Yitta Schwartz N"E

Yitta Schwartz was a survivor of the infamous Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where two of her children died.

"When there are so many problems in life, I should put myself on the scale?" Yitta Schwartz, Holocaust survivor and matriarch of 2,000 living descendants Last month, at the age of 93, she passed on (Nishmasa b'Eden Her soul should be in paradise), leaving behind 15 children, more than 200 grandchildren and so many great- and great-great-grandchildren that, by her family's count, she could claim perhaps 2,000 living descendants.

I can think of no better way to respond to the Holocaust.

In 1953, the Schwartzes migrated to the United States, settling into the Satmar community in Williamsburg, New York. She arrived with 11 children — Shaindel, Chana, Dinah, Yitschok, Shamshon, Nechuma, Nachum, Nechemia, Hadassah, Mindel and Bella — and proceeded to have five more: Israel, Joel, Aron, Sarah and Chaim Shloime, who died in summer camp at age 8. Sarah came along after Mrs. Schwartz had already married off two other daughters.

Whatever the occasion, she would pack a small suitcase and thumb a ride from her apartment in Kiryas Joel to faithfully attend the circumcisions, first haircuts, bar mitzvahs, engagements and weddings of her descendants.

"Just keep me in your heart," she used to say. "If you leave a child or grandchild, you live forever."

Son-in-law Rabbi Menashe Mayer said she took literally the scriptural command that "You should not forget what you saw and heard at Mount Sinai and tell it to your grandchildren."

Yet she also kept a humble sense of perspective: "When there are so many problems in life, I should put myself on the scale?"