From the Alfred – Alf Schwarzbaum collection: Letter from an officer in the Murnau POW camp, Germany, 1945

From the Alfred – Alf Schwarzbaum collection: Letter from an officer in the Murnau POW camp in Germany, written near the end of the war and sent to Schwarzbaum in Switzerland after the war. 2 pages, handwritten original, in Polish The sender writes that he is in Oflag VII - A Murnau, a POW camp for Polish prisoners, and asks Schwarzbaum to help him leave the camp and write to him through the Red Cross. Signed S.E. On 21 May 1945, he added that he asks Schwarzbaum to try and help him find his wife Ewa Eib, who is either in Sosnowiec or at Mrs. Laner's residence. Notes: 1. Eib is possibly short for Eibschitz. 2. The letter was apparently sent after the war and the liberation of the camp. Source file: 27246 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.