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Boleslaw Brodecki
ID CardRaised by religious Jewish parents, Boleslaw and his older sister grew up in an apartment complex in a Jewish section of Warsaw. His father worked as an accountant. When Boleslaw was 8 years old, his mother died, and an aunt moved in to help raise him and his sister. Boleslaw loved electronics. When he was 10 years old, he succeeded in building a portable radio. 1933-39: The Germans attacked Warsaw on September 8, 1939. The bombing was relentless. Boleslaw's father wouldn't leave his ill relatives but…
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Cecilie Klein-Pollack
ID CardCecilie was the youngest of six children born to a religious Jewish family in the Czechoslovakian town of Yasinya. Her father, who was from Poland, taught private lessons in math and German. The family owned a small grocery store, which Cecilie's mother managed. 1933-39: Cecilie's father died in 1934 when she was 9. In March 1939 Hungary, which was sympathetic to Nazi Germany, annexed the area of Czechoslovakia where they lived. One day, Cecilie arrived home to find her mother and sister had been arrested…
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Elizabeth Kaufmann
ID CardElizabeth's father was a journalist who covered financial and political subjects. In 1930, because of the economic crisis in Austria, her father relocated his family from Vienna to Berlin. 1933-39: In 1933 the Nazis blacklisted Elizabeth's father as an anti-fascist writer, so her family returned to Vienna. With fascism rising there, her father left, eventually making it to Paris. They were to join him, but the Reich's borders were closed to Jews. Finally, Elizabeth's mother used her jewelry to get French…
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Emanuel (Manny) Mandel
ID CardManny was born to a religious Jewish family in the port city of Riga, Latvia. Shortly after Manny's birth, his father accepted a post as one of the four chief cantors in Budapest and the family returned to Hungary, where they had lived before 1933. Manny's father was based at the renowned Rombach Street synagogue. Between the wars, Budapest was an important Jewish center in Europe. 1933-39: Manny's father wouldn't let him have a bicycle. He thought someone might take it away from him because he was…
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Ezra Zelig Szabasson
ID CardEzra Zelig, who was called Zelig by family and friends, worked in the lumber business in Kozienice, a village by the Kozienice birch forest. He was married and the father of six children. A prominent member of the community, Zelig served on Kozienice's city council, and was also president of the local Zionist organization. 1933-39: In 1937 Zelig tried to obtain visas for his family to immigrate to Palestine [the Yishuv], at that time a British protectorate, but was unsuccessful because of the…
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Chaya Szabasson Rubinstein
ID CardIn 1930 Chaya married Mordecai Rubinstein, a businessman, and moved with him from her hometown of Kozienice to the nearby city of Radom. Chaya had been raised in a religious, Yiddish-speaking Jewish family, and her father owned a lumber mill near the Kozienice birch forest. In Radom, Chaya's husband operated a small bus line. 1933-39: Chaya gave birth to a daughter, Gila, in 1933. In the mid 1930s the Rubinsteins moved back to Kozienice. There, they were trapped when German troops invaded [Poland] in…
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Mordecai Pinchas Szabasson
ID CardMordecai, known in Yiddish as Motl, was born to a religious Jewish family with six children. His hometown of Kozienice, located near a birch forest, had an important lumber industry. After graduating from secondary school, Mordecai entered the lumber business. His small, successful company bought and sold lumber. 1933-39: A few months after the Germans invaded Poland in September 1939, Mordecai's father was warned to leave because, as a prominent member of the community, it was likely that the Germans…
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Lewek Szabasson
ID CardLewek and his five brothers and sisters were born to religious Jewish parents in the town of Kozienice, situated in east central Poland near a birch forest. Lewek's father owned a sawmill, and when Lewek and his brothers were grown, they helped their father manage the family business. 1933-39: When Lewek was 15 he attended an agricultural school near Kozienice, because he wanted to immigrate to Palestine [Aliyah] to work the land. But after the Nazis rose to power in Germany in 1933, immigration…
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Chaya Medalion
ID CardChaya and her brother and two sisters were raised in a religious, Yiddish-speaking home in the town of Kozienice, situated in east central Poland near a large birch forest. As a child, Chaya learned Hebrew. She attended Polish public schools and graduated at 14. Her father owned a factory that produced handmade shoes. 1933-39: Chaya was active in the Zionist movement, through which she met her boyfriend, Lewek Szabasson. Chaya and Lewek would stroll on Kozienice's main promenade which was at the…
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Vita Rivkina
ID CardBecause both of her parents had died by the time Vita was 5 years old, she went to live with her cousins. At the age of 18, Vita married Iosif Rivkin, and the couple moved to Minsk where they raised three daughters--Hacia, Dora and Berta. 1933-39: By the early 1930s, the Rivkin family lived on Novomesnitskaya Street in central Minsk, near the Svisloch River. In the 1930s the girls attended Soviet state schools and were members of the Soviet youth organization, Young Pioneers. By the late 1930s Minsk was…
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Isak Saleschutz
ID CardIsak was one of seven children born to devout Hasidic Jewish parents living in Dubas. By 1900, all of his siblings had immigrated to America; Isak remained in Poland due to his strong religious convictions. Through an arranged marriage, he was wed to Ester Berl when he was 18. They settled in Kolbuszowa, a small town near Dubas, where Isak ran a successful wholesale general store. 1933-39: On September 9, 1939, the German army occupied Dubas. They hanged two Jews to demonstrate the consequences of not…
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Urszula Kaczmarek
ID CardUrszula was one of four children born to Franciszek and Jadwiga Kaczmarek, who lived in the industrial city of Poznan in western Poland. The family lived at 11 Smolnej Street. Like their parents, the Kaczmarek children were baptized in the Roman Catholic faith. 1933-39: As one of the older children in the family, Urszula helped her mother with the housework. She was 10 years old when the Germans invaded Poland on Friday, September 1, 1939. German planes bombed Poznan that same day, and German troops…
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Israel Milkow
ID CardIsrael was born to a religious Jewish family living in the town of Slonim. He was called Yisroel by his Yiddish-speaking parents. Israel's father, Lazar Milkow, was a baker who supported his family on a meager income. 1937-39: Israel's grandparents and many of his mother's relatives lived in a nearby village called Kaslovchina. Each summer one of the Milkow boys was invited to stay in Kaslovchina with their Uncle Herschel who worked as a farmer and horse trader. In September 1939 Slonim became part of the…
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Karl-Heinz Kusserow
ID CardKarl-Heinz was born during World War I, while his father was in the German army. After the war, his Lutheran parents became Jehovah's Witnesses and gave their children daily Bible lessons. When Karl-Heinz was 13, the family moved to the rustic Westphalian town of Bad Lippspringe. Their home became the headquarters of a new Jehovah's Witness congregation. 1933-39: Because of the Jehovah's Witnesses' missionary work, and because their sole allegiance was to God and His commandments, their activities were…
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Joseph von Hoppen Waldhorn
ID CardJoseph was the youngest of three children born to immigrant Jewish parents. His Polish-born father was a former officer in the Austro-Hungarian army who had met and married Joseph's Hungarian-born mother during World War I. Joseph was raised in a religious household and grew up speaking French. 1933-39: Joseph's mother says it's better here in Paris than in the poor village where she grew up. Unlike his mother, who speaks broken French, Joseph and his older sisters have grown up speaking French fluently.…
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Aaron Lejzerowicz
ID CardAaron was one of four children born to a Jewish family in the northeastern Polish town of Zdzieciol. His father was a shoemaker and, along with a business partner, he also ran a shoe store in the town. Aaron attended a private Jewish school, where he studied the Polish language and history as well as Jewish history and Hebrew. 1933-39: On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. Three weeks later, Poland was partitioned between Germany and the Soviet Union [under the German-Soviet Pact]. Aaron and his…
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Paula Wajcman
ID CardPaula was raised in a religious Jewish family in Kielce, a city in the southeast of Poland. Her family lived in a modern two-story apartment complex. Paula's father owned the only trucking company in the district. Her older brother, Herman, attended religious school, while Paula attended public kindergarten in the morning and religious school in the afternoon. 1933-39: Paula's school uniform was a navy blazer with a white blouse and pleated skirt. At age 9, she did the "Krakowiak" dance at school. Boys…
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Chaim Frenkiel
ID CardChaim was the third of seven boys born to religious Jewish parents. They lived in a town near Warsaw called Gabin, where Chaim's father worked as a cap maker. Gabin had one of Poland's oldest synagogues, built of wood in 1710. Like most of Gabin's Jews, Chaim's family lived close to the synagogue. The family of nine occupied a one-room apartment on the top floor of a three-story building. 1933-39: In September 1939, two months before Chaim was 12, Germany invaded Poland. In Gabin 10 people were shot in…
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Jakob Frenkiel
ID CardJakob was one of seven boys in a religious Jewish family. They lived in a town 50 miles west of Warsaw called Gabin, where Jakob's father worked as a cap maker. Gabin had one of Poland's oldest synagogues, built of wood in 1710. Like most of Gabin's Jews, Jakob's family lived close to the synagogue. The family of nine occupied a one-room apartment on the top floor of a three-story building. 1933-39: On September 1, 1939, just a few months before Jakob turned 10, the Germans started a war with Poland.…
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Inge Scheer
ID CardInge grew up in Vienna's Leopoldstadt, a large Jewish district located between the banks of the Danube Canal and the Danube River. The Scheers loved music, and Inge grew up listening to family members singing selections from popular operettas. 1933-39: Inge was 8 years old when the Germans annexed Austria in 1938 and her parents decided they'd better flee. They were smuggled illegally, via the Netherlands, to Brussels where the Jewish community helped to hide illegal refugees like Inge and her family.…
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Laura Ellenbogen
ID CardLaura was one of five children born to a Jewish family in the southeastern Polish town of Rozwadow. Jews comprised almost two-thirds of the town's population. Laura's father worked as a wholesaler, providing families in the area with grain, potatoes and other produce. Laura attended one of the town's public schools. 1933-39: Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned Poland [as a result of the Nazi-Soviet Pact] in September 1939. Laura's town lay on the demarcation line. On September 24 the Germans reached…
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Abraham Roman Ellenbogen
ID CardAbraham was the oldest of five children born to a Jewish family in the central Polish town of Rozwadow, where his father was a produce wholesaler. Abraham attended secondary school in the nearby town of Rzeszow and then went on to complete an undergraduate degree at the University of Cracow. 1933-39: Abraham was accepted to law school, despite quotas restricting the number of Jews allowed to enter, and in 1937 he set up a practice in Rozwadow. Two years later, on September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland.…
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Hanna Ellenbogen
ID CardHanna was one of three children born to a Jewish family in the central Polish town of Rozwadow. Hanna's father was a produce wholesaler. As a young girl, Hanna was active in Benei Akiva, a Zionist youth organization. She attended public school in Rozwadow, and then went on to business school. 1933-39: After finishing business school, Hanna took classes in childhood education. She and a friend then set up a nursery school in Rozwadow a few blocks from Hanna's home. The nursery had been open only a few…
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Maurits Wijnberg
ID CardMaurits was one of four children born to religious Jewish parents living in the town of Leek. When he was 12, the Wijnbergs moved to the town of Zwolle, where they ran a kosher hotel. That same year, Maurits became ill with meningitis. After he recovered, he worked hard to compensate for missed school and became an exceptional student. 1933-39: Along with his younger sister, Maurits was active in the local Zionist organization. One of the group's activities was raising money for Palestine [Yishuv]. Every…
