Sonia Warshawski, Holocaust Survivor

Sonia Warshawski is one of about 100 Holocaust survivors that resided in Kansas City. Her harrowing story of survival and perseverance is difficult for anyone to hear, but necessary. From growing up in Poland to surviving three separate death camps to her move to Kansas City with her husband, Sonia demonstrated bravery and determination. With only herself and her younger sister out of her immediate family surviving the Holocaust, her story demonstrates the sheer devastation that Adolph Hitler and the Nazi regime wreaked throughout World War II. Sonia's continuing work of spreading awareness of the Holocaust offers the Kansas City area with a warning against hatred and bigotry, and she hopes she could be a factor in preventing similar events from occurring ever again.

Sonia Warshawski was born on November 10, 1925, in Miedzyrzec, Poland. She was one of three children, having both a brother and a sister. While she was a girl, she enjoyed a life full of love and happiness with her family and friends. She attended a public school in her town that had both Jewish and Catholic children, but was majority Catholic, meaning Sonia had to recite Catholic prayers while at her school. However, each week a Jewish teacher came to teach the Jewish children in town about their history, culture, and religion. Unfortunately, such happiness and normalcy would not survive the first half of the 20th Century. As the Nazi regime took hold throughout Europe, horror began to gradually enter the lives of those who were deemed unsuitable by the regime. Prior to the infiltration by the German SS, Miedzyrzec was a relatively industrialized town, creating brushes and other materials that were valuable for the country. Such industrialization provided jobs for Sonia and her family when the Germans gradually took over their town. 

As Sonia explains in each of her interviews, the German SS gradually established their power over the Jewish community members. Changes began, including restrictions on certain aspects of life. For example, Jewish citizens could not own their own businesses, but did have to maintain a job. Sonia began working in a brush factory in order to have papers to prove she had a job, and her brother and father also worked in different factories. Other restrictions enforced on Jewish members included a curfew, they could not walk on sidewalks, and Jewish children could not attend school. As restrictions increased, Jewish townspeople were forcefully relocated to a “Jewish district” in town, and eventually to a ghetto that had horrible conditions. Sonia and her family suffered through such hardships, and witnessed multiple deportations and mass murders of Jews within their town. In order to better protect themselves and hide, the family dug a hide-away under the bed in their one-bedroom space in the ghetto. This proved to be useful, until German Shepherds were used in a raid. All of the family members except for Sonia’s brother, who was working outside of the area at the time, would be rounded up to wait outside while the raid continued. However, Sonia’s sister and father managed to escape while the soldiers were distracted.  

After their escape, Sonia’s father and brother found a hiding place in an attic, and found a farm for Sonia’s sister to hide on while paying the farmer for her protection. Sadly, Sonia’s father and brother would be betrayed, and they were subsequently shot and killed when they were discovered. Once the farmer found out he would no longer be receiving compensation, he removed Sonia’s sister from his farm. She escaped to the forest, and Sonia would not hear from her until after the liberation of the concentration camps. Sonia and her mother were not so lucky as to escape the raid. Instead, they were rounded up onto cattle cars to be transported to a Nazi death camp. They were originally taken to the camp called Treblinka, but it was overcrowded, so Sonia and her mother were taken to the Majdanek death camp. This was in May of 1943. Early into their time at Majdanek, Sonia would suffer a bout of dysentery, which she only survived thanks to her mother’s care. Sonia’s mother would be selected for the gas chambers months later, while Sonia was selected to be moved to Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest death camp in the Nazi regime. Sonia had to watch as her mother was marched away towards her death before she herself was carted to a new place. 

Sonia described her time in Auschwitz-Birkenau akin to living in Hell. When she arrived, she was put into a type of quarantine and had to move stones, which also served as a selection process. She was moved to Barack Commando 22 and was used for forced labor in the fields. Throughout her time at Auschwitz-Birkenau, she went through multiple selection processes, narrowly surviving each one. She even hid away from guards in a pile of clothes to escape one such selection process and avoid the gas chambers. She survived in Auschwitz-Birkenau from the Fall of 1943 until early 1945, when she was forcefully moved away to avoid the liberation by Soviet forces. Such was the start of Sonia’s experience in a death march towards the Bergen-Belsen camp. Camp prisoners were forced to walk for days with little food and water while wearing inadequate clothing. Many died along the way before the remaining prisoners were loaded onto open cattle cars with only small blankets to shelter them against the blistering cold of winter. Sonia survived the trek only to be greeted by a new camp. 

Although Bergen-Belsen did not have a gas chamber like the Nazi death camps, it still maintained a crematorium due to the massive amounts of death that occurred from disease. Sonia managed to avoid contracting any disease, and was selected as a peeler of vegetables for her forced labor. She maintained this routine until April 15th, 1945, otherwise known as the day of liberation of the Bergen-Belsen camp by British forces. But, on the day of liberation, she was struck in the chest by a bullet, narrowly missing her heart. Would she die, after all of her suffering, moments before her own liberation? Luckily, the liberation forces were able to get to her in time, and a British Army doctor administered first aid before she was relocated to one of their barracks for further treatment. There she stayed, injured but alive, while she recovered. Afterwards, the Bergen-Belsen area was recreated into a displaced persons camp by British forces. After her recovery, Sonia would stay at the Bergen-Belsen Displaced Persons (DP) camp. Although she left the area briefly to reunite with her sister, whom she discovered had also survived the Holocaust, she remained in the camp for some time.  

Sonia met her husband, John, in the Bergen-Belsen DP camp. They eventually moved to the American zone in the camp in order to move to the United States. When they were sent to New York City for their immigration, they were assigned to Kansas City because John had two sisters who were already living in the area. While in Kansas City, John established a tailor shop in which Sonia also worked. While it is no longer in its original location, John’s Tailoring and Alterations is now located near 95th Street and Nall Avenue in Overland Park. While she originally did not plan on speaking about her experiences during the Holocaust, as they were painful memories, Sonia abruptly changed her mind when she became aware of Holocaust deniers. She knew that she had to spread her story to contribute to the prevention of such an atrocity from happening again. For decades, Sonia would visit schools, prisons, and other groups to tell her story and spread Holocaust awareness.  

Now lovingly referred to as “Big Sonia” and the star of her own documentary, Sonia Warshawski holds an important place in Holocaust education and remembrance. One of the few Holocaust survivors in Kansas City, she recently commented on the Auschwitz exhibit that was temporarily displayed at the Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri. While she has found such exhibits to be great for education, she constantly reminds the public through her own interviews and talks that the true barbarity and horror of the Holocaust could never be understood by “normal people.” Her determination pushed her through some of the worst horrors in human history, and her work as an outspoken survivor could help prevent such atrocities from occurring again.  

1. Big Sonia: Survivor. Grandma. Diva. Warshawski, Leah & Todd Soliday. Performed by Sonia Warshawski. United States. Inflatable Film & Argot Pictures, 2016. Film. https://bigsonia.com/. 
2. La Ferla, Ruth. ‘But It’s a Terrible Hate What’s Going on Now’, The New York Times. November 18th 2017. Accessed November 1st 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/18/style/big-sonia-holocaust-survivor.html?.?mc=aud_dev&ad-keywords=auddevgate&gclid=CjwKCAjwoP6LBhBlEiwAvCcthJ_hTYfaTwxz5RzR6TcGiq7iPo2q5kaeD2iRuiLDi3rfzY_riFkK4hoCusYQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds. 
3. McGonigle, Pat. Local survivor shares powerful message on Holocaust Remembrance Day, FOX 4 KC. January 27th 2021. Accessed November 1st 2021. https://fox4kc.com/news/local-survivor-shares-powerful-message-on-holocaust-remembrance-day/. 
4. Naylor, Matthew. A Discussion with Big Sonia - Matthew Naylor and Sonia Warshawski. National World War I Museum and Memorial. October 29, 2018. Video, 59:20. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnyM_4JRolI&t=1341s&ab_channel=NationalWWIMuseumandMemorial. 
5. Shively, Lindsay. 75 years after Auschwitz liberation, Holocaust survivor 'cannot keep quiet', KSHB Kansas City. January 27th 2020. Accessed November 1st 2021. https://www.kshb.com/longform/75-years-after-auschwitz-liberation-holocaust-survivor-cannot-keep-quiet.
6. Sonia Warshawski, Midwest Center for Holocaust Education. Accessed November 1st 2021. https://mchekc.org/testimonial/sonia-warshawski/. 
7. Wisoff-Fields, Rochelle. Holocaust survivor: “I must tell you.”, Metro Voice News. January 29th 2020. Accessed November 1st 2021. https://metrovoicenews.com/holocaust-survivor-sonia-warshawski/.