Gertrude Jorisch papers
Extent and Medium
folders
3
Creator(s)
- Gertrude Jorisch
Biographical History
Gertrude (Gussie) Jorisch (1923- ) was born Gusta Wechsler in Skałat, Poland (now Skalat, Ukraine) to Joseph and Pepa Wechsler. In October 1942, most of her family was rounded up, deported to Belzec and killed. Gertrude escaped deportation by hiding in a closet. She was forced into the Skałat ghetto and ended up in the Skałat labor camp with her boyfriend, Martin Jorisch, and her father. They escaped the labor camp and survived in the forest until liberation. Gertrude and Martin were married in Skałat and hitchhiked to the displaced persons camp at Deggendorf with Joseph, who later moved to Canada. The couple had their first child, Henry, at Deggendorf and immigrated to the United States in 1949.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Gertrude Jorisch
Funding Note: The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Gertrude Jorisch donated the Gertrude Jorisch papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2000 and 2007. The accession formerly cataloged as 2007.75 has been incorporated into this collection.
Scope and Content
The Gertrude Jorisch papers consist of a partial list of victims from Skałat, Poland (now Скалат, Ukraine); Gertrude Jorisch’s 13 page memoir about her prewar life in Skałat, the deportation of her family to Belzec, her time in the Skałat ghetto and labor camp and hiding in the forest, and postwar antisemitism in Skalat; and photographs of herself, her father, her husband, and other Holocaust survivors at the displaced persons camp at Deggendorf.
System of Arrangement
The photographs and a memoir papers are arranged as a single series: Gertrude Jorisch papers, approximately 1945-2007.
Corporate Bodies
- Deggendorf (Displaced persons camp)
Subjects
- Deggendorf (Germany)
- Forced labor--Ukraine--Skalat.
- Hiding places--Ukraine--Skalat.
- Holocaust survivors--Germany--Deggendorf.
- Skalat (Ukraine)
- Jews--Ukraine--Skalat.
- Jewish ghettos--Ukraine--Skalat.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Ukraine--Skalat--Personal narratives.
Genre
- Document
- Photographs.