Nina L. Kampler, at The Blogs

Nina L. Kampler

It’s Time To Tell Their Stories

Jul 23, 2026, 9:25 AM

I thought I knew my father’s story; then some untranslated letters came to light

Nina Kampler and Mark Kampler deliver Kampler Holocaust-era letters to Yad Vashem, June 17, 2026. (courtesy)

He was the only Jew to survive the entire war at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, but he shouldn't have been there at all

May 10, 2026, 11:49 PM

Stronger Than Commandment: A Mother’s Day Letter

Dear Rachel, I know not to ask you how you are this Mother’s Day. Or any other day. Because every day, all year long, for eternity, you remain Hersh’s mother. That is how and who you are. You were presciently named....

Apr 14, 2026, 8:06 PM

Waking up on Yom HaShoah is a profound miracle

Paul Kampler recuperating from his leg injury in 1945/1946 in a military hospital in Manchester England.

My father placed his leg across a train track in Sachsenhausen concentration camp and waited. He weighed 85 pounds. He had calculated exactly which wheel would shatter the bone without severing the leg. He had nothing left to lose —...

Dec 23, 2020, 1:16 AM

Giving Life and Giving Death: The Story of A Mother and A Son

Five years ago today, December 22 was also a Tuesday. My son Judah was to hand in his very last final exam of his very last semester of law school, as 2015 wound to a close, then move out of his...

Apr 8, 2020, 10:58 PM

I’m not a doctor, I’m not a rabbi, I’m just a mother who buried a son

We are barraged with incessant news, and we are terrified. We try to stay positive, we share humor in our WhatsApp groups and talk about how lucky we are that we are not foraging rodents in the Polish forests...

Apr 16, 2017, 5:38 PM

Featured Post

Passing over a son’s passing

Illustrative: A young woman sits, face in her hands. (iStock)

Fifteen months after her son committed suicide, she is finding ways to feel less shackled to the pain

Nov 25, 2015, 2:08 PM

Giving Thanks in Germany

Growing up in the simple Philadelphia of the 1960's, without as much as an encyclopedia for reference and just a single television console broadcasting a total of three black-and-white channels, I relied on my imagination to illustrate the stories...

Jul 28, 2014, 4:03 PM

Filing for divorce from the New York Times

July , 2014 Dear New York Times: I first fell in love with you as a freshman at Penn in 1976, using the student discount to afford the luxury of your paper delivery. And for the past 38 years, I have...

About Me

Nina Kampler is a retail real estate lawyer and strategist, and daughter of Holocaust survivor Paul Kampler. Living in Teaneck, New Jersey, she is married to Zvi Marans, mother of four and grandmother — Savta — to a growing generation she is determined to fill with joy, wisdom and our collective stories. She writes and creates at @savtaninaknows on Instagram.

Contact Me