Holocaust survivor created new life

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http://www.suntimes.com/news/obituaries/212342,CST-NWS-xsuga16.article

'Sweet but feisty' grandmother was active in synagogue

January 16, 2007
BY WILLIAM LEE Daily Southtown
After World War II, Magrit Sugar set out to create a new life with new adventures.

Though memories of the four nightmarish years she spent at a Latvian Nazi work camp were seared into her mind, she was more interested in starting fresh.

After arriving in America in 1947, Mrs. Sugar spent about 22 years in Chicago before migrating to south suburban Glenwood like a number of South Side Jews did. Once there, Mrs. Sugar was an active member of the local synagogue, in addition to her role as wife and mother.

Mrs. Sugar, who had been in declining health in recent years, died Saturday night at St. Francis Hospital in Blue Island of natural causes, her family said. She was 83. snip

That year, Mrs. Sugar, 18, and her sister Gerda, 16, were forced to the Riga Ghetto work camps in Latvia, her family said.

Until 1945, the sisters performed back-breaking physical labor, such as ditch digging, often at gunpoint. The camps eventually were liberated by Russian troops.

Mrs. Sugar's parents died in the Holocaust.