Bernard Lee papers

Bernard Lee (born Bernard Lieberman) was born in December, 1920 in Pabianice, Poland to Josef and Gitla (née Rosenthal) Lieberman. He had four brothers and four sisters. Bernard’s father had various professions including watchmaker and religious studies. Bernard considered his family as both distinguished and religious (Hasidim). He had only little contact with non-Jews while young, but remembers frequent outbursts of anti-Semitism, especially as the war approached. Before the war, Bernard worked in textile manufacturing. A few days after the war started in 1938, his family went to nearby Łódź but returned home as there were no escape routes. He learned early on not to rely on old friendships when a Volkdeutscher he knew ignored him entirely. Bernard volunteered for a drafting of Jews to a labor camp. His younger brother sought to replace him, but Bernard refused. On the march to the train Bernard saw his mother and any members of his family for the last time. He was sent to a camp at Będzin, which was then on the Polish/Germany border from May 1941 to July/August 1943. He describes life in the camp. Bernard was then transferred by train to Auschwitz, stayed for a night and he then moved to Birkenau. In winter, 1943, he was sent to the Warsaw ghetto, which was burned out from the earlier Jewish uprising. He caught typhus which was rampant, but survived. In July/August, 1944, his commander was told to evacuate his group to Dachau or kill them all; they made it to Dachau. Bernard describes his life there, especially his work in the kitchen. One day, they were sent on a march to an unknown destination. After three days, Bernard escaped the group by hiding in barracks, and then hiding amongst other prisoners. The American army liberated him on May 8, 1945. After a few days, he went on his own to Munich and contacted Herut Israel. He worked with them to organize kitchens for refugees, which he continued for his remainder of time in Germany. Bernard also began to search for any survivors of his immediate family, but found none. He was able to find and visit his Aunt and a cousin in Italy who were about to immigrate to Israel. Bernard and his wife traveled to Israel illegally to help with its independence, but he was not assigned to fight. He remained in Israel for 8-9 years, but immigrated to the U.S. with his wife’s sister and her husband. Eventually, he went to Chicago and after two years went to California. Barbara Schwartz Lee, PhD. is his wife, a noted Holocaust scholar. They married in Germany on July 4, 1945. Bernard build a memorial for his family on Mount Olive in Jerusalem.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Bernard Lee donated this collection to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on Aug. 22, 2002.