From the Alfred – Alf Schwarzbaum collection: Letters from Dr. Franziska Baumgarten, Solothurn, 1942, concerning failed deliveries

From the Alfred – Alf Schwarzbaum collection: Letters sent by Dr. Franziska Baumgarten from Solothurn, Switzerland, to Schwarzbaum in Lausanne in 1942. Theletters concern the delivery of parcels from Porugal to Jews in Poland. The majority of the letters are complaints by different people in Switzerland who ordered parels (food and clothing) for their families in the ghettos of Poland and paid for them in advance, but the parcels allegedly failed to arrive. Dates: 12 January, 21 February, 28 February, 7 March, 14 March, 20 April, 7 May, 14 May, 21 May, 26 May, 13 June, 18 June, 23 June, 12 August and 26 August, 1942. Notes: 1. Dr. Baumgarten - Tramer was born in Lodz in 1889 and studied psychology in Switzerland. She earned a reputation as an occupational psychologist. In 1924, she married a psychiatrist named Moritz Tramer, a native of Berlin. During the war, the couple lived in Solothurn. She sent parcels to Jews in distress in Poland via Schwarzbaum, and was in close contact with him. In 1945, she and her husband moved to Bern. She died in 1970. Her letters to Schwarzbaum are in files 26193 and 26317. 2. Additional letters were transferred to files 41349, 41350 and 41351 in the Holdings Registry. 26 pages, typewritten and handwritten, original, in Polish 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.