Daughter of two Holocaust Survivors

Mother deported to work camp from Poland

Speaks of her father’s incredible losses framed by his cleverness and innate will to survive, and of how he picked up the pieces of his shattered life to create a new family. 

The daughter of two Holocaust survivors, Ziporah’s mother Chana Mosler was barely 16 when she was deported to a work camp from her small town of Olkusz, Poland. Ziporah’s father, Meier Janowski, was living a prosperous life in the Polish town of Wolbrom where he was helping run the family business and was part of a revered religious family. The Nazis entered the town at the beginning of the war and quickly deported or killed the Jewish residents. Quoting newly discovered documents written by her father, Ziporah tells in her father’s own words the shocking detail of his and his family’s deportation. She describes the torture her father endured throughout his journey through multiple labor camps and his imprisonment in the Buchenwald concentration camp, culminating in his being part of an infamous death march to Theresienstadt.

Ziporah speaks of her father’s incredible losses framed by his cleverness and innate will to survive and of how he picked up the pieces of his shattered life to create a new family, moving from Germany to Israel and then the United States. Ziporah also speaks of what life was like as the American child of Polish Holocaust survivors and the lasting imprint being Holocaust survivors left upon her parents. Her presentation is at its heart a love letter to her father and a reminder to all that their family stories are precious and merit knowing and telling.

Ziporah lives in Croton on Hudson, New York with her husband David Ettenberg. Their daughter Hannah lives in New Jersey with her husband and baby daughter Miriam, named for Hannah’s grandfather Meier. She is working toward becoming a licensed therapist having completed a Masters in Social Work and holding a degree in Chemical Engineering. Their son Sam works in the tile and stone industry in Miami and is an accomplished DJ. Ziporah was a litigation attorney, having retired from Marsh & McLennan Inc. in 2007 to join her husband in his business running wellness programs throughout the country. She also became a certified healthy chef in 2016.She is in her “third act” becoming an artist, focusing on portrait sketches and oil painting, having participated in her first exhibit in 2024. Ziporah enjoys all outdoor activities, especially walks with her beloved rescue standard poodle.Ziporah is a long time board member of Teatown Lake Reservation nature preserve.

Ziporah is a board member of the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center of White Plains, New York and a member of its GenerationsForward group of second and third generation children of Holocaust survivors.

To download an editable flyer, CLICK HERE.