Rita Hofrichter collection

Rita Gliksman Hofrichter survived on the Aryan side of Warsaw, Poland, during the Jewish uprising in the Warsaw ghetto. She lived there until 1944 when she was sent to Proszków, Poland. While posing as a non-Jew, Rita faked pregnancy by stuffing several sweaters under her clothes and was evacuated to Bochnia, Poland, on Aryan papers along with the elderly and sick. After liberation in 1945, she joined a kibbutz in Łódź, Poland. Rita later traveled to Warsaw to search for her father who had been a member of the partisan resistance; however, she did not locate him and returned to Łódź. Contacted by the Chief Rabbi of England, she decided to attempt immigration to Palestine. She traveled to Germany, through the Russian Zone to the American Zone, arriving in the Leipheim displaced persons camp (formerly Luftwaffe barracks) near Ginsburg and Ulm, Germany. On June 30, 1946, Rita married Joseph Hofrichter, originally from Galicia. Joseph later designed the memorial erected in Leipheim and created a mural in the camp. Their son, Alexander Israel Hofrichter, was born in Ginsburg, Germany. The family immigrated to New York City in January 1948 aboard the SS Marine Flasher.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received this collection from Rita Hofrichter on Jan. 20, 1999.