Sophie Jasny survived the Holocaust by sewing Nazi uniforms in a labor camp outside of Auschwitz. In her later years, she became an accomplished amateur artist, in both oil and watercolor.
Jasny, formerly of Millbrae, died in Belmont on March 22. She was 86.
Sophie Pacanovski was born on Feb. 25, 1919, in Czenstohova, Poland.
After being in the Czenstohova ghetto, she was deported to the Hugo Schneider Action Gesellschaft, a labor camp on the outskirts of Auschwitz. She was forced to sew uniforms.
At the camp, she met Henry Jasny, a college graduate who was posing as a machinist. She collected rags to sew clothing for him and she nursed the wounds he received when beaten by the Nazis.
While two of her sisters managed to escape Poland before the war, the rest of her family perished.
Henry Jasny was known as “the rabbi” among a small group of inmates, as he often could obtain a newspaper or find out what was happening. When he heard the Russians were advancing toward Poland, the inmates began to watch closely. Once they heard gunshots and saw no guards, a large group made their escape. This group of several hundred broke down into smaller groups, and Henry and Sophie stayed together, stopping at farmhouses and even a brothel, until they reached Germany.
After a stay in a Catholic-run displaced persons camp, they married on Nov. 20, 1945. They stayed in Germany until they got their visas to come to the United States, and chose San Francisco because Sophie’s two sisters lived there.
In San Francisco, the Jasnys first attended Adath Israel, and she was involved in Hadassah and Women’s American ORT. They later moved to Millbrae and joined Peninsula Temple Sholom.
Jasny’s daughter Ruth Newman of Hillsborough described her mother as “a very old-fashioned kind of mom. She was always cooking, baking or making my clothes.”
Although she suffered from Alzheimer’s disease in her last years, a watercolor Jasny made last year fetched $1,800 at an auction.
In addition to her daughter Ruth, Jasny is survived by her son, Harvey, of Reno; two grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
Donations can be made to the Alzheimer’s Association, 2065 West El Camino Real, Mountain View, CA 94040, or to Sutter VNA & Hospice, 700 S. Claremont St., Suite 220, San Mateo, CA 94402. n