From the Alfred - Alf Schwarzbaum collection: Three letters written after the liberation

From the Alfred - Alf Schwarzbaum collection: Three letters written after the liberation by Reina Szpiro, Ewa Rozenker and Janek, describing the suffering of the Holocaust survivors and asking for information about relatives. 9 pages, handwritten, in Polish 1. A letter written by Regina (b. 1931 in Bedzin) from Paris to Schwarzbaum, asking for information about her father Fiszel Szpiro, her cousin Icek Justman, both from Bedzin - in January 1944 they were still in the Blechhammer camp – and about Josek Altbeiker of Warszawa (Warsaw). She witnesses the killing of the rest of her family. She was in Auschwitz and then in Ravensbrueck, On 28 April 1945 she was exchanged by the Red Cross and moved to Sweden. Having located her maternal uncle and aunt, the Kozlowskis, she moved in with them in Paris (where she has been for the last month). No date (received on 3 November, probably 1945). 2 pages, handwritten, in Polish 2. A letter written by Rozenker, a native of Zaglebie – Dabrowska, from Florence, to Schwarzbaum, 1 September 1945. She asks the recipient to write to her father, Mr. Kaniweski, a JDC activist who is with her sister in Budapest trying to help Jewish refugees. She, her sister and Pola Szwarzbaum, the recipient's 18 year old nice, were together in a concentration camp, escaped together from the transport and survived until the liberation (by the Red Army) by pretending to be sisters. They later returned to Poland, looked for relatives and suffered persecutions. She learned that her mother died. They made their way to Mandate Palestine – Pola via Bucharest and the others via Budapest – where they were reunited with their father. A few weeks later they moved on and are now in a hachshara (Zionist training camp) in Italy, waiting to immigrate. She also mentions the Bricha organization. 5 pages, handwritten, in Polish 3. A letter from Janek in Jordanbad to Schwarzbaum in Palestine, 17 June 1946. Janek writes that his wife died of typhus in Belzec in 1945, and that his daughter survived, recovered and recently married. His health also suffered greatly, and he is now recovering. After the liberation he returned to his hometown in Poland (possibly Czestochowa) and focused on industry. In January 1946 he moved to Jordanbad and stayed with friends. He asks about his brother and tells about his wish to immigrate to Palestine to be with his children. He writes that some of the Wegreich family of Dabrowica perished, and that Feliks Wegreich and his sister survived and returned to their city. He also mentions other relatives and gives thanks from Sewek and Abram. 2 pages, handwritten, in Polish About Alfred Schwarzbaum: 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 1946 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.