Pauline Binstock's Obituary
Pauline Binstock
1920-2018
A Holocaust Survivor Who Never Gave Up
Pauline Binstock, one of only a few remaining Holocaust survivors, died peacefully in her sleep Wednesday, March 22. She was 97 years old. The oldest of five children, she was the daughter of Esther and Itzhak Raisner from Grodno, Poland. Growing up in an Orthodox family, she lived with her parents, two brothers, two sisters, as well as her grandparents, where the family owned a grocery store and a small farm.
After high school Pauline went on to trade school for training to become a seamstress. During this time she also learned to speak five languages: German, Polish, English, Russian and Yiddish, and wrote in four. The war broke out in 1939 and Pauline met and married her first husband in 1940. In 1941 the Nazis invaded Poland and took Pauline, her husband, and her entire family to a ghetto where they lived until they were forced to move to the Majdanek Concentration Camp where she remained the only survivor.
Pauline’s life was spared because she was a dressmaker and useful to the German Army. After moving from camp to camp she ended up at Auschwitz where she witnessed unspeakable atrocities until she was finally liberated in 1945. Pauline rarely spoke of her experience in the camps though she did talk about the women who had given up hope and would pass razors blades to each other to end their torture.
After liberation, she and other survivors were housed in a co-ed dormitory in Bergen-Belsen where she met Israel Binstock, fell in love with and married him in 1946. They had their first son Isadore one year later. In 1949 they immigrated to the US and settled in Pittsburgh to be closer to relatives.
After living in East Liberty for a few years, the couple had two more sons, Alex and Bill and then moved to Squirrel Hill. Pauline spent her entire adult life caring for her family. She felt her job was to take care of her husband and their three boys. Countless hours were spent cleaning the house, preparing meals, and using homemade remedies to cure the children when they were sick. When the boys were in school she worked as a seamstress at West Penn Hospital as well as various bakeries in Squirrel Hill.
Pauline is survived by three sons: Isadore (Ann), Alex (Lynn), and Bill, six grandchildren: Diane (Ed), Michael, Jared (Lorilee), Jeremy (Yillien), Aaron (Lindsey), Mathew (Cali), and 10 great grandchildren: Emma, Jacob, Ian, Olivia, Liam, Jordan, Brooke, Jonah, Levi and Jude.
She was a woman of endless love and affection. The definition of a typical Jewish mother, she will be missed but never forgotten. We celebrate her life forever. Funeral services are Sunday March 25, 2018 11:00am at Beth David Levitt Weinstein, 3201 N 72 Ave, Hollywood, Florida. In lieu of flowers the family would rather support March For Our Lives, Times Up, Holocaust Memorial, or a charity of your choice.
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