From the Alfred – Alf Schwarzbaum collection: Postcard from Samuil Pasternak, Cernauti, asking about his daughter and her husband, November 1941

From the Alfred – Alf Schwarzbaum collection: Postcard sent by Samuil Pasternak from Cernauti to Schwarzbaum in Lausanne, Switzerland, on 14 November 1941, asking him for information about the fate of his daughter and her husband. Pasternak thanks Schwarzbaum for the regards he received from his brother, Oscar Mileger, through Eng. Gottheil. He asks Schwarzbaum to tell Oscar that they are in their old address in Cernauti. He also asks him to contact the Red Cross to find out about his daughter, Julia Klilger (b. 1913) and her husband Adolf (b. 1909), who were sent on the first Bolshevik transpotr on 13 June and have not been heard from since. Note: the postcard is marked by the censorship. 2 pages, handwritten original, in German Source file: 27017 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.