From the Alfred – Alf Schwarzbaum collection: Letters from the Paradistal family, the Bedzin ghetto, February 1942 - April 1943

From the Alfred – Alf Schwarzbaum collection: 1. Two confirmations for the delivery of parcels from Lausanne, Switzerland, to the Paradistal family in the Bedzin ghetto, 25 June and 14 August 1942. 2. Letters and postcard sent by the Paradistals from the Bedzin ghetto to Schwarzbaum in Lausanne, 11 February 1942 - 28 April 1943. The authors are family members: Adolf (b. 1899) died in the ghetto in late July 1942, and was buried there. He is the author of the 11 February 1942 postcard; Gustawa, Adolf's wife (b. 1889). She is the author of all of the letters. Her sons Ryszard (b. 1918) and Stanislaw (b. 1920) added a few words in each letter; Gustawa writes about her husband's death in the summer of 1942 and mentions mutual acquaintances in the ghetto, such as Weinzieher and his orphanage, Gotheil, Tenenbaum, and others. At Schwarzbaum's request, she enclosed a passport photo and refers to the parcels he had sent them. At some point, she asks him to stop sending parcels, as there is no point anymore. The dates of the letters are: 11/2/1942, 26/8/1942, 31/8/1942, 13/11/1942, 19/12/1942, 3/1/1943, 28/1/1943, 28/4/1943. Note: Additional documents were transferred from this file to files 40462 and 40463 in the Holdings Registry. 18 pages, handwritten original, in German and 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.