DALLAS — A Holocaust survivor who settled in Dallas more than 70 years ago died on June 30 at the age of 94.
Rosa Hirsch Blum was born Aug. 6, 1928, in a small village in Romania annexed by Hungary during World War II.
The Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum said in a news release that Blum, along with her six siblings and her parents lived freely with Gentiles prior to the war and she had many friends both Jewish and Christian. But discrimination grew and by 1938, Blum was forced to leave school at the age of 10 and leave school due to Jews being prohibited from attending.
The Holocaust came to Blum's village in the spring of 1944 when Jews were taken by gunpoint to Deja, Romania. After four weeks there, they were taken by boxcar to Auschwirtz-Birkenau, where they were selected for work or death. While Blum and her brother survived, the rest of her family were murdered.
Blum was liberated by the US Army near Munich in Spring 1945. She continued living there as a seamstress but made plans to immigrate to the US.
She received her visa to immigrate in 1950 and entered the country in New Orleans, then settling in Dallas, where she began working for Neiman Marcus as a seamstress.
Blum met her husband in Dallas, Osias Blum -- a Holocaust survivor himself who helped found the Dallas Holocaust Memorial Center. They were married for 60 years until Osias Blum died in 2011.
The Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum said Blum had a passion for talking about her experiences during the Holocaust and spoke with thousands of students around Texas over the years as well as neighboring states.