Edward Mosberg

Edward Mosberg (January 6, 1926 – September 21, 2022) was a Polish-born Jewish American Holocaust survivor, educator, businessman, and philanthropist. During the Holocaust, he was held by the Nazis from 14 years of age in Kraków Ghetto, Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp, Auschwitz concentration camp, Mauthausen concentration camp, and a slave labor camp in Linz, Austria, that was liberated by the US Army in 1945. With nearly all of his family were murdered in the Holocaust, Mosberg became active in Holocaust remembrance and education, sharing testimony with students and participating in commemorations and survivor testimony initiatives. Mosberg joined delegations visiting former concentration camps through International March of the Living and advocated preserving authentic Holocaust history. In 2019, Mosberg was awarded the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, the highest civilian honor by Polish President Andrzej Duda.

Early life Mosberg was born in Kraków, Poland, to Bronislawa and Ludwig, and was Jewish. His two sisters were Halina and Karolina.

In 1943, when the Nazi's carried out the "final liquidation" of the Kraków Ghetto under the command of SS-Hauptsturmführer Amon Göth, the remaining Mosberg family was moved to the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp in Płaszów just south of Kraków, a Nazi concentration camp operated by the SS, which had been constructed on the grounds of two former Jewish cemeteries. Mosberg witnessed many atrocities committed by SS camp commandant Amon Göth, who was later tried, convicted, and hanged as a war criminal in September 1946.

In 2006, Mosberg donated a Torah that was hidden from the Nazis to the Mount Freedom Jewish Center. In 2007, Mosberg and his wife received the Yad Vashem Remembrance Award.

In June 2019, Polish President Andrzej Duda honored Mosberg with the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland. It was given to Mosberg in recognition of his having developed Polish-Jewish dialogue, and his having promoted knowledge about the role of Polish people in saving Jews during the Holocaust.

Mosberg was the subject of a painting by artist David Kassan that appeared in September–December 2019 in an exhibition co-curated by the USC Shoah Foundation and USC's Fisher Museum of Art, named "Facing Survival".

That same year, he was diagnosed with blood cancer. Mosberg said he did not fear death, however, because: "First, I already beat death once after the war when I had final stage tuberculosis – and I can do it again. Second, I died already 70 years ago when the Germans murdered my whole family..."

After Mosberg had passed away, Polish Consul General Adrian Kubicki wrote that Mosberg was: "the most wonderful man I have ever met. He was a Holocaust Survivor, noble man and a great Polish patriot... My personal mentor. Irreplaceable."