Sossia Frenkiel

Sossia and her husband, Isadore, were the parents of seven boys. 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 near the synagogue. Sossia cared for the children while Isadore worked as a self-employed cap maker, selling his caps at the town's weekly market.

1933-39: Because of the Depression, Isadore's business had fallen off, but the Frenkiels managed to continue providing for their 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 Frenkiels after escaping from a transport. He confirmed rumors about the killing of Jews, warning them: "They put you in trucks, gas you, then throw your body into a burning pit." Sossia's 3-year-old son cried, "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. In May 1942, two months after three of Sossia's sons had been deported for forced labor, the Germans rounded up all the Jews in Gąbin.

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