Chaja and Teifeld families photographs

Max Chaja (later Max Guyer) was born in Gąbin, Poland. Max was active in the theatre in Poland. He married Zelda Teifeld in the late 1920s, and moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina around 1930. She joined him in there in 1934. They remained there for the duration of World War II, and immigrated to the United States by 1950. They settled in Detroit, Michigan. Max and Zelda had two daughters, Aida and Norma. Zelda died in 1952, and Max later married Zelda’s sister Genia. Max’s relatives, Chana (née Ryzman) and Simcha Chaja, and their daughter Chava (later Evelyn) emigrated from Poland by to Montevideo, Uruguay by 1939. Their son Benjamin was born in 1942, and in 1948 they immigrated to the United States and settled in Detroit.

Zelda Teifeld (later Zelda Guyer, 1906-1952) was born in Gąbin, Poland to Noah and Yutta Teilfeld. She had one brother, Abraham, and four sisters: Hania (later Hania Shane-Teifeld), Genia (later Genia Guyer), Esther, and Sara. The family owned a jewelry and electronics store. Both parents had passed away prior to World War II, and Zelda moved to Buenos Aires in 1934. After the German invasion of Poland in September, the siblings moved from Gąbin to Warsaw. Hania and Genia later escaped the Warsaw ghetto and made it to Kiev, Ukraine. Genia remained in Ukraine for the duration of the war. Hania hid her Jewish identity, and was later taken to Saxony, Germany as a Polish forced-laborer. She and Genia reunited in Gąbin after the war. The emigrated from Poland to Israel in 1950, and then Detroit shortly after that. Abraham, Esther, and Sara all perished during the Holocaust.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Aida Cutler

Donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum by Aida Cutler and Bernard Guyer in 2016.