Rose Silberberg Skier papers
Extent and Medium
folders
14
Creator(s)
- Rose S. Skier
- Rose Silberberg Skier
Biographical History
Rose Silberberg Skier (1934- ) was born Rozia Silberberg in Jaworzno, Poland, to Mojžesz (Mosche) Silberberg (1903-1944) and Felicia (Faigel) Klapholz Silberberg (1913-1943). Her family was relocated to the Srodula-Sosnowiec ghetto after the German invasion, but her father found a Polish woman, Stanisława Cicha, who let the family live in the chicken coop in the back of her house in Sosnowiec. When their hiding place was found in February 1944, Silberberg traveled to Neisse, Germany posing as the daughter of her aunt Sara Wachsman, both passing as Gentiles. They lived in a convent where Wachsman found work. After liberation, they found no relatives with whom to stay in Poland, so they returned to Germany to the Zeilsheim displaced persons camp. Before leaving Poland, Silberberg learned from Cicha that her parents and sister Mala (1939-1943) had been killed at Auschwitz. She immigrated to the United States in 1951, married Lester Skier, and lived in Queens.
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.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received this collection during a New York trip for the Year 2000 DP camp project.
Scope and Content
The Rose Silberberg Skier papers include a diary, photographs, and materials related to Silberberg’s time at the Convent of the Gray Sisters in Neisse and at the Zeilsheim displaced persons camp documenting the Silberberg family in Jaworzno, Poland, Silberberg’s wartime experiences in hiding, and her post‐war experiences at Zeilsheim. The diary records Silberberg’s wartime memories and her daily life in the Zeilsheim displaced persons camp. The photographs include copy prints of Rose Silberberg with her family and acquaintances before and during the war and original prints and copy prints of the Zeilsheim camp after the war. There is also a copy print of a pre‐war postcard from Silberberg’s grandfather Abraham Silberberg and a copy print of a note Silberberg and her sister wrote to their parents while in hiding. Materials related to Silberberg’s time at the Convent of the Gray Sisters include a badge Silberberg wore bearing the letter “P” and a letter describes Silberberg and her aunt Sara Wachsman’s experiences hiding as Gentiles in a German convent under the names Marie and Rozia Mazur. Materials related to Silberberg’s time at the Zeilsheim displaced persons camp include an autograph booklet containing poems and autographs from Silberberg’s friends at the camp and a reading list enumerating the German books Silberberg read in the camp and the English books she read after immigrating to the United States. The collection also includes German banknotes, an International Refugee Organization tag given to Silberberg on her arrival in the United States in 1951, and a photocopy of a photograph that appeared in a 1928 Polish newspapers depicting Silberberg’s great‐grandfather, Abraham Klapholz, greeting Polish President Mościcki.
System of Arrangement
The Rose Silberberg Skier papers are arranged as five series: I. Diary, 1950-1951, II. Photographs, approximately 1945-1999 (bulk approximately 1945-1951), III. Convent of the Gray Sisters materials, 1944-1945, IV. Zeilsheim materials, 1947-1958, V. Miscellaneous materials, 1929-1999 (bulk 1929-1951)
Corporate Bodies
- Zeilsheim (Displaced persons camp)
Subjects
- Jews--Poland--History--20th century.
- Frankfurt am Main (Germany)
- Jewish ghettos--Poland--Sosnowiec.
- Poland--History--Occupation, 1939-1945.
- Jewish refugees--Poland.
- Jaworzno (Poland)
- Hidden children (Holocaust)
- Holocaust survivors.
- Jewish refugees--Germany.
- Sosnowiec (Poland)
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Personal narratives.
- Jews--Germany--History--1933-1945.
- Neisse (Germany)
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Children.
Genre
- Photographs.
- Diaries.
- Document