VALLEY STREAM, N.Y. (WCBS) – A Holocaust survivor and his wife celebrated their 69 years of marriage with ballroom dancing and champagne at a surprise anniversary party.
Even after decades of marriage, Fred and Elaine Zeilberger, 95 and 89, respectively, are still devoted to each other. They celebrated their anniversary Wednesday at The Bristal Assisted Living in North Woodmere, New York.
“It just feels wonderful that we’re still together,” Elaine Zeilberger said.
“We do the best we can,” Fred Zeilberger said.
Their secret to such a long and happy marriage? Compromise and activity.
“We get along,” Fred Zeilberger said, according to a Facebook post from the assisted living facility.
“I always say yes to him,” Elaine Zeilberger added with a smile.
Fred Zeilberger came to the United States as a war orphan from Wurzburg, Germany, where his father, a tailor, was forced to make uniforms for Nazi soldiers. Fred was just 9 years old when Adolf Hitler’s forces moved him through five concentration camps.
“Very few people survived, and I am one of them,” he said.
Sad and alone, Fred Zeilberger came through Ellis Island, and in 1951, he was drafted by the U.S. Army. When the Korean War ended, a friend’s mother asked him if he had a girlfriend. He said no, and she gave him the phone numbers of two “nice girls.”
“She gave me Elaine’s number,” Fred Zeilberger said. “The other one I never called, and I’m stuck.”
For their first date, the couple drove to the Copacabana in a pink convertible. They were soon married at the Empire Hotel in Manhattan.
“We… lived a good life,” Fred Zeilberger said. “This country has been very good to me.”
“It just gets better,” Elaine Zeilberger said.
Besides the couple’s devotion to each other, they say their children and grandchildren make every day worth living.
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