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Friday September 5, 2008

Holocaust survivor ‘never lost hope in life’

The pain Mynya Giballawinsky felt in his bones — because a Nazi doctor fused his vertebrae and shattered his kneecaps — never broke his spirit.

“He was the most extraordinary gentle being of light and compassion I’ve ever met in my life,” said Rebecca Boyd, his friend and roommate.

Giballawinsky died Aug. 3 in his San Francisco home. He was 70. Friends described him as wise, generous and easygoing.

He was born in England in 1938. When he was 4 years old, his family moved back to Poland. They were sent to Dachau and Auschwitz, where all but Giballawinsky died. Somehow, he survived experimental surgeries by Dr. Josef Mengele, though was left with severe nerve damage in his back and bone abnormalities in his knees.

He spoke to very few people about his war experiences, said Verna Wilson, a longtime friend.

“He never lost hope in life — he told me he always thought the Nazis were such damaged souls that they hurt him and others, but that if he could forgive them and go on with his life, he could rise above it,” Wilson said. “It was a privilege having a friend with that attitude.”

He walked with a limp and a walking stick, which combined with his long, graying hair earned him the nickname “Moses” in his Mission District neighborhood. He was also known as Michael Giballi, the name given to him by customs officers when he arrived in the United States in 1946.

The details of his life are somewhat fuzzy, since he is the only surviving member of his immediate family. For instance, he may have been born in 1936, Boyd said.

After the war, a British neighbor who remembered the Giballawinskys started looking for the family. Giballawinsky was the only one of his seven siblings to survive the death camps; the neighbor found him, adopted him and brought him to the United States, eventually to Sacramento. Giballawinsky moved to San Francisco in the ’80s.

He was an avid reader of kabbalistic texts and metaphysical books. He meditated frequently, studied chakras (energy centers) and believed in the healing properties of healthy food.

Giballawinsky spoke English, Yiddish and Polish. He loved classical music and put his expertise to good use by working in the classics section at Tower Records. He loved animals, and since he never married nor had children, his cats, George and Sweet Pea, were his babies.

Giballawinsky was “the most gentle soul I have ever known,” wrote his friend Gil Ray of Albany.

“He also loved plants and was a wealth of information,” Boyd recalled. “Going for a walk with him was like being with a botanist.”

He crocheted and quilted. He loved wonton soup and befriended the servers and cooks at his favorite spots. He loved riding the bus for the chance it gave him to make conversation, to make friends out of strangers.

“One of the first things he did even to total strangers was give them a hug,” Wilson said. “So even if you didn’t know him, you’d feel like you were already his friend.”

Though Boyd said he was “spiritually and emotionally the wealthiest person I ever met,” he lived a meager lifestyle, surviving on disability benefits. He turned down the $500 a month he was to receive from the German government because had he accepted it he would no longer have been eligible for Medi-Cal health coverage, Boyd said.

Giballawinsky was not a religious Jew but believed in God.

Wilson added, “He always wanted for people to be great at what they love, and to progress. If all of us went out in the world and took action, we’d be serving his memory well.”

A funeral service was held Aug. 8 at Valente Marini Perata & Company. Giballawinsky’s ashes were scattered in the ocean during a ceremony following the service.

He is survived by stepsisters Anne Farmer of Gilcrest, Ore., and Lou Tuttle of Sacramento.

A fund is being set up in his memory. For information, contact Rebecca Boyd at (415) 282-5414.

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