Donald Berkman

Donald (Chipkin) Berkman was born 1941 in Druysk, Poland (now Belarus) to Yosel and Sara Berkman. When Donald was an infant, his family was put into the Vidzy ghetto and then into Święciany ghetto. Awaiting deportation to the Vilna Ghetto, Sara begged her husband and other family members to go into hiding, but they refused, fearing they would be shot if they were caught. The rest of the family were told they were going to the Vilna ghetto, but were instead taken to the Ponary killing site outside of Vilna where they were murdered by Einsatzgruppen.

Sara hid with Donald in a closet while the SS cleared the Vilna ghetto, and then slipped out of the empty ghetto with Donald to seek refuge. Sara and Don were hidden in a convent, but fled as the front line caught up with them. Sara hid with Don in the forest and in an old woman’s root cellar for two and a half years, teaching her toddler survival skills to keep him occupied and quiet.

After the Soviet Red Army liberated the area in 1945, Sara returned to Druysk. There she discovered that her neighbor, Michael Chipkin (Michel Cypuk) and his two young daughters were still alive. The rest of Michael’s family had also been murdered during the Holocaust. They married in Druysk in 1945. The family fled to Berlin, where they lived for three and a half years in three Displaced Persons camps in Germany: Schlachtensee (West Berlin), Ziegenhain, and Eschwege.

In 1949, the family immigrated to St. Paul, Minnesota, where their daughter, Riva, was born. In 1954, the Chipkin family purchased a poultry farm in Oceanville, New Jersey. When they settled in New Jersey, Don was in 8th grade; he graduated Pleasantville High School in 1958. He attended Long Island University’s Brooklyn College of Pharmacy, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1962. He returned to South Jersey and interned at Brigantine Pharmacy, where he later worked as an employee. Donald met his wife Nanette Adler in 1961 and they married a year later. In 1982, he purchased the Brigantine Pharmacy and later the Harris Pharmacy (also in Brigantine, NJ). The Berkman family still operates businesses at these locations. Today, Donald and Nanette live in Margate, NJ.