From the Alfred – Alf Schwarzbaum collection: Two letters by Bronislaw Majtlis from a sanatorium in Davos, Switzerland, in August 1945

From the Alfred – Alf Schwarzbaum collection: Two letters sent to Schwarzbaum by Bronislaw Majtlis from a sanatorium in Davos, Switzerland, in August 1945. 2 pages, handwritten original, in Polish 1. Majtlis, a former Buchenwald camp inmate, writes that on 23 June 1945 [two months before the camp was liberated] he reached Switzerland with a group of children for recovery. He mentions Abram Majtlis. 14 August 1945. 1 page, hadnwritten original, in Polish. 2. Majtlis asks Schwarzbaum for help in locating his cousin Bernard Rosman in Haifa, based on the address he provides, 18 August 1945. 1 page, hadnwritten original, in Polish. Note: Bronislaw is on a list of children sent from Buchenwald for recovery in Switzerland (File 239 in the Collection Section, GFH Archives). According to the list, he was born in Poland in 1928. 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.