Leah Aks

Leah Aks was a passenger on the RMS Titanic.

Early life[]

Leah Rosen was born on March 20, 1891 in Warsaw, Masovia, Poland. She was Jewish, the daughter of Morris Rosen and Annie, whose last name remains unkown. The Rosen family had tough times. They weren't sure of their lives because of the increasing agression towards jews in Europe and even Poland. Part of Poland belonged to Russia. Leah had an older brother, Solomon, who was fearing conscription in the Russian Army when he was just 15 or 16 years old.

To avoid this, they sent him over to go to England, where he reached London. Solomon worked hard to get the rest of his family out of Poland. Leah as a young girl was educated in London, making her understanding of English as good as possible.

When she had grown up as a young woman, Leah met Samuel Aks in London. He was also from Poland and of Jewish origin. As a young man, he was a boxer for a while and had made money but was sent back to England because of having contracted chickenpox. They got married in 1910.

On the 7th of July in 1911, the pair was blessed with a son, and they named him Frank Philips. They often referred to him as Filly. As the family were poor and didn't feel safe in the precarious and grim neighbourhoods of the metropole, they decided to migrate, with Norfolk, Virginia in the US as destiny. Sam would go on ahead. In January 1912, Sam was a passenger of the Cymric. Once settled in the new country, he worked as a tailor.

Titanic[]

As she was their only daughter, Leah's parents were worried and made her wait for 3 months before she could cross the Atlantic on what would be the safest ship at the time. Leah and her son left the mainland onboard the mighty new vessel from Southampton on April 10, travelling in Third Class. She was 21 years old at the time.

On April 14 at late night, the Titanic had collided with an iceberg. The ominous scraping sound had woken other passengers but Leah slept on until an another passengers alerted Leah, who immediately sprung into action, feeling that something was amiss. She took her child and they went upstairs and was on the Aft Well Deck to check out Their progress was halted as the stewards kept the Third Class passengers waiting behind gates in the stairway. There was a large crowd. When noticed by sailors, she was let through and lifted up with her boy to the aft Second Class deck above. From there on, she could reach the Boat Deck, but she had to let go of her baby for a moment and lost him somehow.

He ended up being tossed in a different lifeboat than his mother. On the Boat Deck. Leah, still in a state of shock, was searching for Frank but was pushed into a lifeboat on port side. It's uncertain which lifeboat this was, but it was a lifeboat that picked up people from the water, by Leah's account. Around 2:18 A.M. she sees the RMS Titanic break in two, and the ship slips beneath the waves at 2:20 A.M.

After the sinking[]

Aboard Carpathia, Leah was heartbroken and couldn't eat from the pain. She was frantically searching the whole ship. Luckily one of the fellow occupants of boat 13, Selena Cook, another Titanic survivor from Second Class who she met in lifeboat 13, watched over her. At some point, she was sent up on deck by her friend and she heard her boy cry found him in the arms of an Italian woman carrying him. Despite the fact she was breastfeeding him, Filly reached out to Leah with his arms. This woman must have been Argene Del Carlo. She refused to give him back. Like in the biblical story of King Salomon, Captain Rostron had to intervene to determine who was the mother of the child. Fortunately, as it was a Jewish child, it could be determined that he belonged to Leah as he was circumsized and Leah also described a birthmark on his chest. Mrs. Madeleine Astor at the time was staying in Captain Rostron's cabin and witnessed the scene unfold. She noticed Filly felt cold. She was kind enough to lent Leah her fur shawl to keep her son warm.

Right after the disaster, Frank became famous as the 'Baby of the Titanic and was now world news, even though Millvina Dean was actually younger. Sam meanwhile had the shock of his life when the news reached him and hurt his head. He met up with his family after 4 days. Leah and Sam meanwhile were cared for by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. They were so helpful that they brought the united family to the Pennsylvania Railroad.

Later life[]

Leah Aks at the CBS Radio Show 'Believe It Or Not' hosted by Robert Ripley in April 1939.

Leah and her husband were now residents of Norfolk. On 12 March 1913, a daughter was born to Sam and Leah. She received a special name. Still thankful for the rescue and the way that Rostron helped Leah retrieve her son, Leah decided to name her new child Sara Carpathia, after the famous rescue ship. On 21 January 1915, a second son and their last child, Harry Aks, was born. Sam Aks had his own garage in the 1920s and sold cars. During those years, Leah and Sara were on the Olympic a few times when they visited family in England. From the 1930s they had moved to another street in Norfolk.

Tragically, The bitter cold Leah had endured in the lifeboat while awaiting her rescue had permanently damaged her eardrums and she suffered from a partial loss of hearing for the rest of her life. She also had what we call post-traumatic distress.

In 1939, she revealed that she had been in and out of hospital for 11 months as she suffered from nervous collapses. the remainder of her life, she lived in Norfolk in Virginia. In 1951, she made contact with a fellow Titanic survivor as she discovered she lived a few blocks away: Celiney Alexander Yasbeck. They met eachother a lot of times. She also met with Thelma Thomas, May Futrelle and of course she stayed in touch with her great friend Selena Cook. Leah was active in social life of her community and joined many clubs.

In 1953, she and her son Frank were at the premiere of the film 'Titanic' as guests of honor.

Leah Aks passed away on 22 June 1967 at the age of 76 in Norfolk, Virginia, United States. She was in a hospital when she was 76 years old. Her husband lived for 4 more years.

Sources[]

_{https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7Kf8lOx4Fo A Mother's Love: Leah Aks | w/. Dr Shelley Binder --- youtube channel of Sez Francis who interviewed Dr. Shelley Binder, the great-granddaughter of Leah Aks. My special thanks to both.}