Jane Siedband

BILL PEKARA (BP): Good afternoon and welcome to Northbrook Voices, an oral history project sponsored by the Northbrook Public Library and the Northbrook Historical Society. Today is February 24th, 2025. My name is Bill Pekara, and I’m pleased to welcome Jane Siedband, who has lived in Northbrook since the year– 

JANE SIEDBAND (JS): Seventy eight. 1978. 

BP: Okay, Jane, so what brought you to Northbrook? 

JS: Well, we were living in Skokie at the time, and we had a one year old little boy. And, he was getting louder in the apartment that we lived in and thought it was time for us to move, so we looked into Northbrook. We’re very happy that we did all these years. 

BP: What was Northbrook like when you first moved here? 

JS: You know, it was a nice community. I had taught in Northbrook. I taught at Willowbrook School, and so I was aware of the area and everything, and I knew it was a nice community, and the schools were good, and that’s what we were looking for.

BP: Was there any other reason why you chose a specific neighborhood in Northbrook? 

JS: Not really. No. 

BP: What motivated you to stay in Northbrook over the years? 

JS: It’s a good question. I think we just like the area, and the schools were great. Our kids grew up here. Glenbrook North was a big part of their existence. They were–both boys, were very involved in drama and theater at GBN, it was a great program. Also, they were involved in theater at the Park District, did a lot of plays there, and all of this contributed to their success. I think as adults. 

BP: How would you describe Northbrook  to someone who might be considering to move here?

JS: A great community with great schools. A lot of small shops, good restaurants. 

BP: Could you share some details about your early life and your environment you grew up in? 

JS: Sure. Well, actually, I came to America in 1951. I was 15 months old. My family came here from Greece. Salonika, Greece, and they, were in the Holocaust, had lost many relatives at that time. And, that’s how we got here.

BP: Would you be able to describe some influential figures in your life and possibly how they may have impacted your values and beliefs? 

JS: My dad. My dad was my hero. Very much so. He came to America with my brother, myself, my mother, my grandmother and my great grandmother after leaving Salonika, Greece, in fifty-one. And he just didn’t know the language or anything, but was able to make a really good living for us and everything. 

BP: And where did they move, when they moved to America. Where was the actual spot? 

JS: Well, initially that was supposed to be in Cleveland, but then through the Jewish Family Services, they asked to come to Chicago. And so we lived on the South Side for a while. 

BP: Could you provide insights into your family structure and the role it has played in your life? 

JS: Yeah, it was a very strong structure. My grandmother was also one of my heroes. And, you know, they came from the old country, so a lot of their values were old values, but still contemporary in this day and age.

BP: Could you highlight a pivotal moment or experience that has shaped the course of your life? 

JS: I’m trying to think of pivotal moments. Maybe meeting Elie Wiesel was a chance that I had when I was teaching. And that was really enlightening at the time. 

BP: So, you mentioned earlier that you were teaching. Do you want to talk about where in Northbrook we’re teaching?

JS: Yes, I was teaching at Willowbrook School. Okay. And then, this was before I had children. And then after the children, I taught at Edgewood in Highland Park. Edgewood School, and was there for close to 30 years. 

BP: How would you describe your educational background and its influence on your personal life and growth? 

JS: It was very important. It was. It made me who I am today. I mean, I went to the University of Illinois in Champaign, and graduated from Northeastern as a teacher. But it was pivotal and very important in my life. 

BP: What had inspired you to lead your pursuit of your career? 

JS: I think my father, my father was really–he thought very highly of an education and because he was–he couldn’t, you know, have a decent education at the time because of the war and the Holocaust and everything. So he inspired us to go to school and get masters or doctorates. My brother became a doctor, and really was pushing as well as the grandkids. 

BP: Looking back at your career, are there specific achievements or projects that stand out to you?

JS: You know, I did a lot of work with some of my students going to places where they served food for the needy and things like that, and also, collecting money and glasses and all kinds of different things for needier people. 

BP: What lessons or values, values did your parents instill in you at an early age?

JS: Education was important. Family was important. Do whatever you can to help other people, especially needy people. Give of your time and spend a lot of time with your family. 

BP: Would you like to discuss the book that you’ve authored? (

JS: Sure. Okay. Well, I wrote this book in honor of my parents and my grandmother and my great–actually, the whole family. The whole family, because they had suffered so much. And I felt like it was my job to tell their story because they couldn’t do it at the time. They were, you know, very difficult. They were very emotional about it. And so it was hard to share. But I felt after we took my mother to Greece in 2006, she turned 80 and we took her on a trip to Greece.

We went back to all the places that she had lived in and everything. I came home and I thought to myself, I have to write a book. I was teaching middle school students at the time. I really wanted the book to be geared toward the middle school students, but in essence, it wasn’t. It’s more for high school types of students and stuff. But, that really inspired me. And also we had so many, amazing things that happened on this trip. My mother reunited with a friend she hadn’t seen in 70 years. This family saved many Jewish people. And we met relatives there, and we didn’t know my great uncle was one of the heroes of the Holocaust in Salonika. And so we found his memoir in one of the bookstores. So all these things added up that’s really, you know. Yeah. Made it memorable. 

BP: What did he do? He said he was one of the heroes. 

JS: He was a lawyer. And he tried to work with the Nazis at the time, during the Holocaust and everything. And he died. I mean, he and my grandfather were taken from the family and jailed and then went to Auschwitz and then were murdered. So, but at the time he tried to– before this – he tried to work with the Nazis so that the things would be less severe on the citizens. 

BP: How did the Jews come to Salonika, Greece?

JS: Okay. Well, in 1492, I’m going to go back to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. They issued an Alhambra Decree decree saying that Jews needed to leave. They were going to be expelled. So at the time [Sultan] Bayezid, or somebody like that by that name, welcomed the Jews to Salonika in 1493 and they became the largest center of Sephardic Jewry, and the only city in Europe where the Jews had a majority.

There were 70% Jews, 30% Greeks, and 30% Greeks and Turks. And they lasted for four centuries. So initially from 1493 until the 20th century. There were 32 synagogues in this city. There was a huge cemetery that had like 500,000 graves. And the cemetery was – the Germans had destroyed the cemetery and took it over, as payment for releasing 4,000 men taken to perform hard labor during the Holocaust.

At the time, during the Holocaust, there was – it was called the Black Shabbat. There were 9,000 men ordered to come to this Freedom Plaza. And the Nazis wanted to denigrate them. And they had to perform these unreasonable kinds of exercises, and they were hit and all kinds of things while people looked on and everything.

So, my father wasn’t one of them, but my uncle was one of the men in this group. My father decided not to go that day, and he was going to be a freedom fighter. But eventually he didn’t do that either. So my father was sent from, I think, to six different concentration camps. 

BP: What concentration camp did your father go to?

JS: Well, he was first taken to Auschwitz. He was in Auschwitz for about a month. From there, he went to Golleschau. He was there for 4 to 5 months. He told them that he had malaria while he was at Golleschau. And since they were so afraid of malaria, they sent him back to Auschwitz for 20 to 25 days. My father was losing weight at Golleschau and he thought in no time he wouldn’t survive if he kept losing weight at the rate he was. So he made them think he had malaria. He was just running a temperature. And at the time they sent him back to Auschwitz so he could stay in the hospital there and he did recover. And then when he heard that there was another concentration camp they would be sending people to he was one of the first in line for that one. And that was the Majdanek concentration camp. And from there he went to Plaszow, which was Oscar – the area where Oskar Schindler’s List, not the list, but his group were also in that area.

From there he went to Mauthausen and for 2 to 3 weeks and finally, Ebensee and that was where he was, liberated in May, on May 6th, 1945. 

BP: Do you have any idea how many survived? 

JS: I think it was–the Greek Jews that survived were 1,950. So 96% of the community was lost. 

BP: Wow. What did your great uncle do in the camps?

JS: Okay. My great uncle was involved in the Sonderkommando, and that was basically a group of people. Men. Women. I’m not even sure. That, would take the prisoners and either, you know, bring them to the crematoria or bring them to the areas where they would undress and were gassed, and then there were other Sonderkommando that would take the corpses to the crematoria.

So he was involved in this kind of work, and they knew working in this area, they wouldn’t last long. They would last maybe every four months, and they would get a new group. So they knew their time was limited. There was a revolt on October 7th, 1944. It was the only uprising that occurred. It was called a Sonderkommando revolt.

There were 300 Greek Jews that participated. But, I mean, they had crowbars, they had axes, they had taken all these different utensils against the Nazis, but the Nazis–and the crematoria did blow up, but the Nazis shot basically most of them. So only 26 Greek Jews survived from that revolt. 

BP: Is there anything else that you would like to add to the story?

JS: Yes. The thing I would like to say, I mean, the whole reason for my wanting this, writing this book and telling their story is because a lot of people didn’t know about or don’t know about Greek Jews. You know, when you hear about the Holocaust, you hear about Russian Jews, German Jews, and French Jews because people lived in all of those countries.

But when we came here to America, my grandmother would always introduce herself as I’m Jewish from Greece, and, you know to this day I will tell people that I’m from Greece or whatever, and they’re just like, really? There was a Holocaust in Greece? They just don’t get it, you know, no one knows that he – that Hitler came all the way down to Greece.

BP: Jane, thank you so much for participating in Northbrook Voices. Your memories of your life and your life in Northbrook are going to add a very unique and personal perspective about the history of our town. Thank you. 

JS: Thank you.