GREEN TWP., Ohio — Sandy Kaltman holds up her necklace. It’s so small she can barely grasp it. Inside is a picture of her father. Kaltman wears it often.
Today, she’s wearing it to the cemetery.
The necklace was her mom’s. It was a gift from her dad, but it was also a promise.
“Instead of going to high school, my mother became a slave laborer for the Nazis,” Kaltman said.
Roma and Sam Kaltman met in the courtyard of a Polish ghetto. Forced out of their homes when the Nazis invaded their country, the two shared books and bonded over their love of reading.
They spent years there in dangerous conditions, and Roma’s mother died. To hear Sandy Kaltman tell it, she died of a broken heart. She said that’s because most of her family was killed during the Holocaust.
“Their lives just changed forever,” Sandy said.
The necklace was a promise from her dad to her mom. After the Holocaust, he would …