Sztrumpf, Wajsberg, and Kaufman families papers
Extent and Medium
folders
8
Creator(s)
- Sztrumpf family
Biographical History
Janina Irena Fronc (1927-2007) was born Sztrumpf on November 22, 1927 in Kraków to automotive engineer Władysław Sztrumpf and teacher Bella Celina Sztrumpf (nee Wajsberg, 1896-1995). She had a Catholic half-brother who was also named Władysław Sztrumpf. When World War II started, the family moved to Tarnopol (Ternopil, Ukraine) and then crossed into Romania on September 17, 1939, where they survived the Holocaust in Băile Govora, Slatina, and Craiova. Many of Janina’s high school classmates were killed on the MV Struma on the way to Palestine in 1942, and Bella Celina’s parents were shot in the Ternopil ghetto in 1943. Janina’s family returned to Poland in 1945, and her father died in Łódź, Poland. In Warsaw in April 1948, she married Wiktor Grajewski (born Szpilman, 1925-2007), who had survived the war in performing labor in Nuzhyary (Siberia), Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. The couple had daughter Anna in 1949 and moved to Israel in 1957. Janina and Anna immigrated to the United States in 1964, and Janina worked as a draftsperson for engineering companies and mapmakers. Janina remarried twice (Ignacy Musiol and Bolesław Fronc).
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Anna Cwirko-Godycki
Anna Cwirko-Godycki, daughter of Janina and Wiktor Grajewski, donated the Sztrumpf, Wajsberg, and Kaufman families papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2017.
Scope and Content
The Sztrumpf, Wajsberg, and Kaufman families papers include wartime correspondence and pre-war and wartime report cards documenting the Janina Sztrumpf’s family from Kraków, who survived the Holocaust in Romania, and their Wajsberg and Kaufman relatives. The correspondence includes letters and postcards exchanged among relatives and friends including the Janina’s family in Romania; her grandparents Roza and Izydor Wajsberg in Tarnopol; Roza’s relatives Mikolaj Kaufman in Tel Aviv and Mery and Roman Schneider who had been evacuated to Teheran; Grzegorz Joffe in Warsaw; Sebastian Joffe in Lyon; and Boris Roubini in Istanbul. The papers also include report cards documenting Janina Sztrumpf’s education in Krakov, Băile Govora, and Craiova.
System of Arrangement
The Sztrumpf, Wajsberg, and Kaufman families papers are arranged as a single series.
Subjects
- Tarnopol (Poland)
- Kraków (Poland)
- Tel Aviv (Israel)
- Istanbul (Turkey)
- Warsaw (Poland)
- Jews--Poland--Kraków.
- Jewish refugees--Romania.
- Bucharest (Romania)
- Craiova (Romania)
- Teheran (Iran)
Genre
- Document
- Correspondence.
- Report cards.