Bronka Sundstrom

1925-2023

Bronka (Czyzyk) Sundstrom was born on August 15, 1925 in Sandomierz, Poland. She was the youngest of 9 children. When she was in third grade, her family moved to Lodz, Poland. In September 1939, Germany invaded Poland. The Nazis implemented laws restricting the rights of Jewish people, forcing them to leave their homes and move into designated areas. The neighborhood where Bronka lived was designated a Jewish ghetto. The Nazis forced Jews from all surrounding areas into this small area, which quickly became overcrowded. Disease and starvation were rampant.

The Nazis deported Bronka and her family to Auschwitz, along with thousands of Jews from the Lodz ghetto. Bronka watched as her father was sent to the gas chamber. Then, she was stripped of her clothes and her identity, forced to work and given little food. After 5 days, the Nazis sent Bronka to the city of Bremen in Germany, where she was forced to work in construction. From Bremen she was transferred on foot to Bergen Belsen.

British troops liberated Bergen Belsen in April of 1945. There were 60,000 starving and ill prisoners there, including Bronka. The British brought her to a hospital. Bronka and a sister, who escaped to Russia, were the only members of their family that survived.

After the war, the Red Cross took her to Sweden to recover and regain her health. In Sweden, she met her husband, Ake Sundstrom. She described him as her rock. He taught her almost everything: to cook, ride a bike, and ski. He made her first pair of downhill skis by hand.

They emigrated to the United States in 1948. They lived with their son Allen in a cabin in Tacoma, and became the oldest climbers of Mount Rainier. Ake and Bronka enjoyed a wonderful life and retirement together.

Ake, husband of 64 years, passed away on May 31, 2010. Bronka and Ake’s only child, Allen, died of cancer shortly thereafter.

Bronka hiked over fifty times to Camp Muir on Mt. Rainier in one season with her beloved husband. At age 91, she hiked nearly ten hours from Paradise to Camp Muir and back.

Bronka passed away on November 29, 2023. She is survived by her two grandchildren and her daughter-in-law.

Video Testimony – Bronka Sundstrom

My Father

Package of Prunes

Bergen-Belsen

Full Testimony (2020)

Photo Gallery – Bronka Sundstrom

B. Sundstrom Gallery 1

Bronka as a girl.

B. Sundstrom Gallery 2

Metal Identification Tag. This ID tag bears the numbers 2293. Bronka was forced to march to Bergen Belsen from Auschwitz wearing this tag.

B. Sundstrom Gallery 3

Bronka’s Displaced Person Camp registration card. July 17, 1945. Source: Arolsen Archives.

B. Sundstrom Gallery 4

A photo of women rescued by the British from Bergen Belsen in Kalmar, Sweden. July 29, 1945.

B. Sundstrom Gallery 5

A portrait of Bronka taken in Sweden. 1946.

B. Sundstrom Gallery 6

A portrait of Bronka and her husband, Ake, in Sweden. 1946.

B. Sundstrom Gallery 7

A Star of David pendant that belonged to Bronka. Little is known about its history but the broken clasp being replaced with a safety pin may indicate that it was a well loved object.