WIELICZKA, POLAND: Nathan Poremba's home town, just 8 miles southeast of Krakow; 181 miles southwest of Warsaw

The world famous WIELICZKA SALT MINE, circa 1930 (Polish National Digital Archive, courtesy Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe)

Wieliczka, circa 1920 (courtesy of Virtual Shtetl - ​Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews)

Outdoor town market in the WIELICZKA TOWN SQUARE, circa 1930 (Polish National Digital Archive, courtesy Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe)

Reymonta Street, (dark blue arrow), where the POREMBA'S WIELICZKA HOME was located (map acquired by Nathan Poremba in the 1980s showing the nearby Klasno Jewish cemetery in relation to his family home; handwriting is his own)

NATHAN POREMBA'S FAMILY: Gustava; Sala; Nathan; Fela; Esta; Tala; and, Joseph, circa 1931, (left to right), ​one of two pre-war family photographs discovered after the Holocaust

Post-war photo of the conservative SYNAGOGUE THE POREMBAS ATTENDED in Klasno, southwest of Wieliczka, ​located on Wiejska Street 11 (formerly Berka Joselewicza Street). The Nazis desecrated the shul in September, 1939 turning it into a horse stable (courtesy Daniel Zawadzki via Virtual Shtetl)

Nathan's parents, JOSEPH and GUSTAVA Poremba; (front row red arrows, left to right) with his sisters, TALA and ESTA Poremba, (middle row red arrows, left to right), in 1937 or 1938 at a cousin's wedding in Wieliczka, Poland

JOSEPH POREMBA led by example in Wieliczka by publicly confronting Polish antisemitism as a LION OF JUDAH, “Aryeh Yehudah”. Piece created by Israeli scribal artist, Kalman Gavriel, “The Jerusalem Scribe,” Jerusalem, Israel (courtesy Kalman Gavriel)

SCENE OF IMMINENT MASS MURDER: observant Wieliczka Jews forced to sweep the upper city square on September 12, 1939 as the Germans supervised to the amusement of their non-Jewish neighbors. Note the soldiers forcibly bringing another Jew to the square in upper right corner. This is the same square JOSEPH POREMBA was brought moments or hour(s) later before 32 Jewish men were put on lorries, driven to a nearby forest and murdered by the Germans; photo taken by unnamed Wehrmacht soldier on September 12, 1939 (courtesy Tomasz Wisniewski, Ph.D., Wisniewski Coll. www.bagnowka.pl; and http://www.belzec.eu/media/files/pages/278/wieliczka_ang.pdf)

Nazi round ups of Jews typically ended with placement on a lorry and being driven to an unknown destination where they were murdered; the same fate Nathan's father suffered on September 12, 1939 in Wieliczka (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Instytut Pamieci Narodowej)

Former Sonderkommando, Nathan Poremba’s cousin, YOSSEK BAKALARZ and his wife, HELEN, at one of the crematoriums at Auschwitz-Birkenau, August 29, 1995. Yossek confirmed the post-war memorial in Wieliczka to 32 Jewish men murdered on September 12, 1939 was removed by Christian Poles after the war (courtesy Tova Shemer)

Nazis routinely rounded up observant Jews, shaved their beards and cut their peiyot, a similar incident occuring in Wieliczka in 1939 (courtesy Alamy)

One of several STAR OF DAVID ARMBANDS the Nazis required Polish Jews to wear in 1939-1940. Nathan Poremba REFUSED TO WEAR the armband and risked death as he snuck around Wieliczka to buy the food for the family after his father was murdered by the Germans on September 12, 1939 (courtesy National Holocaust Centre & Museum, United Kingdom)

MIECHÓW, POLAND: 24.9 miles northeast of Kraków: Nathan snuck in and out of the Miechów Ghetto in 1942

GUSTAVA POREMBA'S heart wrenching decision to let Nathan run away at the age of 12 saved his life. This heroic act underscored her essence as a WOMAN OF VALOR, “Eshet Chayil”. Art in classical harp shape adorned with grape vines. Piece created by Israeli artist, Avraham Goldfarb, Jerusalem, Israel (courtesy Avraham Goldfarb)

DEPORTATION ORDERS (in Polish) posted in Wieliczka, Poland on August 26, 1942 by the Nazis and Polish police. Nathan Poremba refused to see whether the rumors of deportations were true and instead left home at age 12 with his mother's blessing (Shmuel Meiri, The Jewish Community of Wieliczka: A Memorial Book, p. 92)

DEPORTATION ORDERS (translated to English) posted in Wieliczka, Poland on August 26, 1942 for mandatory deportation on August 27th.

BOCHNIA, POLAND: 17.2 miles east of Wieliczka, Poland: Nathan snuck in and out of the Bochnia Ghetto in 1942

Scene of A LIQUIDATED GHETTO similar to what Nathan witnessed in both the Miechów and Bochnia Ghettos in 1942 after each had been liquidated (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Instytut Pamieci Narodowej; Yad Vashem Photo Archives)

Krakow Ghetto, main gate, where in 1942 NATHAN POREMBA snuck in and out under the cover provided by a large group later known as they “SCHINDLER JEWS” (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #73170, courtesy of Instytut Pamieci Narodowej, copyright of the United States Holocaust Museum)

Another view of the Krakow Ghetto main gate ​(United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #73171, courtesy of Instytut Pamieci Narodowej, ​copyright of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)

BIBICE, POLAND: 5 miles northeast of Kraków, Poland: the farm where Nathan hid and worked under a false identify posing as "Staszek Surdel" for nearly three years

“Fortress 45a Bibice” near the farm in Bibice. The above-and-below ground fortress was built between 1895 and 1897 as part of the Austro-Hungarian Festung Krakau. The fortress was later re-opened by the Nazis. The fortress’ artillery consisted of 4 Senkpanzer M.94 8cm gun turrets and housed 250 men. In 1944, the NAZI FORTRESS IN BIBICE was defended by the Nazis stationed in Bibice and joined by a German garrison from Kraków who fell back to fight against the Red Army. The Russians surrounded fortress-Bibice and fired with heavy howitzers on it. After a couple direct hits, the Nazis at the fortress wall surrendered.

Another view of “Fortress 45a Bibice” WHERE NATHAN DELIVERED DAIRY PRODUCTS TO GERMAN SOLDIERS, one of his duties while he worked and hid on the farm in Bibice, Poland (both fortress photos courtesy of Adam Kurelewicz)

”SWORD AND SHIELD” – His father's pocket watch next to his Staszek Surdel false papers Nathan Poremba kept hidden in a drawer on the farm in Bibice until later stolen by Polish bandits

THE POREMBAS: Sala; Tala; Nathan; Fela; Esta, (bottom row, left to right); Gustava; and, Joseph, (top row, left to right), circa 1931, the second pre-war family photo discovered after the Holocaust

​Nathan Poremba, Budapest, Hungary, 1945; photo taken after the Holocaust

Joseph Poremba, Book of Martyrs, Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum; and, a partial list of more than 200 POREMBAS MURDERED IN THE SHOAH (photo taken by Noah Poremba June 2015 in Oświęcim, Poland

Gustava and Tala Poremba, Book of Martyrs, Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum (photos by Noah Poremba)

Sala and Esta Poremba, Book of Martyrs, Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum (photos by Noah Poremba)

FELA POREMBA, Nathan's sister who survived separately from him for nearly three years; taken approximately 1947 in Brussels (courtesy Joseph Bacall)

Nathan Poremba, Brussels, Belgium 1946

Nathan Poremba, Brussels, Belguim 1948

Nathan Poremba, Brussels, Belgium 1949

Nathan’s Belgian passport, issued in 1951 for entry into the United States as a “Displaced Person”

Nathan’s Belgian passport issued in 1951 for entry into the United States as a “Displaced Person”

Aboard the SS WASHINGTON: Nathan’s voyage from France to New York, May 1951

Nathan’s voyage to freedom: the SS WASHINGTON MANIFEST PAGE showing Nathan was 9th on the ship's list that tracked monthly migration of displaced persons to America, (courtesy International Refugee Organization, May 1951; public domain document from the Arolsen Archives, International Center on Nazi Persecution, Arolsen, Germany, archive created with the assistance of Israel’s Yad Vashem)

FINALLY FREE: Nathan passing the Statue of Liberty while aboard the SS Washington, May 1951

Letter from the WEST GERMAN GOVERNMENT to Nathan Poremba, July 16, 1960 (page one in German) awarding a benefit for the murder of Joseph Poremba and being left with no parents [due to the Nazi occupation of Poland]

Letter from the WEST GERMAN GOVERNMENT to Nathan Poremba, July 16, 1960 (page one in English) awarding a benefit for the murder of Joseph Poremba and being left with no parents [indirectly taking responsibility for leaving Nathan as an orphan WITHOUT EXPLANATION AS TO THE CAUSE OF BEING LEFT AN ORPHAN]

LETTER FROM YAD VASHEM World Holocaust Remembrance Center to Nathan Poremba acknowledging receipt of his five Pages of Testimony; December 1988 letter which memorializes his submission of five pages for his father, mother and three sisters

NEVER FORGET: Joseph, Gustava, Tala, Esta and Sala Poremba individual “Pages of Testimony” are located in the “P” section of the remembrance books in the HALL OF NAMES, Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center, (photo by Joel Poremba, ​August 2018)

​Joel and Nathan Poremba, October 26, 1996

LETTER FROM STEVEN SPIELBERG, Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, to Nathan Poremba, April 29, 2004