The famous Israeli writer Matylda Miriam Weinfeld - Miriam Akavia and her sister, Rela-Lusia, survived the Holocaust. They were brought to Sweden by UNRRA mission White boats.

Matylda - Miriam Weinfeld in the middle and her sister, Rela-Lusia and her brother Izio prior WWII.

Rela-Lusia (left ) and Hela-Chaya Weinfeld (right).

DP-2 card issued in Lübeck contains entire Weinfeld family history. Mother Bronisława, father Hirsch and brother Joseph - Izio were victims of the Holocaust. Matylda - Miriam and her sister Rella-Lusia, survived and came to Sweden on July 11, 1945 onboard of M/S Karrskär, one of the UNRRA White Boats. In Sweden she was transferred to the emergency hospital (Beredskapssjukhus) in Halmstad. After 8 months she joined her sister Rela who was in Myckelby, Sweden, working for the Joint as an assistant. In Myckelby Miriam met Hanan Jakobovicz (born in 1927, in Transylvania), a young Jewish refugee with whom she emigrated to Eretz-Israel (Palestine), on 26.5.1946. They lived for few months on kibbutz Dganya Bet in the Galilee where they got married. In 1948 Miriam and Hanan joined a group of young refuges who came to Israel from Sweden, and they established a new kibbutz, Nachsholim. They stayed there for six years until they moved to Tel Aviv where Miriam studied nursing and worked in this profession. Since 1957, the year of second big “aliya” from Poland, Miriam worked in the Jewish Agency taking care of the new immigrants, especially those with academic professions, writers and artists. 

The Hirsch family was forced to move to the Cracow Ghetto. Father, Hirsch Weinfled successfully sent his daughter, Miriam, age 15 years, and her brother, Izio to Lwów to look for refuge.

Izio Weinfeld helped people in the Lwów Ghetto, providing false identity cards, but he was captured by the Gestapo and was never seen again. Miriam now left alone in Lwów, she returned to her family to the Kraków Ghetto.

Later, on the day of the liquidation of the Cracow ghetto was one of the worst memories in Miriam’s life. Three children she was taking care of were shot in front of her eyes…

After that Miriam’s family was moved to Płaszów concentration camp. Her father was sent to Mauthausen concentration camp and it was the last time Miriam saw him… The next day Miriam, her mother, and her sister were taken to Auschwitz concentration camp. Then there was so called Death March from Auschwitz to Bergen Belsen concentration camp.

Miriam Weinfeld cites, regarding the liberation of Bergen Belsen, "I myself was lying on a heap of dead bodies and beside me was my sister Lusia, our mother was there with us, but she was no longer alive. For her, the war ended too late... Sweden chose the weakest and sickest. Nothing was demanded of us. They sanitized us... dressed us, checked us, fed us vitamins and cod liver oil, and sent us to pretty localities, most of us to hospitals."

Miriam Weinfeld and her sister, Rela-Lusia, survived. They were brought to Sweden by UNRRA mission White boats. Their mother, Bronia (Bronislawa Plesner) died a few days before the Bergen-Belsen camp was liberated by the British Army, on April 15, 1945. Their fathers´ Hirsch Weinfelds last whereabout was at the Mauthausen Camp.

As many other Holocaust survivors, Miriam Weinfeld maintained her silence for 30 years until the publication of her first book in 1975. She wrote there about her time in Lwów: My older brother [Izio] and I looked 'good' [means non-Jewish] so we were sent out of the Cracow ghetto in 1940 with false papers. But I wanted to be with my family and returned after a month of 'freedom.' My brother, who was 17, was caught by the Gestapo and we never saw him again.

In March 1946, she came with a Youth Aliya group on a boat S/S Mataroa (or S/S Cairo).from Marseille to Haifa and immediately to Kibbutz Deganya Bet. On the same ship arrived one year earlier Izrael Lau the future chief rabbi of Israel. 

Sweden, Halmstad - Emergency hospital in Brunnsåkersskolan. Due to UNRRA in June-July 1945 the school in Halmstad was used as an emergency hospital for women with TB. During six months, 450 patients were cared for, which according to hospital superintendent Gunnar Erik von Arnold's report during this time increased their weight by a total of six tonnes. Twelve of the women died and rest in a common grave at the Western Cemetery.

From UNRRA White Boat to Halmstad emergency hospital.

The child Yisrael Lau, future chief rabbi of Israel, after coming down the Mataroa, and holding the flag of the youth movement of the Buchenwald camp. The "Mataroa"' was the first ship that brought Holocaust survivors to Palestine after World War II. Most of its passengers were children: a few hundred survivors of the Buchenwald Camp (one of them was Yizrael Lau, future Chief Rabbi of Israel), and children that were hidden in France and Switzerland. The trip was the fruit of a joint effort of the Mossad for Aliya Bet and the American Army. The ship arrived at the shores of Palestine on September 9th, 1945. The survivors were brought to the Atlit camp near Haifa Bay.

Miriam Weinfeld עקביא served as Israeli cultural attaché in Stockholm in the late seventies. She also wrote a book entitled In the Land of Janusz Korczak.

Note from the writer Ronit Feingold, daughter of Miriam Matylda Weinfeld:
I just read the blog... Very nice I think I would not have described it better...
The only correction my parents came to Israel on the ship Cairo that's what they said...
Also, my father was a diplomat in Stockholm
My mother wrote also the book,: My own Wine yard about Jews in Cracow before the war, and "An end to childhood" about her experience in Lwów.
We should talk. I will try to call you next week on Whatsup.

In Polish:

Pisarka, tłumaczka, przewodnicząca Towarzystwa Izrael–Polska, krakowianka ocalała z Zagłady, autorka wspomnień: Moja winnica i Moje powroty. Urodziła się 20 listopada 1927 roku w Krakowie jako córka Hirsza Weinfelda i Broni Plessner. Mieszkała z rodzicami i rodzeństwem przy ul. Łobzowskiej 47. Przeszła przez krakowskie getto, obozy w Płaszowie, Auschwitz i Bergen–Belsen. Po wyzwoleniu trafiła do Szwecji, gdzie przez osiem miesięcy dochodziła do zdrowia w szpitalu w Halmstad. Stamtąd w 1946 roku udało jej się wyjechać do Palestyny. Mieszkała w kibucu Degania Bet w Galilei, w 1948 roku współzakładała kibuc Nachszolim. Po sześciu latach przeniosła się do Tel Avivu, gdzie studiowała historię i literaturę oraz uczyła się pielęgniarstwa. Pracowała w Agencji Żydowskiej i w Ministerstwie Spraw Zagranicznych, była attaché kulturalną w ambasadach Izraela w Budapeszcie i Sztokholmie. Była autorką jedenastu książek i laureatką wielu izraelskich nagród literackich. Zmarła 16 stycznia 2015 roku w Tel–Avivie.