Irena Bloch papers

Irena Bloch (1913-?) was born Rachela Hecht in Żółkiew, Poland (now Zhovkva, Ukraine) on June, 1, 1913 to civil servant Josef Hecht and Anna Sara Hibner Adelsberg Hecht. She had one brother, Izydor (Dorek, b. March 8, 1912). The Hecht family spoke Polish at home and attended synagogue on high holidays, and Anna was active with Jewish charities. Rachela graduated from the St. Felicja Teachers Seminary for girls in Żółkiew, and her diploma allowed her to teach in elementary schools. She began teaching in 1933 and maintained her activities with the local Jewish theater and Jewish cultural club. In 1935 she met Dziunek David Zimand from Lwów (now Lviv) and they fell in love. Dziunek’s parents, Bernard and Klara Zimand, owned sawmills and a wood export business, and the family was affluent. He had three siblings, Zygmunt, Lusia, and Roman, and he studied medicine in Nancy, France, but never finished. His parents were disappointed in their son’s choice for a wife and the young couple decided to elope. On March 14, 1937 they married in Warsaw and immediately moved to Gdynia, where Dziunek was a majority partner in a wood-floor factory. They lived a good life, had extensive social contacts, and did not pay much attention to the political situation during this time. On September 1, 1939 Rachela and Dziunek packed one suitcase and took a train to Lwów. They initially stayed with his parents at 27 Kochanowskiego Street, but the Soviets soon arrested and subsequently executed Bernard Zimand. In 1940 Rachela moved back to Żółkiew to be closer to her family. She returned to teaching at a Jewish school and Dziunek found employment in a brick factory. On June 22, 1941 Germany invaded the USSR. On June 28, 1941 the German army entered Żółkiew, where more than 5,000 Jews were living in at the time, and immediately burned down the “Di Sobieski schul” synagogue and ordered all Jews to wear an armband with a Star of David. In January 1942 the German confiscated all fur coats, gloves and even fur collars from Jews. Rachela, Dziunek, and Rachela’s parents lived together on Chopin Street in one room in a house that belonged to Mrs. Kaszubska. Dorek, Rachela’s older brother, was involved with a Polish woman named Staszka Traglowska, a widow who lived on Turyniecka Street. Staszka lived in a rented hut, which was located very close to the ghetto fence, and Dorek and Staszka prepared a hiding place for five people dug out in a barn with pigs and rabbits in cages on top. Dorek tried to convince his brother-in-law to come hide, but he refused. On November 22, 1942, during the so-called “Second Aktion” Josef and Anna Hecht were put on a train to Belzec. Anna Hecht wrote a note to her children in which she urged them to be together. According to eyewitness Josef and Anna escaped by jumping form the slow moving train and tried to walk back to Zolkiew. In spite of their “good Aryan looks” they were murdered during their journey by the local population. Rachela survived the “November Aktion” by hiding in a barn, and Dziunek survived because he was in a hospital undergoing surgery. The Germans established a ghetto, and Dziunek worked for the Judenrat. On March 15, 1943 Dorek forced his sister, Rachela, to join him in the hiding place, which was 6 feet by 6 feet with a very low ceiling. Dziunek refused to join them because he trusted a friendly Ukrainian mayor Zubyk, who assured him that there would be no executions. The same day most of the remaining Żółkiew Jews were deported to the Janowska camp, and Dziunek was left with a group of prominent Jews who were shot in the nearby forest. Staszka took three additional Jews into the bunker: Dr. Filip Mandel, Mundzio Blumenfeld, and Szancia (Szarlotta) Wolf. During the day the five in hiding would take turns sitting, sleeping, and keeping guard. At night Dorek would sleep with Staszka. From March 15, 1943 until the liberation on July 23, 1944 Staszka took care of Rachel and Dorek, shopping for and coooking their food, doing their laundry, and, pouring water on the roof of their bunker to prevent fire during bombing. She financed their food through sales of her own jewelry and on the black market. Dr. Filip Mande suffered from tuberculosis and died soon after liberation. Dr. Mandel and Mundzio Moses Blumenfeld paid Mrs. Sokolowska, owner of the house, for their own and Szancia Wolf’s food. Mrs. Sokolowska was afraid Ukrainian nationalists would kill her for hiding Jews, but Staszka physically fought her to prevent her from harming the five hidden people. On July 23, 1944 Rachela left the bunker wearing the same clothes as when she had entered it 17 months earlier. After liberation Rachela returned to teaching and her brother married Staszka. In December 1944 Kalar Zimand, Rachela’s mother-in-law, and her small son, Roman (b. 1932) arrived in Żółkiew to live with Rachela, having survived in Kazakhastan. Dawid Bloch, an old acquaintance, who worked as bookkeeper, visited Żółkiew and got reacquainted with Rachela. Dawid (Dunio, d. 1990), who was originally from Delatyn, Poland (now Deliatyn, Ukraine), educated as a lawyer, and survived the Holocaust posing as a non-Jewish Pole under the name Władyslaw Kazimierczyk. He kept this name after liberation. Rachela and Dawid moved to Bytom and married in 1947. Rachela changed her name to Irena Kazimierczyk. Their daughter, Anna, was born in 1950. In November 1969, as a result of anti-Semitic campaign of the Polish government, the Kazimierczyk family left Poland and settled in Frankfurt, Germany, where Dawid practiced law, and the family changed their name back to his original name, Bloch.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Irena Bloch

Irena Bloch donated her collection to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2001.