Aizik Eisen papers

Aizik Eisen (1893-1980, alternatively spelled Ajsik or Aisik) was born in 1893 in Lvov (Lwow), Poland (now L'viv, Ukraine). His wife’s name was Klara, and he had two children. He ran a wholesale fruit business, and other family members also lived in Lvov. His daughter Sala Rosenberg Weinstock was married to Chaim (Herman) Hersh. He worked as a tin smith and she was an opera singer and homemaker. Their daughter Jula Weinstock (later Julie Keefer) was born on April 19, 1941 At the time of Jula’s birth, the city was under the control of the Soviet Union which had invaded Poland in September 1939, a few weeks after Germany. Under the terms of the German-Soviet pact, Lvov became Soviet territory. In late June 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union, inciting pogroms by the local Ukrainian nationalists. Nearly 4000 Jews were massacred in early July, and another 2000 were murdered near the end of the month. In September, Jula and her family, and the other Jewish residents, were forcibly relocated to a ghetto closed in by a wooden fence. Aizik’s house was located in the area of the ghetto and Jula and her family moved into a barn behind it. In November 1941, Aizik was picked up during an action and taken to Jaktorow labor camp where he was beaten regularly and forced to work in a limestone quarry. He eventually escaped, but in May 1942 was rearrested and sent to Janowska slave labor camp where he was forced to work hauling heavy stones. In November, Aizik escaped the camp and made his way to a village where a man gave him clothes, food, a shovel and told him it was safest in Borszczowice forest. Jula’s younger sister Tola was born in the spring of 1943. One day in June 1943, Aizik appeared at their home to help Jula and her family escape the ghetto. A man name Mr. Borecki had told Aizik that the ghetto was to be burned and he determined to save his family. He took them to the forest where he had built a bunker with about thirty other Jewish escapees. Soon after they arrived, Aizik decided that Jula and her sister Tola had to be placed in hiding elsewhere because their crying was endangering the others. In December 1943, he arranged for Jula and Tola to live in Lvov with a former neighbor and family friend, Lucia Nowicka. Her husband had disappeared in 1939 and she lived with and worked for a Catholic family, the Swierczynski’s, whose home was next to that of the German governor of Lvov District. Aizik assumed the identity of Lucia’s husband, and Jula and Tola were introduced as Lucia’s nieces. Aizik continued to spend time with the group in the forest. One day he returned to Lvov to find that the Gestapo had arrested Lucia. Aizik found a hiding place for Tola in a Catholic children’s home under the name Antonina Nowicka. The Swierczynski family was able to get Lucia released. In April 1944, while Aizik was visiting the girls in Lvov, the Germans discovered the forest bunker and killed everyone inside. Around this time, Soviet troops were advancing on the region and Lvov was under frequent bombardment. After one explosion, the Germans evacuated the children’s home where Tola was hidden. Aizik and Jula were never able to locate Tola after that move. In June 1944, the Red Army liberated the region. The war ended when Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945. Aizik, Lucia, and Jula lived in displaced persons camps in Poland and Austria, including Wegscheid Displaced Persons Camp (Camp Taylor) in Linz, Austria. Aizik heard that young orphans received preferential treatment for US entry visas. He decided to send Jula to America, and in 1948, Jula, then 7, left alone for the United States. Aizik hoped to join her there. Jula, now called Julie, was placed in a series of orphanages. She endured taunting due to her German accent and was sometimes called a Nazi. She was sent by The Joint Distribution Committee to the Bellefaire Jewish Children's Orphanage in Cleveland, OH. After seven years in the US, Julie was adopted by Fred and Thea Klestadt, Jewish immigrants who had arrived from Dusseldorf, Germany, in 1937. Aizik and Lucia married and in March 1950 arrived in the US, and settled in New Jersey. Julie attended Oberlin College, and became a French teacher. She also earned degrees in psychology, special education, and administration. Julie and her husband Larry have two children and live in Washington DC.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Julie Klestadt Keefer

The collection was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial by Julie Keefer in 2012.