mother, Shula Hirsch, still lives. Hirsch taught Jewish literature, debate, English and public speaking at Kennedy High School for several years. Shula and her late husband, Martin, were two of the founders of the Bellmore Jewish Center, and Martin even conducted the services in the den of their house. Shula taught Jewish history Sunday school at Temple Beth-El in North Bellmore for a few years. 

“His lifelong dream was fulfilled because he wanted his story to be shared,” Hirsch said of her uncle.“He wanted people to know what that point in history was like. If I took 100 people together and I said, ‘This is what my uncle went through’ … they would never in a thousand years have been able to dream up the true story of how he was saved,” she added. 

“First One In, Last One Out: Auschwitz Survivor 31321” was published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. It is available on Amazon, and autographed copies are available at www.marilynshimon.com.