Kinderheim in Bergen-Belsen - Unknown artefacts - Field Medical Cards of Two Orphans found by Research Group at SHMA - Swedish Holocaust Memorial Association.

Unknown artefacts - Field Medical Cards of Two Orphans found by Research Group at SHMA - Swedish Holocaust Memorial Association. Milstein (Milsztajn) brothers 12 and 9 yers old were among Kinderheim Children that came from Bergen-Belsen to Sweden with White Boats.

Unknown artefacts - Field Medical Cards of two Orphans found by Research Group at SHMA - Swedish Holocaust Memorial Association. Milstein (Milsztajn) brothers 12 and 9 years old were among Kinderheim Children that came from Bergen-Belsen to Sweden with White Boats.

The following is an example of how the work of the SHMA research group enabled the successful reconstruction of the fate of the Milstein family connecting documents available from different archives. This includes a photograph and lists of Jews deported from the Piotrków ghetto to the concentration camps and documents showing the fate of the family members as described above.

Milstein (Milsztajn) brothers 12 and 9 yers old were among Kinderheim Children that came from Bergen-Belsen to Sweden with White Boats.
History of Feliks Felek "Shraga Milstein". He was born in 1933 in the Polish town of Piotrków Trybunalski. Shortly after the German forces invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, the first ghetto on Polish territory was established in Milstein's home town - Piotrków Trybunalski. The ghetto housed 22,000 people in an area that was home to about 6000 before the war. During 1942, the population of the Piotrków (Petrikau) Ghetto ghetto was reduced to 2 000 - 3000 after numerous deportations by cattle trains to the death camp Treblinka. The people that remained in the ghetto were sent to labor camps in area and Milstein father and Feliks-Shraga became slave workers in the Bugaj Wood Factory. At the age of 11 he worked 8-10 hours a day as an apprentice to a wood cutter. The vary last deportation from the Piotrków (Petrikau) ghetto was that on October 8. In 1944. Milstein's mother was taken to Ravensbrück concentration camp, while Shraga-Feliks, his father and his younger brother Marek were deported to Buchenwald concentration camp. Milstein's father was shot there a few weeks after his arrival. When Buchenwald concentration camp was evacuated, Milstein and numerous other children were deported to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and Kinderheim there. Milsteins mother died 6 weeks after the liberation on 28 May 1945. 

On July 26, 1945 Milstein and his brother came to Sweden with UNRRAs White Boat mission. 

In 1948 Milstein brothers and numerous other children left Sweden for Israel. In Israel, Shraga-Feliks Milstein studied, worked as an educator and teacher, was elected chairman of the municipal council of Kfar Shmaryahu near Tel Aviv, and was finally appointed director of the Massuah Institute for Holocaust Studies.

Number 39 on the list, first page, is Regina Mihlstein - Regina Milsztajn mother of Feliks and Markus. Number 38 is probably their cousin that was also liberated in Bergen-Belsen. Her fate after WWII is unknown.

The German list of deportation from Piotrków to the concentration camp in Buchenwald and below the registration cards of Milsztajn Feliks, Milsztajn Markus and Milsztajn Hilel from KL Buchenwald. On the deportation list Milsztajn brothers has number 76 and 77 and their father 88. The number of woman deported on that day was much longer. There are numerous names of the fathers and sons on that list.

Milsztajn Feliks (Milstein Sharga) registration card from the KL Buchenwald.

Milsztajn Markus (Milstein Marek) registration card from the KL Buchenwald.

The card from the KL Buchenwald of  Hilel (Henryk) Milsztajn. Hilel Milsztajn was shot by Germans on December 15th 1944 (on the stamp Gestroben - means Died) and on next day, December 16, he was taken out from the register of the inmates. Rywka Milsztajn, born Goldsztajn, the mother of the boys and the wife of Hilel is mentioned as a n inmate in concentration camp without mentioning the name of the camp.

The card from the KL Buchenwald about the death of the Milsztajn brothers father - Hilel (Henryk). As a cause of death is both Nierenentzündung - kidney inflammation and the heart failure mentioned. Hilel Milsztajn was shot by Germans on December 15th 1944.

Milsztajn Feliks DP-1 Card issued in Lübeck on July 24, 1945 - just one day before departure to Sweden. He was classified as "sitting" person - it means no need to be carried on stretchers.

Milsztajn Feliks and Markus left Lübeck on July 25, 1945 on UNRRAs White Boat, S/S Kastelholm and arrived to Malmö, Sweden on July 25. Boys were classified as "sitting" persons - it means no need to be carried on stretchers.

Medical card of Milsztajn Feliks issued on July 26 1945. The father Henryk (Hilel) is mentioned with an unknown whereabout.

Egon Kux teaches the children that arrived to Sweden with the UNRRA mission White Boats. First from left: Feliks Milsztajn (Shraga Milstein), third from left: Halina Krajtman and the third from the right: Mirka-Miriam Stern-Rock.

Teaching in Sweden. Lövsätra, March 1946. The boy in the light shirt: Marek Milsztajn (Mordechai Milstein).

Summary: Family Milsztajn lived in Piotrków Trybunalski. From the first days of the WWII, in september 1939 the ghetto was created in the city. Deportations of the ghetto inmates (approx. 22 000 at that time)  to the death camps started in 1942. Some 2 000 Jews with the families were left as slave workers at two factories. In December 1944 the final deportation tog place. Men together with their sons were send to KL Buchenwald while women were send to KL Ravensbrück.  Many of them were later furher evacuated to the Bergen-Belsen camp. Among them Rywka Milsztajn that died in Bergen-Belsen camp just days after the liberation. Her husband Hilel Milsztajn was shot in KL Buchenwald. Their children, two boys, 9 and 11 years old at that time survived and were brought to Sweden by UNRRAs White boat mission in July 1945. In 1948 they boys left Sweden for Eretz Israel.