Bluma Samuels (1926-2016)

Bluma, 89, passed away January 4, 2016 peacefully at home surrounded by her loving daughters.

Bluma was born in a family of four brothers and lived in a small town in Poland near Lodz.  At age 12, she entered Auschwitz Concentration Camp, which she survived many years until liberation.

She met her husband Jack in Germany where they married and then moved to Chicago and soon after Los Angeles, where they built their life and family.  She worked with Jack while they built a successful fashion accessory business.  They remained happily married until Jack’s passing in 1990.

Bluma was so happy and grateful to start a new life in America after losing almost her entire family and youth to the atrocities of the Holocaust.

Some of her most endearing qualities were her zest for life and appreciation for each day.  As Jack would say, “When Bluma walked into a room, she lit up the entire room”.

Bluma gave her testimony to the Shoah Foundation, which will be forever preserved.

Her life inspired her to help others and she served proudly as an officer of the 1939 Club, whose members are survivors living in Southern California.  This organization built and supported orphanages in Israel.

Her pride and joy was her family.  Bluma is survived by her daughters Jeannie Cohen (Mitch), Lilly Tartikoff Karatz (Bruce) and Susie Salzberg (Buddy) and seven grandchildren (Dena, Carrie, Calla, Matthew, Adam, Jacob and Lizzy) and seven great grandchildren (Sofia, Noach Yisroel, Matthew, Sima, Daniela, Logan and Eliezer).

Funeral services will be held at Mount Sinai Mortuary, 5950 Forest Lawn Drive, Los Angeles at 11:30 AM on Wednesday, January 6, 2016