From the Alfred – Alf Schwarzbaum collection: Two letters from Ernst Reich, Prague, March - May 1941

From the Alfred – Alf Schwarzbaum collection: Two letters sent by Ernst Reich from Praha (Prague), March - May 1941. 2 pages, typewritten original, in German Source file: 27245 The file also contains a letter dated 26 July 1942, sent by Gretl Neumann (nee Reich), Ernst's daughter, asking Schwarzbaum to help her parents who are in the Lodz ghetto. 2 pages, handwritten original, in German Ernst - Arnost Reich was born on 6 May 1980 in Hranice (now in the Czech Republic), the son of Anna and Ludvik. He married Emma Wunsch (b. 16 February 1883), the daughter of Rosa (nee Bloch) and Jacob. Ernst and Emma was deported from their home in Prague to the Lodz ghetto on 21 October 1941. Ernst was killed in the ghetto on 25 February 1943. Emma was sent to Auschwitz, where she was also killed. Note: the information above is taken from Yad Vashem's Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names, based on information given in 1989 by Marketa Newman of Saskatoon, Canada. Ernst and Emma's Witness Pages are in the file. 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.