Chicago woman, 91, shares Holocaust survival story she kept secret

CHICAGO — Trixie Muchman has kept her past secret for more than 40 years. But now she’s on a mission to share it while there’s still time.

The 91-year-old Chicago woman has published a book, ‘ Never to be Forgotten ,’ to share her harrowing story of surviving the Holocaust as a child in hopes that her parent’s sacrifice won’t be forgotten.

Her family’s story is documented through dozens of handwritten letters that now live behind glass at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. And it’s a story Muchman kept to herself for half of her life because going back to the day she and her family crossed the border from Germany to Belgium was the beginning of the end.

“Crossing that border and being silent, I was five years old.,” she recalled. “I do remember being told, “Once we get there, quiet.’ And I was.”

Muchman lost her parents in the Holocaust and emigrated to the United States at age 13. She was raised by an aunt and uncle, remarried, had two children and a career as a foreign language teacher. Now she has a new title: author.

“Something about a book that has posterity, and it would give my parents a place to rest on a page. It was a work of love,” she said. “I often think that they would be so pleased that they did what they did. I’m here. It was not in vain.”

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