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1
SENATE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate are saddened
3to learn of the death of Tema "Temcia" (Posalska) Bauer of
4Morton Grove, who passed away on March 23, 2022 at the age of
5105; and
 
6    WHEREAS, Tema Bauer was born to Hendel and Chil Posalska
7in Lodz, Poland on May 5, 1916; she was the youngest of nine
8children; her siblings were Shmiel, Frania, Gutcha, Yosef,
9Barrish, Herschel, Mania, and Sarah; and
 
10    WHEREAS, When the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939, Tema
11Bauer's siblings decided to move their parents to a smaller
12town, thinking it might be safer; she intended to close the
13family home and follow them, but she was ordered into the
14Jewish ghetto in Lodz while her relatives were sent to
15Chelmno, which was the first stationary facility where poison
16gas was used to mass murder Jews; she never again saw the 38
17members of her family, which included her parents, her
18siblings, their husbands and wives, and her 21 nieces and
19nephews; and
 
20    WHEREAS, Tema Bauer worked in a kitchen and then at a shoe
21factory in the Lodz Ghetto; she underwent a three-day train
22journey in 1943, where she stood in a packed car with no room

 

 

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1to sit, no water, no food, and no bathroom facilities, before
2arriving at the slave labor camp Skarzysko-Kamienna; she was
3then sent to a factory in Leipzig, Germany, where she was
4forced to make munitions alongside other slave laborers; she
5was seriously injured by bombing and survived thanks to two
6Jewish doctors, who amputated her right arm above her elbow
7without anesthesia or antibiotics, causing her to lose her
8dominant hand in the process; two months after she lost her
9arm, she was ordered on a six-day death march with other women
10laborers toward the Elbe River in 1945; she was liberated
11after her Nazi captors fled due to Allied forces drawing near;
12and
 
13    WHEREAS, Tema Bauer returned to Lodz, seeking news of her
14family; while there, she reunited with Morris "Moishe" Bauer,
15a fellow Holocaust survivor who had survived at least seven
16camps due in part to his skills as a cobbler and who, like her,
17was also the sole survivor of his family; they married in 1945;
18they then went to a displaced-persons camp in Germany, where
19she was determined to prove that she could do with one hand
20what any other wife could do with two and received an award one
21month for having the cleanest home in the camp; they had their
22first son, Jerry, while at the camp in 1948; and
 
23    WHEREAS, Alongside her young family, Tema Bauer emigrated
24to the United States through Ellis Island, settling in Chicago

 

 

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1in 1949; they lived on Grenshaw Street on the West Side for
2approximately eight months before settling in East Rogers
3Park; her husband borrowed $1,758.38 from the Jewish Family
4and Community Service organization to open a shoe-repair shop
5on Devon Avenue, which they paid back in 1956; they had their
6second son, Michael, in 1952; and
 
7    WHEREAS, Tema Bauer and her husband Morris remained an
8inseparable team, devoted to one another and their growing
9family; after her husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer's
10disease, she cared for him for the last eight years of his life
11until his death in 1995; and
 
12    WHEREAS, Tema Bauer was affectionately known as "Mama
13Tema" to her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, who she
14would kvell over, attending every birthday party, bar and bat
15mitzvah, graduation, recital, sports event, and wedding; she
16was a skilled cook known for her kreplach, borscht, chicken
17matzoh ball soup, mandel bread, cinnamon-scented kugel and
18apple slices, and gefilte fish; and
 
19    WHEREAS, Tema Bauer was one of the oldest Holocaust
20survivors in Illinois at the time of her passing, and she will
21be remembered for her wisdom, courage, and inner strength, the
22remarkable qualities of her extraordinary life; her story will
23live on through the oral history interview she provided on

 

 

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1November 8, 1992 to the Holocaust Memorial Foundation of
2Illinois, known today as the Illinois Holocaust Museum and
3Education Center, which is now part of the U.S. Holocaust
4Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.; and
 
5    WHEREAS, Tema Bauer was the beloved wife of the late
6Morris "Moishe" Bauer; the loving mother of Dr. Jerry
7(Adrienne) Bauer and the late Michael Bauer (Roger Simon); the
8adoring grandmother of Michelle (Stuart) Primack, Dr. Hillary
9Bauer-Cohen (Jeffrey Cohen), and Aaron (Lauren) Bauer; and the
10doting great-grandmother of Maya Primack, Mason Primack, Sasha
11Cohen, Jonah Cohen, Joshua Cohen, Olivia Bauer, and Miles
12Bauer; therefore, be it
 
13    RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL
14ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn the passing of
15Tema "Temcia" (Posalska) Bauer and extend our sincere
16condolences to her family, friends, and all who knew and loved
17her; and be it further
 
18    RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
19presented to the family of Tema Bauer as an expression of our
20deepest sympathy.