Obituary of Kuba Beck

Kuba Beck, 91, of Poughkeepsie, died Tuesday, November 5, 2013 after a brief illness and hospitalization. Kuba was a survivor of the Holocaust and a proud member of the survivors of Schindler's List. Before the outbreak of World War II, Kuba lived with his parents and two brothers in Krakow, Poland where his family owned and managed a thriving hardware business. At the conclusion of the war, every member of his family except Kuba was killed in the Nazi genocide. A promising student studying to be an accountant before the war, when the Germans invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, at age 17, he was forced to abandon schooling as he and his family were herded into the Krakow ghetto where his familial home became a refuge for scores of families who had all of their belongings stripped away by the Germans. By the time these relocations settled, his home became a virtual boarding house with three families relocated in every room of his home. Shortly thereafter, the German authorities appropriated the hardware business and informed the family that the hardware store was now to be owned by a German businessman and the family was to work for him. After a few months of forced labor in his family's own hardware store, Kuba was fired and forced to find work at a metal factory where he trained himself to become a tool and die maker. In so doing, he was permitted to travel outside the ghetto every day and return from work, sneaking food and other necessary provisions in under penalty of death. After one such day of work outside of the ghetto, Kuba returned to find that his whole family had been rounded up that morning and sent out on cattle cars to be executed. He never saw them again. One day Kuba discovered that he was selected to be loaded on a truck where he was sent to work in Oscar Schindler's factory. He later discovered his fortunes had been blessed by the fact that a former professor of accounting, the Ben Kingsley character in the movie, Schindler's List, had recognized his name on the pool of available workers and had secured Kuba's transfer into the Schindler factory. Kuba remained with Schindler, both in Poland and in Czechoslovakia, until May 10, 1945 when he was liberated by the Russian Army. At the Schindler factory, Kuba met his wife to be, Helen, who also was originally from the Krakow area of Poland. After the war, they traveled together back to Krakow to find the remnants of her family and moved to Bamberg, Germany where they married and where their first son was born. They had planned to go to Israel to join Helen's three sisters but instead immigrated to the United States after President Truman permitted entrance for displaced persons of the war. They settled in Lynn, Massachusetts where their second son was born, and moved to Poughkeepsie in 1955 where they lived together until Helen's passing in December 2008. Kuba felt especially grateful to have been one of the original engineers hired by IBM when the South Road plant was opened in Poughkeepsie. He retired from IBM after being inducted into its Quarter Century Club and receiving numerous recognition awards for his service to the company. Kuba was an active member of Temple Beth El and many activities in the Jewish community. Together with Helen, and even after her death, he spoke in public schools, colleges, camps and civic organizations about their experiences in the Holocaust and the lessons to be learned from surviving their experiences. Kuba was born in Krakow, Poland on August 31, 1922 and is the son of Abraham and Dora Beck. Kuba is survived by his sons Robert Beck (Evelyn Petrone) of Port Chester, NY and Arthur Beck (Laurie Bookstein) of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is further survived by grandchildren, Sarah Stern (Jeffrey), Stacey Beck, Allison Beck and Jeremy Beck. He is also survived by great grandchildren, Hailey and Jonah Stern, and Anna and Liam Beck. Funeral services will be held 11:00 a.m. Thursday, November 7, 2013 at Temple Beth El, 118 South Grand Avenue, Poughkeepsie, New York 12603. Burial will take place at Temple Beth El Cemetery. Memorial donations may be made in Kuba's name to the USC Shoah Foundation, Institute for Visual History, 650 W. 35th Street, Suite 114, Los Angeles, CA 90089-2571.