Hanna Gutman papers
Extent and Medium
boxes
2
Creator(s)
- Hanna Gutman
Biographical History
Hanna Gutman (later Hannah Goodman Sukiennik, 1923-2001) was born to Rachela and Szymon Rydelnik in Zagórze, Poland where her father worked as a tailor. Upon graduating from high school, Gutman attended secretarial school and at the age of 16, obtained her first job as a secretary. She worked for one year before the outbreak of World War II and the German occupation of Poland, soon after which she lost her job because she was Jewish. Sometime around 1940, she was forced to move to the Będzin ghetto, and for two years she worked in a factory making pocket books and chromed bicycles. In 1943, during mass deportations of Jews to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Gutman and some of her siblings hid in a bunker to evade capture by the Nazis. Eventually, she and one of her sisters were arrested and taken to Annaberg labor camp and later transferred to a women’s camp at Neuengamme, where she worked in a blacksmith shop. Gutman passed through five different concentration camps until December 1944, when she was forced on a death march. During the march, she and her sister escaped but were recaptured. They managed to escape a second time and hid in a forest until they parted ways. Hanna went to a Sommerfeld, Germany where she was taken for a German and hid with a family until the war ended. She returned home to find that her parents and two of her six siblings had perished in the concentration camps. Gutman stayed briefly there and obtained work as a secretary with the local police department until she heard her brothers were in Munich and she moved to be with them. In December 1946 Hanna married her first cousin Izak Gutman (later Isadore Goodman) in Munich and together, they had a child, Louisa. In 1949, the family immigrated to the United States, settling briefly St. Joseph, Missouri and then Kansas City. Once in the United States, Hanna worked as a sales representative and Izak opened a tailor shop. For the remainder of her adult life, she struggled with severe panic and anxiety, a direct result of her experiences during the Holocaust.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Valerie Gerstein
Funding Note: The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
The Hanna Gutman papers were donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2011 by Hanna’s granddaughter, Valerie Gerstein.
Scope and Content
The Hanna Gutman papers comprise documents and photographs concerning Hanna Gutman, a Jewish secretary originally from Zagórze, Poland and a survivor of five concentration camps. This collection primarily documents her restitution claims and her life-long struggle with severe panic and anxiety as a result of her experiences in the Holocaust. Also included in this collection is a series of correspondence and photographs and papers collected by Gutman in the years immediately following the war and her subsequent arrival in the United States. Among these materials are her health identification card, certificates stating she was a political prisoner, police registration forms, and a progress report for the Naturalization Council in Kansas City, among others. The Hanna Gutman papers consist of documents and photographs about Gutman and her life in the immediate post-war period and the years beyond. This collection primarily documents Hanna’s restitution claims and her life-long struggle with severe panic and anxiety as a result of her experiences in the Holocaust. Among the paperwork detailing these claims are affidavits confirming her and her husband Izak’s war-time experiences, statements from doctors regarding her mental health and medical ailments, medical bills, and lengthy correspondence with her legal counsel in Germany. A series of correspondence with friends and family is also comprised here within. Some of these letters likely detail affidavit processes and requests and the majority of them are written to Hanna from Izak’s brother Simon. Also included in this collection are papers collected by Hanna in the years immediately following the war and upon her arrival in the United States. Among this material is her health identification card, certificates stating she was a political prisoner, police registration forms, copies of Louisa’s birth certificate and immunization records, correspondence from the Displaced Persons Commission in the U.S., and a progress report for the Naturalization Council in Kansas City. The photographs included in this collection depict Hanna, her husband Izak, and their daughter, Louisa in the post-war period and immediately after they immigrated to the United States. Photographs of friends and family are also held in this collection.
System of Arrangement
The Hanna Gutman papers are arranged as three series: • Series 1: Restitution claims, 1949-2003 and undated • Series 2: Personal documents, 1945-1978 and undated • Series 3: Photographs, 1946-1948 and undated
People
- Hanna Gutman
- Gutman, Stanley (1951-).
- Rydelnik, Szymon (1887-).
- Rydelnik, Rachel (1884-).
- Gutman, Louisa (1947-2010).
- Gutman, Simon.
- Gutman, Hanna (1923-2001).
- Gutman, Izak (1910-1974).
Corporate Bodies
- Neuengamme (Concentration camp)
- Christianstadt (Concentration camp)
- Annaberg (Concentration camp)
- Grünberg in Schlesien (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Secretaries--Poland--Bedzin.
- Holocaust survivors--Poland--Bedzin.
- Death march survivors--Germany.
- Kansas City (Mo.)
- Będzin (Poland).
- Jewish ghettos--Poland--Będzin.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Reparations.
- Escapes--Germany.
- United States--Emigration and immigration--History--20th century.
Genre
- Correspondence.
- Photographs.
- Medical reports.
- Certificates.
- Claims.
- Testimonies.
- Applications.
- Document