Holocaust survivor, Pittsburgh resident Shulamit Bastacky dead at 79

Shulamit Bastacky, a child survivor of the Holocaust who spent her adult life in Pittsburgh, died Friday after a brief battle with cancer. She was 79.

Bastacky spent her first three years of life being hidden from the Nazis in a nun’s cellar in her native Lithuania. She was miraculously reunited with her parents after World War II ended when her father recognized a birthmark she had.

Her family then moved to Poland and also lived in Israel before settling in Pittsburgh.

She earned a master’s degree in social work from the University of Pittsburgh and became a geriatric social worker.

“She really spent her life giving back,” said Lauren Bairnsfather, director of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh. “Her life was Pittsburgh and her community was Pittsburgh.”

Bastacky was a tireless speaker who made countless presentations to grade school students about the Holocaust.

“She was one of our most active survivors,” Bairnsfather said. “When a school needed a speaker, a lot of the time it was Shulamit. She really, really loved interacting with students.”

Bastacky lived in an apartment in Squirrel Hill where a wall supported a long row of teddy bears that were a comfort to her. One of her neighbors was Melvin Wax, an 87-year-old retired accountant who was one of the 11 people killed inside the Tree of Life synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018.

In an interview with the Trib days after the mass shooting took place, Bastacky said it was a symptom of growing anti-Semitism in the United States.

“When the neo-Nazis were screaming hateful things against Jews in Charlottesville [in August 2017], that disturbed me to no end,” she said. “I never imagined that you would be hearing that kind of thing in this country.”

Bastacky said hearing the news of the Tree of Life shooting made her physically ill. “I couldn’t eat or drink for the whole day, and that’s very unusual for me.”

A graveside service was held for Bastacky Sunday at Workman’s Circle Cemetery.

“This was somebody who struggled and overcame. She was our youngest survivor,” said Bairnsfather. “Shulamit inspired thousands of students and adults across the region for several generations. The Holocaust Center has lost a close friend and we will work every day to preserve her memory.”