Born:
Baranowicze, Poland
October 15, 1900
Died:
April 10, 2000
Samuel Bratkovsky was the youngest in a family of eight children. His formal education ended when World War I started in 1914. The family’s general store burned down during the war and the family turned to farm labor. Samuel eventually started a successful business. In 1928 he married and would have two sons. After Baranowicze was invaded by the Soviet Union in September 1939, Bratkovsky’s business was confiscated. Following the German invasion in June 1941, Bratkovsky and the other Jews of Baranowicze were forced into the city’s ghetto. In 1942 Bratkovsky and his young family were taken to the Koldichevo concentration camp where his wife and sons were executed. The ghetto was liquidated on December 17, 1942. All the remaining prisoners were shot into mass graves with the exception of 100 survivors who were considered useful to the Nazis. With 25 others, Bratkovsky managed to escape in March 1944 when a partisan resistance fighter led them to the Bielski encampment in the forest. The area was liberated by the Soviet army a few months later. Bratkovsky lived in Hungary, Austria, Italy, Cyprus, Israel, South Africa and Canada before immigrating to the United States in 1980. He and three sisters were the only members of their family to survive the Holocaust.
Parents:
Levrilow Bratkovsky
Rachel Birgstein Bratkovsky
Brothers:
Jacob Bratkovsky, d. in Holocaust
Joshua Bratkovsky, d. in Holocaust
Sisters: Three survived, two d. in Holocaust
Sara Bratkovsky
Sheina Bratkovsky
Ida Bratkovsky
Bejla Bratkovsky
Rivka Bratkovsky
Other family:
Wife, d. in Holocaust
Two sons, d. in Holocaust