Shlomo Lerman
Shlomo Lerman

Shlomo/Salomón Lerman

Written by Adriana Lerman, granddaughter of Shlomo Lerman (All photos courtesy of Adriana Lerman)

Shlomo Lerman was born on January 21, 1908, in Ozarow Kielce in Poland. (His name was written as Szlama in Polish documents, his family affectionately called him Shloime, and he was known as Simon in Argentina.)

He came from a religious family composed of his mother Malka Klajman, his father Nusyn Lerman, and his siblings Jaie Rivka, Aidel, Beile Guitl, and Yekhiel Meyer.

After the death of his father in January 1933, he moved to Ostrowiec and lived with the family of his brother Yekhiel Meyer Lerman, from 1936 to October 1937 at Rynek 22.

My grandfather had Zionist ideals and was a member of various Zionist groups in Ozarow and Ostrowiec. In the photo at right, he appears with a Zionist group in Ozarow.

Shlomo worked as a fair merchant in the Rynek Square where they traded on Mondays and Thursdays.

In October 1937, he escaped to Paris after being a victim of antisemitism in Ostrowiec and he lived there until December 1938. He finally managed to enter Argentina illegally, due to restrictions on Jewish immigration. He married Sara Zakhejm in Buenos Aires and they had two children.

Editorial committee of the Yizkor Book of Ostrowiec-1949 (Shlomo seated on far right)-Photo courtesy of Adriana Lerman (Shlomo Lerman's grandaughter)
Editorial committee of the Yizkor Book of Ostrowiec-1949 (Shlomo seated on far right)-Photo courtesy of Adriana Lerman (Shlomo Lerman's grandaughter)

My grandfather's entire family in Poland were innocent victims of the Nazi genocide: his sisters, brothers-in-law and children, his mother, uncles, and cousins.  They all were deported from Ostrowiec in the action of October 10, 1942 to the Treblinka death camp. Only his brother Yekhiel Meyer Lerman and one of his four children, Levi Lerman, survived the Holocaust.

In Buenos Aires, Shlomo was a member of the “Mutual Aid Association for Residents of Ostrowiec and its surroundings” of which he was vice president.  He managed to help his surviving brother and nephew emigrate to Argentina in September 1949, after much effort due to the restrictions against Jewish immigration that still existed in Argentina. He wrote a testimony on behalf of his brother in the yizkor book.

Shlomo Lerman passed away on June 4, 2002 in Argentina at the age of 94.

Blessed and eternal is the memory of my relatives cruelly murdered in the Holocaust.

Adriana Lerman has shared a commentary below about her recently published book of her grandfather: EL DOLOR DE ESTAR VIVO
=======
I am Adriana Lerman, the author of the book "The pain of being alive" published by the Editorial "El Ateneo" in Spanish.
I am a pharmacist and a writer and had a need to write this book , which was born as a result of an investigation I did on the documents that my father found in my grandfather's apartment after his death.. Thanks to which I was able to rebuild the life of my grandfather Shlomo Lerman.
My grandfather lived with his family in Ostrowiec, and in my book I was able to reconstruct the days of his youth and the Jewish life that pulsed in the shtetl where Yiddish was heard in the streets. In my book I intersperse a large number of photos and original documents of my grandfather with the story.
I managed to discover that my grandfather was saved from the Holocaust because he escaped in time from European Nazism, the difficulties, impediments and obstacles he had to overcome to get to Argentina due to the restrictions on Jewish immigration, and how the tragedy of the Holocaust took away forever the people he loved more. A story that I rescued from silence, because my grandfather could never tell us because he hid behind a wall of silence in order to continue living.
I would love to share this story with you, to spread it and keep the memory of what happened in the Holocaust alive.
My book can be obtained online in print or  e-book on any of the following pages.
In Spanish website here
or on Amazon as ebook :
adriana lerman book
Shlomo and grand-daughter Adriana -1994
Shlomo and grand-daughter Adriana -1994

Photos on this page courtesy of Shlomo's granddaughter Adriana Lerman