Sylvia Karwaser Goodman

Someone to Watch Over Me Sylvia Karwaser Goodman

An inspiring story of exceptional goodness in the midst of extraordinary evil. In 1942, Sylvia Karwaser was only two years old when Germany invaded Belgium and extreme danger loomed at her family's doorstep. Desperate to find a safe place for their daughter to hide, Getty & Srul Karwaser's prayers were answered when their landlady, Alida Pontus, offered to take Sylvia, a Jewish child and pass her off as her Christian granddaughter. Within a few short days, Sylvia's parents were arrested and imprisoned by the Gestapo for two and a half years at Kazerne Dossin, a detention and deportation camp in Mechlen, Belgium. During this time, at tremendous personal risk to their own lives, Alida and Charles Pontus hid Sylvia and treated her with immense love and kindness. Happily, Sylvia and her parents survived the war, and after building a life rich with Jewish tradition, her family ensured that the Pontus couple were rightfully recognized as Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. Sylvia Karwaser Goodman, a retired French teacher who has spoken to numerous audiences about her story of survival lives in Toronto, Canada surrounded by her children and grandchildren.