From the Alfred – Alf Schwarzbaum collection: Postcard and letters from Rabbi Mordechai – Zvi – Hinko Urbach, Lausanne, 1944 - 1945

From the Alfred – Alf Schwarzbaum collection: Postcard and letters sent by Rabbi Mordechai – Zvi – Hinko Urbach, the chief Ashkenazi rabbi of Sarajevo, from Lausanne, 1944 - 1945. The letters concern his difficulties in contacting the Palestine Office and the Red Cross, as well as requests for help and assistance to relatives. 11 pages, handwritten original, in German Inventory: 1. Letter dated 28 August 1944, riasing concerns about the treatment of urgent matters vis a vis the Red Cross in Geneva, and adding that the Budapest issue has not yet been addressed. 2. A. Letter dated 30 August 1944, asking Schwarzbaum for food for Urbach's brother in law, Jeno - Eugen Feldman, a physician from Hungary who curently resides in the Bergen Belsen DP camp and needs food. B. Another letter regarding Jeno, 7 January 1945. He is now in the Caux camp in Switzerland with other Hungarian Jews, and suffers from frostbites. Urbach asks Schwarzbaum to send him winter clothing. 3. Letter dated 6 October 1944, regarding Urbach's son, asknig Schwarzbaum to take care of his application for the students association in the engineering school in Lausanne. 4. Postcard dated 20 December 1944, asking Schwarzbaum to send a message from Urbach's relative, Ruth Friedman, who had come to Caux. She asks Schwarzbaum to inform her uncle, Heinz Schleim, in Kibbutz Merchavia, Mandate Palestine. The file also contains a Rosh HaShanah greeting from Urbach and his wife. 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.