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“My life will begin on that day when I receive letters from you”. Correspondence of Jews who survived the Holocaust in the USSR and sought their relatives in Poland (1944–1945)
Karolina Ożóg
kaozog@gmail.com Author BiographyKarolina Ożóg - graduated Jewish Studies at Jagiellonian University, co-author of the permanent exhibition at the Ulma Family Museum of Poles Saving Jews in Markowa and the scenario of the permanent exhibition at the Plaszow KL Museum in Cracow. She has worked with the Museum of the History of Polish Jews Polin, the Museum of Polish History, the Museum of the People's Republic of Poland, among others. Since 2013 she has been associated with the Museum of Krakow, having worked at the branches of Oskar Schindler's Emalia Factory, Pharmacy under the Eagle, and currently employed at the Old Synagogue.
https://orcid.org/0009-0004-6766-4327
Museum of Krakow, Old Synagogue Branch
Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały, No. 20 (2024), Pages: 475-495
Submission Date: 2024-04-26Acceptance Date: 2024-08-26
Publication Date: 2024-12-17
https://doi.org/10.32927/zzsim.1055
Abstract
The article describes the correspondence collected in the State Archive in Rzeszow from 1944–1945 produced by Jewish survivors in the East. The senders were Jews from Rzeszów and the surrounding area, who were trying to find relatives in their former places of residence, as well as relatives displaced by the Germans from areas annexed to the Reich (including Lodz and Kalisz) and from Cracow. The addressees were mainly family members, friends, neighbors, schoolmates, as well as municipal institutions and the Jewish Committee in Rzeszów. The letters are very emotional in tone, many of them containing personal messages addressed to loved ones, who, however, never read them. Some of the letters provide numerous details about the wanted persons, their place of residence and employment before the war, the topography of the city, and the fate of the deportees themselves. They also contain some information about the living conditions and occupation of the survivors in the USSR, although rather sparse due to censorship. The correspondence is a contribution to discovering the fate of specific individuals and families, particularly those connected with Rzeszow.
Keywords
Jews , Siberia , World War II , Holocaust , war correspondence , exile , deportation , USSR
References
Źródła archiwalne / Archival Sources
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Archiwum Państwowe w Rzeszowie
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Netografia / Websites
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https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/strzyzow/str233.html
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https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/rzeszow/rze264.html
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Copyright (c) 2024 Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały
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