Segen family papers
Extent and Medium
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Creator(s)
- Segen family
Biographical History
Berta Segen (1911-2004) was born in Borszczów, Poland (now Borshchiv, Ukraine) to Moses and Sabina Silberbusch. Her sister’s written testimony and birth certificate indicate she was born in 1911, but several other documents place birth in 1920 or 1922. Berta often also went by the name Betka. Moses Segen (1904-1996) was born Moszek Chaim Zegien in Radom, Poland to Lejba and Bina Zegien. His birth certificate indicates he was born in 1904, but his certificate of naturalization places his birth in 1914. His father worked as a merchant, and Moses worked as a shoemaker in Poland before the war. Moses and Berta married on June 30, 1939 in Borszczów, Poland. After Poland was invaded in September 1939, Moses was separated from Berta. He was in the Radom ghetto from April 1941 to August 1942. From August 1942 to August 1943 he was in a forced labor camp in Radom. His relative, Jacob Krantz, was also in the Radom camps. There is little information on his years from August 1943 to summer 1945. His entire family in Radom was killed. Berta and her mother were sent to the Borszczów ghetto in September, 1941. In the summer of 1943, Berta and her cousin Frieda Steiner escaped the camp. Berta hid on a farm in Turylcze, Poland until May, 1945. Moses and Berta were reunited in the displaced persons camp in Waldenburg, Germany in the summer of 1945. They remained in the camp until spring 1946 when they were relocated to the I.R.O. Resettlement Camp, Ludwigsburg, Germany near Stuttgart. Their son, Leon, was born in the camp in 1948. In 1949, with sponsorship from Moses’s cousin Jacob Krantz, the Segens emigrated from Germany to the United States on the SS General Taylor. They settled in the Bronx, New York where Moses worked as a merchant and co-owned Senac Drygoods Store in the early 1950s. Leon Segen (1948-2014) grew up in the Bronx, New York. He attended City College and then taught high school during the Vietnam War. He returned to school at New York University and State University of New York at Stony Brook, and graduated from Yeshiva University in 1980 with a law degree. He resided in Riverdale, New York and was involved in Second Generation Holocaust Survivor organizations as well as the legal profession.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Estate of Leon Segen
The Estate of Leon Segen donated the Segen family papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2015.
Scope and Content
The Segen family papers consist of biographical materials, resettlement and immigration papers, restitution papers, correspondence, and photographs documenting the experiences of Berta and Moses Segen in the Borszczów and Radom, Poland ghettos; their time in resettlement camps in Germany; and their immigration to the United States in 1949. The papers include birth certificates, immigration applications, restitution testimonies, correspondence, and family photographs. The biographical material includes birth certificates, an extensive Silberbusch family tree in Hebrew, and business papers related to the dissolution of a business Moses co-owned. The resettlement and immigration papers include travel arrangements from the displaced person camp in Stuttgart to the United States, immigration applications, and naturalization certificates. The restitution papers include testimonies from Berta and Moses and bank statements. The correspondence includes letters to Berta from her sister Hela in Israel, a letter from Moses requesting a visitor’s visa for Hela to visit the United States from Israel to be present for Leon’s Bar Mitzvah, and copies of two emails exchanged between Leon and Hela’s son Moshe about their parents’ respective decisions to emigrate to the United States and Israel. The photographs primarily consist of baby and childhood photographs of Leon as well as photographs of Berta and Moses while in Stuttgart and their passport pictures. Also included are three photographs of Moses’s family. One picture is likely of soldiers in uniform from circa 1916, and the two others are of his family in Radom, Poland, 1933. The printed material includes a German photograph book and Hebrew/English calendar and reference book.
System of Arrangement
The Segen family papers are arranged as six series: Series 1: Biographical material, 1911-1999; Series 2: Resettlement and immigration papers, 1949-1958; Series 3: Restitution papers, 1950-1981; Series 4: Correspondence, 1947-2003; Series 5: Photographs, circa 1916-circa 1981; Series 6: Printed material, circa 1930s-1950. All series are arranged alphabetically by subject.
People
- Segen family
- Segen, Moses.
- Segen, Berta.
Subjects
- Borshchiv (Ternopil’s’ka oblast’, Ukraine)
- Jewish ghettos--Poland--Radom (Radom)
- Holocaust survivors--Poland.
- Radom (Poland)
- Displaced persons camps.
- United States--Emigration and immigration--History--20th century.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Reparations.
Genre
- Photographs.
- Document