David Mielzynski papers
Extent and Medium
folder
1
Creator(s)
- David Mielzynski
Biographical History
David Mielzynski (later David Mills) was born in 1910 in Schwersenz, Posen (Swarzędz, Poland). He lived in Berlin, Germany, with his wife Liesbeth Sieradzki, who was born in 1913. Liesbeth left Berlin for England expecting him to follow in two weeks. Instead he was trapped in Germany and survived for three years hidden in a toolshed on a field in Berlin-Lichterfelde, 2 miles from SS Headquarters. A non-Jewish man whose name in not known, supplied him with food, helping him to survive in hiding for three years. David was liberated by the Russians in May 1945. He emigrated to the United States in September 1946. He Americanized his name to Mills. His wife Liesbeth’s entire family from Poznan, Łódź, and Warsaw perished in the Holocaust. David, 78, passed away in 1988.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Elizabeth Mills
Funding Note: The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Elizabeth Mills donated the David Mielzynski papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1989.
Scope and Content
The David Mielzynski papers include a Wehrmacht document excluding David Mielzynski from service, his identification card, a card identifying him as a victim of fascism, and three calendars he used while hiding in a toolshed during the Holocaust.
System of Arrangement
The David Mielzynski papers are arranged as a single series: I. David Mielzynski papers, 1939-1945
People
- David Mielzynski
Subjects
- Jews--Germany--Berlin.
- Jews--Poland--Swarzędz.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Germany.
- Hiding places--Germany--Berlin.
- World War, 1939-1945--Jews--Rescue--Germany--Berlin.
Genre
- Document