It is with great sadness that Matzav.com reports the passing of Reb Shmuel Beller z”l, a Holocaust survivor who endured the horrors of Auschwitz and the Death March, and who rebuilt his life with remarkable strength, becoming a shining example of emunah, simcha, and ahavas Yisroel.
Reb Shmuel was born on August 9, 1927, in Oświęcim, Poland—the very town that would later become known to the world as Auschwitz. It was a small town of approximately 6,000 residents. He grew up in modest conditions. His father, Reb Tzvi Beller, worked as a peddler selling fabrics across the border, while his mother, Chava (nee Goldstein) cared for the home. The family lived simply, in a small apartment without basic amenities. He had a younger brother and a younger sister, and the home, though materially limited, was rooted in Yiddishkeit.
As a child, he attended public school in the mornings, a co-ed institution under Catholic control, and spent his afternoons learning in the Dumbska yeshivah. That life came to an abrupt halt with the outbreak of the war, when the Nazis entered and took control of the town almost immediately.
Within a year, the family was uprooted from their home and sent to the Bedzin-Sosnowiec Ghetto. Living conditions were harsh and degrading. Jewish families were pushed out of proper housing and forced into cellars with dirt floors, while the Germans confiscated the better apartments.
Reb Shmuel’s father was taken away to a labor camp, leaving him to help support his mother and younger siblings. He was assigned work by the Jewish administration, employed by two German brothers who produced military uniforms. His days were split between cleaning their home and packing uniforms, all while living under constant fear and uncertainty.
As the war progressed, he was sent through a series of forced labor camps. In 1943, when he was slated for transport to Auschwitz, he went into hiding. When the Judenrat could not find him, they took his mother and siblings in his place. After two days in hiding, he emerged—only to narrowly miss that transport. Instead, he was sent to yet another labor camp.
Eventually, he was transferred to increasingly brutal conditions, including Blechhammer, the largest sub-camp of Auschwitz, where he remained for six months. From there, he was forced onto the infamous Death March.
Recounting those harrowing days, Reb Shmuel later described the brutal conditions:
“…Auschwitz they wouldn’t bomb because Roosevelt, Roosevelt, he gave orders not to bomb Auschwitz. After the war I found it out. I didn’t know then. This is something that the historian will tell. But in 1945, the Russians came from Warsaw, from the east, the British and the Americans were coming from the other side and we were like in the middle, so they started to evacuate from there. We went out about three thousand people from there. So they opened up all the ‘magazines’ – they had cloth, they had food. Whatever they had there, they opened them up, and we went in there, whoever was able to grab was able to grab…”
He described the desperate struggle to survive the freezing march, even down to the smallest details that meant the difference between life and death: “…So what I did, I put on two pairs of socks and one pair of socks I kept…Next morning, I put the socks that I had with me, I put them on the top and the other pair of socks I put on the bottom – they were a little wet – and the other socks which were more wet, I took on my body and dried it out…”
The march lasted for weeks under brutal conditions, with those unable to continue being shot on the spot. Reb Shmuel recalled: “…And whoever wasn’t able to walk, he fell down, they shot him on the spot, on the street…”
At one point, risking his life, he slipped into a bakery while passing through a village and grabbed bread, an act that sustained him for a time and helped him continue.
After weeks of marching, the prisoners were packed into cattle cars, 80 to 100 people ,crammed into each wagon without food or proper shelter. They were transported under horrific conditions, including stops at camps such as Gross-Rosen, where prisoners endured prolonged roll calls in freezing weather, beatings, starvation, and constant terror.
He described the unimaginable suffering:“…we had to stay from four o’clock in the morning to maybe ten o’clock at night. If somebody moved, they shot him or they beat him. No food, no sleeping, no nothing…”
Eventually, he was transported toward Buchenwald. Along the way, during an Allied bombing, the guards fled, and prisoners scattered. Reb Shmuel found sugar in an abandoned home—another small but critical moment of survival. “…this survived me for awhile because sugar gives strength…”
He was later liberated by American soldiers, who opened the cattle cars and declared, “You are free.” At that time, he was gravely ill with typhus and spent three months hospitalized recovering.
After the war, he was sent to a camp known as “Fenvelt,” where he lived among Hungarian boys who had arrived later and retained their Yiddishkeit. These boys had a profound impact on him, helping bring him back to a life of Torah and mitzvos. They even brought him to the Klausenberger Rebbe, helping rekindle his connection to Yiddishkeit after all he had endured.
He later spent time in a Displaced Persons camp before eventually emigrating to the United States, where he resumed his learning in yeshivah, determined to rebuild what had been destroyed.
Reb Shmuel ultimately settled in Flatbush, where he became known as a vibrant, warm, and energetic Yid whose presence uplifted all those around him. He was deeply devoted b’lev v’nefesh to the bais medrash of Rav Spector zt”l on Avenue S and East 7th Street, attending davening in all conditions and doing whatever he could to support and strengthen the shul.
His home was a place of simcha, chinuch, and genuine Torah values—a home filled with mentchlichkeit, warmth, and care. Those who knew him saw a man who, despite all he had endured, radiated life, joy, and love for every fellow Yid.
To witness a person who went through such darkness and emerged as an extraordinary eved Hashem, filled with ahavas Yisroel, love of mitzvos, and a deep appreciation for life, was to see the power of a Yiddishe neshomah. With tremendous siyata diShmaya, and with the support of his devoted eizer kenegdo, he rebuilt, creating a legacy of strength, faith, and unwavering dedication to Torah.
He is survived by his devoted children: Mr. Heshy Beller, Mrs. Chavi Greenstein, R’ Mayer Beller, and Ms. Lila Beller. The family will be sitting shivah in Monsey at 140 Horton Drive.
The levaya will be held at 10 a.m. this morning at Shomrei Hadas Chapels in Boro Park.
Yehi zichro boruch.
{Matzav.com}
