A local Holocaust survivor, Riva Pancerman passed away last Thursday, June 11.
The Northwest Baltimore resident and Chevrei Tzedek congregant — who gave oral histories to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and Goucher College’s Holocaust Survivor Oral Histories — was 103.
“I know many in our Chevrei Tzedek Congregation community will dearly miss Rivka Pancerman, who passed away on June 11th, the day after her 103rd birthday,” posted local Jewish storyteller and facilitator Jennifer Rudick Zunikoff on social media. “What a blessing that this beautiful, loving and steady woman lived to age 103.”
Pancerman was born Esther Rivka Zyrmunski in the small Polish town of Zyrmuny, which today is part of Belarus. In September of 1939, the Soviet army invaded Zyrmuny, and Pancerman soon began working at a Russian bank in the Polish city of Radom.
On June 22, 1941, Pancerman fled Radom when the Nazis occupied that city and crossed over to the Russian border.
“She fled by foot, surviving the Nazi bombs falling around her,” her family wrote on the website of Sol Levinson & Bros. “Riva was on the run; alone, hungry, and homeless throughout the war years, surviving in Russia while working in forced labor collective farms and factories under the most difficult conditions.”
At the end of the war, she met and married Max Pancerman, a Holocaust survivor from the Polish town of Bilgorj.
In early 1946, Riva Pancerman returned to Poland, only to discover that she was the sole survivor of her family. Her parents, grandparents, four siblings and extended family were taken to the Lida Ghetto and murdered there on May 8, 1942.
In June of 1946, the Pancermans were smuggled across three borders to the Bad Reichenhall Displaced Persons Camp in the American Occupation Zone of Germany.
Three years later, the Pancermans left Germany to immigrate to Montreal. Seven years later, they relocated in the United States, where they raised their family in Flushing, New York
The Pancermans eventually retired and moved to Florida. Following her husband’s death in November of 2002, Riva Pancerman moved to Baltimore to be near family members.
“She was the most lovely neighbor and friend!” wrote Helene Miller. “We went to services together for a while. She told me about her life before she came here. She was always so brave. … She was a beautiful person inside and out!”
Riva Pancerman is survived by her children, Lee Israel, Sara (Ronald) Silverman, Abraham Pancerman (Lilya Tseytlin), and Cynthia Pancerman; her grandchildren Matthew (Marisol) Israel, Jeremy Israel, Adam Silverman, Stacey Silverman (Tim Lingenheld), Michael Silverman (Alexandra), Merissa (Michael) Mabee, Jonathan (Kristen) Pancerman; her great-grandchildren Rebecca Israel, Zachary Israel, Abigail Israel, Maxwell Israel, Samara Silverman, Leah Silverman, Drew Silverman, Jordana Silverman, Romi Silverman, Perseia Lingenheld, Max Pancerman, Maya Pancerman, Lauren Pancerman, and Dylan Mabee.
She was predeceased by her husband; her siblings, Mordechai Eli Zyrmunski, Chaya Freyda Zyrmunski, Noah Gershon Zyrmunski, Pesach Zyrmunski; and her parents, Avraham and Mina Zyrmunski.
Services were held on Monday, June 15, at 1:30 at Wellwood Cemetery, 1400 Wellwood Avenue, in West Babylon, New York.
Contributions in her memory may be sent to Chevrei Tzedek Congregation, 3101 Fallstaff Road, Baltimore, Maryland 21209; the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW, Washington, D.C. 20024-2126; or The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore, 5700 Park Heights Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland 21215.
The family will be in mourning at 6 Woodsyde Place in Owings Mills on Wednesday, June 17, at 7:30 p.m. with Rabbi Avi Scharfman; and Thursday, June 18, at 7:30 p.m. with Rabbi Marcie Jacobs. Visitors are welcome during the day.
To watch Riva Pancerman talk about her Holocaust experiences, visit https://libraryguides.goucher.edu/c.php?g=321002&p=2976759.
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