Jacob Birnbaum papers
Extent and Medium
folder
1
Creator(s)
- Jacob Birnbaum
Biographical History
Jacob Birnbaum (1922-2007) was born in Piotrków Trybunalski to Faitel Nathan Birnbaum (d. 1942) and Ruda Freida Jurkiewicz Birnbaum (d. 1942). He survived the Dabrowa Górnicza ghetto and the concentration and labor camps at Anhalt bei Auschwitz, Markstadt bei Breslau, Ludwigsdorf, Graditz, and Langenbielau. He was liberated in May 1945, married fellow Holocaust survivor Mira Laudon (1925-2008) in August 1945, relocated to Germany in 1946, and immigrated to the United States in 1949. His parents and sister Chana (1925-1943) were murdered in the Holocaust.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum collection, gift of Jacob Birnbaum
Funding Note: The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Dr. Jacob Birnbaum donated his papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2000.
Scope and Content
The Jacob Birnbaum papers consist of an identification card documenting Jacob Birnbaum’s status as a concentration camp survivor and letters Jacob wrote to Rose (Róża) Strzegowska (later Rose Rothschild), an inmate at the women’s camp, while both were imprisoned at Langenbielau concentration camp, a sub-camp of Gross-Rosen, during the Holocaust. Birnbaum had been exchanging letters with Rose’s twin sister, Eve (Ewa), until Eve became too sick to write. Jacob’s letters describe the terrible living and working conditions at Langenbielau, insufficient food and his efforts to obtain more food, and the laundry that he sends to Rose for cleaning, and they encourage Rose to stay strong and to visit him during a coffee delivery her camp would make to his camp. The letters are written on scraps of paper and the backs of factory reports or forms. Four of the letters are accompanied by English translations.
System of Arrangement
The Jacob Birnbaum papers are arranged as a single series: I. Jacob Birnbaum papers, 1944-1945
People
- Rothschild, Rose, 1925-
Corporate Bodies
Subjects
- World War, 1939-1945--Conscript labor--Germany.
- Bielawa (Wałbrzych, Poland)
- Jews--Poland--Piotrków Trybunalski.
- Piotrków Trybunalski (Poland)
- Concentration camp inmates--Correspondence.
Genre
- Document