Shiber family papers

Emanuel Maximilian Shiber was born in Lvov, Poland on December 27, 1919. His father Samuel Schiber, born in 1887, was an owner of a textile workshop and his mother, Adela Nachtigal Schiber, born in 1890, took care of the couple’s five children. The oldest was Liber, born in 1913, who immigrated to Palestine in 1932 with a “Betar” certificate. Gusta, who was born in 1915, immigrated to Palestine the same way in 1935. Salomon called Lomo, born in 1922 was arrested in May 1941 by the Soviets on the charge of being a member of the illegal (Zionist revisionist organization) “Betar”. He was murdered in the Lvov prison “Brigitki” soon after his arrest and was found by his father. The youngest sister was Matylda called Maniusia, was born in 1926. The family lived on 29 Zamastynowska Street in Lvov. Emanuel, whom everyone called Munio attended public school. The parents spoke Yiddish at home but the children spoke Polish among themselves. Liber, the oldest brother, tried to convince the whole family to leave Poland and to immigrate to Palestine. He asked Munio to register for a tourist trip to Romania and to take a ship from Constanza to Palestine. In August 1939 Munio started on a trip to Romania, but the train was stopped on the Polish Romanian border on August 27, 1939 because of the general troop mobilization. On September 17, 1939 the Soviets entered Lvov according to the Ribbentrop Molotov pact and Munio Schiber was drafted into a Soviet military school in Kirovograd, where he was trained as an air-born gunner. Munio graduated from his course in June 1941 exactly at the time of the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Munio served as a gunner in a Soviet artillery unit and in 1943 he was transferred to the Polish Kosciuszko Army. In July 1944 his unit reached Lvov and Munio went to his family’s apartment. The janitor told him that his parents and his youngest sister Maniusia were deported in August 1942 to the Belzec death camp. Munio continued to advance westwards with his military unit and in October 1945 they reached Bydgoszcz. He inquired if there are any Jews in town and he met 18 year-old Ella Lieberman. Ella Lieberman was born in Berlin on July 29, 1927. Her mother Rosa was originally from Bedzin in Poland and her father, Joshua was a furrier in Berlin. In 1938 the Lieberman family was expelled from Germany and settled in Bedzin. Bertha Lieberman, Ella’s sister was deported to a labor camp in Germany and she managed to survive. During the liquidation of the Bedzin ghetto in August 1943 Joshua Lieberman built a bunker in which the family and Leo, a young Jewish boy, hid for six weeks. Mr. Paluch, a Pole brought them food and water under the protection of darkness. The family managed to avoid deportation until January 1944 at which time they were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Ella’s father was murdered in a gas chamber together with Leo, whom he refused to abandon. Alex, Ella’s brother was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau earlier and killed on arrival. Ella and her mother were chosen to work. An SS-guard was notified that Ella could draw well and he requested that she draw from a photograph an image of his son who had fallen on the eastern front. From this point on Ella was in a favorable position and she was placed in the “Union” ammunition factory, which allowed her mother to be protected from selections. After four Jewish women were caught smuggling explosive materials from the factory, all other workers were investigated and Ella among them. She remembered that during the public hanging one of the girls shouted: “Girls revenge.” In early January 1945 Ella and her mother were forced on a death march arriving on February 2, 1945 at Ravensbrueck. After six weeks they were forced on another march, to Neustadt-Glove, a sub camp of Ravensbrueck. On May 2, 1945 they were finally liberated by the Allies. Rosa and Ella Lieberman lived for a while in Bydgoszcz in Poland. In October 1945 Ella and Munio met through a mutual friend. They fell in love at first sight. Munio Schiber proposed to Ella two weeks later and the couple was married on February 12, 1946. Munio was released from his military service in May 1946 and started to inquire about possibilities of leaving Poland with the aid of “Bricha” the illegal Jewish organization. They reached an UNRRA camp Enring in Germany and were reunited with Ella’s sister Bertha Londner, who survived the Holocaust as well. Ella and Munio Shiber and Rosa Lieberman traveled to Grenoble, France, where they boarded the ship SS Ben Hecht together with 600 other Jews and sailed for Haifa. The British Navy did not let them land and transferred them to their ship “Empire”, which brought them to Cyprus on March 12, 1947. Munio and Ella Lieberman had to stay in the transit camp in Cyprus until April 21, 1948, when they were finally able to go to Israel. Munio was immediately mobilized into the Israeli Army. Their first-born daughter Ada was born on May 27, 1948. After the War of Independence Munio started to work for the Haifa Port police force, but at the same time he attended university, where he studied law. Emanuel Shiber graduated with the law degree in 1960. Ella Lieberman created 93 pencil drawings in which she illustrated her own experiences in the Bedzin ghetto, deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau, death march and the liberation. The original drawings were donated to the Ghetto Fighters House in Israel. Four drawings, which Ella Lieberman created during her imprisonment in Auschwitz, are part of the permanent holdings of the Auschwitz Museum in Poland.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Emanuel Shiber

Donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2004 by Mr. Emanuel Shiber