Litman family papers
Extent and Medium
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Creator(s)
- Litman family
Biographical History
Halina Litman (later Halina Yasharoff Peabody) was born on December 12, 1932 to a liberal Jewish family in Kraków, Poland. Her father, Ignacy Litman (Izak, b. 1902) was a dentist and her mother, Olga Schreiber (1909-1956), was a champion swimmer. They married in Kraków on December 25, 1928. After they married they moved to Zalishchyky, Poland (Zalishchyky, Ukraine) near the Romanian border. Halina’s sister Eva was born in 1939. After the Soviet Union invasion of Zalishchyky in September 1939, Ignacy fled to Romania to avoid conscription into the Red Army. Upon returning, he was arrested, accused of being a spy, and deported to a labor camp in Siberia. He was later released from the camp and joined the Polish Army under General Władysław Anders. At some point he then went to Palestine to live with his sister. Olga, Halina, and Eva avoided arrest due to the intervention of communist friends, but their house was confiscated. They moved to Tovste. After Germany violated the German-Soviet pact in 1941 and occupied the rest of Poland, the family moved back to Zalishchyky. Olga purchased false identification papers from a priest that allowed them to live as Catholics under the last name Lityński. The family then moved to Jarosław, Poland whereOlga worked as a maid and in the kitchen in a German military camp. Shortly before liberation in 1944, a grenade was thrown at the house where they were staying. Halina lost her thumb and half of her little finger, and their landlady was killed. Olga, Halina, and Eva were reunited with Ignacy after liberation. The family immigrated to London, England by 1947. Halina represented England in the Maccabiah Games in Israel in 1953 and 1957. She immigrated to the United States in 1968.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Halina Peabody
The collection was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum by Halina Peabody in 2002. Accretions of additional materials was donated by Halina Peabody in 2012 and 2016.
Scope and Content
The collection documents the Holocaust experiences of the Litman family of Zalishchyky, including their survival in Tovste and Jarosław, Poland with the use of false identification papers. Included are false identification papers identifying Olga Litman and her daughters Halina and Eva as Catholics with the last name Lityński, a work permit for Olga to work at a German military camp in Jarosław, DP identification cards, post-war British military papers of Ignacy Litman, marriage certificates, documents used for restitution, clippings, and photographs. The photographs consist of pre-war and post-war family photographs, as well as depictions of Olga, Halina, and Eva in Tovste and Jarosław during the war, including Halina at her first Communion.
System of Arrangement
The collection is arranged as two series: Series 1. Biographical material, 1930-1959; Series 2. Photographs, circa 1930-1956
People
- Litman, Olga.
- Litman, Ignacy.
- Litman, Halina.
- Litman, Eva.
Subjects
- Zalishchyky (Ukraine)
- Tovste (Ternopilʹsʹka oblastʹ, Ukraine)
- Identification cards--Forgeries--Ukraine.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Jarosław (Poland)
- Jews--Ukraine--Zalishchyky.
- Hidden children (Holocaust)
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- Kraków (Poland)
- England.
Genre
- Photographs.
- Document