Auschwitz is associated with unimaginable suffering, death and inhuman cruelty, but two women say the notorious death camp brought them something unexpected: life, against all odds.
Born in the Polish camp’s infirmary on April 30, 1945, a few months after Allied forces liberated it, Elenora Sbornik was a sick and weak baby who Red Cross doctors wrote off with almost no chance of surviving — yet she did.
Even more improbable, her older sister, Eva Umlauf, was transferred to Auschwitz as a toddler — and also lived.
“It is a miracle that we survived, both of us,” said Umlauf, 82, born in Novaky, a Slovakian labor camp in December 1942, before being taken to Auschwitz less than two years later.
The two spoke to The Post ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Monday, recognizing the 80th anniversary of the Jan. 27, 1945 liberation of the Nazi death camp.
“I hope that the world always remembers what happened, and that it serves as a warning to all those who think differently about it or downplay the Holocaust,” said Sbornik, 79.
Umlauf was transported to Aushwitz on November 3, 1944 – just days after the Nazis’ destroyed crematoriums to try to hide their evil from the world, as the Allies were bearing down.
“The train came too late, they stopped gassing mere days before,” said Umlauf, noting that those few days made the difference between life and death. “We know we would have been gassed.”
Neither sister has any recollection of her time in Auschwitz, but the tattoo on the older sister’s wrist — A-26959 — makes it impossible to forget.
“It is firmly anchored in my body and soul,” said Umlauf, who now lives in Germany. “The tattoo belongs to me, like a wound on the skin.”
The girls were ultimately reunited with their 21-year-old mother, Agnes and moved to the family home in Trenčín, Slovakia, where they were regarded with awe.
“We were the ‘Auschwitz miracles,’” recalled Umlauf.
An estimated 1.1 million Jews — including most of the 700 babies born there — were killed in Auschwitz.
The Claims Conference, an organization that supports Holocaust survivors, recorded the sisters’ testimonies as part of a digital media campaign with 80 Auschwitz survivors called #RememberThis for this milestone year.
The two “miracle babies” are now accomplished women – Sbornik is a specialist in internal medicine and Umlauf is a pediatrician and psychotherapist, both in Germany, where the older sister speaks out and lectures about the dangers of antisemitism.
Her message to the world during an alarming rise in antisemitism, is unequivocal. “I hope that the world always remembers what happened, and that it serves as a warning to all those who think differently about it or downplay the Holocaust,” said Sbornik, a mother of one who lives about 85 miles from her sister in Germany.
“I am convinced that it will never happen again, that the catastrophe will never be repeated, that the world is always informed about what took place.”
Umlauf speaks to groups about the dangers of antisemitism.
“I talk because even one person will remember — there will always be someone who will remember it.
“I talk because even one person will remember. We all have to do something to fight hate – not to answer with the same language as the people who hate – to kill – but not talk to people and try to do everything against hate, to try to live in peace,” she said.
Whether the world learned the lessons of the Holocaust, Umlauf can’t say.
“It’s a difficult question. There are many who didn’t learn anything.”