Brown leather satchel used by a Polish Jewish prisoner

Chana Pergerycht Wandersman (1926-1988) was born in Będzin, Poland, in Upper Silesia to Sheindl (née Lask, 1896-?) and Abram Mordka Pergerycht (1891-?). She grew up with five siblings, Szlama Herzl (1916-?), Laja Lea (1923-?), Mosze (1927-?), Leib (1930-?), and Zelig (1934-?). During the 1920s and 30s, while Chana was growing up, Będzin was home to a large Jewish community. In 1931, the Jewish population numbered 21,625, roughly half of the town’s total population. There were several hundred Jewish owned factories and workshops, a Jewish press, and primary and secondary schools where lessons were taught in Yiddish and Hebrew. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and on September 4, the German army entered Będzin. The soldiers burned the Great Synagogue of Będzin, as well as roughly 50 Jewish houses surrounding the synagogue. Many Jewish residents were killed by the fires, or by firing squads as they tried to escape. The physical attacks were followed by repressive economic legislation requiring the Jewish population to relinquish their businesses and personal property. Beginning in 1940, Jewish families like the Pergerychts were systematically removed from houses in the center of the city, and forced to find apartments in a four block area. In November, the first deportations from Będzin, known by the Germans as Bensburg, began when all Jews who were not working in local workshops or for the Jewish council were required to appear before a medical commission for selection to labor camps. All of the Jews in Regierungsbezirk Kattowitz region, or East Upper Silesia, which included Będzin, were placed at the disposal of the Organisation Schmelt run by SS-Oberfuehrer Albrecht Schmelt. Organisation Schmelt was an extensive program of forced labor that began establishing camps for Jews in 1940. In December 1941, 15-year-old Chana was deported to Parschnitz labor camp in German-occupied Czechoslovakia. Parschnitz was one of the first forced labor camps set up for Jewish women by the Organisation Schmelt in the summer of 1940. A second camp was opened in 1941. Both camps were located in the spinning mills of three German textile companies: Aloys Haase, Gebrüder Walzel C.G., and Johann Etrich K.G. Chana was forced to work as a laborer in these spinning mills. Later, Chana, and other women in the camp, were forced to work for the Berlin-based General Electric Company (AEG). The SS wardresses at Parschnitz and the civilian personnel in the factories were known for treating the Jewish women brutally, and during Chana’s imprisonment, terrible beatings and torture of the prisoners were not uncommon occurrences. While at the camp, Chana exchanged letters and postcards with her parents and siblings back in Będzin. In the letters, her family made an effort to remain optimistic and share the positive aspects of their lives. In 1943 though, they wrote about missing their old house and having moved an hour away from Będzin to share a summer place with another family transported from Oświęcim, Poland. Her family also wrote “the whole city lives there within several streets,” and added that they were fortunate to have a house because many families did not. Presumably they were talking about the Sosnowiec ghetto established in the Środula suburb of that neighboring city. The process of isolating Jews into the ghetto had begun in October 1942, and the ghetto was sealed on May 1, 1943. Chana’s family continued to send her letters throughout the summer of 1943, saying they were doing well. However, in the last letter that Chana received, dated July 1, 1943, one of her sisters wrote that a big tragedy was coming. The final liquidation of the ghetto began on August 1, and roughly 10,000 Jews were transported to Auschwitz concentration camp. Chana never heard from her family again, and it is likely that they were all murdered in the camp. In March 1944, the administration of Parschnitz was taken over by the Gross-Rosen concentration camp, and it became one of the largest subcamps for women in the Gross-Rosen complex. Despite that shift, Chana’s forced labor remained the same until the spring of 1945, when the prisoners were put to work on preparing fortifications to defend against the allied troops that were closing in on the region. The fortifications made little difference, and the Red Army liberated Parschnitz on May 9. After leaving the labor camp, Chana ended up at Feldafing displaced persons (DP) camp in the American zone of occupation in Germany. At Feldafing, she met fellow survivor David (Dawid) Wandersman (1924-2008). David was from Sosnowiec, and had been transported to Bunzlau labor camp on March 15, 1942, and assigned the prisoner number 52210. Bunzlau was also under the auspices of Organisation Schmelt, and had become a subcamp of Gross-Rosen. On February 7, 1944, David was deported to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, and assigned the prisoner number 120510. He had two brothers, Ojzer and Mordke, who both survived the camps, but Mordke died soon after liberation. Chana and David married in the DP camp in the summer of 1946. While at the camp Chana worked as a dressmaker and David as a mechanic. They immigrated to the United States aboard the USS General C.C. Ballou on September 26, 1949. The couple settled in Rochester, New York, and had one daughter.

The leather satchel was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2016 by Suzanne Wandersman, the daughter of Chana Pergerycht Wandersman.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Suzanne Wandersman