Children at Belsen

Luba Tryszynska, a Jewish woman from White Russia, near Brest-Litovsk, probably Kaments-Litovsk, who lost her husband Hersch and three-year old child Isaac at Auschwitz, was transferred from Auschwitz in November 1944 to Bergen Belsen, and began caring for children with permission of the camp doctor and of SS officials in December 1944. Beginning with a group of Dutch Jewish children, the “diamond” children, whom she found outside her barrack one night, but not limited to these, she and Hermina Krantz, a Jewish woman from Slovakia, also transferred from Auschwitz, were placed in charge and cared for ninety orphaned children from less than one-year old to twelve years old. Luba played the provider – she went all over the camp getting provisions, collecting, and winning help from some guards, who provided wood, bread, and occasionally milk. Hermina was the manager – she scrubbed the floors, washed the children, cooked and fed them. They were able to establish a regular routine, with meals at 7 am, 1pm, and 7 pm. Hermina boiled the children’s underclothes, seeking thereby to shut out the typhus that began ravaging the camp. Ultimately, nonetheless, about thirty of the children were infected. There are indications that the women had help from friendly SS guards and even received provisions for the children from women SS guards. Right until liberation, Luba and Hermina kept the orphaned children’s hut intact and the children sheltered from the worst that occurred in the camp. After liberation, Luba became the manager of the new children’s home under British direction, and Hermina became the chief cook. Later, Luba accompanied children back to Holland and then other children to Sweden, before she herself came to the United States. When she arrived in the United States and became an American citizen, it was noted that “the Angel of Belsen” had become a citizen. Found by some of the diamond children many years later, Luba was honored by the Queen of Holland and the mayor of Amsterdam. A recent children’s book by Michelle R. McCann about “Luba, The Angel of Belsen” has won numerous prizes, including a National Jewish Book Award. In the Yizkor book for Kamenets-Litovsky, Belarus, a story about “the Angel of Belsen” states she was moved to Belsen in summer, 1944 and, as a nurse, she had some advantages. She concealed the small triangle beneath the identification number tattooed on her left arm, she passed herself off as a Russian, and she was placed in a nursing shack at the camp. There, one night, outside, she discovered the children of the diamond Jews of Holland, who had been separated from their parents and brought to Belsen. She pleaded the case with Dr. Klein, the doctor from Auschwitz. She’d keep them out of the way – Klein agreed to give her a barracks and put her in charge of the children. She had 94 children – Dutch Jews, Polish Jews, and Russians. The children were fed and kept indoors. When the British arrived, they were amazed to find 94 children alive in one barrack presided over by Luba Tryszynska (she was 28 years old). Later she accompanied 64 Dutch children home, and the other children to Sweden, who were in turn adopted in Sweden and Finland. In Sweden, Luba Tryszynska married Sol Frederich, whom she met in a DP camp. He had spent five years in Oswiecim, but she did not know him there. He had relatives in the United States. They immigrated.