From the Alfred – Alf Schwarzbaum collection: Letter from Wladyslaw Kaczmarek, Warsaw ghetto, April 1943

From the Alfred – Alf Schwarzbaum collection: Letter sent by Wladyslaw Kaczmarek from the Warsaw ghetto to Schwarzbaum in Lausanne, 3 April 1943. 2 pages, handwritten original, in German The file also contains the envelope in which the letter was sent. 2 pages, handwritten original, in German Source file: 26695 Wladyslaw writes that Nusyn Rabinowicz and his family, natives of Zawiercie, and his brother in law Mojsze - Chil Dykman and his family are well and are working at the Schultz factory on Nowoplici Street in Warsaw. Both families ask Schwarzbaum to come to terms with [Rabbi] E. Botschko of Montreaux and with Mr. [Schaul] Weingort, so that urgent food parcels can be sent to them, same as the ones sent to [Rabbi Menachem] Ziemba and Orlean. Notes: 1. The diagonal blue line attests that the letter was inspected by the German censorship. 2. Other letter from this file were transferred to the following files: 40061, 40062, 40063, 40064. 3. The request for foodstuffs may disguise an urgent request for life saving documents (personal papers, foreign nationalities, etc). 1 page, 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.