Holcman family photograph collection

Meir Zelig Holcman was born in Gombin (Gąbin), Poland, on May 14, 1914. He was the youngest of ten children of Eliahu Holcman and Rasza Zlotnik Holcman. In 1924, Eliahu, who was a fruit merchant and traveled throughout Poland, was severely beaten and died soon after. Rasza Holcman took over her husband’s business and, with the help of her sons, managed to support the family. There were six sons and four daughters in the Holcman household: Israel Boruch “Bucik,” who married Ester Manczyk; Josef, who married Lea Zolna; Hersz Lejzor (b. 1905), who married Sara Chaja Koren; Abraham Icchak (b.1895), who married Lea Luidor; Moshe Aaron, who married Mirl from Wyszogród, Poland; Meir Zelig; Golda Itta, who married Hersz Lajb Bauman; Fajga, who married Jehuda Luksenburg; Chana, who immigrated to Palestine in 1934; and Perla, who died in childhood. Meir was active from a very young age in the Zionist youth movement “Ha’shomer Ha’tzair,” and in July 1939, he and his longtime girlfriend and future wife, Rifka Gostynski, left Poland. The young couple traveled to Constanza, Romania, where they boarded the ship, Colorado. They settled in Kibbutz Evron in Palestine. All of Meir’s family members in Gombin, including his nieces and nephews, were murdered by the Germans in the Chelmno extermination camp in 1942. Meir Holcman died in 1998. His daughter, Ada Holtzman, established a memorial web site, “Zchor,” for Holocaust victims from Gombin, Poland, and the vicinity.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

The pre-war photographs were gathered in Aug. 1939 in Gąbin, Poland, by Yeshayahu "Shaike" Bruk, Meir Holcman's cousin. The wartime photographs were gathered in Gąbin by the Ettinger brothers who liberated the town with the Soviet Army in 1945 and recognized Meir Holcman's family. They later transferred the photographs to Meir Holcman. The collection was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2004 by Ada Holtzman Meir Holcman's daughter.