Obituaries

Jack Sittsamer bolted awake March 9, 1942, to the sounds of gunshots and screams in the streets of Mielec, Poland.

Nazi soldiers rounded up every Jew and marched them nearly 20 miles. Mr. Sittsamer's father died and was buried along the roadside. Jack Sittsamer, then 17, dug his grave.

Soon afterward, he was separated from his mother and four siblings.

"That was the last time I saw them," Mr. Sittsamer said in a 2007 interview.

Mr. Sittsamer of Squirrel Hill died Sunday, Oct. 26, 2008. The longtime president of the Holocaust Survivors of Greater Pittsburgh was 83.

Although he wanted to give up at times, Mr. Sittsamer survived three years in six concentration camps, then several years as a refugee in Europe before arriving in Pittsburgh on June 12, 1949.

For a long time, the Holocaust was not something he often discussed.

"I wanted to forget and start a new life," he said.

Mr. Sittsamer was a sheet metal worker at Tyson Metal Products for nearly 38 years.

Working beside him for three decades was Robert Swank, a steamfitter from Apollo. Swank was one of the few co-workers Mr. Sittsamer told about his experiences, including that the "KL" tattooed on his forearm stood for "konzentrationslager," or concentration camp.

Mr. Sittsamer retired in 1985. Then he opened up.

During the past 23 years, he spoke to an estimated 100,000 people, said Dr. Edie Naveh, director of the Holocaust Center in Squirrel Hill.

"As he began to speak, we started to understand his story," said his son, Murray Sittsamer, 49, of West Bloomfield, Mich. "I always kind of pictured them in black and white, not in color. It just seemed like it was a different time and place. ... But he was living evidence of what happened."

Paula Riemer remembers reading a story about her father's experiences in a 1977 newspaper article.

"My personal family story was out there in the public at the same time I was learning it," said Riemer, 53, of Squirrel Hill. "But I was happy to finally know it."

The family has more than 100 videos of Mr. Sittsamer's speeches. His life story inspired a 2006 play, "Mazel."

A trust is planned in his name at the University of Pittsburgh to support Holocaust education, which Mr. Sittsamer's family considers his legacy.

"My dad would have loved to live 10 more years and talk to more people," Murray Sittsamer said.

In 2000, Mr. Sittsamer traveled to Poland, found the mass grave where his father is buried and finally made the Mourner's Kaddish, a Jewish prayer.

"After he went over and found his father's grave, he seemed at peace," said Swank, 71.

In addition to his two children, Mr. Sittsamer is survived by five grandchildren and a great-grandchild.

Services will be at 10 a.m. today at Burton L. Hirsch Funeral Home, Squirrel Hill. Burial will follow in Homestead Hebrew Cemetery.

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