Silver medallion with Mary enthroned holding Jesus given to a Jewish girl living in hiding

Roza Kwar was born on July 20, 1927, in Lwow, Poland (Lviv, Ukraine), to Benzion (Bentichek) and Ernestyna (Tinka) Hercer Kwar. Her father had four brothers and other relatives living in the United States. In 1938, Benzion’s brother Charles visited the family in Poland. He brought affidavits of support that were needed to apply for American immigration visas. When the family went to the embassy to apply, they were informed that the immigration quota was filled and were placed on a waiting list for possible 1942 visas. In September 1939, Germany invaded Poland. The Kwar’s lived in eastern Poland which was occupied by the Soviet Union a few weeks later. In June 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union and occupied Lwow. Roza and her parents were ordered to move to the ghetto. In 1942, the ghetto was made smaller and they had to relocate again. They were required to wear armbands identifying them as Jews and were assigned to forced labor. Roza worked in a factory. In August 1942, there were mass deportations of Jews to concentration camps. Benzion purchased false papers for Roza under the name Janina Gornicka, and with aid of a friend, Ada Prochinka, found her a place to stay. Her parents told Roza that that they would escape and join her later, but if they did not, that she should contact relatives in the US after the war was over. Roza escaped on November 11 and went to live with Krystyna Moskalik, a Polish schoolteacher in Siechiechowice, connected to the Polish underground. Krystyna told her neighbors that Roza was the daughter of a cousin and had moved there to escape forced labor service. Krystyna’s brother Witold helped maintain the secret. Krystyna had been paid to take Roza, but when the money ran out, she continued to care for Roza. At one point, a woman learned that Roza was Jewish and tried to blackmail Krystyna, but she was persuaded to stop those efforts. All schools had been closed by the Germans, but Krystyna arranged tutors for Roza. Krystyna also kept a room in Krakow, and she and Roza visited there. But in late 1942, she allowed a Jewish woman, Helena Szumnaska, to live there under an assumed identity. Krystyna helped several other Jews find refuge, including a fried of Roza’s family, Dr. Zina Sternschuss. The village was liberated by the Soviet Army in January 1945. Krystyna arranged for Roza to move to Krakow on February 12 so that she could continue her education. Krystyna paid her living expenses and found friends to provide her lodging. Roza enrolled in a math and physics program at the Krakow Wronski Lyceum and completed the two year curriculum in one year. She continued to live under her assumed name to avoid the severe and prevailing antisemitism. However, she registered under her real name with the Jewish committee in the hope of discovering surviving relatives. Krystyna had travelled to Lwow in April 1943 shortly before the ghetto was liquidated and learned that Roza’s parents had died. She decided not to tell Roza at the time. In March/April 1945 in Krakow, Roza met a family friend who told her that her mother had escaped a deportation train to Belzec killing center, but died of typhus in February 1943. Her father had been sent to Janowska concentration camp, escaped, and died of typhus in March 1943. The friend told her that when the Lwow ghetto was liquidated in June 1943, only three members from her large extended family survived. She asked Krystyna why she had not told her and Krsytyna said she had feared that it would cause Roza to despair and lose her will to survive. On August 27, Roza received a letter forwarded by the Jewish Committee from her relatives in the US offering to help her come to America. One of Roza’s uncles by marriage, Oskar Wasserman, a survivor of Buchenwald, had placed an ad in a New York newspaper searching for his wife’s relatives. An uncle in the US, David Kfare, saw the ad and contacted him. Oscar told him that Roza might be alive and was possibly in Krakow and he contacted the Committee, but their letter would not reach Roza until August. In June 1945, Roza had reunited with a maternal aunt, Frieda Herzer, who had cme ot Krakow searching for Roza. Frieda had survived Auschwitz, a slave labor camp, and a death march. In July 1945, Roza sent a telegram to an uncle, Charles Kfare, in the US. When her American relatives contacted her, they promised to bring both women to the States. They were not able to get American visas right away, so they arranged for Roza and Frieda to receive immigration visas for Cuba and transit visas for the US. In June, they left Poland by train for Paris. From there, they flew to New York, arriving on July 30, 1946. After a six week reunion with their relatives, they had to move to Cuba on September 22 to await immigration visas. On January 21, 1948, they emigrated to the US. Roza changed her name to Rose Kfar. In 1951, she married Alfred Rose. They had a daughter in 1954. Rose continued her education at the City University of New York, received a doctorate in chemistry, and became a professor. In 1964, she brought Krystyna to the US for a six week visit, one year before Krystyna’s death from cancer. Krystyna was recognized as Righteous among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 1989. Rose, age 80, passed away in New York in 2007.

The medallion was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2002 by Rose K. Rose.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Rose K. Rose

Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.