Jake Heifetz, who survived the Holocaust in German-occupied Poland after three years in the woods fighting with the resistance, died Tuesday of cancer. He was 92.

Heifetz grew up in a family of seven children in Lachwa, Poland. In September 1942, Heifetz and another brother fled into the forest to escape the destruction of their town by the Nazis. The rest of his family perished.

"He was one of the happiest people, but had one of the saddest lives," said Heifetz's daughter, Pauline Heifetz, of Madison.

"No shower, no bath, no food. Just a fighter," she said, after a funeral service Thursday for her father at Beth Israel Center in Madison drew about 400 people.

"He had a will to live," added Steve Heifetz, of Denver. "They didn't have water. My dad used to tell me they'd drink vodka. They'd brush their teeth with vodka."

Her father was a freedom fighter like those portrayed in the 2008 movie "Defiance," Pauline Heifetz said. Young guys such as her father were in charge of going into the villages at night and getting food, drink and clothing, she said. A lot of the women would stay back and make the meals and take care of the children, she added.

It was in the underground camps where her father met her mother, Fania. A story cherished by the couple's five children is how Heifetz procured Fania's wedding ring. As the Nazi soldiers fled late in the war, one soldier begged for bread. Instead of killing the man, an armed Heifetz traded the man a loaf of bread for his ring. The ring was Fania's wedding ring for 55 years, until her death in 2000.

"She never learned English. Her experience was worse than Dad's as far as not having anyone left. They burned her village," Pauline Heifetz said.

To her, the ring symbolized hope, she said. "She was just happy to have anything. The ring was a wedding, a new life, a new start. They were very happy just to be alive."

The couple decided to come to Madison where Heifetz' older brother settled.

Heifetz worked as a carpenter in Madison, and after his retirement in 1974, he and Fania became the caretakers for their synagogue. Even five weeks ago he was mowing the temple's lawn, said Rabbi Joshua Ben Gideon. "Jake was the heart and soul of the congregation in a lot of ways," Gideon said.

Given his life story, many people would be bitter and nasty, but not her father, Pauline Heifetz said. He told everyone, 'Life is short, live it.' "

Login to post your comment. If you don't have an account, you may register for one.