From the Alfred – Alf Schwarzbaum collection: Letter from Rozia Dafner (nee Sztrochlic), Bedzin, April 1943

From the Alfred – Alf Schwarzbaum collection: Letter sent by Rozia Dafner (nee Sztrochlic) from the Bedzin ghetto, Poland, to Alfred's daughter Irka Schwarzbaum in Switzerland, 16 April 1943. Dafner's unstated request is for an urgent delivery of foreign passports to exit Poland. 2 pages, handwritten, original, in German Source file: 24087 Roza, daughter of Herszl – Herman (b. 1887) and Bejla – Riwka Sztrochlic (nee Kerner, b. 1889), was born in 1920. She joined the Zionist youth movement HaNoar HaTzioni and was a student in Krakow. She married Abram Dafner, son of Wolf (b. 1895) and Lea (nee Miodownik, b. 1890). She and Abram lived in Bedzin. She writes that two weeks earlier, she had sent Irka a photo of her and her husband with his parents and asks Irka to send her reply to her father in law, Wolf. Roza sends regards to her husband's uncle, Moses Biter, also on behald of her aunt (or aunt in law), Chana Miodownik. Note: According to a Yad Vashem witness page filled out by Roza's brother Sigmund Strochlitz in 2001, Roza was sent from Bedzin to the Srodula ghetto, where she tried to hide with her husband in a bunker but was discovered and sent to Auschwitz in September 1943. Abram's parents perished, as did his sister Hela - Chaja. 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.