Ester Rattner

Ester Rattner, 85, of Toms River died Jan. 17, 2012. A Holocaust survivor born in Sarny, Poland, she was 12 years old when World War II broke out and had to leave school when she was ushered into a ghetto.

The only member of her family rescued from the ghetto by a Polish farmer who knew her, Mrs. Rattner survived in Russia on her own and returned to her birthplace after the war in search of surviving family, but found no one. She then left Poland and made her way to pre-state Israel, managing to make it past the British blockade that was in place against Jewish immigrants. After the birth of her first granddaughter, she spent half the year in Israel and half in the United States, eventually moving full time to the United States, where she became an American citizen. She was self-educated and fluent in five languages.

She is survived by her daughter, Lea Glina of Toms River, and two granddaughters.

Services were held Jan. 19 with arrangements by Belkoff-Goldstein Funeral Chapel, Lakewood.

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