THE LENA KUECHLER-SILBERMAN COLLECTION

Dr. Lena Kuechler-Zilberman (1910-1987) was a teacher, an educator, an expert in psychology & education and a writer.
Lena was born in the town of Wieliczka near Krakow, Poland. She studied at the Hebrew Gymnasium in Krakow and continued her studies in psychology and pedagogy at the Hegelian University in the city. Prior to WWII she was a teacher at a Jewish school in Bielsko and taught at a teachers' seminary. During the war Kuechler lived under an alias and on several occasions saved children by transferring them from the ghetto to a local monastery. She herself had lost her child at the beginning of the war. In the summer of 1945, after the end of the war, she came to Krakow to find out about the fate of her family and as she entered the Jewish council's building was confronted by the shocking conditions of the Holocaust child survivors aged 3 to 15 who were brought there from the camps, the forests, the monasteries and Christian families where they hid. Kuechler became their surrogate mother and raising the needed funds from various organizations, she set up a home for them in the resort town of Zakopane in southern Poland, where, under the influence of Janusz Korczak's teachings, she rehabilitated about 100 children. Following anti - Semitic attacks on the children's home, Kuechler decided to move the children out of Poland. She managed to transfer them to France, and from there, in 1949, they all immigrated to Israel, settling down in kibbutz Kvutzat Shiller. During the following years Lena remarried and had a child. She moved to Tel-Aviv, where she taught psychology and education. Throughout the years she kept in touch with her "adopted" children. In 1987, Lena passed away.
Throughout the years Lena had written and published a trilogy: My Hundred Children (first published in Hebrew in 1959 and later translated to English and other languages) and the sequels - The Hundred Coming Home [ha-Mea Li-gvulam] (1969, Hebrew) and My Mother’s Home [Beit Imi] (1985, Hebrew) as well as the book We Accuse: Children's Testimonies from the Holocaust (1961, Hebrew).

Some of the testimonies that had been written down by Kuechler herself as well as her impressions of the children were donated directly by her. Other materials were donated by her children – Edith Zierer, one of the leading figures among the children, stayed in touch with them through the years while collecting materials - donated a considerable body of documents. Shira Toren, Lena's daughter, also donated in 2010 segments of her mother's estate. Other children from Lena's group also donated testimonies and materials. Some of the materials – testimonies, letters and photos were produced during everyday activities at the children's home and while the children traveled from Poland through France to Israel. Others were produced later, as the children corresponded with Lena Kuechler and while they gathered for celebrations.