Friends and colleagues mourn loss of Illinois Holocaust Museum founder Sam Harris at 90

Samuel R. Harris of Kildeer, founder of the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center in Skokie, died Wednesday at the age of 90.

According to the museum, Harris — who was born Szlamek Rzeznik in Dęblin, Poland in 1935 — was among the youngest known survivors of the Holocaust.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker spoke of the impact of his nearly three-decade friendship with Harris.

“Just as he did for countless others and for younger generations, Sam profoundly shaped and enlightened my outlook on the world in ways large and small,” Pritzker said in a statement. “Whenever anything bad would happen, Sam would say, ‘It’s Beshert — something better will come out of this difficulty.’ And he was always right, and often because he made it so.”

Only 4 years old when Germany occupied his hometown, the boy saw his parents, brothers and all but two sisters taken to the Treblinka death camp where they were murdered by 1942.

Along with his sisters Rosa and Sara, Harris survived by hiding first in a labor camp outside their town and then in the Częstochowa concentration camp. The siblings were freed by the Soviet Army on Jan. 17, 1945.

In 1946, Rosa smuggled her younger brother and sister to Austria, where she arranged for them to move New York City. They arrived in the U.S. to be adopted by two different families.

The boy was adopted by the Harris family of Northbrook — going on to attend New Trier High School, build a career, marry his wife Dede and become a father and grandfather.

Encouraged by his friend in Rotary, Rabbi William Frankel, Harris began sharing his story in the late 1970s. This led to his writing “Sammy: Child Survivor of the Holocaust” and joining a campaign to require Holocaust education in Illinois public schools.

His belief that the next generation could build a more just world led to his founding of the 65,000-square-foot museum in Skokie. He described it not as a memorial but as something alive.

Harris served as museum president from 2002 to 2009 and then continued as president emeritus. He served on the board of directors and the Survivor Speakers’ Bureau.

His interactive testimony lives on in the museum's Abe & Ida Cooper Survivor Stories Experience.

“We must all remain vigilant to teaching the lessons of the Holocaust in order to remember those who were lost, but also to prevent these atrocities from occurring again,” Harris once said.

He was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 2014.

“Sam was a visionary who saw the need for Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center and committed to doing the vital work to make his vision a reality,” museum CEO Bernard Cherkasov said in a statement. “His kindness, positive attitude, and winning smile will be deeply missed by our entire museum family.”