Szilard Diamant papers

Szilard Konstantin Diamant was born on 26 April 1900 in Rajcza, Poland to Armin (d. 1924) and Minna (née Translateur, b. 1878). He had three sisters, Rose (1902-1984), Iona, and Miriam (b. 1920). Szilard’s sister Rose married Hans Blumenthal in 1929 and they immigrated to the United States the same year. His mother and sister Miriam immigrated there in 1934. He married Hella Better in 1933 and they lived in Berlin where he worked as a metals dealer. By 1938, Szilard and Hella were looking for ways to emigrate from Germany. He tried getting visas under Czech and Polish quotas, but was unsuccessful. They fled Berlin in 1939 to Nitra, Slovakia. On 15 April 1942 they were deported from Nitra toward Lublin, Poland where they were separated. Szilard was likely deported to the Majdanek or Bergen-Belsen concentration camp where he perished.

Hella Diamant (born Helena Better, 1908-1997) was born on 14 June 1908 in Oświęcim, Poland to Moritz and Irma (d. 1942) Better. She had four siblings, including brother Heniak and sister Chava. Both sisters and one brother immigrated to Palestine before the war. Her brother Heniak was killed on the street in Poland by the Nazis. Her father survived the war, but her mother was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp where she perished in 1942. After Hella and Szilard were separated, she was selected for the Krychów subcamp of the Sobibór extermination camp. During the prisoner uprising she managed to escape but was badly injured. A woman in Warsaw helped treat her wounds. She survived the rest of the war in Warsaw under the false identity of Maria Sowiak. She married Alfred Tirkel in Poland in 1955, and they immigrated with his son Andrew to Australia via Switzerland in 1960.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Ralph Blumenthal

Donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2015 by Ralph Blumenthal.