My Cousin Miraculously Survived Auschwitz With Only One Arm

Jenny (3rd from the left) shortly after liberation

Jewish prisoners in Auschwitz who made it through the initial selection process (80% were sent directly to the gas chambers) typically only survived a few weeks. Conditions were so harsh that they quickly succumbed to disease, starvation, exhaustion, or a severe beating. Many gave up the will to live and ended their lives on the electrified fences. To survive one needed to be strategic, resourceful, and lucky.

My cousin Jenny Eisenstein’s (born Jadzia Oksenhendler) survival is so remarkable. She arrived at Auschwitz with only one arm and not only survived the initial selection at the train platform but made it through another seventeen months.

Jenny was sixteen years old when she arrived at Auschwitz on August 9, 1943, with her mother Machela, her eighteen-year old sister Regina, and her thirteen-year old brother Lemel. Because of his age and size, Lemel didn’t make it through the selection process and was sent to a gas chamber. Machela had a large shawl with her and kept Jenny close enough to her to obscure the fact that she was missing an arm. That got her through the initial selection.

The subsequent seventeen months was a cat and mouse game to avoid being noticed by the SS officers. A common practice for concentration camp survivors was to avoid standing out or being noticed. Obscurity was important to survival and Jenny became quite good at it. During the twice a day roll calls, her mother would always crowd in next to her to conceal her missing arm. During selections, she would slip away to hide in another block. Jenny was a gifted singer with a bubbly personality. She would entertain the women in her block who took a liking to her and helped protect her.

Jenny singing on the Herb Rosen radio show.

Jenny had one close encounter with Dr. Joseph Mengle. Mengele was chief physician at Birkenau, and he was frequently involved in the selection of prisoners to be sent to the gas chambers. One time, Jenny was working in the delousing and disinfection building, which was created in December 1943, to control the spread of typhus. Dr. Mengele showed up unannounced to conduct a selection of female prisoners. When he was done, he returned to his car and realized that he had left his briefcase in the building.

Mengele sent a female prisoner who was serving as an aide to go back to get it. But instead of grabbing the briefcase, she asked Jenny to bring it out to the car. The woman explained that she did not want to be blamed if something was missing from the briefcase. Naively, Jenny walked out with the woman and handed over the briefcase. After Jenny left, Mengele realized that there was something unusual about her. He asked the aide if that girl had only one arm. The woman said no, and they drove off.

Later the woman returned and slapped Jenny across the face. She was livid that Jenny had put them both in danger of being killed. Jenny and her mother finally left Auschwitz in January 1945 on a death march and were taken to Ravensbruck concentration camp where they were liberated. Her sister Regina hid and avoided the death march and was liberated by Russian troops.

Jenny recently turned 96 and continues to live a charmed life in Toronto, Canada, entertaining people with her singing.

Jenny with Elie Wiesel.