SUZANNE BELLING

‘Sang like the Von Trapps!’ 

“She died on the Festival of Lights, the light in her having inspired all with whom she came into contact,” a heartbroken Aviva told SA Jewish Report.

Santa was born in Knapsack, Germany in 1918 to Polish parents who moved to Germany during the First World War to replace soldiers on the front. With her parents, Simcha Meilach and Maita Erder and two brothers Leon and Chaim, (the younger of whom was born as the result of Maita having being raped by a Nazi), she moved to the industrial town of Beerenrath.

RIGHT: Aviva and her 96-year-old mother, Santa Pelham  – Photo supplied

Illiterate, though highly intelligent, Maita sold soap to workers and the family built up a business until anti-Semitism got out of hand. Santa, as a Jewish child of five, was refused milk at school and was accused of killing Christ.

Apart from that, the family continued with its Friday night traditions, passed on down the generations. But in the middle of one Shabbat dinner, the Gestapo and a policeman came for Simcha who was taken to a penitentiary and tortured despite the policeman’s objections. Simcha refused to leave until the prayers had been completed.

The family was then on the run – to Spain as other doors in Europe were shut. But Santa stayed on to complete her schooling and joined them a year later. “As it turned out, they should have remained in Spain as the Spanish Jews escaped persecution. My grandmother sold linen in various villages to eke out a living. Later, as refugees, they landed up living in one room in France.” 

The boys were offered passage to South America with the help of ORT but their mother did not want to split up the family.

Then a member of the French Jewish community came forward, offering Santa a “shidduch” with a man, Jack Pelham, who lived in Salisbury (Harare) in the former Rhodesia. In his proposal, he offered to buy her shoes, a new dress and a cinema ticket.

To escape the mounting attacks on the Jews, Santa accepted and travelled alone by ship from Marseilles, down the Suez Canal and along the coast to Beira (Mozambique).

LEFT: the cover of her famous book, Santa’s Story     – Photo book,  supplied

Jack Pelham was too impatient to wait for Santa’s train to Salisbury and met it in Beira.

Santa, preparing to meet her intended, had her hair in rollers and cold cream on her face. She opened the door to a knock on her compartment and there stood Jack. They were married 10 days later in June,1939.

Meanwhile, Santa’s family was murdered in Auschwitz. Even Chaim, being half German, was not spared. But Leon survived after being in a POW camp.

Alone, save for her stranger husband, Santa, settled down to life in Salisbury. But it was a low ebb in her life. Both she and Jack spoke several languages – he taught her Yiddish. Gradually Santa resumed her life. But tragedy struck again when she lost her first baby Barbara at the age of five months.

She joined WIZO and participated in community activities and gave birth to three more daughters – Ruth (Steiner), Naomi (Jaff) and Aviva. Jack was a successful businessman. Santa was delighted with her eight grandchildren and just before her passing met her 17^th great-grandchild.

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Went to university in her 60s

The family settled in Cape Town where Santa enrolled in UCT in her 60s, majoring in religious studies, and was awarded 98% for her French oral.

She used to give shiurim, assisting converts and even “frum” people, who flocked to her lessons. Jack died in 2002 at the age of 91.

Santa continued her Yiddishkeit and was renowned for her Shabbat dinners and, of course,  her singing. “Our entire family sang – we were like the Von Trapps!” Aviva said.

“Santa’s Story” performed by Aviva and her klezmer band was a hit throughout South Africa and abroad and, despite her age, Santa would sing before the curtain came down.

She was sought after by a German archivist and the family travelled to Beerenrath, where a street was named after Santa’s parents. Her story is one of courage, perseverance, talent and achievement.

For further information on Santa Pelham go to www.avivapelham.co.za