From the Alfred – Alf Schwarzbaum collection: Postcards from Eleonora Schein, Vittel and La Bourboule camps, France, 1943 and 1945

From the Alfred – Alf Schwarzbaum collection: Postcards sent by Eleonora Schein (nee Bulwa) from the Vittel camp during the war and from La Bourboule, France, after the liberation, to Schwarzbaum in Lausanne, Switzerland, and to I. Rotenberg in Paris, 1943 and 1945. 24 pages, handwritten copy, in German and Polish Notes: 1. For other letters written by Eleonora, see file 35622 in the Holdings Registry. 2. The postcard dated 27 March 1942 was actually written on 27 March 1943. Source files: 27040 and 35622 (18/3/1945, 28/4/1945, 14/5/1945, 6/5/1945). About Eleonora Schein: Dr. Dawid Bulwa, a lawyer, was born in 1882, was active in the Mizrahi movement and a candidate for the Polish Sejm – was married to Rozalia Bulwa (nee Seiden), born 1890. They lived in Krakow. Their circle of friends included Nachum Goldman, a relative, Chaim - Nachman Bialik, Prof. Hugo Bergman, and Yehoshua Thon. In July 1912, their first son, Leon Bulwa, was born. Their daughter Eleonora was born in 1914 in the resort town of Karlsbad (Karlovy Vary). Leon later married Lida Schein (nee Weinheber). Dawid and Rozalia lived in Podgorz before the war. Salomon Schein was born in Bedzin in 1908. His mother Cecilia – Cyrla was born in Warszawa (Warsaw) in 1882. His father Isaak – Yitzhak Schein was born the same year in Bedzin. His family owned a large steel factory [mentioned in file 13026 in the Holdings Registry of the GFH Archives]. Isaak and Cecilia ran a soup kitchen near their house. Cecilia was a member of the town council, in charge of welfare. A training camp named "Kibbutz Ovadia" of the HaShomer HaDati and HaMizrahi religious Zionist movements was built on land owned by the family near Bedzin. Its graduates were among the founders of Kfar Etzion and Tirat Tzvi, two religious Zionist kibbutzim in Israel. Isaak had two more brothers: Chaim Schein, who later immigrated to Palestine and married Anna; and Mordechai Schein, who married Dora and immigrated to Palestine with his two children before the war (the son, Ferdinand Schein, married Roza). Eleonora and Salomon married in 1938 and settled in Bedzin. Following the German occupation of Krakow, Dawid and Rozalia were concentrated in the ghetto, as did Leon, a law student (he worked for the Jewish community in the ghetto). They sent out many requests for help to their acquaintance, Alfred Schwarzbaum, in Switzerland. Dawid and Rozalia perished in Belzec in 1942. Leon was deported to the Plaszow camp and killed by the commandant, Amon Goeth. Lida, who suffered from a leg disability, survived the war and immigrated to the US, where she started a family. During the German occupation, Salomon and Eleonora acquired Costa Rican passports (Janka Bastos, the wife of the Costa Rican consul in Portugal, was a friend of Eleonora). She was in the Kolomea ghetto from September to November 1941, before being taken out thanks to an intercession by Nahum Goldman (based on her foreign passport): she was imprisoned in Kolomea from November 1941 to May 1942, and was then interned in a concentration camp in Lwow until October 1942. She was then transferred to the Pawiak prison in Warsaw and was then sent to the Tittmoning concentration camp in Upper Bavaria, Germany. She was there until January 1943, together with Salomon and his father Isaak (Cecilia died earlier). In January 1943 she was transferred with other Jewish women from Poland from Tittmoning to Vittel, France. She maintained correspondence with her husband. Later that year, she was joined by Salomon and Isaak, who had a foreign passport. Yitzhak Katzenelson writes in his Vittel diary (1944) that "according to Mr. Schein, the invasion lies ahead". On 30 May 1944 Salomon and Isaak were sent on the last transport to Auschwitz via Drancy, once the Germans established that their passports are invalid. Eleonora, also earmarked for deportation, was pregnant near the end of her last trimester. Prof. Levy, a French doctor, persuaded the authorities to keep her in the camp hospital. Days later, the Germans announced that holders of such passports can stay, but it was too late. On 3 June 1944, she gave birth to a daughter, Diana. In his last postcards from the train (Vittel, then Drancy), Salomon is aware of his daughter's birth. He and Isaak perished in Auschwitz. After the liberation, Eleonora and her infant daughter were sent to the La Bourboule DP camp for recovery. Several months later, Goldman offered Eleonora either a US visa or an immigrant certificate for Palestine. She chose the latter, and on 15 July 1945 they reached Palestine on the ship "Mataroa". After a few days in Atlit and Jerusalem, they moved in with Mordechai Schein (Salomon's paternal uncle). Eleonora later married a man surnamed Wagner. She died in 2010. 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.