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.

Mina tankar efter att ha deltagit i International Conference Marking the 25th Anniversary of Yad LaYeled i Israel "The Jewish Child during and after the Holocaust: Research and Pedagogy in a Changing World".

Förintelsen - sönderslaget porslin i gammalt skåp

Förintelsen - sönderslaget porslin i gammalt skåp och artefakter

I ett par timmar idag så deltog jag i International Conference Marking the 25th Anniversary of Yad LaYeled i Israel "The Jewish Child during and after the Holocaust: Research and Pedagogy in a Changing World".
Ett antal forskare och chefer for Förintelsemuseer talade om hur de lär ut "Förintelsen". Det fanns massa artefakter man visade men inte FÖRINTELSEN. Man visade väskor, dagböcker, Davidsstjärnor och tiden före och efter egentliga FÖRINTELSEN.
På samma sätt som i Sverige skulle tycka synd om hunden Bobo, en docka Dolly eller en annan älskad leksak eller en avsaknad av ett föräldrahem med vackra gardiner.
Själv har inte eget svar hur man skall visa Förintelsen utan hungriga barn i getton, boskapsvagnar och de mördade i massgravar.

Det gäller HUR man skall lära och vad? Det känns att man numera, nästan som inom sexualundervisningen på 50-talet, undviker att tala om MÖRDANDET: Både det som skedde efter aktionen Barbarossa med massavrättningarna vid massgravarna och det industriella mördandet i dödsfabriker som Treblinka och Auschwitz. De lämnade ensamma hemma, dockan Dolly och hunden Bobo, kan inte och kommer inte att ersätta informationen om den råa verkligheten. Samma sak gäller beskrivningarna av livet i getton. På 50-talet har frågor kring kropp och sexualitet förklarats med blommor och bin utan att nämna en snopp eller en snippa. Nu, 76 år efter att Förintelsen tog slut undviker man på samma sätt ämnet Hur de 6 000 000 judar dog. Endast med en sund och verklighetstrogen inställning till Förintelsen kan man tackla det faktum att det är 76 år efter att den mörka perioden tog slut. Numera fler barn redan i de första klasserna stöter på mord sex och våld både i TV-rutan och i det verkliga livet i Sverige.

15:30 – 15:45	Opening remarks: Yigal Cohen, CEO Ghetto Fighters' House Dr. Boaz Cohen, Head of the Holocaust Studies Program, Western Galilee Academic College Ada Tuchbant, President, Yad LaYeled France Madene Shachar, Yad LaYeled
15:45 – 16:45	Keynote Speaker:  Prof.  Zehavit Gross Chairholder of the UNESCO/Burg Chair in Education for Human Values, Tolerance and Peace, and Head of the graduate program of Management and Development in Informal Education Systems at the School of Education, Bar-Ilan University, Israel Reflective Culture of Holocaust Remembrance (RCoHR): International Perspectives on Challenges and Ramifications
16:45 - 17:00	Short Break
17:00 - 18:00	The Jewish Child during the Holocaust: New Perspectives in Research Chair: Dr. Boaz Cohen The Yellow Star – Tagging Children and Teenagers during the Holocaust Dr. Verena Buser – Potsdam University of Applied Sciences and Western Galilee College Akko: Children of War, Holocaust and Genocide Project   Jewish Child Survivors in the Centre of the Reconstruction of Jewish Families in the Aftermath of the Holocaust Prof. Joanna Michlic – Honorary Senior Research Associate at the UCL Centre for the Study of Collective Violence, the Holocaust and Genocide, UCL Institute for Advanced Studies
18:00-18:30	Break
18:30 – 19:45	International Roundtable: Holocaust Education in Museums and by Museums: Moderator: Dr. Michael Berenbaum, Professor of Jewish Studies and Director of the Sigi Ziering Institute: Exploring the Ethical and Religious Implications of the Holocaust, American Jewish University, USA ·       Tali Nates – Founding Director, Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Center, South Africa ·       Dr. Claude Singer, Director, Pedagogical Department, Memorial de la Shoah, France ·       Marc Cave, Director, National Holocaust Center & Museum, England ·       Karolina Ziulkoski, Chief Curator, YIVO Bruce and Francesca Cernia Slovin Online Museum, USA ·       Orit Margaliot, Head of Guide Training, Professional Development and Curricula at the Educational Guiding Department, ISHS, Yad Vashem, Israel ·       Madene Shachar, Senior Educator, Yad LaYeled Children's Memorial Museum, Israel
19:45 – 20:00	Closing Remarks Madene Shachar

Eliazer Geller - Day 13 - Friday 30 April 1943 - Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

A letter signed by Eugeniusz, the moniker of Eliezer Geller, to his comrades in Mandate Palestine.
He describes his situation. Warsaw, June 7, 1943. See the translation below.

Eliezer Geller's letter to friends in Eretz Israel. He describes Celina (Lubetkin) and Tosia (Altman). He also mentions Regards from Haganska, which is a kind of code related to Hagana (?). In the same way, the name of Celina (Lubetkin) was used in several letters. As mentioned, Tosia Altman was captured two weeks later when the factory where she and others (also Eliezer) were sheltering caught fire. Severely burned, she was handed over to the Gestapo and died two days later.

A 40-person group of ŻOB fighters under the command of Eliezer Geller (from Gordonia), from the area of Többens and Schultz's shops, tries to get out of the ghetto. They go down to the sewage mains on Leszno St. Several hours later, they come out on the corner of Ogrodowa and Żelazna Streets. They are transported out of Warsaw by car.

Stroop writes in his report, “Even though huge blocks of houses were completely burned down, Jews still survive in bunkers located 2–3 meters underground,” which are very difficult to detect. The Germans wipe out 30 bunkers and destroy all escape routes to the “Aryan side”. 1,599 Jews are captured, 179 of whom are “shot in combat”. 3,855 people are loaded onto trains at the Umschlagplatz. Stroop reports to his superiors that 37,359 Jews have been captured since the operation began. He assures them the operation will continue the next day.

Eliazer Geller was born in Opoczno in 1919. He was among the initiators in setting up fighting underground in Częstochowa and Zaglebie. Geller served in the Polish army in 1939 and, along with many of his comrades, fell prisoner to the Germans and was freed after four months. He then went to Warsaw, where he was called upon by Yisrael Zeltzer, the only one of the Gordonia leadership still alive, to take on extensive movement activities. Geller distributed the movement's publications in the underground, visited Gordonia branches throughout Poland, and made contact with the Gordonia office in Geneva. Geller and Zeltzer did not work well together, and they turned for mediation to Dr. Natan Eck to decide which of them would step down from Gordonia's leadership. Eck decided in favor of Geller, who was made a member of the movement's directorate.

In the January 1943 fighting in the ghetto, Geller fought in the Dror/Gordonia combat group and was made commander of a squad in the Toebbens - Schultz "shop" area. In the Warsaw ghetto uprising in April 1943, Geller commanded a combat squad at 76 Leszno Street.

On May 10, 1943, he left the burning ghetto via the sewers to the "Aryan" side of Warsaw. He and other fighters took refuge at a celluloid factory at 10 Listopadowa 11 Street (November 11th, Poland's Independence Day). Geller was burned in the fire that broke out there on May 24, 1943 -- he was the only survivor -- and succeeded in escaping from the Polish police. In the summer of 1943, he tried to leave Poland with forged documents of a South American national, but was caught and sent to Auschwitz, where he perished.

Translation of the Letter from Eliezer Geller ("Eugeniusz")

Warsaw, July 7, 1943

My Dear One,

I hasten to inform you of a change in my address; I am currently living at Olwerta 14 m 12. I ask that you continue to send me both small and larger food parcels. Especially – of course – I am anxious to receive a large parcel and that, as far as possible, as soon as possible; I trust that you will satisfy my request.

Certain small changes have occurred in my life. I have been ill and had another hemorrhage. How it will go with my health in the future, I do not know. Celina is living together with me, and Tosia died a short while ago. You have surely received greetings from Hagańska. I am being looked after by Toczkowski.

I ask you very much to cordially greet Zahirski. I know that you are busy and that you do not have time for writing. So write me very short letters; just a few words will be enough for me – but write. I greet you and Moładecka cordially.

Yours,
Eugeniusz.

Historical Context: The Letter from "Eugeniusz" (July 1943)
This letter, written by Eliezer Geller (using the pseudonym Eugeniusz), is a rare and profound document from the aftermath of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Geller, a leading figure in the ZOB (Jewish Fighting Organization) and the Gordonia movement, was hiding on the "Aryan side" of Warsaw when this was written. The letter serves as a clandestine status report to the Jewish leadership in Mandatory Palestine.

Key Figures and Coded References:

• Eliezer Geller ("Eugeniusz"): A group commander during the uprising, Geller was a key link between the underground in occupied Poland and the outside world. He was eventually caught during the "Hotel Polski" affair and murdered in Auschwitz.
• "Celina" (Cywia Lubetkin): One of the most famous female leaders of the Jewish underground. By stating that "Celina is living with me," Geller was providing critical intelligence that one of the movement's most important symbols had survived the bunker at Miła 18 and the uprising.
• "Tosia" (Tosia Altman): Another legendary courier and ZOB commander. The sentence "Tosia died a short while ago" confirms her tragic end. In May 1943, she was severely burned in a factory fire at Listopadowa Street while in hiding. Captured by the Gestapo in a state of agony, she died shortly after. Geller’s words are a direct, somber confirmation of this loss to the resistance.
• "Hagańska" (The Haganah): The reference to greetings from "Hagańska" was a vital signal of continued loyalty and connection to the Haganah, the Jewish paramilitary organization in Palestine. It symbolized that despite the destruction of the Ghetto, the bridge to Eretz Israel remained unbroken.

Significance:
At a time when the Germans were attempting to finalize the "liquidation" of the Jewish presence in Poland—both by erasing sites like Treblinka death camp (80 km from Warsaw) and by hunting down survivors—this letter is a testament to the persistence of the spirit and the organization. It highlights the fragile network of safe houses and the desperate importance of international support (the "parcels") in the continued struggle for survival and memory.

O co chodzi żonkilowcom? O Święto żonkilka?

Narcyzy chcą by żonkile przypominały Bund a jak Bund to i KOR no i Edelmana.

Przy tym niestety aktywnie zapomina się o Powstaniu w Getcie opisując komu przyczepiono żonkilek albo kto nie pozwolił sobie przyczepić żonkilka.

Jest już Święto Kwiatów, Owoców i Warzyw no to można wprowadzić Święto żonkila i walczyć o pamięc Edelmana którego nagle nazywają "komendantem", którym nigdy nie był (!), jednocześnie zapominając o Powstaniu w Getcie i jego ofiarach, nie tylko wśród bojowników!

Cywia - Zivia Lubetkin poem by Zrubavel Gilad - "Masada dance bursts in flames and burns" - "Suicides" in the sea of flames in Warsaw Ghetto - "Taniec Massady wybucha"

Photo of a Jewish man leaps to his death from the top story window of an apartment block during the suppression of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Niska street.

Masada dance bursts in flames and burns

wrote Gilad in his poem about Zivia, Cywia Lubetkin, read the entire poem below.
The entire Warsaw Ghetto was a sea of flames. A total of 13,000 Jews died, about half of them burnt alive or suffocated. Germans were systematically burning houses block by block using flame-throwers and fire bottles, and blowing up basements and sewers.
When Germans put the fire on the houses Jews were trying to move up to the attics. When the fire reached them they jumped and found the death on the pavement. Germans called it in their reports for suicide.

The photos above and below show a Jewish man leaping to his death from the window of an apartment block during the suppression of the Warsaw ghetto uprising.

These photos were taken on the fourth day of the ghetto clearing operation. The original caption (translated from German) reads, "Bandits jump to escape capture.". They called it for suicide.

A Jewish man leaps to his death from the top-story window of an apartment block during the suppression of the Warsaw ghetto uprising.

A Jewish man leaps to his death from the top-story window of an apartment block during the suppression of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. There are several bodies on the pavement. Maybe his wife and/or children. German soldiers and Polish firemen use to stand on the sidewalk and watch the "action of flames"!

Zrubbavel Gilad - Zerubawel Gilead spent two years in Warsaw 1937-39 and became a close friend to Janusz Korczak.

As I wrote earlier, Janusz Korczaks and Cywia (Tzwia - Zivia) Lubetkin´s friend from pre-war Warsaw, Zrubbavel Gilad wrote a poem about her, see below.
At that time Zrubbavel Gilad thought that Cywia died in the bunker at 18 Mila str. Dalia Tauber from our sister organization succeeded to find the poem and also was so kind to translate it from Hebrew to English. Actually, at that time, the publications of the labor movement glorified Lubetkin, as in June 1943 issue of Mibifnim which is devoted primarily to the WarsawGhetto Uprising and contained Zerubavel’s poem “Zivia.” 

The journal Zzror Michtavim contained the following words: Zivia – this name has become synonymous with the pioneering underground, the pioneering movement in occupied Poland, Polish Jewry, imprisonment within the walls of Warsaw, Lublin, and the barbed wire fences of the death camps.[…] She was the living spirit behind the heroic story of the pioneering uprising, the immense power of life that revealed itself in slaughtered Jewry, and the ability revealed in the great joint action


Tzvia - Cywia - Zivia
Translation: Dalia Tauber

The fountains of the song have dried out.
only one orphan tune
like drippings of blood
my heart will pour.

I will always remember your voice,
soft and confident,
while singing the song
with a raging soul:
"Masada dance bursts in flames"- -

Night it was. The Kibbutz was a hush.
You alone are awake: in the light if an oil lamp
Collecting the bread.
Night it was. And your rejoicing voice
over the sleeping hovers
Like a mothers' breath…

How will everything light up now
In flames of horror and fears! -
And your silent voice turned a flaming shout
Heart stabbing:
"Masada dance bursts in flames"- -
Over the ruins,
Over the crushed,
Over your wobbling body -
Your voice raises from the flames,
Your glorious, awesome voice grows stronger:
"Masada dance bursts in flames
and burns" - -

Źródła pieśni wyschły
tylko jedną osieroconą melodię
jak krople krwi
serce moje zaśpiewa.

Zawsze wspominać będę twój głos,
cichy i pełen wiary,
śpiewając tę piosenkę
z głębi wstrząśniętej duszy:
"Taniec Masady wybucha"...

Była noc
w kibucu zapadła cisza
tylko ty jeszcze nie śpisz:
w świetle lampki naftowej
wyjmujesz z pieca chleb.
Była noc
i twój śpiewający glos
unosił się nad śpiącymi
jak oddech matki...

Jak rozjaśni się teraz wszystko
światłem niepokoju i przerażenia! -
I twój cichy glos stal się ognistym krzykiem
przeszywającym serca:
"Taniec Masady wybucha"...
nad ruinami

nad zmiażdżonymi
nad twoim słaniającym się ciałem
twój głos unoszący się nad ogniem,
twój majestatyczny, straszny głos, wzmacnia się:
"Taniec Massady wybucha i płonie"

Members of the He-Chaluts movement's Central Committee in Poland. In the photo: Rachel Fogelman (top row, on the right), David Kokla-Kafri (top row, center), Chaya Spiegel (top row, on the left), Eliezer Grawicki-Regev (bottom row, on the right), Rivka Perlis -Tamarit (bottom row, second from the right), Yitzhak Perlis (bottom row, third from the right), Yoske Rabinowicz (at the bottom), and Zrubavel Gilad, a Zionist emissary from Mandate Palestine (bottom row, on the left). Photographed in 1938.

In Warsaw. From December 1, 1939 all Jews were obliged to wear white armbands with the blue Star of David on their right arm according to the order issued just 7 days earlier.

 

In Warsaw. From December 1, 1939 all Jews were obliged to wear white armbands with the blue Star of David on their right arm according to the order issued just 7 days earlier.

Photo on the right from the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943.

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising - Postal stamps and FDC (First Day Cover).

The philatelist wrote: "The yellow, daffodil Star of David cheers up and gives hope". Caught by Germans, Ghetto fighters have been marked by Polish Post with yellow stars and do not seem to be happier by Star of David, they were just humiliated!

Thanks to my intervention, Polish Post removed the signs used to humiliate, and isolate Jews from the photo of woman fighters. 

The yellow color and the yellow star of David seems to appear on the Polish stamps year 1988. 19 years after 1969 emigration. 

 
To cheer up?
Someone wrote on internet: "With the eyes of the "old" philatelist, I look at the new collection of anniversary stamps and observed with hope the radical rejection of martyrdom design, heavy colors and serious typography. The subject matter, is obviously dramatic, difficult, and yet it possible to overcame it. The yellow, daffodil Star of David cheers up and gives hope".

It is likely that we have to forget the martyrdom and concentrate on daffodil without any real connection beside the fake story about one of the fighters that survived and his story that he was receiving.

We have to remember that the Nazis implemented the yellow star as a means to publicly identify, humiliate, and isolate Jews. In reality, the Jews were excluded from the society. Several laws concerning Jews were approved by Nazis. Jews throughout Nazi-occupied Europe were forced to wear Yellow Star badge. This public identification and stigmatization preceded the mass deportations of Jews to ghettos and killing sites. Yellow colour was used for hudred sof year to mark the Jews as a badge or yellow hats (in Iatly): Also in Sweden a yellow ribbon was suggested by City council when Jews were allowed to legally stay in Sweden. yellow badge, which meant they were excluded from society..

However, in the Warsaw ghetto, Jews wore a white armband with a blue Star of David on their left arm. In some ghettos, even babies in prams had to wear the armbands or stars. Jewish shops were also marked with the Star of David.

The star was intended not only to humiliate Jews and to mark them out for segregation and discrimination. The David Star marking made it easier to identify Jews for deportation to death camps.

Okiem „starego” filatelisty przyglądam się na nowej kolekcji rocznicowych znaczków i z nadzieją obserwuję radykalne odrzucenie martyrologicznego designu, ciężkiej kolorystyki i poważnej typografii. Tematyka, wiadomo dramatyczna, trudna a jednak można. Żółta, żonkilowa Gwiazda Dawida² rozwesela i daje nadzieje.