Halina Kleiner

Halina Goldberg Kleiner was born in Czestochowa, Poland, in 1929. Her father owned a lumberyard in the city until the Nazis seized it from him after invading Poland in 1939. That began her terrifying story of survival. She was one of the few who survived the infamous Volary Death March. Halina met her husband-to-be, Leon Kleiner, after the war in a Displaced Persons Camp in Salzburg, Austria. They spent most of the next year together getting to know one another and hoping that someday they could marry. Halina was one of the very first Jews to be allowed to immigrate to the United States, and in the summer of 1946, she settled in Buffalo, New York. There she astounded her teachers by completing high school in only two years even though she could not speak a word of English when she arrived. She and Leon reunited in the United States in 1948 after Leon got his chance to immigrate to New York. They married in October of 1949 and started their very successful life together. They had three children who gave them five grandchildren. And now they have two great grandchildren. Sadly, Halina died on April 9, 2022, shortly before her story could be published. She was ninety-three years old.