Freda Singer

WATERBURY- Freda Singer, 95, Holocaust survivor

Waterbury lost a unique connection to World War II yesterday. Freda Singer was born in Ostrowiecz, Poland, on August 25, 1918, daughter of Alte Shulman, a Jewish tailor, and Rachel (Altkuchen) Shulman. Isolated in the Jewish section of Ostrowiecz, she loved sweet fresh-churned butter, goose, salted fish stored in wooden barrels, and the simple pleasures in a town with no automobiles and telephones. Like millions of Jewish people, Freda's life was hurled into chaos by Adolf Hitler's "Final Solution", an attempt to wipe the Jewish race off the planet.

The Shulman family was shattered by the Holocaust. Freda's mother, father, and three sisters were killed by Nazis. One younger brother perished before the war, and another brother, Abe Shulman, escaped to Canada.

While imprisoned in a Jewish ghetto, Freda married David Singer on August 26, 1942, She traded a tablecloth her sister had embroidered for ingredients to make a cake for her wedding, and borrowed a blue dress for the occasion. Days after the wedding the ghetto was destroyed and Freda and David were separated, and sent to German concentration camps and forced to work for the Nazi war effort. While transferred through Auschwitz-Birkenau, Dachau, Tereisenstadt and other infamous death camps, she encountered horrors that affected her for the rest of her life. She was an organizer in the camps, collecting and distributing food amongst the prisoners, and she protected her mother-in-law, Sara Singer, for four years.

In response to extreme depravation, Freda survived by a mix of courage and fearlessness, and would tell stories about risking her life to break from lines of prisoners to eat rotting potatoes in the fields.

After she was liberated in Czechoslovakia, she made her way to Munich, Germany, to try and find her husband, David, who was reported to be living in a house with fellow survivors. Freda carried a loaf of pumpernickel bread for two weeks to share with him when they were reunited. When she finally found him, the bread had hardened to a rock, so they dunked it in water, and ate it.

David's mother and two younger brothers survived, and in 1949, the five of them became the first Holocaust survivors to move to Waterbury, CT. Freda was the first to get a job, the first to learn English, and the first to drive a car. Freda never had gray hair, and was a tiny package that delivered a wallop. She was bold, spunky and blunt, and could ask questions like a 60 Minutes reporter, and Freda's questions would make people squirm. She was funny without trying to be funny, and had a face that could express a Broadway play without speaking a word.

Freda was a well-known seamstress in Greater Waterbury who altered clothes for influential clients who came knocking at her door in the Overlook neighborhood. Insecure about American social norms, she sought guidance from a network of American friends whom she played Mah Jong with once a week.

In 1960, David and Freda traveled to Greece, to adopt an 18-month old girl, Laurie, who became the focus of their lives. Laurie grew up to become the first female President of the Waterbury Bar Association, and a three-term Waterbury Alderman.

As the decades passed, Freda continued to be haunted by her wartime experience. She could be found in the produce section of Stop and Shop looking for bruised and discounted fruit. She would rummage through her daughter's refrigerator to pull out leftovers that she would take home and consume. She abhorred waste, and often chided her daughter by reminding her that food had once been a priceless commodity to her. Freda and David loved to go to all you can eat buffet restaurants, where they would sit for hours. Freda learned to cook in her mid-sixties, when her mother-in-law passed away and made a one-of-a kind chocolate chip sour cream Bundt cake that her family adored.

While fearless about her own physical safety, Freda was obsessed about the well being of her loved ones. She was determined to do whatever she could to protect those she loved in whatever way possible. She was a devoted grandmother, who delighted in taking care of her two grandchildren, driving them to school or day care, and giving them an abundance of love.

Freda is survived by her daughter, Laurie Singer Russo, granddaughter, Chelsea Murray, grandson, Jackson Russo, niece, Sharon Singer of Watertown, MA, brother-in-law, Harry Singer of Deerfield Beach, FL, his wife, Naomi and his children Debbie and Robert, and Robert's wife, Janet, nephew, Joshua Baum of Brooklyn, NY, his wife, Esther, and his children, Tova and Hymie.

David passed away in 2005, and both were prominent lifelong members of B'nai Shalom Synagogue. Freda believed luck played a huge role in her surviving WWII, and with her passing, she wishes "luck in life" to all who read this.

Arrangements- A Funeral Service for Freda will be held 1 P.M "Today" Thursday April 3, 2014 at The Alderson Funeral Home of Waterbury, 9 Holmes Ave, 06710 with Rabbi Dana Bogatz officiating. Burial will follow in Farband Cemetery, Morris. Donations in her name may be made to The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 100 Raoul Wallenberg Pl SW, Washington, DC 20024, or to Heifer International, 216 Wachusett St, Rutland, MA 01543.