Liny Leah PAJGIN
1924 - 2014 (89 years)-
Name Liny Leah PAJGIN Birth 14 Jul 1924 The Hague, South Holland, Netherlands 
Gender Female Death 31 Jan 2014 San Francisco, California [1] Burial Emanu-El Cemetery, Dallas, Dallas, Texas [2] 
Siblings2 sisters Person ID I19401 bmds Last Modified 20 Nov 2020
Father Arie Leon PAJGIN, b. 12 Apr 1888, Grodno, Russia d. 7 Dec 1941, The Hague, South Holland, Netherlands (Age 53 years) Mother Chaja Emma BIALYSTOCK, b. 1 May 1894, Wyszków, Poland d. 25 Feb 1981, Arlington, Virginia (Age 86 years) Family ID F7745 Group Sheet | Family Chart
Family Bernard Lawrence YOLLICK, b. 24 Mar 1922 d. 17 Jun 2012, Plano, Collin, Texas (Age 90 years) Divorce Yes, date unknown Children 1 son and 1 daughter + 1 . Ingrid YOLLICK, b. 19 Aug 1947 (Age 78 years)+ 2 
. Eric Lyf YOLLICK, b. 14 Jul 1961, Dallas, Texas (Age 64 years)Family ID F7748 Group Sheet | Family Chart
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Event Map 
Birth - 14 Jul 1924 - The Hague, South Holland, Netherlands 
Death - 31 Jan 2014 - San Francisco, California 
Burial - - Emanu-El Cemetery, Dallas, Dallas, Texas Pin Legend 
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Notes - Source: 2008/03/25 at 12:00 AM - Liz Ford, Staff Writer, eford@smu.edu
A woman’s journey and lucky escape
It was 1944 in The Hague, Netherlands. An abandoned doll sat lifeless in a deserted house on the city’s oldest street. Hand-knit clothes clung to her porcelain body; specks of dust grayed her hair. Suddenly, knocks echoed through the narrow street and watery eyes peered through curtains in neighboring homes. Heavy fists hammered on the wooden door. There was no answer. The Nazi soldiers came too late. The Pajgin family was gone.
Today, Liny Pajgin Yollick sits in her Dallas home with her husband Bernard. Her right hand fiddles with a gold watch on her left wrist as her light blue eyes scan the walls. Her own paintings meet her gaze. She spends much of her time filling empty canvases with the striking colors nestled in her mind.
Liny was 16 years old when the Germans marched to the Netherlands. Her family, like many, went underground during the initial takeover. She hid in a small air raid shelter with her mother, father and three sisters, terrified to see what was happening outside. “I hated to come out because I knew I was going see them,” she said. “It was better than living under the Germans.”
Soon those, like Liny, who lived to see the atrocities of the Holocaust, will not be able to share their stories. Survivors and war veterans are now at least 80 years old. SMU Professor of Human Rights Dr. Rick Halperin believes that it is crucial that new generations understand the plight of the Jews and other victims in World War II. The nearly 6,000,000 people who were systematically slaughtered because of their religion cannot be forgotten. Knowledge and action are the two things humans have than can ensure a tragedy such as the Holocaust does not reoccur. “What happened in the Holocaust is not an aberration of human behavior. In every damn decade since World War II there is genocide. It’s up to us to make sure they stop,” Halperin said.
When Liny emerged from the shelter after five days, the royal family had fled to England and new edicts had been enforced. She walked to city hall with her family and was given a star to wear. A large “J” was printed on her ID card and she was removed from school. By 7 p.m. she was indoors, dreading any knock on the door.
Her father, Leo, hid the family’s gold coins under floorboards in the attic and returned to work every day. His wife Emma was young, smart and beautiful. She cared for her children and then went to work in the family shoe store. When Leo died of a heart attack on Dec. 7, 1941, Emma was left to provide for the family.
Emma Pajgin would not stand idly by and watch her three daughters starve. Risking instant death, she sold shoes to Nazi soldiers on the black market, using her charm and beauty to disguise her Jewish identity. She convinced grocers to save food for her family after specified “Jewish shopping hours” had elapsed. Her daughters never went hungry. “She thought of everything,” Liny said.
After two years of German occupation, Emma made a decision. She rounded up her daughters and gave them instructions. Liny, instead of celebrating her 18th birthday, slid on two dresses and cut a slit inside her shoe. She slipped a few gold coins in while sandwiches were prepared in the kitchen. The four women left The Hague in the morning of July 14, 1941, leaving all of their belongings behind, including her prized possession: a doll wearing clothes she knit herself.
It was a four-week journey to Southern France. Though Jews were banned from train travel, the Pajgin women boarded. “People never think I’m Jewish,” she said. “I don’t know what you have to look like to be Jewish, but people never thought I was. That helped us.”
The
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Sources - [S4] Notice nécrologique.
Liny Leah Pajgin Yollick died at the age of 89 on January 31, 2014, at the Legacy at Willow Bend senior center in Frisco. She was born in The Hague, Netherlands, on July 14, 1924, into a happy world of European middle-class comfort that became a very challenging life with the rise of German national socialism during her teenage years. What was the giant lesson of Liny’s life? You cannot judge people based solely on first or superficial impressions. There are many complexities and secrets in her life. The more that one discovers about Liny is the more that one finds what a truly remarkable person she was. Hers is a life that we should celebrate. Her life should spur us all to endeavor to get to know and relish the complexity of others. Her family suffered through the German invasion of Holland in 1941. Her father, Leo Pajgin, died of a heart attack, because no physician would come to their home as a result of the Nazi-imposed curfew. The Germans required Liny and her two sisters to wear the Star of David on her clothes and imposed other edicts and restrictions upon them. The family escaped in 1942 through France, Spain, and Portugal, largely due to the courage, resilience, and resourcefulness of Liny’s mother, Chaja Esther Pajgin. Since the United States would not take Jewish immigrants during World War II, Liny fled by boat to Dutch Guiana (now Surinam) where they lived in houses on stilts in the jungle for two years. Liny came to the United States in 1945 and lived and worked in Washington, D.C., first in the Dutch Embassy and then as a stockbroker. She met her husband, Bernard Yollick, a head and neck surgeon and ear, nose, and throat specialist and they thrived in a loving marriage for almost seven decades. They lived in St. Louis and Houston, where Berny was one of the original faculty members at the University of Texas - M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. The Yollicks moved to Dallas in 1960 where Berny started a medical practice and they raised their two children, Ingrid, now an attorney in Maryland, and Eric, now an attorney in The Woodlands. They lived at their home near Royal Lane and Midway Road for more than 50 years. Ingrid graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in Dallas, Smith College, and American University Law School. Eric graduated from St. Mark’s School, Princeton University, and SMU Law School. Liny raised her family and ran the business of Berny’s medical practice. She was an accomplished bridge player, active fundraiser for many Jewish organizations, and seasoned global traveler. Liny was a painter almost her entire life. She began painting watercolors in Holland. In Dallas, Liny worked in oil painting and enjoyed many art shows which prominently featured her paintings. She was a student of Edith Baker and Betty Winn, both well-known Dallas artists. Even at the age of 88, Liny displayed an extensive and detailed knowledge of the history of Impressionist art and often provided detailed tours of the Dallas and Fort Worth art museums. Liny was a regular speaker at the Dallas Holocaust Museum to children and adult groups. Many of the details of Liny’s escape are part of a video biography of her featured at the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. Liny’s beloved husband, Berny, died on June 17, 2012. Liny and Berny, both laid to rest at Emanu-El Cemetery in Dallas, are survived by their two children, Ingrid Alpern and Eric Yollick, three grandchildren, Jason Alpern, Heather Alpern, and Nick Yollick, Liny’s two sisters, Vera Sprecher (age 93), and Nellie Halpern (age 86), numerous nephews and nieces, and the hundreds of beloved friends they enjoyed in Dallas, Houston, St. Louis, Europe, Israel, and other parts of the world. Ecclesiastes 7:1 states that "the day of one’s death [is better] than the day of one’s birth" since it affords the opportunity to revel in the accomplishments, adventures, and joys of a person’s life. Liny Yollick never avoided controversy
- [S5] Find A Grave, → Memorial ID 124701137.
- [S5] Find A Grave, → Memorial ID 124701137.
- [S4] Notice nécrologique.