From the Alfred – Alf Schwarzbaum collection: Letters and postcards from Zygmund Inwald, the Warsaw ghetto, 1941 - 1943

From the Alfred – Alf Schwarzbaum collection: 1. Letters and postcards sent regularly by Zygmund Inwald from the Warsaw ghetto to Schwarzbaum in Lausanne, 16 March 1941 - 10 March 1943. 44 pages, handwritten original, in Polish and German 2. Telegram sent by Mueller to Inwald in Katowice, Poland, on 18 July 1945. Mueller asks Inwald to stop sending letters to Schwarzbaum because the latter is moving to Palestine. Source file: 27245 1 page, typewritten original, in French In his letters, Inwald describes the content of the parcels sent to him (tea, coffee, sardines, honey, chocolate, rice, raisins, figs, almonds, canned pineapple, soap, etc.) and their distribution. Ocasionally, he asks Schwarzbaum and Gottfried to send parcels to other people in need (who names he specifies), and writes about the fate of mutual acquaintances in the ghetto and in Siberia. In early February 1942, he writes that his mother in law died on 12 January, and her brother and sister died a few months earlier. The names mentioned include Gotheil, Marek Szajn, Jakob Szajn, Lipman, Henri Lichtfeld, Dr. Leopold Lichtfeld (Henri's brother), Spiro and John Benzion (in Stockholm). One letter, dated 15 April 1941, was written by Halina Wicia. Note: additional letters were trasnferred from this file to files 40323 and 40324. 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.