"A Rejected Stone: My Life"
Extent and Medium
folder
1
Creator(s)
- Ben-Zion Schuster
Biographical History
Ben-Zion Schuster (1920-2006) was born on September 4, 1920 in Jezierzany, Poland (Ozeri︠a︡ny, Ukraine) to Batsheva Schuster (née Fefer) and Beryl Schuster. He had nine siblings: Beila Schuster, Hannnan Schuster, Hershel Schuster, Izik Schuster, Meyer Schuster, Motel Gimpel Schuster, Perl Schuster, Ruchela Schuster, and Wolf Schuster. His family was Orthodox. Before the war, Ben-Zion studied at a yeshiva in Łuck, Poland (Lutsk, Ukraine). During the Holocaust, he survived occupations by the Soviet Union and Germany. He fled to Russia and was a forced-laborer before joining the Polish Army. He learned after the war that most of his family was murdered. He and his wife Deborah Schuster (1920-2010) spent some time in Neu Freimann and Pocking Pine displaced persons camps before immigrating to the United States in 1947.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Paula Schuster
Paula Schuster donated her father's memoir to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on June 10, 2010.
Scope and Content
Memoir by Ben-Zion Schuster, originally of Jezierzany, Poland (Ozeri︠a︡ny, Ukraine), entitled "A Rejected Stone: My Life." The memoir is a printed draft from November 1990, and translated from the Yiddish by Professor Robert Moses Shapiro. The memoir describes Ben-Zion’s prewar family life in a shtetl, his studies at a yeshiva in Łuck, Poland (Lutsk, Ukraine), his wartime experience under Soviet and Germany occupation, the fates of his family members, his postwar experiences in displaced persons camps, and his immigration to the United States. 279 pages.
System of Arrangement
The collection is arranged as a single file.
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Copyright Holder: Ms. Paula Schuster
People
- Schuster, Ben-Zion.
Subjects
- Refugees--Uzbekistan--Tashkent--History.
- Poland--History--Occupation, 1939-1945.
- Jews--Poland--Ozrian.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, Polish.
- Łuck (Poland)
- World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, Jewish.
Genre
- Personal Narratives.
- Document