Eve and Jacob Ackerman

Eve (Eva, Rosalia Finder, Chawa Singer) and Jacob (Jakob, Jack) Ackerman were both born in Poland, Jacob in Gawłów in 1921, and Eve in Sambor in 1927. Jacob’s parents and one sister were killed during the war, but his other sister Hella survived and moved to Israel. Jacob was arrested by the Russian Occupying force in 1939 smuggling cigarettes. He was given a choice to stay in jail or join the Russian army. He chose to join the Red army and served as a lieutenant for the duration of the war.

Eve’s narrative of her life before the war has evolved over time as she has shared additional details to her story. In her most recent and complete testimony Eve stated that her full name is Eva Rosalia Ackerman (geb. Finder, later adopting the name "Singer"), and she was born in 1927 in Sambor, Poland. She said that her birth parents were named, Henryk and Salomea, and were well-known and respected in Sambor. She was an only child and her father owned a grocery store. She said that her parents were sent to concentration camps very early on in the war and her maternal aunt, Mrs. Pepi Singer, adopted her at that time. She then used the Singer family name until she was married after the war. 

The Nazi’s opened a ghetto in Sambor in 1941, after which Eve went to the Judenrat office to volunteer to work because she thought she would be safer with a regular job. For several months she moved bricks from destroyed buildings. Once that work was finished, they were assigned to work with an SS officer, a man by the name of Benesh. Every morning they were escorted outside of the ghetto, usually by the Jewish police but sometimes also by the Germans. They were ordered to sort through the clothes and other belongings that had previously been owned by Jewish families. Then they were to package the items for shipment to Germany. Officer Benesh would provide food for them, which was an extra privilege over those not working. She said that she was never guarded while sorting belongings, and only saw armed guards when  being escorted to and from work. 

Eve said she escaped from the ghetto one night in July 1943 with some friends. They spent the next year on the run, finding refuge in the barn of a Christian family that Eve’s family knew from childhood. This family made sure they had food to eat and a place to sleep until they were liberated by the Russian army in August 1944. 

After liberation they were brought to Sambor and then to Krakow during the next couple of months. Eve met Jacob Ackerman, in Krakow and they were married. They had to move to the DP camp in Bad Reichenhall in late 1945 or early 1946 where they spent the next few years. Jacob and Eve were finally able to get to America through a Jewish organization for DP survivors.

The Ackermans arrived in New York as new immigrants aboard the  “General S. D. Sturgis” on 1951 and moved to New Jersey to begin a poultry farm with Jacob’s brother, Abraham Ackerman and his wife Lola (later Lola Schweidt). The Ackermans left their chicken farm by 1956 to move into the real estate business and they moved to Vineland building multiple houses as they moved around the area. They adopted one son Henry in 1959. 

Jacob Ackerman became an active community leader among the local Jewish poultry farmers, elected to serve as an officer of the JPFA.  By 1955 he became the organization’s treasurer. He was inducted into the B’nai B’rith charitable society after helping rally the response to Hurricane Hazel that year. Additionally, Jacob served as the President of the Cumberland County Realtors and Building Association of Cumberland County.

Eve was also involved in the cultural life of the community, as well as the real estate business. She worked actively in the Hebrew Women’s Benevolent Society, the JPFA Auxiliary, and other organizations. She also became an official partner in the “Jacob Ackerman Realty Company.” Over many years, the company built hundreds of homes, and was involved in the development of whole neighborhoods and even mobile home parks.   

Jacob ran his business for almost twenty years until he died of a heart attack on December 31, 1976. 

Eve Ackerman remarried after her husband’s death. Her second husband was another Holocaust Survivor who lived in Vineland, William Rosner, one of the more than one thousand “Schindler Jews” who had been saved through the rescue efforts of the Nazi-turned-rescuer, Oskar Schindler. 

William had traveled to Vineland through his connection to Lola Schweidt and was given a job as a handy man by Jacob Ackerman in about 1974. William was going to be let go by Jacob on the first of the year 1977, however, Jacob passed the day before that. William stayed on helping Eve and were married a few years later. They would stay married until William Rosner passed away in August 1998. 

After Jacob’s death Eve took over the real estate business. She sold a lot of the rental properties, maintained a few, and did some hard money lending on the side. In 1992 Eve moved the offices and changed the name to Eve Ackerman Real Estate. Henry started working with his mother for their business in 1996 and he and his wife took over the business in 2016 after Eve retired.