Solomon Zynstein papers

Solomon (Shloime) Zynstein was born in Lublin, Poland to Leibel and Chaya Zynstein. An only child, Solomon’s parents were unable to care for him and placed him in an orphanage. He went to live with his aunt and uncle and, after they moved to Palestine, Solomon joined a kibbutz hachshara in Płońsk. He worked as a tailor and traveled reciting Yiddish poetry. During one of his performances, he met Rachla Kupnitz, originally of Krasnobród. Rachla was the oldest of seven children; her father immigrated to the United States in the 1920s, planning to earn money to bring the rest of the family, but succeeded only in sponsoring his son, Shimon. After Solomon and Rachla married in 1939, Solomon became the defacto head of the Kupitz household, caring for Rachla, her younger siblings, and her mother, Mirsha. After the invasion of Poland in 1939, the family escaped to Zhmerinka in Transnistria (now Zhmerynka, Ukraine). In 1940, they were sent to Brailov which, while close to Zhmerinka, was under German occupation. In the spring of 1942, Solomon and Rachla escaped back to Zhmerinka, as Ruchla was pregnant and Solomon had heard rumors of a round-up. The head of the Jewish community in Zhmerinka, Adolph Herschmann, agreed the couple could stay as long as Ruchla named her newborn daughter in memory of his late mother, Frieda. Frieda Zynstein (later Frances Oz) was born on June 12, 1942. The rest of the Kupitz family also returned to Zhmerinka, but Ruchla’s mother Mirsha and three siblings were deported after a round-up and killed. The Zynstein family survived, including baby Frieda, who was hidden during the round-up with a Romanian family. After this round-up and deportation, life improved in Zhmerinka, and Solomon started a Yiddish theater in the ghetto. After their liberation from the Red Army, the family moved to the Bamberg displaced persons camp. Solomon worked as a photo journalist for the publication Unzer Wort and went to Nuremberg to cover the International Military Tribunal. He also established a Yiddish theater in Bamberg. In 1946, Ruchla gave birth to another daughter, Mira. In 1947, the family immigrated to the United States on the troop ship Ernie Pyle, and settled in New York. Solomon Zynstein became president of the “American Federation of Jewish Fighters, Camp Inmates and Nazi Victims,” and in 1978 President Carter appointed him to the President's Commission on the Holocaust.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Fran Oz

Fran Oz donated her father's collection to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2013.