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Mordecai Samel was born in 1936 in Janov Podlaski, Poland. He lived with his father, mother, older brother, and younger sister. His father was a shoemaker. In their town, there were 5,000 Jews and 5,000 non-Jews. They lived next door to a non-Jewish family, and the two families were very close friends.
In 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and suddenly all Jews were ostracized.
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Their once-friendly neighbors became their enemies. Mordecai's father loaded everything he could into a wagon, and the family, living near the Russian border, managed to cross it. Unfortunately, they were sent to Siberia. Mordecai's father was 42 years old, and conditions were deplorable. The men were forced to build more barracks, and many families lived together in one barrack, with no sanitation, enduring temperatures of 42 degrees below zero.
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Mordecai's mother stood in line with hundreds of others for bread. One day, she brought home a hard piece of bread and hid it. At three years old, Mordecai found the bread, so hungry that he tried to saw off a piece. He accidentally cut himself and tried to stop the bleeding alone, never telling his parents.
One day, his mother went to get bread and never returned. She froze to death while waiting in line.
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Mordecai and his father lived in Siberia until 1945. His father was forced to saw wood to provide steam to run the tanks. After they were liberated, they returned to Poland, where his father placed Mordecai in an orphanage. Mordecai stayed there until he was 18, without any education or knowledge of where his father or siblings were.
When Mordecai turned 18, his father found him.
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At that time, the Polish army tried to recruit him, but a new president in Poland, more favorable to the Jews, advised them to go to Israel. Mordecai’s family traveled by boat to Israel. As soon as he got off the boat, he was recruited into the Israeli army and handed a gun. It was during the Suez Crisis, and he served in the army for three years.
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After his military service, Mordecai's father remarried, and Mordecai went to work by the Dead Sea for an American company that built dams. On one of his vacations, his father wanted him to meet a girl from America who was looking for a husband. However, travel was so difficult that by the time Mordecai arrived, the girl had already left for Haifa and was on a boat back.
On a subsequent vacation, Mordecai traveled to America.
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He spent a week in Cleveland with his cousin and then went to Brooklyn to visit a friend. There, he was introduced to a girl who happened to be the same girl he was supposed to meet in Israel. After just three dates, she proposed they get married. They had a civil ceremony, followed by a religious wedding three months later.
Mordecai worked as a plumber’s apprentice, and his wife worked in the Satmar matzo factory.
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Eventually, Mordecai became a union plumber. He and his wife had a son, a daughter, and seven grandchildren. His son even made a movie, iMordecai, about Mordecai's life.
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Mordecai Samel interview at Katz Hillel Day School of Boca Raton - 2023-2024
Katz Hillel Day School of Boca Raton
