Isadore Frenkiel

Isadore and his wife, Sossia, had seven sons. The Frenkiels, a religious Jewish family, lived in a one-room apartment in a town near Łódź called Gąbin. Like most Jewish families in Gąbin, they lived in the town's center, near the synagogue. Isadore was a self-employed cap maker, selling his caps at the town's weekly market. He also fashioned caps for the police and military.

1933-39: Isadore felt the pinch of the Depression, but although business was poor, he was able to provide for his family. Shortly after the Germans invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, they occupied Gąbin. The Germans mistreated the Jewish population: beating them; forcing them out of their homes; extorting money from them. Some were killed. 

1940-45: In August 1941, the Frenkiels were imprisoned in a ghetto. Eventually, they heard rumors that the Germans were evacuating some towns and deporting the Jews to their deaths. A cousin visited the family after escaping from a transport and said the rumors were true. "They put you in trucks, gas you, then throw your body into a burning pit," he said. Isadore's 3-year-old son ran to his mother crying, "Will they burn me, too?" Isadore urged his cousin to tell the Jewish elders. He met with them, but they did not believe his story and told him to leave town.

In April 1942 Gąbin's Jews were deported to the Chełmno killing center. Isadore, Sossia and four of their sons were placed in a sealed van and asphyxiated with exhaust fumes.