Personal Memoirs, Testimonies and Diaries, 1918 -- 1996 | Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust

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Collection Overview

Title: Personal Memoirs, Testimonies and Diaries, 1918 -- 1996

Predominant Dates:1920s -- 1950s

ID: RG-01/RG-01

Primary Creator: Lusky, Irena (ca. 1925-)

Other Creators: Broide, Josef, Central Committee of Liberated Jews in the US zone of occupation in Germany (1945 -- 1952), Epstein, Estera, Fleissig, Nika (1919-), Gerard, Betti (1934-), Gertler, Dawid, Gliksman, Henryk, Halbreich, Siegfried (1909-), Herskovic, Otto, Hirszfeld, Ludwik (1884-1954), Jonski, Jozef (1912-), Legal Department of the Central Committee of Liberated Jews in the US Zone of Occupation in Germany, Leon, Erica, Lipszyc, Anna (1918-), Mitdank, Marta, Schragai, Alice, van Huzun, John, Ziff, Barry

Extent: 0.0

Arrangement:

The arrangement scheme for the record group was imposed during processing in the absence of an original order. Materials are arranged by creator, then by identifier, as assigned by the processor.

Record group is comprised of thirteen collections and five items, the collections of which are: 1. Nika Fleissig papers; 2. Collection of Dachau diaries and letters; 3. Anna Przeworska-Pratt papers; 4. Siegfried Halbreich papers; 5. Barry Ziff papers; 8. Anna Lipszyc papers; 9. Betty Gerard papers; 10. Dawid Gertler papers; 11. Josef Brojde papers; 12. Henryk Gliksman papers; 13. Central Committee of Liberated Jews in U.S. Zone of Occupation in Germany papers.

Subjects: Accusation and suspicion of collaboration in the Holocaust, Allied Military and Civil administration in Germany, Collaboration in ghettos, collaboration in the Holocaust, Collaboration of Jewish Administration in the Holocaust, Immigration to Israel, Immigration to United States, Jewish-Gentile relations, Jewish courts of honor, Jewish courts of honor--Munich (Germany), Legal defense in the Jewish courts of Honor, Means of adaptation and survival in concentration camps, Means of adaptation and survival in the ghettos, personal diaries, postwar life in Europe, survival tactics

Forms of Material: Diaries--Wartime, Memoirs, Memoirs--Post-WWII, Personal memoirs and recollections, Personal testimonies

Languages: English, German, Polish, Yiddish

Abstract

This Record Group is composed of 18 sub-record groups, all devoted to personal and collective memoirs and testimonies, recorded soon after the Second World War. There a few narratives narrated during the wartime.

They reflect various aspects of prewar life, survival under Nazi occupation: ghetto and camp experience, hiding, false identity, resistance activity, liberation, and immigration to the countries of current residence. There are several diaries kept in the camp, ghetto, and in the partisan unit. The original records are in English, German, Polish, and Yiddish. Largely, the documents are partially or fully translated in English. Sub-groups or individual collections within this record group comprise original documents, photographs, artifacts, as well as non-original copies and secondary publications.

Scope and Contents of the Materials

The record group contains memoirs, testimonies, and other recollections written before, during, and after the war. They reflect various aspects of prewar life, survival under Nazi occupation--ghetto and camp experience, hiding, false identity, resistance activity--liberation, and immigration. There are several diaries kept in the camp, ghetto, and in the partisan unit. The collections also comprise of original documents, photographs, artifacts, digitized materials, as well as non-original copies and secondary source publications.

Largely, the documents are partially or fully translated in English, but there are also original documents in German, Polish, and Yiddish.

Collection Historical Note

This macro Record Group comprises archival narratives, photodocuments, correspondences and other form of wartime recollections. It is subdivided into 18 sub-record groups. Largely, it is unified by the common theme, that is, reflections on the Holocaust. These narrated reflections vary content and form. Overall, they describe, personal, family and community experience during and after the Holocaust. These narratives are penned by Jewish, non-Jewish authors, as well as by the Jewish organizations and officials. All 18 sub-record groups are unified by a common denominator, namely the analysis and insight of the personally experienced tragedy of the Holocaust, War and postwar difficulties.

Biographical Note

Irena Lusky, née Deuel, was born ca. 1925 in Kaunas (Kovno), Lithuania in an upper middle-class, well educated, and assimilated Jewish family. She describes her childhood experiences in the well-off family focusing on the interfamily relations between herself, her parents, her grandparents, and her sister. Further, Irena Lusky’s narrative depicts a certain strata of Jewish intelligentsia of interwar Lithuania.

The period of 1940-1941, during the Soviet annexation of Lithuania, is reflected through the prism of a young adult’s comprehension of social and political changes taking place in mundane life, as well as of the events jeopardizing the very existence of their family. The latter is related to their arrest and initial stage of deportation, and their release from the transport to Siberia at the last moment. The Deuel family was freed due to the influential intervention of Dr. Finkelstein, an old family friend, who was in high esteem by the new Communist government of Lithuania.

The Deuel family was exposed to the war hardships from the first day, June 22, 1941, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union. After a failed flight attempt, they returned to German-occupied Vilnius (Vilna). While en route to Vilnius, they were arrested several times. Although, at that initial stage of German occupation, it was still possible for them to be released from jail either with the help of bribery or simply appealing to “a good German.”

Irena Lusky describes the life in the Vilna ghetto from two perspectives: first and foremost as a young adult experiencing all ghetto hardships and second, to a lesser extent, as a memoir writer of late 1970s. This latter perspective shows the post-Holocaust interpretations together with the author’s personal reckoning. Overall, this combination of two uncorrelated perspectives culminates in the authentic and independent account with regard to the various sides of ghetto life. Ghetto inhabitants, Judenrat members, resistance activities, German authorities, and numerous existential situations are reflected in the narrative. The reader will find among other such reflections, the author’s insights on Jewish leadership as a whole and specifically on such controversial figure as Jacob Gens, the head of the Judenrat and the Jewish Police Force in the ghetto. The Wittenberg Affair is also accounted as the author’s first-hand experience.

Irena was also only indirectly involved in the FPO (Fareinikte Partizaner Organizatsie—United Partisan Organization) and therefore did not join its members in escaping from the ghetto into the forest to continue the partisan struggle. The FPO decided to leave the ghetto before it was liquidated. The Deuel family survived the liquidation of the ghetto only to face German selection. In September 1943, the remaining ghetto inhabitants were taken outside the city into an open field called Rossa for the selection. The first stage of selection separated male and female family members. Irena would never see again her Father, Dr. Finkelstein, and her boyfriend Gamek Sturman. The next stage of selection resulted in the separation of Irena and Tamara from their mother. The Germans directed the daughters to the right, while their mother was sent to the left. The sisters sensed that “right” meant life and some hope, while the people sent on the left were doomed. Irena remembers how her mother was calmed and pleased by seeing the daughters on the life side. Irena and Tamar Deuel were deported to the Kaiserwald concentration camp near Riga, Latvia.

After a ten-week imprisonment in Kaiserwald, Irena and Tamara were transferred to the AEG factory in Riga, a labor camp officially referred as Riga-Strasdenhof camp, where they lived at worked. The conditions there were slightly better than in the Kaiserwald camp. In 1944, with the Soviet Army nearing Riga, the Germans evacuated AEG labor camp to Toruń (Thorn), Poland. Here, another underground factory was to be set up in the former castle, designated as “Fort 13.” Irena Deuel (Lusky) remained in Thorn-AEG, the official camp name, through December 1944. At the end of December 1944, the female prisoners of the Thorn-AEG camp were forced to march west, in the direction of Germany. Being badly wearied and ultimately starved, the prisoners were compelled to keep pace under German command.

Irena Deuel managed to escape from the forced march when the column was passing the city of Bydgoszcz (Bromberg), Poland. She ran up to a house and begged for shelter. Only after the long persuasion, a Polish woman let Irena in. After a week of hiding, in January 1945, the entering Soviet Army liberated Irena and the other girls at their hideout. Wandering through the streets of Bydgoszcz, Irena met her sister Tamara and other girls from the camp. Soon after their group left Bydgoszcz for central Poland and headed for Lublin, then a Polish provisional capital. In Lublin Irena learned that her Mother, Father, and Gamek had not survived. Her father was killed in the Klooga concentration camp, Estonia. Her mother was gassed in Majdanek concentration camp, and Gamek died of typhus.

It was in Lublin that Irena, Tamara, and a few other Jewish girls joined the Bricha Movement (an organized Jewish illegal immigration movement from East-Central Europe through the allied-occupied zones to the British-Mandate Palestine). Eventually Irena met the former Vilna Jewish partisan commander Abba Kovner, who was in charge of Bricha operations in East-Central Europe. This meeting played a decisive role in her future when she made a commitment to Palestine, her eventual Jewish home. In total, Irena’s journey to Palestine lasted from March 1945 to January 1946. After a year and a half of wandering through Romania, Hungary, Austria, and Italy, their group finally arrived in the British-mandated Palestine in January 1946. She, as thousands of others at that time, was an illegal Jewish immigrant brought there by the means of another clandestine Jewish movement-- Aliyah Bet, under the patronization of the Jewish Brigade. Upon their arrival to Haifa, the British authorities interned all the repatriates from their ship in the Atlit internment camp.

Eventually the Jewish Agency provided the internees with appropriate papers, and the British set them free. Her first encounter with fellow Jews in a kibbutz was a disappointment to Irena’s expectations and visions for a free and peaceful life in her Jewish state. Irena highly resented the indifference the locals showed to the newcomers in particular, and to the fate of European Jewry during the Holocaust in general.

It was not until Irena Deuel met Maikel Levin in the summer of 1946 that she began to feel differently about herself and the people around her. Confidence, sympathy, and hope had again filled her life. Having met Maikel at the party, she moved to the Beit Zera kibbutz, on the bank of the Jordan River, near the Sea of Galilee, to be with him. Maikel was a real pioneer and a patriot of the Land. His love helped Irena to appreciate the land and people of Israel. She soon married Maikel and for a while, the couple continued to live at the kibbutz. Irena did not fit into kibbutz work and although she tried her best, kibbutzniks were not satisfied with her. Eventually, it was Maikel’s decision to leave the kibbutz and settle down in a town.

They settled in Givatayim and with the help of a friend Maikel found a job and an apartment. Although they lacked money and situation of the country worsened with every day, they were happy. Adding to this happiness, she became pregnant and looked with hope to the future. On 14 May 1948, independence and establishment of the Jewish State in Eretz-Israel was proclaimed. The war for independence had begun. As a Haganah soldier, Maikel was called up for service. He had to arrive to the Recruitment Center on 18 May 1948. He left home in the morning heading first for work and then, after the workday, to the Recruitment Center. The war between the Israelis and Arabs had already begun, with Jerusalem under siege and local skirmishes beginning to erupt in many places. On that day, 18 May 1948, an explosion at the Central Bus Station, perpetrated by the terrorists, killed Maikel Levin. Irena remained unaware of his fate until the next morning. She was then eight-month pregnant.

In a month Irena gave birth to a girl, but was going through an extremely hard time and suffered mentally and physically. As she recalls, “I was hardly alive, little I comprehended what was going around me.” She could not even take care of her daughter Michal. Eventually time cured her wounds; she remarried to Shimon Lusky, and gave birth to another child, a son. In the 1970s, she was still living in Israel, her past never having left her. She took up this writing with the intention to separate herself from this burden and to place her personal vision, recollections, and reflections in a literary, truthful, and intimate account of her and her time.

Subject/Index Terms

Accusation and suspicion of collaboration in the Holocaust
Allied Military and Civil administration in Germany
Collaboration in ghettos
collaboration in the Holocaust
Collaboration of Jewish Administration in the Holocaust
Immigration to Israel
Immigration to United States
Jewish-Gentile relations
Jewish courts of honor
Jewish courts of honor--Munich (Germany)
Legal defense in the Jewish courts of Honor
Means of adaptation and survival in concentration camps
Means of adaptation and survival in the ghettos
personal diaries
postwar life in Europe
survival tactics

Administrative Information

Repository: Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust

Access Restrictions: No restrictions

Use Restrictions:

Copyrighted materials, credits to and references to the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust are required

Digital copies might be available upon request

Preferred Citation: RG-01, Personal Memoirs, Testimonies and Diaries. Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust Archive.

Processing Information: Materials are primarily described using the local descriptive standards of the LA Museum of the Holocaust.

Box and Folder Listing

Browse by Sub-Collection:

[Sub-Collection 1: RG-01.01, Irena Lusky Collection, 1976 -- 1977],
[Sub-Collection 2: RG-01.02, Nika Fleissig papers, ca. 1920-1989],
[Sub-Collection 3: RG-01.03, Collection of Dachau diaries and letters, 1933-1945],
[Sub-Collection 4: RG-01.04, Anna Przeworska-Pratt papers, 1939 -1973],
[Sub-Collection 5: RG-01.05, Siegfried Halbreich papers, 1939 -- 1970s],
[Sub-Collection 6: RG-01.06, Barry Ziff papers, 1944-1945],
[Sub-Collection 7: RG-01.07, Erica Leon Testimony],
[Sub-Collection 8: RG-01.08, Anna Lipszyc papers, 1939 -- 1946],
[Sub-Collection 9: RG-01.09, Betti Gerard papers, 1936-1949],
[Sub-Collection 10: RG-01.10, Marta Mitdank testimony, 15 October 1946],
[Sub-Collection 11: RG-01.11, Dawid Gertler papers, 1948-1949],
[Sub-Collection 12: RG-01.12, Ludwik Hirshfeld memoir, 1946],
[Sub-Collection 13: RG-01.13, Josef Broide papers, 1979],
[Sub-Collection 14: RG-01.14, Henryk Gliksman papers, 1948-1949],
[Sub-Collection 15: RG-01.15, Alice Schragai memoir, 21 January 1982],
[Sub-Collection 16: RG-01.16, Central Committee of Liberated Jews in U.S. Zone of Occupation in Germany papers, 1946-1949],
[Sub-Collection 17: RG-01.17, Otto Herskovic memoir, 1946],
[Sub-Collection 18: RG-01.18, John van Huzun wartime diary the Netherlands, 1944-1945],
[Sub-Collection 19: RG-01.19, Rysia Edelman, Wartime Memoir, Poland],
[Sub-Collection 20: RG-01.20, Ernest (Jacob) Lorant memoir, Hungary, 1944-1946],
[All]

Sub-Collection 2: RG-01.02, Nika Fleissig papers, ca. 1920-1989

This collection comprises the personal testimonies, correspondence, photographs, certified documents, and artifacts related to the prewar, wartime, and postwar experience of Nika Fleissig. Included are materials related to her participation in the Warsaw Polish Uprising; her marriage to Alfred Fleissig; and correspondence related to postwar topics, such as reparations, family issues, the physical and mental burdens of war.

Arrangement: This collection is comprised of 57 sub-collections/items.

Language of Materials: English

Subject/Index Terms:: Wieliczka (Poland); White Plains (N.Y.); Poland; Maczek, General Stanislaw; Frauenglass, Dr. Marian; Pozniak, Mrs.; Israel; Germany; Cracow (Poland); Holocaust museums; Yad Vashem, Israeli Holocaust remembrance authority, museum and archive; Second World War; Warsaw Polish Uprising; United States; Strafflager VI-C--Oberlangen (Concentration camp); Oberlangen (Germany); Immigration to Israel; False identity; Dziennik Zolnierza (Soldier Daily); Zylinska, Maria; Department for the Righteous of Yad Vashem; Consulate General of Israel; Nazi concentration camps in Germany; Fleissig, Alfred; Penal camps; Nika Fleissig--photographs--prewar; Nika Fleissig--photographs--postwar; Kohn, Bronislawa; Nika Fleissig--photographs--Germany; Immigration to United States; Jewish history; Fleissig, Nika; American Embassy, Warsaw; Kraków (Poland)

Creators:: Fleissig, Nika (1919-)

Folder 1: RG-01.02.01, Testimonies of Nika Fleissig, 1945 -- 1980s

Nika Fleissig (Bronislawa Kohn) was born in 1919, in Craców. She went by the diminutive name, Bronika, in her circle of family and friends.

Mrs. Fleissig begins her testimony with a description of her failed attempt to leave Poland for the USA either before or soon after the German invasion. Before the war, the family resided in Craców. In 1940, Fleissig’s family was evicted from their apartment and transferred to a nearby town, Wieliczka. They stayed in this town through the autumn of 1942, when the deportation began.

During the deportation, the Jews were rounded up in front of the Town Hall. They were waiting for a train for many hours, not knowing its destination. However, when people were ordered on to the train, a Polish policeman pulled Bronika aside and placed her in the truck cabin, next to a Polish driver. The truck drove off, and Bronika soon found herself at the outskirts of Craców.

In Craców she was aided by the family’s acquaintance, Mrs. Pozniak. Since 1942 and through the whole war, Bronislawa lived under a false identity as a Christian girl. Her knowledge of foreign languages helped her immensely. As “Maria Zylinska” she took part in the Warsaw Polish Uprising of August-September 1944. After the Uprising was defeated in October 1944, Bronislawa (Maria Zylinksa) received the same fate as thousands of Polish women; she was sent to German camps. As an interned Polish resistance fighter, she was given a prisoner-of-war status. Bronislawa was deported to the penal prisoner-of-war camp in Oberlangen, located in northwest Germany on the Holland border

Although it was a Penal camp, Strafflager VI C in Oberlangen, Bronislawa worked as an interpreter in the camp’s office. On April 12, 1945 the camp was liberated by Polish soldiers of General Stanislaw Maczek’s 1^st Armored Division, which was part of the Second Canadian Corps.

In January 1946, she entered the United States under her real name, Bronislawa Kohn. However, the immigration authorities soon altered her name to Nika, from her nickname Bronika. Her friends and family helped her become acculturated to her new country. Five weeks after her arrival she married Alfred Fleissig, who lost his family in the Holocaust.

Document/Artifact of Item-Level 1: RG-01.02. 01.01, Nika Fleissig, testimony, 17 August 1989, 17 August 1989

The document contains a three page testimony written by Nika Fleissig in reagrds to her arrival to the United States and her marriage. The document is written in English

Subject/Index Terms:: Personal testimonies; Personal memoirs and recollections; Fleissig, Nika; American Embassy, Warsaw; Yad Vashem, Israeli Holocaust remembrance authority, museum and archive; Zofja Pozniak, aid giver, Polish; Hiding; Aid and rescue during the war; Immigration to United States; Immigration to Israel; Warsaw Polish Uprising; Cracow (Poland); Strafflager VI-C--Oberlangen (Concentration camp); Zylinska, Maria; False identity; Wieliczka (Poland); Kohn, Bronislawa; Fleissig, Alfred

Creators:: Fleissig, Nika (1919-)

Document/Artifact of Item-Level 2: RG-01.02.01.02, Nika Fleissig, narrative, 22 September 1978

The document contains a short narrative written by Nika Fleissig about her life during the war. The narrative is written in English

Subject/Index Terms:: Personal memoirs and recollections; Personal testimonies; Fleissig, Nika; Cracow (Poland); Poland (Europe); False identity; Fleissig, Alfred; Immigration to Israel; Immigration to United States; Warsaw Polish Uprising

Creators:: Fleissig, Nika (1919-)

Document/Artifact of Item-Level 3: RG-01.02.01.03, Nika Fleissig, personal documents, 25 October 1963

This document contains personal documents belonging to Nika Fleissig.

The documents include letters in regards to war reparations, details of a photograph collection belonging to Alicia Magall, a letter to Yad Vashem about Zofja Pozniak, a letter from the doctor in regards to Fleissig seeking therapy, personal letters, a Polish passport, and a Red Cross Certificate. The documents are written in Polish, English, German and French.

Subject/Index Terms:: Personal correspondence; official correspondence; Passports, Polish; Red Cross papers; False identity; Nika Fleissig--photographs--Germany; Nika Fleissig--photographs--postwar; Nika Fleissig--photographs--prewar; American Embassy, Warsaw; Cracow (Poland); Fleissig, Alfred; Fleissig, Nika; Immigration to Israel; Immigration to United States; Poland (Europe); Wieliczka (Poland); Yad Vashem, Israeli Holocaust remembrance authority, museum and archive

Creators:: Fleissig, Nika (1919-)

Document/Artifact of Item-Level 4: RG-01.02.01.04, Letter from Nika Fleissig in White Plains, NY, to the German place for reparations payments, 25 October 1963

The document contains a letter from Nika Fleissig to the German place for reparations. The document is in English

Subject/Index Terms:: Personal correspondence; official correspondence; Fleissig, Nika; German reparations; reparations; Immigration to the United States, postwar; Immigration to United States; postwar correspondence; White Plains (New York, United States); United States (1945--Present)

Creators:: Fleissig, Nika (1919-)

Document/Artifact of Item-Level 5: RG-01.02.01.05, Index of the “Alicia Magall Collection – Photographs”, ca 1900s -- 1979, ca 1900s -- 1979

The document contains an index of the "Alicia Magall Collection -- Photographs". The collections contains twenty-three photographs of the Fleissig family. The document is in English

Subject/Index Terms:: Nika Fleissig--photographs--Germany; Nika Fleissig--photographs--postwar; Nika Fleissig--photographs--prewar; Personal memoirs and recollections; Cracow (Poland); Poland (Europe)

Creators:: Fleissig, Nika (1919-)

Document/Artifact of Item-Level 6: RG-01.02.01.06, Letter from the American Embassy in Warsaw to Nika Fleissig, 21 July 1982

The document contains a letter from the American Embassy in Warsaw in regards to the birth certificate of Nika Fleissig. The document is in English

Subject/Index Terms:: Fleissig, Nika; official correspondence; American Embassy, Warsaw; Identification documents; Warsaw (Poland); United States (1945--Present); American Consulate; reparations; English, language; Correspondence in English language; Documents in English language; Wellfleet (Massachusetts, United States)

Creators:: American Embassy, Warsaw (1982)

Document/Artifact of Item-Level 7: RG-01.02.01.07, Duplicate of Polish birth certificate, issued to Bronislawa Felicja Kohn, 1982, 1982

The document contains the birth certificate of Bronislawa Felicia Kohn (Nika Fleissig) issued by the Registry Office in Rzesow. The document is in Polish

Subject/Index Terms:: Fleissig, Nika; Birth certificates; Kohn, Bronislawa; Rzeszow (Poland); Identification documents; Poland (1945--1991); Documents in Polish language; Poland (1918--1939); Duplicates for birth certificates; Offices of civil status in Poland, postwar; Requests for duplicate birth certificate from country of origin

Creators:: Urzad Stanu Cywilnego W Rzeszowie (Registry Office in Rzeszow) (1982); Offices of Civil Status in Poland, postwar (1945--present)

Document/Artifact of Item-Level 8: RG-01.02.01.08, Copy of letter from Nika Fleissig to Yad Vashem, 11 April 1979

The document contains a typed letter from Nika Fleissig to Yad Vashem in regards to Zofja Pozniak, Fleissig's childhood piano teacher, and the acknowledgement of her courageous acts during the war.

Subject/Index Terms:: Yad Vashem, Israeli Holocaust remembrance authority, museum and archive; Department for the Righteous of Yad Vashem; Zofja Pozniak, aid giver, Polish; official correspondence; Kohn, Bronislawa; Poland (1939 --1945); Wieliczka (Poland); Cracow (Poland); Krakow, Poland; Hiding; Nazi extermination of Polish intelligentsia, 1939--1945; Jagiellon University (Poland, 1939--1945); Professor Pozniak, Jagiellon University, 1939; Lwow (Poland); Lviv (Ukraine); Karol Wojtyla, Pope John Paul II; Warsaw Polish Uprising; Altengrabow (Germany: prisoner of war camp); Strafflager VI-C--Oberlangen (Concentration camp)

Creators:: Fleissig, Nika (1919-)

Document/Artifact of Item-Level 9: RG-01.02.01.09, Letter from Nika Fleissig in Wellfleet, Mass., to the Consulate General of Israel in Boston, 9 July 1979

The document contains a letter from Nika Fleissig to the Consulate General of Israel in regards to Zofja Pozniak, her rescuer during the war. The document states that a legalized testimony in regards to Pozniak was included with the letter. The document is in English

Subject/Index Terms:: Yad Vashem, Israeli Holocaust remembrance authority, museum and archive; Consulate General of Israel; Department for the Righteous of Yad Vashem; Aid and rescue during the war; Fleissig, Nika; Zofja Pozniak, aid giver, Polish; Hiding

Creators:: Fleissig, Nika (1919-)

Document/Artifact of Item-Level 10: RG-01.02.01.10, Letter from Yad Vashem to Nika Fleissig, 26 June 1979

The document contains a letter from Yad Vashem, Department for the Righteous, to Nika Fleissig in regards to her request on behalf of Zofja Pozniak and her courageous acts. The letter requests Fleissig to notorize her testimony in order to continue with the proceedings of acknowledging Mrs. Pozniak's wartime activities.

Subject/Index Terms:: Fleissig, Nika; Zofja Pozniak, aid giver, Polish; Yad Vashem, Israeli Holocaust remembrance authority, museum and archive; Department for the Righteous of Yad Vashem; Hiding; official correspondence; Aid and rescue during the war; Boston (Massachusetts, United States); Consulate General of Israel; Wellfleet (Massachusetts, United States); Jerusalem (Israel)

Creators:: Yad Vashem, Department for the Righteous (1979)

Document/Artifact of Item-Level 11: RG-01.02.01.11, Nika Fleissig, letter in Polish, 22 September 1978

The document contains Nika Fleissig's personal narrative written in Polish

Subject/Index Terms:: Fleissig, Nika; Cracow (Poland); Hiding; Aid and rescue during the war; Warsaw Polish Uprising; Strafflager VI-C--Oberlangen (Concentration camp); False identity; Zylinska, Maria; Kohn, Bronislawa; American Embassy, Warsaw; Immigration to United States; Documents in Polish language

Creators:: Fleissig, Nika (1919-)

Document/Artifact of Item-Level 12: RG-01.02.01.12, Letter to Irgun Yotze Cracov B’Israel in Tel Aviv, October 1978

The document contains a letter from Irgun Yotze Cracov B'Israel in Telaviv in regards to the establishment of a museum in memory to the Jewish inhabitants of Cracow (Poland) during the war. The letter is requesting its American contacts to donate artifcats and/or funds in support of the museum. The letter is in English

Subject/Index Terms:: Personal correspondence; Tel Aviv (Israel); Cracow (Poland); Jewish life; Jewish life in Cracow (Poland), pre-war; Fleissig, Nika; Documents in English language

Creators:: Irgun Yotze Cracov B'Israel (1978)

Document/Artifact of Item-Level 13: RG-01.02.01.13, Letter to Sosin and Marysia, translated, 16 October 1978

The document is a translated letter written by Nika Fleissig to Sosin and Marysiu. The letter speaks of the selection of the new Pope, John Paul II, about Fleissig's daughter, Alicia, and her family moving to Los Angeles for a few years, and of a vacation trip to Mazatlan, Mexico. The document is in English

Subject/Index Terms:: Personal correspondence; Fleissig, Nika; Cracow (Poland); Karol Wojtyla, Pope John Paul II; Los Angeles (California, United States); Mazatlan (Mexico); Switzerland; Yugoslavia

Creators:: Fleissig, Nika (1919-)

Document/Artifact of Item-Level 14: RG-01.02.01.14, Letter to Sosin and Marysia, in Polish, October 16, 1978, 16 October 1978

The document is a letter written by Nika Fleissig to Sosin and Marysiu. The letter speaks of the selection of the new Pope, John Paul II, about Fleissig's daughter, Alicia, and her family moving to Los Angeles for a few years, and of a vacation trip to Mazatlan, Mexico. The document is in Polish. A translated copy of the letter can be found in RG-01.02.01.13.

Subject/Index Terms:: Personal correspondence; Fleissig, Nika; Cracow (Poland); Karol Wojtyla, Pope John Paul II; Los Angeles (California, United States); Mazatlan (Mexico); Switzerland; Yugoslavia

Creators:: Fleissig, Nika (1919-)

Document/Artifact of Item-Level 15: RG-01.02.01.15, Letter from German lawyers and notaries to Alfred Fleissig in White Plains, NY, 28 May 1965

The document contains a letter from Dr. Rossmeissl -- K. Weidmann lawyers and notary publics which informed Alfred Fleissig that it was impossible at the moment to file a claim for his wife, Nika Fleissig, for reparations. The document is in German

Subject/Index Terms:: official correspondence; German reparations; Fleissig, Alfred; Fleissig, Nika; Restitution-related documents; Holocaust related claims; Germany (1949--1990); United States (1945--Present); Lawyers and notary publics; Documents in English language; Documents in German language

Creators:: Andrea, E., Dr. Rossmeissl -- K. Weidmann Lawyers and notary publics (1965)

Document/Artifact of Item-Level 16: RG-01.02.01.16, Letter from German lawyers and notaries to Alfred Fleissig, regarding reparations, 1965

The document contains a translated letter from Dr. Rossmeissl -- K. Weidmann lawyers and notary publics which informed Alfred Fleissig that it was impossible at the moment to file a claim for his wife, Nika Fleissig, for reparations. The document is in English

Subject/Index Terms:: official correspondence; Fleissig, Alfred; German reparations; Fleissig, Nika; Restitution-related documents; Holocaust related claims; Germany (1949--1990); United States (1945--Present); Lawyers and notary publics; Documents in English language; Documents in German language

Creators:: Andrea, E., Dr. Rossmeissl -- K. Weidmann Lawyers and notary publics (1965)

Document/Artifact of Item-Level 17: RG-01.02.01.17, German and English letter from Alfred Fleissig to the lawyers in Germany, 17 September 1965

The document contains a German and English-translated letter from Alfred Fleissig to Dr. Rossmeissl -- K. Weidmann Lawyers and notary publics expressing thanks for an update in regards to the reparation-closing statutes.

Subject/Index Terms:: official correspondence; Fleissig, Alfred; German reparations; Fleissig, Nika; Holocaust related claims; Restitution-related documents; Germany (1949--1990); United States (1945--Present)

Creators:: Fleissig, Nika (1919-)

Document/Artifact of Item-Level 18: RG-01.02.01.18, German letter from Alfred Fleissig to the lawyers in Wiesbaden, Germany, 19 May 1965

The document contains a letter from Alfred Fleissig to Dr. Rossmeissl -- K. Weidmann Lawyers and notary publics regarding reparation payments for his wife, Nika Fleissig.

Subject/Index Terms:: Fleissig, Alfred; Fleissig, Nika; German reparations; official correspondence; Germany (1945--1990); Documents in German language

Creators:: Fleissig, Nika (1919-)

Document/Artifact of Item-Level 19: RG-01.02.01.19, Letter for Nika Fleissig, from Nathaniel H. Schwartz, MD, 21 April 1952

The document contains a letter from Nathaniel H. Schwartz, M.D. sent to Nika Fleissig regarding her health. The letter stated that Fleissig did not have any physical illness, that her symptoms originated from her emotional sphere, and that she should seek therapy. The document is in English

Subject/Index Terms:: official correspondence; Fleissig, Nika; Holocaust related claims; United States (1945--Present); White Plains (New York, United States); Emotional distress; Documents in English language

Creators:: Schwartz, Nathaniel H., M.D. (1952)

Document/Artifact of Item-Level 20: RG-01.02.01.20, Confirmation of Max Steig that he knew Nika Fleissig as Bronia Felicja Kohn in Krakow before the war, 12 October 1963

The document is an affidavit from Max Steig confirming he knew Nika Fleissig as Bronia Felicja Kohn in Krakow (Poland). The affidavit gives important personal information of Fleissig and her family before the war. The document is in English

Subject/Index Terms:: Fleissig, Nika; Kohn, Bronislawa; Affidavit from Max Steig; Kohn, Benjamin; Kohn, Amalia (nee Biermann); Szewska Street (Krakow, Poland); Lawyers and notary publics

Creators:: Steig, Max (1963)

Document/Artifact of Item-Level 21: RG-01.02.01.21, Confirmation of Piroska Sternbach that she knew Nika Fleissig as Bronia Felicja Kohn in 1941 and 1942, October 1963

The document contains an affidavit from Piroska Sternbach confirming she knew Bronia Felicja Kohn (Nika Fleissig) in 1941 and 1942 as well as her family. The document is in English

Subject/Index Terms:: Fleissig, Nika; Kohn, Bronislawa; Affidavit from Piroska Sternbach; United States (1945--Present); Cracow (Poland); Wieliczka (Poland); Kohn, Benjamin; Kohn, Amalia (nee Biermann); Kohn, Berthold; Documents in English language

Creators:: Sternbach, Piroska (1963)

Document/Artifact of Item-Level 22: RG-01.02.01.22, Letter sent from Paris, written in Polish, 24 February 1964

The document contains a letter about the doctor’s certificate Nika Fleissig needs to claim reparations. They also write about travels and family issues.

Subject/Index Terms:: Fleissig, Nika; Fleissig, Alfred; Personal correspondence; German reparations; Documents in Polish language

Creators:: Fleissig, Nika (1919-)

Document/Artifact of Item-Level 23: RG-01.02.01.23, Letter from the US War Shipping Admin to US Conulate General in Antwerp, 31 December 1945

The document contains a letter from Nika Fleissig asking an attorney for help her receive reparation payments. She briefly describes her life during the war. The document is in German. For an English description see RG-01.02.31

Subject/Index Terms:: German reparations; official correspondence; Personal correspondence; Fleissig, Nika; Immigration to the United States, postwar; Kohn, Bronislawa; American Consulate

Creators:: Fleissig, Nika (1919-)

Document/Artifact of Item-Level 24: RG-01.02.01.24, Two pages of Polish newspaper articles, Dziennik Zolnierza (Soldier's Journal), 1945

The document contains two pages of the Dziennik Zolnierza (Soldier's Journal). The Dziennik Zolnierza (Soldier's Journal) was a newspaper of the First Polish Armored Division led by General Maczek. It was included in the Second Canadian Corps. The newspaper features the article about the liberation of Polish female prisoners of war, the former fighters in the Warsaw Polish Uprising.

Subject/Index Terms:: Warsaw Polish Uprising; Female prisoners of war, Polish; Dziennik Zolnierza (Soldier's Journal), newspaper, Polish; Maczek, General Stanislaw; First Polish Armored Division; Documents in Polish language; Franklin D. Roosevelt; Truman, Harry S.

Creators:: Dziennik Zolnierza (Soldier's Journal) (1945)

Document/Artifact of Item-Level 25: RG-01.02.01.25, Letter from the American Consulate General in Antwerp, Belgium, to Felicia Kohn, 26 December 1945

The document contains a letter from the American Consulate General in Antwerp (Belgium) to Felicia Kohn. Nika Fleissig was given a non-preference number, which enabled her to go to the US. The Consulate General recommended that Fleissig contacted them immediately, in order to process her U.S. visa.

Subject/Index Terms:: Fleissig, Nika; Kohn, Bronislawa; Consulate General of the United States of America; official correspondence; Antwerp (Belgium); Identification documents

Creators:: American Consulate General, Antwerp (Belgium) (1945)

Document/Artifact of Item-Level 26: RG-01.02.01.26, French certificate for Bronislawa Felicia Kohn, Polish Consulate in Brussels, 26 September 1945

The document contains a French certificate which certified that Bronislawa Felicia Kohn presented herself at the consulate and took Geroges Dineur as a witness. The document also stated that the certificate was requested by Kohn to present to the Consulate of the United States in order to begin the process for an entry visa.

Subject/Index Terms:: Fleissig, Nika; Kohn, Bronislawa; Identification documents; False identity

Creators:: Polish Consulate in Brussels (1945)

Document/Artifact of Item-Level 27: RG-01.02.01.27, Copy of an identification card for the HQ of the United States Army, European Theater, November 1945

The document contains an identification card for the Headquarters of the European Theater of Operations United States Army for Bronislawa Kohn. The card includes a photograph and personal information of Kohn.

Subject/Index Terms:: Fleissig, Nika; Kohn, Bronislawa; Identification documents; United States

Creators:: United States Army

Document/Artifact of Item-Level 28: RG-01.02.01.28, Copy of a Polish passport, issued to Bronislawa Felicja Kohn in Brussels, 1945

The document contains a copy of the Polish passport issued to Bronislawa Kohn from the Polish Consulate in Brussels. The document includes a photograph and personal information of Kohn. The document is in French

Subject/Index Terms:: Passports, Polish; Fleissig, Nika; Kohn, Bronislawa; Identification documents

Creators:: Polish Consulate in Brussels (1945)

Document/Artifact of Item-Level 29: RG-01.02.01.29, Red Cross certificate, copy, 26 May 1945

The document contains a translation of a Red Cross certificate issued to Maria Zylinska. The Red Cross employed Maria Zylinska at a Polish Women’s Camp at Oberlangen as a nurse. Signed by the Chief of nursing staff.

Subject/Index Terms:: Fleissig, Nika; Zylinska, Maria; Kohn, Bronislawa; Red Cross papers; Warsaw (Poland); Identification documents; False identity

Creators:: Polish Red Cross

Folder 2: RG-01.02.02, Nika Fleissig, Photographs, 1944 --1960s

These photo-documents reflect Nika Fleissig experience in Germany, where she lived under false indetity in 1944 -1945.

A series of photographs relate to the prewar Poland, namely family life, education and personal relations.

Threr are also photographs depicting her employment with American Military Administration in Germany, in 1945 -- 1946.

The postwar photographs deal with Ms. Fleissig's activities related to commemoration and memorialization of the Holocaust

Subject/Index Terms:: Fleissig, Nika; Nika Fleissig--photographs--Germany; Nika Fleissig--photographs--postwar; Nika Fleissig--photographs--prewar; Fleissig, Alfred; wartime photographs; family photographs; Yad Vashem, Israeli Holocaust remembrance authority, museum and archive; Israel; Immigration to Israel; Prewar photographs; Photographs, postwar, 1945 -- 1988; Jewish life, pre-war; family histories; Family history documents; family artifacts; Poland (Europe)

Creators:: Fleissig, Nika (1919-)

Document/Artifact of Item-Level 1: RG-01.02.02.01, Nika Fleissig, photographs in Germany, 1944 --1945

The document contains photographs of Nika Fleissig during the war. The photographs are in black and white

Subject/Index Terms:: Nika Fleissig--photographs--Germany; Fleissig, Nika; Photographs, wartime, 1939 -- 1945

Creators:: Fleissig, Nika (1919-)

Document/Artifact of Item-Level 2: RG-01.02.02.02, Nika Fleissig, photographs, her husband, ca 1940s -- ca 1960s

The document contains pre-war and post-war photographs of Alfred Fleissig and Nika Fleissig. The photographs are in black and white

Subject/Index Terms:: Nika Fleissig--photographs--prewar; Nika Fleissig--photographs--postwar; Fleissig, Nika; Fleissig, Alfred

Creators:: Fleissig, Nika (1919-)

Document/Artifact of Item-Level 3: RG-01.02.02.03, Nika Fleissig, photographs, Yad Vashem, Israel, ca 1970 -- 1980s

<span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;"><font color="#000000">Nika Fleissig in Yad Vashem, Israel; Nika Fleissig with a relative.</font></span>

Subject/Index Terms:: Nika Fleissig--photographs--postwar; Fleissig, Nika; Yad Vashem, Israeli Holocaust remembrance authority, museum and archive

Creators:: Fleissig, Nika (1919-)

Document/Artifact of Item-Level 4: RG-01.02.02.04, Nika Fleissig, photographs, prewar and wartime Poland, ca 1930s -- 1941

The document contains prewar and wartime photographs: Bronika with her father, apparently in Cracow (Poland), ca early 1930s; Graduating class photograph, Cracow (Poland), 1938; Bronislawa Kohn, Cracow (Poland), 1938; Bronislawa Kohn with her friend Toldek in Wieliczka (Poland), 1941. The photographs are in black and white

Subject/Index Terms:: Nika Fleissig--photographs--prewar; Photographs, wartime, 1939 -- 1945; Fleissig, Nika

Creators:: Fleissig, Nika (1919-)

Document/Artifact of Item-Level 5: RG-01.02.02.05, Nika Fleissig, photographs, in US military uniform, postwar, 1946

The document contains postwar photographs showing Bronislawa Kohn wearing allied military uniform (apparently of the U.S. Army); six postwar photographs of Bronislawa Kohn after 1946--Nika Fleissig of various dates.

Subject/Index Terms:: Fleissig, Nika; Nika Fleissig--photographs--postwar; Kohn, Bronislawa; Immigration to United States

Creators:: Fleissig, Nika (1919-)

Document/Artifact of Item-Level 6: RG-01.02.02.06, Nika Fleissig, photographs, in Wieliczka wih Toldek, prewar Poland, 1941

The document contains a prewar photograph of Bronislawa Kohn with her friend Toldek in Wieliczka (Poland). The photograph is in black and white

Subject/Index Terms:: Fleissig, Nika; Nika Fleissig--photographs--prewar

Creators:: Fleissig, Nika (1919-)