Maria Perlberger-Shmuel papers

Maria Perlberger-Shmuel (née Perberger, 1933-2019) was born in 1933 in Wieliczka, Poland to Samuel (1896-1942) and Henryka Perberger (née Luftig, 1902-1942). Her father Samuel owned a tobacco shop. He served in the Piulsudski Legion of the Polish Army and was later active in the Wieliczka town council. The family was not religious, and only attended Synagogue on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Maria liked to attend church with the family’s maid, so she also learned Christian prayers and traditions. After the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, Maria could no longer attend school, but had a private Polish instructor. Maria’s father was able to continue to run his tobacco shop because of his status with Piulsudski legion. The Perbergers arranged for a family acquaintance, Mrs. Duszczynska, to help hide Maria. Mrs. Duszczynska arranged for Maria to receive false identity papers, and she was hidden with a family in Warsaw as a Christian girl under the name of Maria Teresa Nowakowska. The Germans liquidated the Wieliczka Jewish community on 27 August 1942 and both of Maria’s parents were deported to Bełzec where they perished. Maria was later hidden with Irena Chmura in the Koło suburb of Warsaw around 1943. After the Warsaw Uprising in October 1944, the Chmura family fled to Krakow to avoid deportation. Maria was placed with Mrs. Berezynska, despite her upfront antisemitism. After Krakow was liberated by the Red Army, Maria was placed in an orphanage there. She was adopted by a Polish family from Łodz. She was mistreated by them and ran away to Warsaw. Unable to find the Chmura family, she went to to the Ursuline convent in Piaski, Poland. Wanda Chmura, who visited Maria in Piaski, arranged for her to transfer to another orphanage in Konstancin-Jeziorna, Poland. This orphanage was later moved to Opole. While in the orphanage Maria learned that she had a great aunt, Mrs. Schenker, who survived the Holocaust in Russia and was now living in Krakow. Maria briefly lived with her great aunt in Krakow and then with relatives in Belgium. She was then sent to a Jewish orphanage in Belgium. In 1948 Maria immigrated to Israel with the Youth Aliyah movement. She later served in the IDF and then married Ernst Shmuel (1928-2000), a Holocaust survivor from Berlin. They had two children: Amir (b. 1960) and Alon (b. 1968).

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Maria Perlberger-Shmuel

Donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2011 by Maria Perlberger-Shmuel.