Legendary Holocaust survivor Edward Mosberg will be posthumously awarded one of Poland’s highest honors this Friday in New York.
The Polish Consulate of New York will be presenting Mosberg’s family with the Great Cross of the Order of Merit on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The award is to be given on behalf of Polish President Andrzej Duda.
Mosberg was a Polish-American Holocaust survivor, educator and philanthropist who passed away this past September. Duda, who previously bestowed the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland upon Mosberg, was also present at Mosberg’s funeral in New Jersey. Mosberg received that previous high honor in 2019 for his achievements in developing Polish-Jewish dialogue and for promoting knowledge about the role of Poles in saving Jews during World War II.
Mosberg was an inmate of the Nazi German camps of Płaszów and Mauthausen. He later traveled the world as a renowned survivor and educator, speaking to audiences throughout North America, Europe and Israel. Mosberg died at the age of 96.
Nearly all of Mosberg’s family were murdered during the Holocaust, including his parents and sisters. He, his wife and daughter immigrated to New York City in 1951, later moving to New Jersey, where Mosberg found success as a real estate developer.
Mosberg was in the news in 2020 after NFL player DeSean Jackson made an antisemitic post on social media, which he later apologized for. Jackson accepted an invitation from Mosberg to join him on a visit to the Auschwitz concentration camp to learn about the Holocaust.
One of the biggest supporters of the International March of the Living, Mosberg often attended the march wearing his original concentration camp uniform. He served as honorary chairman of From the Depths, an organization dedicated to preserving the memory of the Holocaust and to give a name to those who were murdered. He also dedicated himself to bringing recognition to Polish Righteous Among the Nations, those Polish non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews from the Nazis during the Holocaust.
In 2019, Mosberg was diagnosed with blood cancer. Mosberg said at the time that he did not fear death.
“First, I already beat death once after the war when I had final-stage tuberculosis—and I can do it again,” said Mosberg. “Second, I died already 70 years ago when the Germans murdered my whole family.”
Friday’s ceremony at the consulate will be attended by Mosberg’s family and several members of the Polish diplomatic corps, along with leaders of Jewish diaspora organizations from New York City.
