Kaufman family collection

Contains photographs, four notebooks (in Yiddish), identification documents, certificates, and correspondence, related to the wartime experiences in France of Kopel Kaufman, originally of Busko, Poland, and Wulf Finkielsztejn, originally of Wilno (Vilnius). Documents attest to the experiences of both men in resistance activities during the occupation of France, their imprisonment by the Germans, and Finkielsztejn's deportation from Pithiviers and his presumed death. The notebooks contain a memoir written by Kopel Charles Kaufman in 1945-1946 describing in detail his experiences in Auschwitz-Birkenau where he was forced to work in the “Kanada” group, on the ramp while the new transports of victims arrived at the death camp and later in Kaufering slave labor camp. Materials also relate to the Finkielsztejn and Sztajman families before and during the war and relating to Kopel Kaufman and the Rose family after the war. Also includes pre-war and post-war photographs of family members of Kaufman.