Starkman, Rita

Rita Starkman was born May 28, 1941 in Ostrowiec, Poland.  She was the youngest of three children. Her father ran a successful business in Ostrowiec, and when he saw signs of the impending disaster, he began to put some money aside, with which he was able to make a deal with a Polish-German couple he knew.  He and Hynda gave Rita to that family hoping to save Rita’s life – she was 16 months old at the time. Her brother and sister went to other families, as her parents hoped that the separation would bring them through whatever came next.  Rita’s mother was captured and ended up in a series of camps, including Auschwitz; Rita’s sister was kicked out of the family home where she had been placed, and she ended up in the ghetto and was murdered in Treblinka. Rita’s father spent the war under false identification, living by his wits; at one point he was arrested and deported to Treblinka – he jumped off the train. The family Rita was with grew fearful, and they passed her on to a relative who took Rita to Rozwadów, where he left her on the train. Soon word of the abandoned infant circulated through the town, and a couple by the name of Emile and Helena Materne stepped forward, willing to take in the child. Rita was baptized, named Teresa, and raised Catholic. Emile was in the Polish underground, and he was discovered and arrested and executed by the Nazis, so Helena took Rita to Poznan, where she had family. Rita lived a happy life there, unaware of the circumstances around her and without memory of her biological family. When the war was over, Rita’s father set out to find her, but was turned away by her adoptive mother. He tried multiple methods to get “Teresa” back—including payment, kidnapping, and eventually the courts. After a custody battle, “Teresa” was returned to her biological parents and the family—including her mother and brother who survived— left Poland and settled in Canada, first in Montreal and then Toronto. Teresa’s name was changed back to Rita, and she grew up against the backdrop of 1950s-60s Toronto. She married and now has three children and seven grandchildren, and dedicates her life to her family and Holocaust education and remembrance. Rita visited us in person at Crestwood in March 2026, when she was interviewed by Crestwood students.