Yaakov Leist was born in Czestoborowice, Poland, 1921 to Avraham and Sara. He was single. Prior to WWII he lived in Czestoborowice, Poland. Yaakov survived the Shoah.
Jews deported to or imprisoned in camps, ghettos or forced labor frameworks, who were in hiding, in clandestinity or resistance formations, or suffered relentless persecution under antisemitic legislation in territories controlled by the Nazis or their allies, and were alive by the end of 1945 are considered Shoah survivors.