Gisela Laufer Wortman, William Laufer, and Naum Wortman papers

The Gisela Laufer Wortman, William Laufer, and Naum Wortman papers consist of biographical materials, correspondence files, displaced persons camp records, photographs, and printed materials documenting Dr. Gisela Laufer Wortman, her first husband Dr. William Laufer, and her second husband Dr. Naum Wortman. The Dr. Gisela Laufer Wortman papers document her family from Tarnobrzeg, Poland, their deportation to the Soviet Union during World War II, and her wartime and postwar medical training in Ashgabat, Prague, and Vienna. The Dr. William Laufer papers trace the Laufer and Rubinstein family’s refuge in Lvov and deportation to a labor camp in Marijska (Mari El, Russia). The Dr. Naum Wortman papers document Wortman’s work as a doctor at the Auschwitz concentration camp and the Ebensee and Ebelsberg displaced persons camps as well as his first wife Gisela Plancer Wortman’s description of the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp. The Dr. Gisela Laufer Wortman papers include biographical materials and photographs documenting her family from Tarnobrzeg, Poland, their deportation to the Soviet Union during World War II, and her wartime and postwar medical training in Ashgabat, Prague, and Vienna. The Dr. William Laufer papers include reproductions of identification papers for Masha Rubinstein, Josef Laufer, and Teofila Laufer; Laufer and Rheinhold family correspondence; forms completed by Robert Zelman Rubins related to the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims; and two documents regarding Dr. William Laufer’s medical credentials. Laufer and Rheinhold family correspondence consists of a single folder of correspondence dated 1940-1941 among William Laufer, his father Melech Rubinstein, his brother Josef Laufer, and the Reinhold family in Krakow. The correspondence traces the Laufer and Rubinstein family’s refuge in Lvov and deportation to a labor camp in Marijska, an autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic now known as the Mari El, Russia. The Dr. Naum Wortman papers consist of biographical materials, correspondence files, displaced persons camp records, photographs, and printed materials documenting Wortman’s family; his work as a doctor at Auschwitz and for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, American Joint Distribution Committee, and International Refugee Organization at Ebensee and Ebelsberg; and his immigration to the United States. The collection also includes a description of the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp by Wortman’s first wife, Gisela Plancer Wortman. Biographical materials include correspondence, forms, identification papers, and a marriage certificate documenting Naum Wortman’s stays at the Ebensee and Ebelsberg displaced persons camps, his marriage to Gisela Plancer, and his immigration to the United States. This series also includes records documenting Wortman’s medical training, experience, and efforts to reestablish his career after the war, his 1969 deposition about conditions at Auschwitz, and a working drawing for a bronze memorial plaque for his family. This series further includes a description of a scene at Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp by Naum Wortman’s first wife, Gisela Plancer Wortman, a certificate documenting her qualifications as a dental technician, and records documenting her 1949 immigration to the United States. Correspondence files primarily consist of postwar letters and postcards among Naum Wortman, his extended family, and friends from his pre-war life or whom he met in the displaced persons camps later living in America, Argentina, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Palestine. The messages describe wartime experience, postwar life, and plans for emigration. Later correspondence includes Wortman’s letter to the editor on the subject of the atom bomb as well as correspondence with Gisela Wortman memorializing Naum Wortman. Displaced persons camp records include authorization and identification forms, letters of recommendation, autobiographical statements, and correspondence regarding the business of the camps, particularly in relation to medical care. These materials also include notebooks in which Wortman registered births and recorded surgeries performed in the camps, and envelopes, forms, and letterhead relating to Wortman and to the American Joint Distribution Committee. Photographs include images of survivors and camp conditions at the Ebensee concentration camp shortly after liberation and Naum Wortman and his family. Printed materials include a 1945 issue of Die Mitteilungen announcing Germany’s capitulation, a 1946 issue of the Ebensee publication Nazi-Opfer: Monatszeitschrift ehemaliger politischer Häftlinge, 1959 clippings about Dr. Wortman’s medical career in Far Rockaway, and a 1966 issue of Hadassah Magazine including an article about Auschwitz.

The Gisela Laufer Wortman, William Laufer, and Naum Wortman papers are arranged as eight series: Series 1: Dr. Gisela Laufer Wortman papers, Biographical materials, 1935-1988 Series 2: Dr. Gisela Laufer Wortman papers, Photographs, approximately 1937-1949 Series 3: Dr. William Laufer papers, 1933-2004 Series 4: Dr. Naum Wortman papers, Biographical materials, 1945-1977 Series 5: Dr. Naum Wortman papers, Correspondence, 1945-1996 Series 6: Dr. Naum Wortman papers, Displaced persons camp files, 1945-1949 Series 7: Dr. Naum Wortman papers, Photographs, approximately 1914-1988 Series 8: Dr. Naum Wortman papers, Printed materials, 1945-1966