Michal Birbrajer photograph collection

Michał Birbrajer was born on February 21, 1917 in Dermanka in Western Ukraine, Poland. His father, Efraim Birbrajer (d. 1936), worked for a manufacturer of railroad passenger cars and his mother, Raisa Rysia Wajnszelbaum Birbrajer was a housewife. Michał had four sisters: Chava (b. 1912), Liza (b. 1914), Tunia (b. 1919), and Cyla (b. 1922). The family lived in Korzec in the Ukraine. Michał studied law at the Lvov University. In 1938 he married Riwa and in January 1939 their son, Fredek, was born. Michał and his family lived in Równe. A few days before the German invasion of the Soviet Union he was mobilized into the Soviet Army where he served at first in the anti-craft defense unit and later in the artillery. He returned to Równe in February 1944 only to find out that his wife and son were killed during the first aktion in November 1941. Michał later learned that his mother and oldest sister, Chava, with her two children were murdered in Korzec. His three sisters survived the war serving as nurses in the Red Army. After completing his military service in May 1945, Michał returned to Lvov (Lviv), Ukraine to finish his law studies. Upon graduation in December 1946, he and his younger sister, Tunia, repatriated to Poland. He settled in Warsaw and married Pola Grajcer, a survivor of the Warsaw ghetto. In October 1951 their daughter, Ania, was born and their son, Julian was born in 1955. Michał Birbrajer worked as a press and radio journalist. In 1969 the family left Poland and immigrated to Sweden, where Michał Birbrajer worked as a researcher at the Historical Institute of the Göteborg University.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

The photographs were donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1999 by Michal Birbrajer.