Holocaust Survivor at 90: 'Hitler Lost, I'm Still Here

At 90 years old, Rosian Bargiansky Zerner has a powerful message about her life: "Hitler lost. I'm 90 years old. My mother lived to 101, my father to his 90s. I have two children, and they have two children."

Born in 1935 in Lithuania, Rosian grew up in a privileged family with a chauffeur and a car with a three-digit license plate. Her father, a military school graduate who became a lawyer, started a textile export business after being barred from practicing law because he was Jewish.

Everything changed when the Nazis forced her family into the Kovno Ghetto. The family of three lived in a 10-by-10-foot shack with no heat. To drink water, they had to melt snow and bring it to their lips quickly before it refroze.

Rosian's parents became her first rescuers. They timed the changing of the guards, and in those precious minutes, they dug a hole under the barbed wire. One day, they pushed five-year-old Rosian through to freedom.

A woman waiting in the shadows ran with her to safety. From there, Rosian lived on the run, eventually finding refuge with a farmer named Lida, who gave her the only toy she had during the war: a doll made of wool scraps.

Both of her parents survived against impossible odds. Her mother pretended to be a French woman whose husband died in the war, and her father was rescued by his boss. After the war, the family reunited and escaped through multiple countries with different passports.

They spent time in displaced persons camps, were briefly imprisoned in Hungary, and eventually settled in Milan for six years. When the Korean War broke out, her father decided to move somewhere safer. They chose America.

Rosian arrived in ninth grade without knowing English. She learned the language in three years and went on to graduate from Barnard College and Columbia University.

Why This Inspires

In a country where over 90% of Jews were murdered during the Holocaust, Rosian's family beat the odds. Her survival story isn't just about escaping death. It's about building a life filled with education, stability, and four generations of family.

Now living in Dallas, Rosian uses her journey to speak out against hate. She acknowledges the scars remain, but she chooses to focus on what matters: the continuity of Jewish life and the truth that love outlasted hatred.

"America gave me a good life, freedom of choice, friends, education that I cherish and a stable life," she says. Texas has been good to her, and at 90, she's living proof that survival is the ultimate victory.