On January 23, Roaring Brook Press will publish “The Girl Who Sang: A Holocaust Memoir of Hope and Survival,” the graphic memoir of Holocaust survivor Estelle Nadel, featuring art by Sammy Savos. After losing both her parents in the Holocaust, Nadel fled to America from Poland, barely making it out herself. For three decades, she told her story at schools and universities, sharing her story of survival with youth across the world. She passed away on November 28, 2023 at the age of 88, five days before her 89th birthday.
Estelle Nadel was born Enia Feld in Borek, Poland on December 3, 1934. She was the youngest of five siblings. Nadel was herself captured by the Nazis at the age of 10, being taken to Jedlicze Jail. She managed to escape with the help of her brother Stephan by squeezing through the barred windows of the basement cell. Her and Stephan would hide in the attic of a local Christian family for two years, until Poland was liberated by the Russians. She and her surviving family would make their way out of Europe, arriving in the United States in 1947.
After arriving in Long Island with Stephan, she would be taken in by a foster family when he could not provide for her. That family was the Nadels. After the family relocated to Los Angeles, then 17 year old Estelle would meet her future husband, the coincidentally named Fred Nadel. The two would wed and have three children. Estelle would not discuss the traumatic events of her childhood until she was in her forties. “When I first arrived in America,” she says in a note from “Girl Who Sang,” “I just wanted to be an American. I didn’t want to be identified as a ‘Holocaust survivor.’ So I never spoke about it.”
It wasn’t until her daughter-in-law, Hester Nadel, encouraged her to speak at schools that began to tell her story. Hester was a special education teacher and would later teach science at the University of Colorado Boulder before retiring. Estelle would not only begin speaking at schools and colleges across the country, but she has also been a featured speaker at the International March of the Living multiple times, and had her story recorded for Steven Spielberg’s Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation (now known as USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education).
An accomplished singer, Nadel sang with various temples across the Southern California area, having performed at Temple Emanuel in Beverly Hills, and with conductor/composer Aminadav Aloni at Encino’s Valley Beth Shalom. After relocating to Colorado, for could be seen with the Colorado Hebrew Chorale, and at Temple Sinai. It is this passion for singing that gives her memoir its title, with Nadel adding in the afterword “It’s true: I never stopped singing.”
“Girl Who Sang” would be completed with help from storyboard artist Sammy Savos and editor Bethany Strout. Samos stated on Instagram at the time of Nadel’s passing that they never got to meet in-person, but “she shared with me some of the most terrifying things she had experienced, and told me often to call her anytime with questions. I feel so honored that she trusted me with her life story.” She adds, “She was excited to share the book with her students. I’m so devastated that she herself wasn’t able to, but I am so thankful at least that she was able to hold the finished book in her hands and tell me how happy she was with it.”
Estelle is survived by her husband, three children, and five grandchildren. Her family encourages donations to be made to HIAS, as the organization was helpful to her when she came to the States.
