Hauptmann family papers

Etta Hauptmann (née Federbusch, 1907-1996) was born on 13 September 1907 in Borysław, Poland (Boryslav, Ukraine) to Chaim and Krania (née Herschdörfer, d. 1934) Federbusch. She had five brothers: Eli, Wolf, Moshe, Israel, and Issac; and one sister: Yetl. Her family was poor and her father worked as a butcher. After the start of World War II, Borysław fell under the Soviet zone of occupation. The following spring Etta married Ignaz (Israel) Hauptmann (b. 24 October 1900 in Borysław to Wolf and Taube Hauptmann) on 15 March 1940. Ignaz studied art in Vienna and then returned home to Borysław. Their daughter Karolina (later Carol Wilner) was born on 7 March 1941. On 1 July 1941, following the German invasion of the Soviet Union, German troops occupied Borysław. The following day, local Ukrainians staged a pogrom killing some 300 Jews. Ignaz and Etta’s brothers escaped by fleeing to the woods. They returned the following day after the violence had subsided. Soon after the Germans established a ghetto in the town. Etta managed to maintain some contact with non-Jewish friends and bartered her remaining belongings for milk for the baby. In November German troops rounded up and killed some 1500 Jews including most of Etta’s family. She escaped after having a vision of her father instructing her to take the baby and run. In the ghetto Ignaz worked as a German translator for the Gestapo, which afforded them somewhat better conditions. Towards the end of 1942, the Germans converted the ghetto into a slave labor camp. Though children were not allowed, Etta smuggled Karolina into the camp in a sack. She and Ignaz built a hiding place for their daughter in the ceiling rafters. During the day while everyone was at work, they placed the toddler there. She was trained never to make a sound. The family shared their room with some other families including the camp doctor and dentist, all of whom helped hide Karolina. Etta gave birth a second time to a little boy. The other prisoners, however, felt it was too dangerous to have a newborn there and took the child and killed him. Karolina remained hidden in the camp until it was liberated by the Russians on 7 August 1944. Soviet officials then accused Ignaz of collaboration and arrested him. He was releases a short time later. After liberation Etta gave birth to a second boy, Wilhelm (William). After Ignaz’s release, the family then moved to Waldenburg (Walbrzych). In 1946, the family fled west through Czechoslovakia. From there they made their way to Germany and eventually arrived at the Ulm displaced persons camp. There Ignaz studied bookkeeping in an ORT school (Organization for Rehabilitation through Training), and Etta learned to become a seamstress. Through the Red Cross, they found a nephew living in Washington DC and decided to immigrate to the United States. They left Germany out of Bremerhaven via the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman and arrived in New York on 14 August 1949. In the 1960s, Ignaz gave an affidavit in a war crimes trial in Bremen county against the Nazi commandant in Borysław, Friedrich Hildebrandt. The family later changed their last name to Hauptman.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Carol Wilner

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Carol Wilner

The collection was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum by Carol Wilner in 2018. An accretion was also donated in 2018. The collections previously numbered 2018.428.1 and 2018.491.1 have been incorporated into this collection.