Wasner and Wand families' papers

Zygfryd Wasner (1914-1990) was born on November 13, 1914 in Kraków, Poland. Both his parents, Josef Wasner and Sara Finder as well as his sister, Laura, were killed in the Tarnów ghetto. Zygfryd Wasner was an officer in the Polish army and together with his unit reached Romania. He was imprisoned in a POW camp but after a short while he escaped and worked as a driver till the liberation. In 1947 he returned to his hometown, Kraków. On November 7, 1948, he married his distant relative, Regina Zofia Wand. In 1949 they moved to Szczecin, where their two sons, Joseph and Leszek were born. Regina Zofia and Zygfryd Wasner died in 1990 in Szczecin, Poland.

Regina Zofia Wand (1923-1990) was born in Wielka Wieś, Poland on March 23, 1923. Her father, Leon Wand, and her two brothers, Herman and Szlomo, perished in the Holocaust. Regina Zofia and her mother, Rozalia Finder Wand, acquired false identification papers with help of a local priest. Regina Zofia became Zofia Zięba, born in Słońsk and Rozalia Wand became Maria Zięba born in Jankowa, both Roman Catholics. The two women worked as hired hands for landowners, mostly at large estates that belonged to Polish nobility. Immediately after the liberation they returned to Kraków. On November 7, 1948 Regina Zofia Wand married Zygfryd Wasner and in 1949 they moved to Szczecin, where their two sons, Joseph, and Leszek were born. Rozalia Finder Wand died in Szczecin in 1983. Regina Zofia and Zygfryd Wasner died in 1990 in Szczecin, Poland.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Joseph Wasner

Funding Note: The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

Josef Wasner donated the Wasner and Wand families papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2005.