Helga Arndtheim had her childhood stolen by the Nazis and spent her teenage years struggling to survive Auschwitz and other concentration camps. More than eight decades later, Helga— now Helga Melmed— spends her summers reclaiming a piece of what she had lost.
As in previous years, she is currently volunteering at Camp Gan Israel in Venice, Fla. Just months shy of her 99th birthday, she shared her story with campers and counselors, packed kosher sandwiches for outings and pitched in wherever she was needed.
“Watching a nearly 99-year-old Auschwitz survivor prepare kosher lunches for young Jewish children is, to me, one of the most powerful expressions of life’s triumph over darkness,” says Rabbi Sholom Schmerling, who directs the camp, a program of Chabad of Venice and North Port. “She came face to face with the worst of evil and the deepest darkness, but they did not win. They did not have the final word. The Jewish future is alive, joyful and flourishing.”
Helga was born in Berlin in 1927. In 1941, when she was just 14, the Nazis forced her and her family onto a train bound for Poland. There, they were crammed into the Lodz Ghetto alongside thousands of other Jews. Her father was shot and killed by the Nazis in the ghetto, and her mother died of exhaustion several months later.
Over the next four years, Helga survived Auschwitz, Neuengamme and Bergen-Belsen. By the time she was liberated in 1945, she weighed just 46 pounds. Still a teenager, she had been reduced to a walking skeleton and had already witnessed the very worst of humanity.
The Red Cross brought her to Sweden, where a Swedish family nursed her back to health. They also helped her search for surviving relatives, eventually locating an aunt in New York, who sponsored her immigration to the United States.
In America, Helga attended high school but could not yet enroll in nursing school in New York because she was not a U.S. citizen. Determined to continue her studies, she moved to Philadelphia, where she was introduced to her future husband, Charles. The couple later moved to Florida, where Helga worked as a county public health nurse until her retirement.
Around the time she retired, in 2005, Rabbi Sholom Ber and Chaya Rivka Schmerling established Chabad of Venice and North Port, and Helga quickly became an active member of the new community.
“We were thrilled when Chabad opened because, until then, there wasn’t much Jewish programming in the area,” says Helga’s daughter, Lisa Bean. “Their first event was a Purim celebration in the Brooks’ home, and my children and I loved it immediately. We knew we wanted to be part of the community.”
Lisa began volunteering part-time at Chabad, and Helga soon joined her. Together, they delivered Rosh Hashanah, Chanukah and Purim packages to local Jewish families; prepared the Passover seder; and helped wherever they could.
It was also after her retirement when Helga was first invited to a local school to speak about her experiences during the Holocaust. One invitation led to another, and soon the requests were coming from schools and Chabad centers across the country.
“About 10 years ago, I promised her that if she was willing to speak, I would get her wherever she needed to go,” Lisa says. “I never imagined that, 10 years later, we would still be doing this, or that we would be invited to speak at so many Chabad centers in so many locations.
“She never turns down an invitation from a Chabad center. And wherever we go, she wants to meet the children. She loves seeing the next generation of Jewish children,” Lisa says. “She genuinely loves them.”
‘An Imprint That Will Last a Lifetime’
Through it all, Helga continued volunteering at her own Chabad center. Even as she approaches her 99th birthday, she still shows up to help wherever she is needed.
“Helga has been deeply involved in Chabad for all these years, attending classes and services, and always volunteering,” Rabbi Schmerling says. “Even at her age, she never slows down. Whether it is delivering food or distributing matzah, she is always eager to help. But her greatest passion is the children. She loves teaching them, helping them and volunteering at our camp.
That was how Helga spent part of this summer at Camp Gan Israel. During its three-week season—from June 29 through July 17—she and Lisa came several times a week to pack lunches for campers to take on outings.
Photos show campers gathered around a woman wearing a camp T-shirt and brimming with life.
“Many of the children learned about her story and about the Holocaust in an age-appropriate way, especially the older campers and the staff members from our local CTeen chapter,” says Rabbi Schmerling. “She sat with them and shared some of her experiences. She left an imprint that will last a lifetime.”
For Helga, however, it was business as usual.
“It is meaningful to her, but she doesn’t think she is anything special,” Lisa says. “That is part of what makes my mother so remarkable. She believes that anyone in her position would do the same thing. And that is one of the most beautiful things about her.”
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