This prewar photo shows newly married Daniel and Laura (née Litwak) Schwarzwald enjoying a day on the beach in Zaleszczyki, Poland (today Zalishchyky, Ukraine). The Schwarzwalds were Jews from Lwów. They married in 1935 and lived in a fashionable Lwów district where Jews were a minority. Both Laura and Daniel pursued university educations and spoke Polish, Russian, German, and Yiddish. Daniel also spoke English. At the time of their marriage, Daniel was a successful businessman. He owned a lumber exporting company. After the Soviet Union occupied Lwów in 1939, Soviet authorities seized Daniel's business.
The Germans occupied Lwów in 1941. The Schwarzwalds and their young daughter, Selma, were forced into a ghetto along with thousands of other Jewish people. Hoping to escape the ghetto, Daniel bought false identity papers for his family. Daniel, however, was killed before they could leave. Laura and Selma managed to escape in 1942. They fled to Busko-Zdrój, a Polish resort town. There, they lived under assumed Polish Christian identities. Laura’s language skills were key to their survival. Her fluency in German allowed her to work as an interpreter for the German authorities. Her fluency in Polish made their assumed identities seem plausible.
Item ViewA replica of "Refugee" bear and a photo of a Darfurian child refugee, items taken by Commander Mark Polansky (pictured) on a December 2006 Space Shuttle mission.
Item ViewAt some point after the war, Sophie received this small stuffed bear (about three inches high) as a present from her mother. She named it “Refugee,” just like she and her mother were refugees of the war.
Item ViewLaura Schwarzwald, her daughter Selma, and Laura's sister, Adela Litwak, in Busko-Zdroj. Poland, 1947.
Item ViewSelma Schwarzwald poses outside while wearing her first communion dress. Selma lived in hiding as a Polish Catholic during the war. Busko-Zdroj, Poland, 1945.
Item ViewSelma Schwarzwald and her mother, Laura, in Busko-Zdroj on the occasion of Selma's first communion in 1945. Selma and Laura lived under false identities. Sophie had gradually forgotten that she was Jewish and did not learn of her Jewish identity until after the war. Busko-Zdroj, Poland, 1945.
Item ViewSelma Schwarzwald while hiding under a false identity in Busko-Zdroj. Poland, 1943.
Item ViewDocument issued by the Regional Agricultural Mercantile Cooperative in Busko-Zdroj certifying that Bronislawa Tymejko (the false identity of Sophie Schwarzwald's mother, Laura Schwarzwald) was employed by the cooperative, dated November 1942.
Item ViewSelma Schwarzwald with her mother, Laura, in Lvov, Poland, September 1938.
Item ViewDr. Sophie Turner-Zaretsky, Space Shuttle Discovery Commander Mark Polansky, and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum chief of staff Bill Parsons. They are holding a replica of "Refugee" bear and a photo of a Darfurian child refugee, items taken by Commander Polansky on a December 2006 Space Shuttle mission.
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