Luggage tag used by a Polish Jewish survivor

Halina Goldwag (later Rosenberg, 1918-2013) was born in Warsaw, Poland, to Regina (née Rivka Zak, later Epstein, 1900-1972) and Moses Goldwag. Halina had one younger brother, Ludwik (later Arie Zak, 1919-2005). The family lived with Regina’s parents, Chana (?-1939) and Moshe Zak (?-1923). Halina’s father was an accountant at a publishing firm, and was interested in languages, speaking nine fluently. Her grandfather transported coal into Warsaw. The family was not religious, but they celebrated the holidays with Moses’ Orthodox parents, who lived on the other side of the city. Halina’s grandfather, Moshe, died in 1923, and Moses died around 1926, making Regina responsible for supporting the family. She began working as a seamstress out of their home, and had a difficult time supporting four people. Halina and her family lived in a primarily Polish Catholic neighborhood. She and her brother were the only Jews at their public school, and they experienced some antisemitism. Although she learned about Jewish history in school, she did not receive a religious education. After completing the eighth grade at public school, Polish law excluded Jewish children from attending the public high school or attend university. Instead, Halina attended a private gymnasium for high school, where she learned Latin and German. However, Halina’s mother could not afford tuition, and she was unable to complete her education. Around 1935, Halina began attending a vocational school to study clothing design, and got a job working in a drugstore that also sold perfume and cosmetics. Her grandmother, Chana, died in February 1939. Since she had little interest in politics, Halina was not aware of the rise of Nazism and persecution of Jews in Germany until the German army invaded Poland on September 1. In response, Ludwik and thousands of other men joined the Polish army, but the strength of the German forces pushed them to the east. Warsaw laid under siege for three weeks, creating massive food shortages. On September 17, in accordance with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet army invaded from the east. The Polish defense was overwhelmed and surrendered on September 27. The German army occupied the city two days later, while the rest of the country was partitioned between the Germans and the Soviets. Ludwik smuggled goods and people across the new German-Soviet border a few times before he was caught on the Soviet side. After two months, all Jews had to register with the authorities and were required to wear a white armband with a blue Star of David. In October 1940, the Germans decreed the establishment of a Jewish ghetto in Warsaw, and required all Jewish residents from the city and surrounding towns relocate there by November 15. The ghetto was severely overcrowded. As a result, Halina and Regina had to move into an apartment with other families. The ghetto was enclosed by a wall that was over 10 feet high, topped with barbed wire, and closely guarded. Life in the ghetto was difficult; food was scarce, sanitation was poor. Between 1940 and mid-1942, 83,000 Jews died of starvation and disease. Deportations from the ghetto began in March 1942. Halina and Regina began hiding in the attic of their building during the day to avoid selection. That summer, Halina was introduced to someone who could smuggle them out of the ghetto. They were able to get out, but had nothing but the clothes they were wearing. Both Halina and her mother lacked stereotypical Jewish traits; they had light blonde hair and fair complexions, which enabled them to blend in with the general population. Initially, they went to people in their old neighborhood, who let them stay for a couple days, but knew it was too dangerous to stay any longer. They left the city for the surrounding countryside, moving from village to village until they found a farm where they stayed for several months. When they began running out of money, the two women returned to the city. A former customer of Halina’s connected her to a job as a housemaid in the outskirts of the city. She began working under the false name of Halina Orlowska, and lodged in the house of her employer, who happened to work with the Polish underground resistance. Regina was able to rent a room nearby. However, when she began to arouse suspicion, Halina’s employer allowed her to stay as well. Regina eventually found a job as a maid for a physician and his wife in another part of the city. On August 1, 1944, the Polish Home Army (also known as the underground resistance) began fighting against the German occupiers, in a battle that became known as the Warsaw Uprising. When German forces started bombing the city, Halina and her employer hid in a basement shelter. A bomb hit their building, and all four stories above them collapsed. Halina survived, temporarily pinned against a wall, but her employer was buried and killed. Once she was freed from the ruins, Halina went to find her mother, who was living and working in the middle of the city. The pair were caught up in the fighting, and were taken prisoner by German soldiers. Due to their fair hair and complexions, they were mistaken for non-Jewish Poles and were put on a crowded cattle train with no food or water. On October 2, Halina and Regina arrived at a labor camp near Leipzig, Germany. They had to march daily to forced labor at the Meier & Weichelt steelworks, which had been converted into an armaments factory. On December 15, they were moved to another labor camp at Markranstädt, where they worked at the Dr. Gaspary & Co. factory making airplane parts. As the war was nearing its end, the factory began to run out of materials. In early April 1945, the advancing Allied forces led the German guards to abandon the factory. Halina, her mother, and other prisoners also fled, and found a farm on which to hide. They were found by American forces on April 5. Halina and Regina went to the Göppingen displaced persons (DP) camp, run by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), an international humanitarian organization. Halina obtained a job in the camp infirmary, dispensing medications. While in the camp, they asked one of the American soldiers stationed there to mail letters to two aunts, who lived in the United States. They received a reply saying that Ludwik was looking for them. After getting stuck in the Soviet Union, Ludwik found work as a lumberjack in a forest village near the town of Bereza Kartuska (now Biaroza, Belarus). During the war, he was turned in as a Polish officer and arrested as a Soviet prisoner of war. He was taken by train to the Komi region of the Soviet Union, adjacent to Siberia, to build roads as a forced laborer. Over the next year, he caught pneumonia, developed scurvy, and lost all his teeth. Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Ludwik was one of the few Jews selected to join the newly-formed Polish brigade. They deployed to the Middle East and Africa, and were sent to Palestine to rest at the end of 1943. Like many other Jews in his situation, Ludvik decided to desert the Polish army. He then joined the Jewish Brigade of the British army, which he fought with until his discharge in 1946. Halina and Regina approached the Jewish Distribution Committee in Stuttgart to apply for visas. On May 11, 1946 they boarded the Marine Flasher, the first transport of refugees to the United States. They arrived in New York City, on May 20, and then took a train to Chicago. They were met at the station by Halina’s great-aunts and second cousin, Harry Rosenberg (1909-1999). Halina and Harry married on November 23, 1946. Regina remarried and moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Ludwik settled in Tel Aviv, changed his name to Arie Zak, and got married. He fought in the Israeli War of Independence, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1958. Halina and Harry raised three children near Chicago.

The luggage tag was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2014 by Annlee Herbstman, Bert Rosenberg, and Mark Rosenberg, the children of Halina Rosenberg.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Annlee Herbstman, Bert Rosenberg, and Mark Rosenberg