8 APRIL 1, 2021 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
From surviving the Holocaust to persevering during the COVID-19
pandemic: The triumphant life of Rego Park resident Lena Goren
BY SOFIA VALDES
EDITORIAL@QNS.COM
@QNS
When the COVID-19 pandemic started,
91-year-old Holocaust survivor and motivational
speaker Lena Goren, a Rego
Park resident, remembers feeling hopeless.
“It started bad, very bad, for the simple reason
that I am the person that has to go out every day
to mingle and talk to people and be outdoors. The
wall closes in on me about 4 o’clock if I don’t do
something to entertain me or amuse me or others.
So, people are my life,” Goren said. “Without
people, without places and things to do, I get very
very unhappy and bored and the pandemic affected
me greatly and emotionally. It broke me
down, very badly.”
While the beginning of the pandemic marked
a difficult time for Goren, she soon had a change
of heart.
“Finally, nine months later, I’ve decided there is
nothing I could do to change what is. You know
the expression, ‘God gave me the serenity to accept
the things I cannot change.’ And I’ve decided
that eventually the pandemic is going to be over
and I better live long enough to enjoy it,” Goren
told QNS. “So I’ve decided this is it, every day is
getting closer and closer to things being better.
Everything will open up, the senior centers will
open up and I will be able to speak to people.”
Goren is now fully vaccinated and says she
feels blessed that she had no side effects. She is
also glad to be out and about once again.
“I’m thinking positive. I’m not as depressed as I
was. I’m not depressed anymore. I’m not anxious
anymore,” Goren said. “I’m going to move through
life the best way I know how and keep going. Live
while you can. Live while you’re living.”
Goren was born in Salonika, Greece, in 1930.
Her family moved to Larissa, Greece, where her
father became a Chief Rabbi.
Goren was just 10 years old when World War II
started. Many of her family members in Salonika
were deported and there was growing fear that
the Germans would occupy Larissa next.
Goren’s family left Larissa many times to hide.
“The week of Passover 1941, we spent in a stable,”
Goren said. “Over the course of a year we hid in
many different places, far from our homes, but
always believing we would come back to Larissa
when the emergency was over.”
Their fears became much more real on Dec. 21,
1941, when German planes came to Larissa. Goren,
her sister and a friend were playing in the streets
and assumed that the planes were Greek until
they released multiple bombs. The three survived
the attack — but many did not.
Goren’s family stayed in bomb shelters frequently,
which Goren said felt almost like a
second home.
In March 1943, the mayor of Larissa warned
Goren’s father that there would be imminent deportation
of the Jews in Larissa to concentration
camps. Her father was able to spread the word
to 15 families (80 people total). Goren’s family,
along with the 83 others, fled after curfew to the
mountains of Tzouma, where they hid in an isolated
monastery away from the war for 18 months.
Goren’s family and the 80 others occupied one
barnlike room in part of the monastery.
“They (the Underground) asked the monks to
move. They moved and we stayed there,” Goren
Lena Goren Photo courtesy of Lena Goren
said. “One room. 80 people. No bathrooms, no
showers, no kitchen, no beds, no nothing. Just
one room.”
During their period of hiding, Goren’s father
continued to lead families in Sabbath and holiday
services using the Sefer Torah he brought along
with him before leaving Larissa.
“He made sure, every night, when we said our
prayers every night, he used to say ‘God is merciful,
he will save us,’ and that instilled in us that
every moment of the day and the night we were
safe because of his faith to God and he is going to
give it to us.”
Meanwhile, her mother picked up a job as a
seamstress in a nearby town, risking her life to
help feed her family.
People in the monastery in which they hid got
Malaria. Luckily though, everyone survived
with the help of the medicine brought by the
underground.
When the war was over, Goren’s family returned
to Larissa, where her father continued
to preach in June 1945. Upon their arrival, they
discovered her father’s message reached 900
more people, who were able to escape that fateful
night in 1943 as well.
“I was too young to appreciate it at the time, but
I owe my very life to the mayor whose name I
can’t remember… the one who did what was right
instead of what was safe,” Goren said. “I owe my
life to the members of the underground who got
us shelter by evicting monks of their own Greek
Orthodox faith. I owe my life to the gentiles who
provided medicine… to the ones who employed
my mother so she could feed us… and to the ones
who kept our secret in spite of the danger of doing
so.” Very soon after coming back to Larissa, her
family received a letter from Goren’s aunt asking
them all to come to America.
“My father’s family died in concentration camps,
except one sister that had come to America prior
to the war and she lived in Cincinnati, Ohio.
When she heard what was happening in Greece,
she inquired to see what part of her family is still
alive. She was told unfortunately no one lived,”
Goren said. “But she did not give up. She went
through channels to find out if anyone was alive
and she found out my father was alive by miracle
and she sponsored us.”
With the help of her father’s sister, Goren’s aunt
spent $3,000 to sponsor Goren’s family journey
to America. Goren was 17 years old when she arrived
in America, just two weeks shy of her 18th
birthday.
“She spent $3,000 to bring us to America and
she bought us a house and she got my father a
job because you can’t bring someone to America
unless they have a place to live and a job,” Goren
said.
In the U.S., Goren said she lived the “American
Dream.” Goren was an opera singer and an interpreter
for the court system in New York. She
also worked as a seamstress and hair dresser. She
continues to design clothes today and is proud to
showcase her outfits.
Goren married twice in her life: first in 1951
and then in 2003, when she was 75 years old. QNS
reported on her second chance at love in 2007. In
both of her weddings, Goren designed her wedding
dresses.
She had three children. Since Goren only had
a third-grade education, her youngest daughter
encouraged her to obtain a GED. When Goren
was 51 years old, she graduated high school, the
same year her youngest daughter graduated from
college.
She is a former contestant for Miss Senior
America and co-leader of The Melodians, an allsenior
chorus in Queens.
Goren currently serves as a motivational
speaker and frequently speaks on panels as well
as at the local senior center to give life lessons
and share her experiences about the Holocaust.
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