His is a story of survival, of perseverance and, most of all, of optimism and emunah. Now, with the publication of his book Lifted From the Trash Heaps, Judge Samuel Colman hopes to inspire others to hold out hope for a better tomorrow – even during life’s darkest moments.
Colman was born in Wadowice, a Polish town located 31 miles southeast of Krakow. His childhood was cut short at the age of six on Friday, September 1 1939, when Germany invaded Poland. Instead of starting school, Colman and his family fled for their lives.
“We started running as fast as we could, first by foot, and then by horse and buggy,” recalled Colman. “We were walking that whole Shabbos and we kept on going for two weeks because we had no idea what was going on behind us.”
The Colman family ended up in a Soviet-occupied portion of Poland where they were met by Russian troops. They refused an offer to become Russian citizens; something Colman said appeared to be a grave mistake at the time, but in retrospect saved their lives.
“To us, it looked like the war was over and we just wanted to go home. They considered it an act of treason, put us on cattle cars and sent us to Siberia,” said Colman.
Despite the harshness of Siberia, conditions were better than they were back in Poland, where Colman’s family and the vast majority of the Jewish population were murdered in Nazi death camps. Still, tragedy struck quickly; there was no medical care and Colman’s father died almost as soon as they arrived in Siberia.
“Things were awful but at least no one was trying to kill us,” said Colman.
When the Germans invaded Russia in 1941, Siberian prisoners were given the opportunity to leave as long as they remained in the Soviet Union. Most chose to go to warmer climates, and Colman and his family spent most of the war in Soviet-controlled Central Asia, in an area not far from Uzbekistan. Upon their return to Poland after the end of the war, the surviving family members discovered that Polish Jews were no longer welcome in their hometowns. At the age of 13, Colman and his nine-year-old brother and a cousin were placed on a children’s transport that ultimately went to France. They were among several hundred minors placed in an Aliyat Noar home. Colman was one of the lucky ones; his mother crossed several borders illegally to reach her children and found work in the home.
Colman remembers his teenage years in France as transitional and difficult ones. Both his mother and his brother were unable to stay in France and settled successfully in the newly established State of Israel while Colman remained alone in France.
“I had no skills and no education and had to figure out what to do with my life,” said Colman. “I struggled, lived in a religious Jewish orphanage and obtained some education.”
By the time he was 19, Colman had aged out of the home and needed to make other arrangements. His choice was, literally, inspiring.
“Until that time I had been able to live in a religious atmosphere,” said Colman. “Most of those who went from that environment into the open French society in Paris lost their religion, but Hashem gave me the wisdom to try to set myself up in the rabbinical school of France and with His help, I was able to convince the school to take me in as a boarder. I did not want to be a rabbi, but I did want to live my life as an observant Jew.”
Like so many others who tried to find their way after the war, the next few years saw Colman bouncing from one situation to another until he received word from the American consulate that his visa had arrived and he was able to travel to America to live with an uncle, who was also a Holocaust survivor.
“I was 21 years old and completely floundering at that time,” said Colman. “Thankfully, when I got to the United States I was finally able to unpack psychologically and somehow my life finally became normal.”
Already somewhat fluent in English from his high school studies in France, Colman registered for both the draft and college, taking night classes as he settled down in his new homeland. Three years later he met his wife, Shifra, and the two got married and began raising a family, first in Brooklyn and then in Stamford, Connecticut. By the time their oldest child had turned five, Colman was working as an engineer and the importance of living in a community where Jewish education was readily available became apparent. Being able to come up with a down payment for their $25,000 home in Monsey, a significant sum of money in 1962, was no easy task.
“The only reason we even had the $2,000 for the down payment was because my wife, a survivor of Bergen Belsen and Theresienstadt, who was only five years old when the war ended, had gotten a check from the Germans,” said Colman. “I ran the numbers and based on what they told us, we could just make our payments, but when our tax bill came a few months later it was for much more. I was indignant and we almost lost our house. That experience prompted me to find out more about local government.”
At first Colman was involved in starting civic organizations in the Monsey area, but he quickly realized that they had no power to effect real change. So, he got involved in the local Democratic club. Members were initially resistant to Orthodox Jews joining their ranks, but they slowly came around.
“At the time, newcomers were not treated well,” remarked Colman. “Those in power were not very receptive to us, something that I personally experienced, but after nearly losing our house because the local government didn’t tell us the truth about the taxes, I wasn’t willing to back down. Ultimately, we were able to change the government and I was part of it.”
Colman played a role in putting a new administration in place in Rockland County and found himself appointed as a part time sewer commissioner. Being on the inside gave him a chance to better understand local government which at the time allowed each of the Rockland’s five towns, despite their different sizes, to have a single representative on the county board. That entity was eventually disallowed by the United States Supreme Court because of those inequities.
“It was clear that changes had to be made to the county government, and after several iterations a county legislature was created,” recalled Colman.
After being elected to the county legislature and named chairman by his peers, Colman served two four-year terms before setting his eye on an even greater prize in 1984: the New York State Assembly seat that had been vacated by Eugene Levy, who went on to serve as a state senator. Colman spent the next eighteen years of his life making the two-hour weekly round trip between Monsey and Albany. His political career included a bid for the position of Rockland County executive, and a campaign that was derailed by false accusations leveled at him and his campaign treasurer by what he described as a corrupt district attorney. Being re-elected to the Assembly, Colman worked hard to implement judicial reforms to spare others the experience that he and his treasurer had gone through.
“I am grateful to the Almighty,” said Colman. “While I was sent back to my office in Albany where I became assistant majority leader, my nemesis was forced to resign and disbarred for ten years.”
The next stop for Colman was closer to home: an eight-year stint as a judge in the Town of Ramapo Justice Court. But despite his many years in public service, Colman considers his family to be his most inspiring legacy and he and his wife are the proud parents of three children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. In fact, Colman was inspired to write Lifted From the Trash Heaps when his grandson Ari expressed surprise that his grandfather spoke French. The title of the book is derived from Tehillim 113 and Colman hopes that by penning his memoir he will be able to preserve his history while also inspiring others.
“I believe that by sharing my story people can learn that you can be in the trash heaps of life, but if you have faith and bitachon and work hard and be optimistic, Hashem will help you survive and you will be able to accomplish great things,” said Colman.
Now 85, Colman and his wife Shifra live in Century Village in Boca Raton, Florida. He appreciates all he has been able to accomplish and that he and his wife were able to provide their children with the sense of normalcy that eluded them during their war-torn early years. Once a year, on Pesach, Colman and his wife seize the opportunity to remind their family of their origins.
“We take a few minutes to say that tonight we are grateful not just for what happened thousands of years ago, but also for our personal and more recent liberations,” said Colman. “In this country when you hear a noise early in the morning, you think it is the milkman or the paper boy, but in Stalin’s Russia where I spent the war years, when you heard a noise, you knew it was the police taking someone away and the next morning you didn’t ask any questions because if you did you would get in trouble.”
Despite having faced adversity numerous times, Colman does not view his story as a tragedy or see himself as a victim. In fact, he prides himself on being a person who always sees the glass as half full.
“My life, as well as my wife’s, has had challenges that Hashem has helped us overcome,” said Colman. “It is important for each of us to remember the obstacles we have faced and to remember with gratitude how we have managed to triumph over each one.”
Lifted From the Trash Heaps is an Amazon publication and will be available for purchase this month on Amazon and in select bookstores.