From the Alfred – Alf Schwarzbaum collection: Postcard from Ms. Goldberg, Basel, February 1943

From the Alfred – Alf Schwarzbaum collection: Postcard sent by Ms. Goldberg from Basel, Switzerland, to Schwarzbaum in Lausanne, 25 February 1943. In response to to a postcard sent to her by Schwarzbaum on 22 February 1943, Goldberg writes that she hasreceived an inquiry from Mrs. Jadzia Wainryb in the Dabrowa Gornicza ghetto about her brother, Jakob Klein. Goldberg asks Schwarzbaum to inquire. Note: According to a card issued by the Zionist Coordination for the Redemption of Jewish Children for Jadzia's daughter Fryda, and to Fryda's testimony (given on 16 October 1946) it appears that Jadzia, the daughter of Jakob and Towa - Eugenia Klein, married Efraim Weinrib, a physician. Fryda was born on 2 April 1936 in Katowice, and the family lived in Dabrowa Gornicza. At the outbreak of WWII, Efraim was conscripted by the Polish Army and never returned. Jadzia and Fryda lived in the Dabrowa Gornicza ghetto until its liquidation. Jadzia perished in Auscwhitz. Fryda was interned in a camp in Bedzin until Towa took her out and gave her to a Christian family in Andrychow. After the war, with the Coordination's help, Fryda was removed from her adopting family and taken to Tarnow and from there to a "children's kibbutz" in Lodz. In October 1946. she gave her testimony to Benjamin Tene, an emissary from Mandate Palestine. Jadzia had a brother in Palestine. See files 3802 and 4899 (Collections Section) and file 40062 (Holdings Registry. 2 pages, type written, in German Source file: 26407 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.