Anna Philipstahl - Very special "adoption" of Frajda from Piotrków Trybunalski that became Fanny that became Rena.

 

Fredzia (Frajda) was sent in December 1944 to Ravensbrück or earlier in February- March 1943 to Czestochowa while her father, Lichtensztajn (Lichtenstein Icek) was sent on the same day to Buchenwald (or to Czestochowa too). Fredzia's school teacher took care of her during the transport to the camp (her name?). Her last Piotrków memories: She remembered seeing her mother and brothers for the last time, at around six years old (1942), when she slipped out of a Piotrków synagogue where Nazis had rounded up hundreds of Jews.  Fredzia remembered saying goodbye to her father when he entrusted her to a schoolteacher as they climbed out of a cattle car and women and children were sent one way (Ravensbrück), men another (Buchenwald).

In late October of 1938, the Nazi regime ordered the arrest of around 17,000 Jews with Polish citizenship who were living in the German Reich. The Jews were then expelled and transported violently to the Polish border. This forced expulsion designated the Polenaktion (“Polish Action”) in German, was the first mass deportation of Jews from the German Reich. Zbąszyń. In Poland, this action is also called the Zbaszyn Affair.

Before arrival in the United States Fredzia (Frajda), in Sweden got a new identity that belonged to Anna Philipstahl late daughter Frania. Anna that was officially stateless could not apply for a national passport as most of the former inmates of the concentration camps did. Most probably she used it in her applications for visa to USA and Swedish Främlingspass. It is likely that in Sweden no one noticed that Fredzia Lichtenstein, 10-year-old orphan from Piotrków Trybunalski disappeared.

In the police interrogation of Anna Philipstahl from December 13th, 1945, one can read: Her two children, a daughter, Fanny, and a son, Sigmund Philipstahl, now resided with her in a (camp) facility in Tingsryd. She does not know where her husband and eldest son are now. She hasn't heard from them since she escaped from the camp in Drohobycz. Her father died in 1928 and her mother in 1934. She intends to travel to America during the month of January 1946, where she has a brother, David Pine, who lives in Baltimore, which is why she wants to obtain a passport as soon as possible to travel to America, where she is also taking her two children.

For the first time, she learned her mother's maiden name,
Messer, and that she was named for her grandmother,
Frail. She also learned her real date of birth, which fell two months before the one she'd adopted. She found the address of her childhood home, and she went to visit the site. She
saw the balcony she remembered, and could picture
the kiosk across the street where she always got ice
cream. When Fredzia-Rena visited Piotrków she found at the doorpost of her former home, 

a faint outline of a tilted rectangle under many layers of paint--the mezuzah her parents had hung as a talisman and prayer to protect the home. Even before her visit,
Fredzia had recalled the moment in 1939 when strangers moved into her home. On her tour through Piotrków, she

To follow Holocaust Survivors and Holocaust Victims in Polish, German, British, Swedish, French, and Israeli lists.

The document is dated May 19th, 1942. Just five months before the deportations to the death camp Treblinka started. Archiwum Państwowe w Piotrkowie Trybunalskim, ASC OB w Piotrkowie. Zesp. 333, Sygn. 13973.

Karrskär avgår 24/7 som sista resa stop Kastelholm beräknas avgå härifrån 25/7 med barnen

stop Enligt hittills erhållna uppgifter från Belsen anlända den 24/7 75 sjuka barn och cirka 95 friska barn tillsammans med 26 friska och 20 sjuka mödrar stop     sjuke mödrar stop Barons Aldo: stop Enligt hittilla erhållna uppgifter 95 friske barn tillsamans och sjukdomstillstånd finna ej

To Follow Holocaust Survivors and Holocaust Victims in Polish, German, British, Swedish, and Israeli lists. The same name of the Holocaust Survivor or Holocaust Victim might be found on several lists.

I choose Piotrków Trybunalski to show the process of the Holocaust that start as I define from September 1939, when WWII started. Why I choose Piotrkow Trybunalski is a question that I am frequently getting. Is your family from there? No, is my simple answer. However, the city, the ghetto population, and its fate are just a miniature of what happened in Poland at that time. A smaller population than in other ghettos made it easier to describe and follow single individuals' fate. 

Piotrków Trybunalski ghetto was the first one established by the Germans. Just 38 days after the invasion of Poland on September 1st, 1939. The ghetto area was not fenced in, nor was it guarded. The ghetto’s perimeters were marked by signs bearing the word “Ghetto”, with a human skull and crossed bones above it. Jews were allowed to leave the ghetto without a permit, however, only during certain hours, and only to a certain part of the city. Until April 1942 the Piotrków Trybunalski Ghetto remained ‘open’.
In 1940, all the Jews of Piotrków over the age of 10 were required to wear a white armband on their sleeves with a blue Star of David. Those who failed to comply were severely punished, some people disobeyed this order, despite the danger. Men born between 1914, and 1923, were registered for forced labor by the Judenrat in March 1940.

It started in 1994 with my research of Holocaust Survivors that came to Sweden at the end of WWII. When analyzing the survivors on the very last of UNNRA White Boats that arrived in Sweden on 25-26 July, I was amazed by the number of children that arrived in Malmö. Later, I found that numerous on the ships list, both children and women were from Piotrków Trybunalski Ghetto.

Following the fate of children from Piotrków one can find their names on several lists. On different lists, one can find what happened to their fathers and uncles and grandfathers and grandmothers.

Very quickly the history of the Holocaust will be revealed. Most of the grandfathers and grandmothers are not to be found on the lists after October 1942. 

On the night of October 13-14, 1942, the SS and Ukrainian auxiliary forces surrounded and sealed off the ghetto, and the Deportation Aktion to East started. The quota on the first day of deportation and also on the following days was 6 000 people. A train with 52 cattle cars was used for the deportation to the death camp. Trains departed from Piotrków to Treblinka four times and more than 20 000 Jews were deported. The distance between Piotrków and Treblinka is more than 250 km. That means a long journey in crowded cattle wagons to the death camp. The last transport to Treblinka left on October 25, 1942. It included some of the Jewish community leaders, doctors, lawyers, teachers, and others who belonged to the Judenrat, Jewish Council. During the deportation, approximately 1 000 Jews were shot (old and sick). No lists of deported were made! Germans just filled the cattle car trains to the maximum.

November 26, 1944, was the time for the next deportation. However, this time not to the extermination camps but to the HASAG factories in Czestochowa - the Pelzerei, Warta, Rakow, and Czestochowianka factories. Deportations in 1944 Generalna Gubernia were actually transports of very much needed slave workers that Nazi Germany needed more than ever as more and more Germans were recruited to the army and of course, Red Army was proceeding west. On July 22, 1944, soldiers of the Red Army came upon Majdanek, the first of the Nazi death camps to be liberated. They freed just under 500 prisoners. The total number of victims there was estimated at approximately 100 000.

On December 4th, 1944, the remnants of the Jewish population of Piotrkow were put into cattle wagons to be transported to two destinations, Buchenwald and Ravensbrück. This time all deported were strictly registered and also the age was given. The age of children was recorded by year of birth or just by writing 2 years or similar.

Buchenwald prisoners' lists were rather often updated. Here is the list with the creation date
1945-01-16 - 1945-01-22. The order of the information in the reports detailing changes slightly over the period of existence of the Concentration Camp. Here are the prisoner's number, name, and first name. Often the lists included of the times the reason for incarceration, block number or branch camp were included. Numerous names can be found in the deportation lists from Piotrków from December 2, 1944.
116.864 recorded in the lists.