From the Alfred – Alf Schwarzbaum collection: Two letters from Aron Weintraub (alias Antoni Wedrinski), Budapest, November 1943

From the Alfred – Alf Schwarzbaum collection: Two letters sent by Aron Weintraub (using the alias Antoni Wedrinski) from Budapest, Hungary, to Schwarzbaum in Lausanne, Switzerland, 20 and 29 November 1943. 3 pages, handwritten, original, in German Source file: 27250 Inventory: 1. 20 November 1943: Weintraub reports that he and his son (age 4) have been in Budapest for five months, having miraculously arrived there. Their parents and siblings perished, and they have no ties in Budapest. They are starving with no subsistence, since all their property remaiend in Poland. Weintraub werites that he has heard about Schwarzbaum from his freinds, asks him to contact a relative in Tel Aviv, Mandate Palestine, Dr. Jaakov Frand, who is residing with Josef Geller. Weintraub asks Schwarzbaum to ask Frand to send immigration certificates and tickets for the ship. He provides information about himself, his wife, his son and his brother in law, respectively: Aron Weintraub (b. 20 December 1910), native of Bielitz,; Maria Weintraub (nee Gruen, b. 11 April 1914), native of Milowka; Bernard Weintraub (b. 27 October 1939), native of Krakow; Izydor Gruen (b. 21 September 1911), native of Milowka. 2. 29 November 1943: Weintraub reports on a change of address in Budapest, and beseeches Schwarzbaum to act on his behalf. Note: Frand was a leader of the Akiva movement in Krakow in the late 1920s. In Palestine, he was active in the General Zionists movement. 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.