Levittown Holocaust Survivor's Tale Shared By NYT

LEVITTOWN, PA — There's been a book written about longtime Levittown resident and Holocaust survivor David Wisnia. This week, the New York Times shared yet another tale from his remarkable life — the story of two young lovers who managed to survive the notorious Auschwitz death camp.

It's an emotional tale about life during the Holocaust and a reunion story 72 years in the making.

The article is titled "Lovers in Auschwitz, Reunited 72 Years Later. He Had One Question."

In it, Times journalist Keren Blankfeld writes about Warsaw, Poland-native Wisnia and Helen Spitzer, who were both "privileged prisoners" at Auschwitz — he for the singing voice that would make him cantor at Levittown-area synagogues for decades and she for her work as the camp's graphic designer.

According to the NYT story, the two would meet between crematories at the camp for liaisons, as other Jewish prisoners watched out for Nazi guards. He was 17 and she was 25.

"I had no knowledge of what, when, where," Wisnia, now 93, told the Times. "She taught me everything."

The two would later be sent to separate camps after they pledged to meet again after the war in Warsaw. But when Wisnia escaped the Nazis and joined up with a unit of U.S. Army soldiers — a compelling tale in its own right — life would take him to the United States, first New York City, then Levittown.

Blankfeld's story chronicles the years in between, and the way the two, who both would go on to marry and have families of their own, eventually found each other again and met in New York City in 2016.

The "one question" he wanted to ask was whether she had used her influence at Auschwitz to save his life.

Wisnia's memoir, "One Voice, Two Lives," was published in 2015.

He served as cantor of Temple Shalom in Levittown for 28 years and retired after 23 years as cantor for Har Sinai Hebrew Congregation in Trenton.

He has performed internationally, leading services and giving concerts in Argentine, Israel and Poland. He sang to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz at a 2015 event attended by survivors and heads of state.