Obituary of Goldie Finkelstein

Goldie Finkelstein, a longtime resident of Vineland, NJ, since 1951, and more recently residing at Saltzman House, Springdale Road, in Cherry Hill, NJ, died December 28, 2019, at Vitas Hospice, Jefferson Stratford Hospital, Stratford, NJ. She was 90. Goldie, a Holocaust Survivor, was born Golda Cukier, in Haifa, Israel. The second of four children of Joseph and Miriam (Manya) Cukier, she grew up in Sosnowiec, Poland She was 10 years old, in fifth grade, when the Nazi's first occupied her hometown. When Goldie was 13, in March 1943, she and her older sister were grabbed off the street by the Nazis to be sent to a forced labor camp. Her father was able to bribe the authorities to release his daughters, but when they got to the gate to be freed, a senior Nazi SS officer said to her father, "Two sisters? Only one may go, you must choose!" With her father unable to choose, Goldie volunteered to stay and for her sister to go home. Goldie was sent alone to a slave labor camp called Graben, where she and other young women were forced to manufacture textiles for the Nazi military. Goldie survived a death march in the winter of 1945 from Graben to the concentration camp Bergen-Belsen, where she was liberated on April 15, 1945. She learned after liberation that her entire family had been deported to Auschwitz in August, 1943, where they were gassed and burned within hours of arrival. Goldie was left alone at 15 years old, the sole survivor of her immediate and extended family. After liberation, she met her future husband Sol, also a concentration camp survivor, in a Displaced Persons camp in Stuttgart, Germany. They were married 66 years, until Sol's death in June, 2013. They came to the United States as refugees in 1948, and after a brief time in New York City, moved to Vineland, where they rebuilt their lives as chicken farmers and egg processors. They had three children, and Goldie was totally devoted to rebuilding Jewish life and to her family. Goldie published her memoir, with Sol, entitled I Choose Life, in 2009. Goldie was known for her elegance and beauty, and for her warmth, charm and kindness. Her home was always an open and welcoming place, and she loved to entertain, to cook and to bake. She is survived by children Jack and Gail, Joe and Sara, Eve and Craig (Thomas); grandchildren Adam and Hilary, Julie, Seth and Sarah, Ilana and David, and great granddaughters Mina and Aidan. Funeral services will be at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, December 31, at Rone Funeral Services, 1110 East Chestnut Avenue, Vineland, NJ, followed by interment in Alliance Cemetery, 970 Gershal Avenue, Norma, NJ. The family will receive visitors after the burial at the Ramada Inn, Fairmont Room, 2216 W. Landis Avenue, Vineland. Shiva will continue to be observed at the residence of Joe and Sara Finkelstein, Bala Cynwyd, PA, on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday at 7 p.m., each evening. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Beth Israel Congregation, Vineland, NJ; or the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.