AT HIS BAR MITZVAH IN 1980 , A 13-YEAR-OLD declared that he would one day write the story of his father ' s Holocaust survival . It took 40 years for Joel Poremba ’ 89 to deliver on that promise .
“ I knew at a young age that my father , Nathan Poremba , had survived the Holocaust ,” says Joel . “ His friends would come to the house to visit , many were concentration camp survivors from Poland , and they had numbers tattooed on their arms . When you ’ re a kid , things like that stick out in your mind .”
In the years that followed , he immersed himself in the history of the Holocaust , watching numerous films and reading books . But the one resource closest to him , his father , would not talk about the past .
Decades later , in 1994 , filmmaker Steven Spielberg established the Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive to videotape and preserve interviews with survivors and other witnesses of the Holocaust . In 1998 , the Shoah Foundation collected nearly four hours of his father ’ s memories . And what Joel heard his father say changed him forever .
“ Hearing about human suffering is tough , but when it ’ s your own father or family member , at the hands of another , it takes on a whole new level ,” he says . “ The interview liberated my dad and he wanted to talk . Ironically , I was the one who then retreated .”
Twenty years later , on a trip to Israel , Joel found the determination to pursue his father ’ s story . “ I had a duty to tell this story ,” he says . “ You do it for those who died and for those who cannot speak .” Upon returning to the States , he sat and watched his father ’ s 21-year-old video testimony . He also conducted his own interviews with his father .
“ It was hard for me , but my dad just wanted to keep talking ,” he says . Nathan ' s father had been murdered in 1939 by the Nazis in Poland . His wife was left widowed with five young children . An escape from Poland was futile ; no one would let a Jewish woman with young children pass without suspicion . But Nathan set off , alone , sneaking in and out of three ghettos . He obtained papers bearing the name of a dead Christian boy and found work as an apprentice in a shoe shop , and later a farm , all the while playing the role of an orphaned Pole . After an altercation with a German soldier , he was placed in two concentration camps until the end of the war through early 1945 . From age nine to 15 , he was on his own without help throughout most of the Holocaust .
And still , with all the information he had collected , it was hard for Joel , a business litigation attorney , to work on the book until the COVID-19
lockdowns . He began writing , drawing upon his learning as an undergraduate political science major at UC San Diego to research deeper into the Holocaust . He also incorporated historical sources to situate his father ’ s experience within the larger context of the Holocaust . He finished a first draft of the book within six months .
Joel hopes that his book will be used as an artifact to combat dismissive and false narratives about the Holocaust . “ The further in time we get from genocide , as first-hand witnesses die , people forget what happened ," he says . " I ’ m preserving my family history for future generations so no one will forget .” He also hopes the story of his father ' s heroic resistance in the face of evil will inspire others . Learn more at : joelporemba . com
What did your ancestors overcome ? Tell us at : tritonmag @ ucsd . edu
38 TRITON | SPRING 2022