Sam Feldman, Survivor And Activist

Samuel Feldman, a Holocaust survivor who became a leader in several remembrance and Zionist causes in the New York area, died of congestive heart failure on Feb. 27 at his home in Hallendale, Fla. He was 91.

Mr. Feldman was founder and longtime president of Radomer Mutual Cultural Society, an organization of Polish natives, which under his leadership raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the United Jewish Appeal and donated four ambulances to Israel through Magen David Adom.

“He was a teacher to everyone, so a tragedy like the Holocaust will never happen again,” said his grandson Andrew Feldman.

A self-trained businessman, Mr. Feldman owned several deli-catering stores in Manhattan, including the West Park Market.

A native of Wiskitki, a small town near Warsaw, Mr. Feldman survived the Warsaw Ghetto, Auschwitz, Maidanek, and a death march; he was liberated at Vaihingen in Germany, the only survivor of his extended family.

Ten years ago he accompanied his grandson Jason Harris, a film student in California, to Poland to make a documentary about his wartime experiences. Accompanied by other family members, they traveled to Warsaw, Krakow, Auschwitz and other sites in Poland, attending Shabbat services in the capital’s Nozyk Synagogue, Mr. Feldman’s childhood congregation.

The only time during the trip that he became emotional, San Francisco’s jweekly Jewish newspaper reported, was when he went to the cemetery where his mother and sister, who died before World War II, were buried. The cemetery was overgrown with weeds, and the gravestones had been removed years ago by Russian soldiers. “Without stones, he couldn’t visualize where they were buried,” Harris told the newspaper, “so he said Kaddish over this empty Jewish cemetery.”

Mr. Feldman lived 42 years in New Hyde Park. L.I., and was an active member of the New Hyde Park Jewish Center. He is survived by his wife, Celia; a daughter, Lorraine; two sons, Alan and Paul; and eight grandchildren.