Chimowicz family letters
Extent and Medium
folder
1
Creator(s)
- Alfred Chimowicz
- Herman Shine
Biographical History
Herman Shine (born Hermann Chimowicz) was born in Łódź, lived in Germany, but later moved to Swarzędz (Schwersenz), where he had a wife and a young daughter. When the war broke out and his house and business were seized by the Nazis, he moved from Swarzędz (Schwersenz) to Łódź and started to work with his father and brother Alfred in a workshop making small household items. The family was sent into the ghetto in February 1940, and since brother Alfred became head of the metal factory, the family was able to remain in Łódź under Alfred's protection until July 1944, when the ghetto was liquidated and the metal workers were sent as a group to various concentration camps. At the end of the war, Alfred, his wife, son and daughter, and Herman were in Dresden and were forced to march to Theresienstadt, where they were liberated. After the war, Herman returned to Swarzędz (Schwersenz) but his wife and daughter did not return. However, he was able to reunite with siblings and cousins.
Alfred Chimowicz was born in Łódź. He and his wife, Zosia, had a daughter, Yetta, and son, Max. In August 1939, he was drafted into the Polish military and fought against the German invasion. He reunited with his family in Łódź and started to work with his father and brother Herman in a workshop making small household items. The family was sent into the ghetto in February 1940, and Alfred found a job as a member of the ghetto police force. In April 1941, he obtained a position at a metal factory in the ghetto; the same month, his father had died of starvation in the Warsaw ghetto. Alfred's brothers, their wives and children were able to remain in Łódź under Alfred's protection until July 1944, when the ghetto was liquidated. The group was sent to various concentration camps, following the metal machinery to a munitions factory in Dresden. Alfred and his brother, Herman, were sent to Dresden. In the spring of 1945, they were sent on a forced march to Theresienstadt where they were liberated. In March 1946, his daughter, Yetta, married an UNRRA officer.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Rosa Raskin
Rosa Shine Raskin donated the Chimowicz family letters to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2013.
Scope and Content
Consists of two letters, written by brothers Alfred and Hermann Chimowicz (later Herman Shine), from Karlsruhe, Germany, in the spring of 1946. The letters were sent to their cousin, Masha Glicenstein, who had immigrated to Palestine in 1937. The letters describe their own Holocaust experiences and those of the extended family, who were from Swarzędz (Schwersenz), Posen, Kalisz, and Łódź. Includes details of life in the Łódź and Warsaw ghettos, concentration camps Auschwitz, Stutthof, and Flossenbürg; a death march from Dresden to Theresienstadt (Terezin), and their post-war lives, including details of the wedding of Alfred's daughter, Yetta, who was marrying an UNRRA officer and immigrating to the United States. The letters are the first account of names and dates of close relatives who perished in various extermination camps and ghettos.
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Copyright Holder: Ms. Rosa Raskin
People
- Glicenstein, Masha.
- Chimowicz, Alfred.
- Shine, Herman.
Corporate Bodies
- Litzmannstadt-Getto (Łódź, Poland)
Subjects
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Poland--Łódź.
- Karlsruhe (Germany)
- (Łódź, Poland)
- Poznań (Poland)
Genre
- Document
- Letters.
- Correspondence.