Labor camp survivor and ‘master merchandizer’ dies

After spending most of his life in sales and customer service, Saul Wolf of San Francisco retired.

But rather than sit at home, he put his sales hat back on and "worked" five days a week as a volunteer at the Montefiore Senior Center of the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. His consummate salesman personality made him a natural to run the center's shuk, where he sold used clothing at reduced prices, or gave it away to those who needed it.

Wolf, who spent most of World War II in a forced labor camp in Russia, died Friday, Sept. 9. He was 90.

Saul Wolfgang was born Sept. 11, 1914 in Krakow. His father most likely owned a clothing store, said his son, Adam Wolf, of Santa Rosa.

When the Nazis invaded Poland, Wolf's parents advised him to flee. He made it to Russia, but then ended up in a forced labor camp. He never saw his parents again.

In Russia, a Polish resistance army was formed to fight the Germans, so he joined and served as a noncommissioned officer in the Polish Army.

While there, he met Toni Bakanowicki, who was serving as a nurse. They married in 1944. While still in the army, they were among those to liberate the Majdanek concentration camp.

When the war was over, the couple went to Lublin, Poland, where their son, Adam, was born. They did not want to stay in Poland and moved to a displaced persons camp in Germany where they would spend the next three and a half years.

In 1949, they finally got a sponsor, and were able to immigrate to the United States. Upon arriving, they changed their name to Wolf. They first went to South Dakota, and after a few years, moved to Denver, where they opened a men's wear boutique. They arrived in San Francisco, where they had some friends, in 1957.

They first opened a dry cleaning business, and then later, Wolf managed a large fabric company.

While they attended services only sporadically, both Wolf and his wife were avid volunteers in the Jewish community. Toni Wolf started first volunteering at the Montefiore Senior Center, and then encouraged her husband to get involved. For most of his time there, he oversaw the shuk, a fund-raising program that collected donations of used clothing, and resold them to benefit the center.

Nate Levine, executive director of the JCCSF, said running the shuk was the perfect job for Wolf because he was a "master merchandiser."

"He loved to tell people about the great find he had."

His Russian, Polish, German and Yiddish came in handy, in advising customers on what might look good on them.

Levine said the lines between the JCC staff and volunteers blur, and in the case of the Wolfs, they were part of the JCC family.

"I say this literally, he represented the soul of the JCC," said Levine, "He was so friendly and so beloved by so many people."

Wolf told the Jewish Bulletin in 1998, "You know, I'm not getting any younger. But I plan to keep working here as long as I can."

Wolf worked at the shuk until it shut down in 2001, when the JCC moved to its temporary quarters in the Presidio.

Before he stopped, though, Wolf was honored by the center, for his 20 years of volunteerism. His son attended, and said he was amazed at the outpouring of affection his father received.

"So many people came up to me to tell me how wonderful my dad is," said Adam Wolf. "They told me what a giving, caring, approach he had with them."

He said his father was the type to talk spontaneously at the dinner table about what he had been through during the war, but whenever his son wanted to record his stories, he'd refuse.

His son added that "considering that he came with nothing, it was very important for him to provide for us and make sure we had a roof over our heads and the basics."

At the same time, he was an impeccable dresser, with a wide network of friends, many of whom he knew through the center. His son said he especially liked to socialize with other immigrants from Eastern Europe, so "they could talk about the old days."

In addition to his son, Wolf is survived by his wife Toni of San Francisco; two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Donations can be made to the Montefiore Senior Center of the JCCSF, 3200 California St., S.F., CA 94118.