Irena Peritz papers
Extent and Medium
folders
7
Creator(s)
- Irena K. Peritz
Biographical History
Irena Peritz was born in 1928 in Borysław (now Ukraine) to Jozef (1896‐1991) and Rozalia Koretz (1897‐ 1984). She lived in Warsaw with her parents and sister Olga and moved to Lvov and then Borysław following the German invasion of Poland. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union, the family was forced into the Borysław ghetto and then the Borysław labor camp. They survived the last months of the war in hiding. Irena moved to Canada in 1949. Janka and Niuta Teicher lived in Borysław with their parents. They were forced to vacate their house in 1941 and went into hiding. In 1943, after being denounced, they were taken to the Dachówczarnia labor camp in Drohobycz. When the family was selected for further deportation, Janka, Niuta, and their parents committed suicide.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
Funding Note: The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Funding Note: The accessibility of this collection was made possible by the generous donors to our crowdfunded Save Their Stories campaign.
Irena Peritz donated the Irena Peritz papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1995 and 2006. The accession formerly cataloged as 2006.434 has been incorporated into this collection.
Scope and Content
The Irena Peritz papers include her autograph book, diary, and memoir documenting her friendships in Lvov and Borysław and her family’s experiences in the Borysław ghetto and labor camp and in hiding. The papers also include letters from Janka and Niuta Teicher documenting their experiences in the Drohobycz labor camp and Dachówczarnia brick factory. The autograph book includes signatures, poems, and drawings by Irena Peritz’s friends in Lvov and Borysław. Correspondence consists of letters written by Janka and Niuta Teicher in the Dachówczarnia labor camp in Drohobycz to Irena Peritz in Borysław. The letters describe the selection process that brought them from Borysław to Drohobycz, life in the camp, and work at the brick factory. Peritz’s diary describes her experiences in the Borysław labor camp and in hiding following the camp’s liquidation and her liberation. The book Irena's Diary: My Wartime Memories includes Peritz’s account of her experiences during the Holocaust, translations of some of Irena Peritz’s diary entries, and reproductions of photographs of Peritz and her family and friends. The photographic materials series comprises photocopies of two photographs of Janka and Niuta Teicher, one with Irena Peritz and one with family friend Nela Egert.
System of Arrangement
The Irena Peritz papers are arranged as four series: I. Autograph book, 1940-1946, II. Correspondence, 1943, III. Personal narratives, 1943-1944, approximately 2004, IV. Photographic materials, [1937, 1941], 1995
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Copyright Holder: Irena K. Peritz
Subjects
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Personal narratives.
- Drohobych (Ukraine)
- Jewish ghettos--Ukraine--Boryslav.
- Hiding places--Ukraine--Boryslav.
- Jews--Ukraine--Boryslav.
- Jews--Poland--Warsaw.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Conscript labor--Ukraine--Drohobycz.
- Boryslav (Ukraine)
Genre
- Diaries.
- Document
- Personal narratives.