From the Alfred – Alf Schwarzbaum collection: Letter from Anna Fass, Bielsko - Biala, May 1946

From the Alfred – Alf Schwarzbaum collection: Letter sent by Anna Fass from Bielsko - Biala, Poland, 29 May 1946. The letter concerns the tracing of family members. 2 pages, handwritten, original, in Polish Fass writes that she and her children have been in Poland for two weeks and that she has not found any living relative. She adds that she cannot return to Zakopane and asks for Schwarzbaum's help in finding the address of her maternal uncle, Mendoza - Zygmunt Schlachet, who moved to Argentina after WWI. She asks whether the Jewish organizations in Mandate Palestine can help her find him. She sends regards from Ira and Stefan. Notes: 1. On the top right corner of the first page is a comment in a different handwriting: "Komit. Zyd. Anna Fass, [illegible address] 26, Bielsko". Fass evidently adresseed the letter to the Central Committee of Polish Jews (CKZP), which forwarded it to Schwarzbaum. 2. According to the memorial book published in 1979 by the Association of Jews from Nowy Targ and Its Environs in israel (in Hebrew), Fass, a native of Zakopane, married Dr. Bertold - Baruch Fass in 1923 and had two children. After the German invasion of Poland, they fled to the Soviet Union. Bertold died in a Soviet labor camp in 1943. 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.