BDE: Mrs. Pearl (Pola) Schulkind, a”h

By: Boropark24 staff

We are saddened to inform you of the passing of Mrs. Schulkind, a Holocaust survivor from Krakow, Boro Park, and Mill Basin. She was 98 years of age. 

She was born in Krakow in the year 1923. Her parents were Reb Eliyahu and Fraida Stern. The Sterns lived in the area of Krakow known as Kazimierz—a neighborhood that was defined by the strong chassidishe atmosphere and the thousands of G-d-fearing Yidden who lived their lives there. Pearl’s father owned a coal factory and would gather funds for the needy. 

Pearl would describe the incredible Jewish life that thrived in Krakow, and how she attended the Shabbos B’nos groups of another Krakow resident, Sarah Schenierer. 

But then Hitler, ym”sh, came and put an end to that beautiful life. 

The family spent a number of years on the run—years filled with persecution and suffering. Her father died of Tuberculosis and was buried in a Galician shtetl. 

Eventually, she was taken to Auschwitz, enduring the most horrible events. She would describe the things that happened there, the relatives and friends that died in her arms, and the constant hunger and pain. 

Following the war, she met Yaakov Koppel Schulkind, a talmid chochom and ardent Radomsker chossid. He had survived the war working in Schindler’s factory. In Fehrnwald, he was close to the Klausenberger Rebbe, and learned with him for the four years they were together in the D.P. Camps. 

The couple were married in Fehrnwald.   

“The night before I got married, I smoked meat and hung from the window to dry. I broiled liver and chopped it. In fact, I prepared all the food for my wedding… the wedding was bittersweet. Yes, we had survived and we were rebuilding. But I was getting married with no parents, no siblings, nobody and nothing familiar. This was not the wedding all little girls dream of,” she said related. 

They arrived in New York in 1949, and settled in Williamsburg. Later they settled in Boro Park, where Reb Yaakov Koppel established the Radomsker shtiebel.

They lived in Boro Park for half a century, where they raised a beautiful Torah family, and were active in a variety of causes. 

She lived her entire life focused on the good, and constantly gave thanks to Hashem for the beautiful generations that she merited. 

Yehi zichra Baruch.