Feiga Kerzner receipts

Feiga Kerzner (1912-1997) was born in Nadworna, Poland (Nadvirna, Ukraine) to Aron Gruberger and Chana Berta Chancie Breine Gruberger. She had six siblings: David Glaubhard Gruberger, Shulamit Bikel, John-Isaac Gruberger, Michael Gruberger, Dina Gruberger Fisher, and Regina Spielman. Her brothers were educated in Germany and moved to Palestine in the early 1930s. In 1937 she married Benzion Kerzner (1912-1979), who was also born in Nadworna. He had belonged to an illegal communist organization since 1926, studied history in Vilna, and was arrested and sentenced to four years in jail. Feiga's brothers Michael and John-Isaac won a contract to build interurban roads in Iran, and they brought their mother, sister Dina, and brother-in-law Sol to Tehran in winter 1938. Their sister Rechma lived in Stanislawow with Feiga and Benzion. Benzion continued to be active in the illegal communist party and was threatened with arrest for crossing the Polish border illegally while attempting to reach the Republican forces in Spain. Feiga convinced the prosecutor not to arrest Benzion as long as they left Poland. In August 1938 Benzion, Feiga, and Rechman took a three-week train journey to Tehran. Benzion worked for his brothers-in-law, and in 1942 became a line supervisor building roads from the Red Sea to the Caspian Sea that were financed by the US as part of the Lend Lease Agreement. The Kerzners started donating large sums of money, Persian carpets, shoes, and other supplies in large quantities to the Red Army as their contribution in the fight against Hitler. In July 1944 Benzion left for Lublin and enlisted in the Polish Army. Feiga and their daughter Gutka Maria (b. 1938) returned to Poland in July 1945. Their second daughter, Dana, was born in 1946 in Łódź. In 1948 Benzion was nominated to the position of a Polish vice consul in Tel Aviv. In 1950 he was transferred to serve as a military attache in the Polish Military Mission in West Berlin. Their third daughter, Teresa, was born in West Berlin in 1951. In 1945 their names were changed to Benedykt and Felifja Korczewski. They remained in Poland until March 1968 when excessive anti-Semitism led them to immigrate to Israel. They again changed their names to Benzion and Felicja Keren.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Teresa Pollin donated the Feiga Kerzner receipts to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1996.