From the Alfred – Alf Schwarzbaum collection: Correspondence regarding two children, Nathan and Mireille Panzer

From the Alfred Schwarzbaum collection: Correspondence regarding two siblings, Nathan Panzer (b. 1 October 1933) and Mireille Panzer (b. 3 October 1935), 1944. Their uncle, Ernest Bochner, asks the Youth Aliyah authorities to bring the children to Mandate Palestine, where they will be taken into the care of another uncle, Moshe Offen. Their mother, Toni Bochner - Panzer, and their unnamed father were deported to the east. The children, natives of Belgium, are currently residing with their uncle in Switzerland. 9 pages, typewritten original, in German Inventory: 1. Letter from the board of the Zionist Federation in Zurich, Switzerland, to Dr. Veit - Wyler in Zurich and Isaac Cohen in Lausanne, 19 September 1944. 2. Letter from Isaac Cohen at the Jewish national board in Switzerland to Dr. Scheps and Dr. Pozner, and a letter to Nathan Schwalb at the HeHalutz office in Geneva. 3. Two letters sent by Scheps to Bochner. 4. Letter sent to Cohen. 5. Letters sent by Cohen and Bochner to Schwalb. 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.