Obituary of Charlotte Elmowitz

CHARLOTTE SERAFINA ELMOWITZ May 8, 1930 - June 23, 2013 South Fallsburg, NY Charlotte Serafina Elmowitz of South Fallsburg, NY passed on Sunday, June 23, 2013 surrounded by loved ones. The daughter of Max and Klara Strasser, she was born in Boryslaw, Poland, on May 8, 1930. A hidden child of the Holocaust who lost her family to Nazi persecution, she escaped by hiding with sympathetic families, sometimes having to forge for herself in the woods. When the German occupation ended, Charlotte was placed in an orphanage but escaped to look for surviving family. She found three uncles but learned that her father had perished in the Mauthausen concentration camp. Her mother, sister Pola, and grandparents, aunts, and cousins all had been deported to Belzec and gassed upon arrival. After living with her uncles in Munich, Germany for two years, Charlotte joined a transport of Jewish orphans and immigrated to the United States in June 1947. She is survived by husband, Norman Elmowitz of South Fallsburg, NY and former husband, Jack Hacker of Black Mountain, NC, as well as sons and daughters-in-law: Mark Hacker and Lynn Bryant of Burlington, MA; Jeff Hacker and Julie Hodson of North Salem, NY; Dr. Richard Hacker of Thompson, PA; and Ava Hacker of Wyndham, CT. She had four grandchildren: Michael Hacker, Dylan Elmowitz Rauch, Elisabeth Raskopf, and Luke Raskopf. She was a congregation member of the South Fallsburg Hebrew Association Synagogue and an active member of Hadassah and Jewish Women International. For more than 50 years, she owned and operated Serafina Cosmetics. Charlotte dedicated her life to the memory of the Holocaust, giving lectures on its brutal realities at schools, temples, and other institutions. Despite her illness, she traveled to Washington, D.C. in late April to attend ceremonies marking the twentieth anniversary of the Holocaust Museum. Her memory will be cherished by family members, her many friends, and all those whose lives she touched. Services for Charlotte will be held at 1:30 today, Monday, June 24th at the Joseph N. Garlick Funeral Home, 388 Broadway in Monticello. Burial will be in the South Fallsburg Hebrew Association Cemetery, Marsh Road, Glen Wild, NY. Shiva for Monday will immediately follow services till 7 p.m. at Norman and Charlotte's home in South Fallsburg, NY. Shiva will continue there again on Tuesday and Wednesday from 12 to 7 p.m. On Thursday and Friday Shiva will be held at the home of Debra and Rick Rauch in New Paltz, NY. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that any memorial contributions be sent to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.