Diamonds gave Holocaust victim strength to survive

In a new memoir, Irene Weisberg Zisblatt writes about how hidden diamonds gave her the courage to survive the Holocaust.

In her book, "The Fifth Diamond: The Story of Irene Weisberg Zisblatt," which she co-wrote with friend Gail Ann Webb, Zisblatt tells of how her mother sewed four diamonds into her skirt just before she was shipped off to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

Zisblatt and her five siblings were born in Hungary. In 1942, at age eleven, she was taken to the camps. Her entire family was killed in the gas chambers.

At a recent appearance at Florida’s Nova Southeastern University, Zisblatt told of how the diamonds gave her the courage to survive.

“The diamonds survived because, to me, they were the strength, the hope, the courage, and my mother, so they had to survive,” Zisblatt said. For fifteen months, Zisblatt held onto the diamonds – by continuously swallowing them and retrieving them.

“For every time that I was hungry, beaten or was tortured with experiments, I was hitting back by keeping my mother’s diamonds,” Zisblatt said.

Zisblatt went on to survive three hellish years in the camps. In 1945 she managed to escape. Zisblatt eventually made her way to America, where she was taken in by relatives. She still had the diamonds.

Zisblatt placed the diamonds in a vault. It wasn’t until years later, at her husband’s prodding, that she had the diamonds set into a pendant in the shape of a tear drop. Zisblatt doesn’t wear the diamond pendant frequently – only when she speaks to younger generations about the Holocaust.

Zisblatt currently resides in the greater Miami area. She lectures about her Holocaust experiences in order to educate kids about the effects of hatred and prejudice. Zisblatt’s book, "The Fifth Diamond: The Story of Irene Weisberg Zisblatt" is available at TheFifthDiamond.com.