Rabbi Malgorzata Melchior collection

Roman (Abram Chaim) Melchior, was born in Radom, Poland on December 6, 1914. His father, Lejzor Melchior, who was born on August 5, 1883, was a shipper. Roman’s mother, Chaja Sura Pragier, was born in 1886. Chaja Sura’s mother died in her infancy and her father remarried. He emigrated to the US in 1922 together with his second wife, three daughters and a son. Two of Chaja Sura’s half sisters: Lola Pragier Bader and Regina Pragier Aberson lived with their husbands in Paris, France in 1930’s. Roman had one brother, Eliasz Elek, who was born in 1916. Lejzor Melchior’s father Szmul Hersz Melchior (b.1858) and his three sisters: Adela Melchior Wagensberg b. 1886 with her husband and three children; Rózia Melchior b. 1889 and Hela Melchior b. 1891 all lived in Radom and constituted a close knit family. Roman Melchior left Radom, Poland in 1932 and went to Paris, where he studied natural sciences at the Sorbonne in preparation for his medical school. He stayed with his aunts and had permanent resident status as a student. In the summer of 1936 Roman Melchior volunteered for the International Brigades and fought in Spain’s Civil War for two years. He returned to Paris in 1938 and in 1939 was drafted into the French Army. The same year he married Miriam Gotelf, donor’s mother, who was born in Warsaw on September 21, 1914 and was involved in underground Communist activity. Roman was arrested by the French police for distributing Communist propaganda leaflets in April 1940. He spent a few months in jail but the police commandant released him on the eve of German takeover of southern France. Roman returned to Paris and continued his activity, mostly by producing false identification papers for hiding Jews and Resistance activists. Roman and Miriam Melchior participated in the Paris uprising and soon after the liberation, in January 1946, they returned to Poland. Roman found out that his parents, grandfather and aunts all perished – most probably in Treblinka. He found out that his brother Elek fled Radom together with his future wife, Sonia, to Lvov, but the German invasion of the USSR they were killed together with their infant son, Eruś. Roman and Miriam Melchior had three children: Jan Krzysztof, b. 1948, who is a physician, has two children and lives in Sweden; Małgorzata, b.1951, who is a sociologist and lives with her husband in Warsaw and Karol, b. 1952, who is a computer scientist, has four children and lives in Paris. Maria Melchior died in 1964. Roman Melchior worked for the Polish diplomatic corps and later as a translator. He died in 1998.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Malgorzata Melchior

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

Rabbi Malgorzata Melchior donated the Rabbi Malgorzata Melchior papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2000.