From the Alfred – Alf Schwarzbaum collection: Letters and telegrams from Halina Tencer, Poland and Stockholm, and related telegrams

From the Alfred – Alf Schwarzbaum collection: 1. Telegram sent by Halina Tencer, a native of Bedzin, from Warsaw to Schwarzbaum in Lausanne, asking him to cable her address in Bielsko to the Gorski family in New York, 15 June 1943 1 page, typewritten original, in English 2. Two telegrams sent by Schwarzbaum on 15 June 1945 from Lausanne, one addressed to Halina in Bielsko and the other to Brownstein in Brooklyn, New York. 2 pages, typewritten original, in English 3. Two letters sent by Halina from Stockholm, Sweden, to Schwarzbaum. She thanks him for the help he gave her in Poland, relates her wartime experiences and reports on the fate of relatives, mostly her brother Ignacy, who married Karola Najmark, a native of Bedzin. She feels that things are as bad for the Jews in Poland as it was before the war. In her second letter, she writes that she has married a man surnamed Gorski, and will immigrate to New York in early 1947. The letters were sent on 14 August and no 15 November 1946. The first letter has an addendum in Yiddish by Schwarzbaum, addressing Avraham, written in Prague on 25 November 1946. 6 pages, handwritten original, in Polish and Yiddish Note: one letter that was in the file was moved to file 40040. 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.