Dozia Altschuler Mehl photograph collection

Dozia Altschuler (later Doris Mehl) was born in Lvov on February 16, 1926. She was the oldest child of Simcha and Ester (nee Zimmer) Altschuler, and their younger daughter Hela was born in 1932. The family was very observant, they kept kashrut, and Dozia attended Hebrew gymnasium. Simcha was a stockbroker, and the family was very well off financially. Simcha’s brother lived in Przemyślany and after the German invasion of Poland, the Altschulers moved there to keep the family together. The entire family was forced to move into the Przemyslany ghetto. Prior to moving into the ghetto, Simcha and Ester had made arrangements with a Ukrainian man to hide them. When that man decided he no longer wanted to hide them and Hela, he brought them to the main lager (camp) at Kurowice, a forced labor camp. Doris had remained in the ghetto, and they were reunited in Kurowice. Dozia Altschuler (later Doris Mehl, 1926-2018) was born in Lvov (Lviv, Ukraine) on February 16, 1926. She was the oldest child of Simcha and Ester (nee Zimmer) Altschuler, and their younger daughter Hela was born in 1932. The family was very observant, they kept kashrut, and Dozia attended Hebrew gymnasium. Simcha was a stockbroker, and the family was very well off financially. Simcha’s brother lived in Przemyślany and after the German invasion of Poland, the Altschulers moved there to keep the family together. The entire family was forced to move into the Przemyślany ghetto. Prior to moving into the ghetto, Simcha and Ester had made arrangements with a Ukrainian man to hide them. When that man decided he no longer wanted to hide them and Hela, he brought them to the main lager (camp) at Kurowice, a forced labor camp. Doris had remained in the ghetto, and they were reunited in Kurowice. From the camp, Dozia had the opportunity to escape into the woods with the partisans. The plan was that she would go first, and the rest of the family would follow. Simcha had made arrangements for the family to get to Hungary, but unfortunately the arrangements were scheduled for two days after the camp the liquidated. The day after she made it to the forest, the camp was liquidated. Simcha, Ester, and Hela were shot and killed. They had been forced to dig their own graves, remove their clothing, and then had to run through machine gun fire. A man who survived this, and dug himself out of the mass grave, later found Dozia in the forest and told her what happened to her family. Dozia’s cousin Elka escaped to the forest with her and was also part of the partisans group. Elka’s parents and sister Niunka also did not survive. Simcha had previously given Dozia some money, which she shared with her cousin. While with the partisans, Dozia met her future husband Wolcio (later William) Mehl, who was from Unove near Przemyślany. He was about 12 years older than Dozia. They were liberated by the Russians in 1944. Went back to Lvov to look for family. The couple was married there later that year. They were in the Furth DP camp for a brief time after the war ended, and later went to Israel where they met up with some of the other partisans they had been with in the forest. In 1980, Doris Mehl started writing poetry relating to her Holocaust experiences. Wolcio passed away in 2008. They had one daughter, Sandra (Sandy) who passed away in 2012. Doris Mehl died on July 13, 2018 in Sunrise, Florida.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Dozia (Doris) Altschuler Mehl

Funding Note: The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

Doris Mehl donated the Dozia Altschuler Mehl photograph collection to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2015.