For Eliezer Ostreicher, every single day was another triumph over Nazi Germany. He made the most of his more than nine decades of living before he passed away on April 12 due to complications from COVID-19.
Ostreicher was born in pre-war Hungary and grew up in Debrecen, a town famed for its rich Jewish past. At the age of 15, he was deported to Auschwitz and immediately separated from his family. After two years, a skeleton of a 17-year-old was liberated.
After immigrating to the United States, he settled in Brooklyn, N.Y. But World War II and the Holocaust never left him, and he continued to retell stories to others with the idea to “never forget.”
There, he married and established what would become a large family that stretched to Israel.
He was a familiar presence at weddings in the Belz Chassidic court, where he would entertain guests with his violin playing, his sleeve rolled up, exposing the numbers tattooed on his left forearm: his flag of victory.
Ostreicher is survived by his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Readers are invited to express their condolences or memories of the departed in the Reader Comments box that follows this article.
To provide additional information for this article, or to submit the names and information about other Jewish victims of the coronavirus, please use this form.
Start a Discussion