From the Alfred – Alf Schwarzbaum collection: Letter from Mrs. Lotto, Zurich, asking for information about relatives in the Warsaw ghetto, January 1943

From the Alfred – Alf Schwarzbaum collection: Letter sent by Mrs. Lotto (nee Jelenkiewicz) from Zurich to Schwarzbaum in Lausanne, asking for information about relatives in the Warsaw ghetto, 9 January 1943. Lotto writes that she has heard from a friend, Mrs. Dym, that Schwarzbaum has been corresponding with people in Poland, and asks him to find out about her family, who had fled to Warsaw from Lodz: her father Napoleon; her mother Tania, her sister N. Czechowska; her sister's husband Wladyslaw Czechowski and their six year old daughter Hania. She suggests a source for the information: Dr. Lucjan Jelenkiewicz, who works in Warsaw. She asks whether the food parcels sent through the Red Cross from Lisbon to the Jewish Social Self - Help (JUS) are in fact divided among the poor, and whether similar parcels can now be sent to Warsaw as well. Note: additional letters were moved from this file to files 23955 and 40268. 2 pages, handwritten original, in German About Alfred Schwarzbaum: Alfred (Alf) Schwarzbaum was a Jewish merchant from Bedzin, Poland, who fled to Switzerland after the occupation. In Switzerland, he set up a relief enterprise, and supported hundreds of Jews. Alfred (Alf) Schwarzbaum was born in 1896 in Sosnowiec, Poland. He later moved to Bedzin, became a businessman and started a family. In late September 1939, following the German occupation of Poland, he sent his daughter to England. In November 1939, he was jailed for several weeks in Myslowice and was interrogated by the Gestapo. After his release, he turned down an offer from Mosheh Merin, head of the Sosnowiec Jewish council, to be his deputy. Using his connections and his fortune, he was able to obtain visas for Switzerland. In April 1940, he left Poland and settled in Lausanne. Schwarzbaum soon started sending out food, clothing, money and papers to Poland. He managed to navigate between the often uncoordinated Jewish and Zionist organizations based in Switzerland, to transfer financial help to Jews in Poland. He sent hundreds of parcels to German occupied localities, via Lisbon, Sweden and Turkey. He visited refugee camps in Switzerland, and corresponded with persons living under the Nazi rule. He also produced passports, which led him into trouble with the Swiss police, who feared for violation of the country's neutrality policy. In 1945, he immigrated to Mandate Palestine. In Israel, he supported funds and provided stipends for students in need, in several Israeli institutes for higher education. He died in 1990.