From the Alfred – Alf Schwarzbaum collection: Letters forwarded to Schwarzbaum from Jews in the Biberach DP camp, including H. Stopper and Simon Gitelson, June - July 1945

From the Alfred – Alf Schwarzbaum collection: Letters forwarded to Schwarzbaum from Jews in the Biberach camp in southern Germany, including H. Stopper and Simon Gitelson, June - July 1945. 6 pages, handwritten original, in German Source file: 27102 1. Letter fro, [?]leger in Basel to Schwarzbaum, 16 July 1945. The author notes that he is enclosing four letters from E. Eeinberger, commandant of the Biberach DP camp near (Wuertemberg) to forward to the Langendyk family. Note: the next two letters in the file, from Stopper and Gitelson are presumably two of the aforementioned letters. 2. Letter sent by Stopper to Schwarzbaum on her way to Amsterdam, the netherlands, writing that her friend Paulina Gold and her parents are in Biberach and that her brother is in Laufen. Having received a travel permit, they now wish to join Schwarzbaum in Switzerland. 3. Letter from Gitelson, a Jewish physician from Vienn,a currently worknig at the hospital in the Solgau DP camp near Wuertemberg, to Schwarzbaum, 24 Juen 1945. Gitelson, recently released from the Schwarzbaum by the French army, reports that his entire family had perished. He asks Schwarzbaum for help in locating his wife Mira (nee Brudno), who was ni a concentration camp until the late stages of the war. She may have given a sign of life to her parents in Hadera, Palestine, but without information on her whereabouts he will have difficulty to receive a permit to repatriate. Note: Photos of Dr. Gitelson, taken two days before the writing of this letter, are in files 11604 and 53194 in the GFH Photo Archive. 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 1946 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.