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Life had challenges in store for Joseph Muscha Mueller from the very start. His parents were Romani, but Jo- seph was raised in a German orphanage, and later by a foster family. In school, Joseph was bullied and made fun of by classmates who were members of the Hitler Youth movement. Nazi law discriminated against many groups of people who were considered outsiders, including the people from the Roma and Sinti tribes. Because of these unfair laws, when Joseph was twelve he was taken from Joseph Muscha Mueller his classroom and forced to have an operation that would Date of Birth: 1932 Place of Birth: Bitterfeld, Germany prevent him from ever having children. He was supposed to be sent to Belsen concentration camp after he recov- ered from the surgery. Fortunately, Joseph’s foster father was able to get him smuggled out of the hospital before - den shed until the war was over. that happened. Joseph spent five months hiding in a gar 1 www.memoryprojectproductions.com Joseph Muscha Mueller Photo credit: U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum For 150 years, the Jewish family of Henry Maslowicz lived in harmony with their Christian neighbors. That changed when the Germans occupied their hometown in 1939. Henry’s father owned an iron and coal factory. Many Jews left, but Henry’s parents stayed. A year later, the Nazis created a ghetto, a part of the city where Jewish people were forced to live. Henry was born there. In 1942, upon hearing that the Nazis were going to take everyone out of the ghetto, Henry’s father sent his young son to be hidden in a Catholic convent. He was left out on the Henry Maslowicz Date of Birth: December 25, 1940 street instead and picked up by a woman. She took him to an Place of Birth: attic, fed him, and kept him hidden. He didn’t even know his Wierzbnik-Starachowice, Poland own name. A Jewish social worker discovered Henry there and took him to Israel. He eventually reunited with his father and moved first to Ecuador, then the United States. 2 www.memoryprojectproductions.com Henry Maslowicz Photo credit: U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Stefania Podgorska grew up on a farm with her large Catholic family. When she was 13, her father got sick and died. Stefania asked her mother if she could leave the farm and join her sister in the city of Przemysl. Stefania worked in a grocery store there that was owned by the Diamants, a Jewish family. They treated Stefania like family. When the Germans invaded Poland, she moved in with them. In 1941, the Diamants were made to leave their homes and live in a Jewish ghetto. Stefania’s mother was sent to Germany Stefania Podgorska Date of Birth: 1925 where she was forced to work. Stefania took care of her 6-year- Place of Birth: Lipa, Poland old sister and found an apartment outside the ghetto. She traded clothes for food. A year later, she heard the news that all the Jewish people in the ghetto were going to be rounded up and sent away. She helped some of them escape and hide. Then she moved into a cottage so she could have more space. Eventually, 13 Jewish people were living in a secret space in Stefania’s attic. All of them survived the war. In 1961, Stefania moved to the United States with her husband, Josef Diamant. 3 www.memoryprojectproductions.com Stefania Podgorska Photo credit: U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Dora Rivkina had many talents. The middle sister of three girls, Dora was athletic and an excellent swimmer and dancer. She was chosen to dance the lead in a New Year’s show when she was only in second grade. Dora grew up in Minsk, the capital city of Belorussia. Before World War II, more than a third of the residents of the city were Jewish, just like Dora. After the Germans invaded Minsk in 1941, Dora’s family was forced into the ghetto, a part of the Dora Rivkina city where Jewish people were forced to live. Two years later, Date of Birth: November 7, 1924 Place of Birth: Minsk, Belorussia when everyone in the ghetto was forced out, Dora, then 19, escaped and joined a group of partisans—people who were trying to fight against the Germans. Unfortunately, they were soon captured by the German soldiers. The guards demanded to know who was Jewish. The group answered with silence. Then a guard said he would shoot them all if they didn’t speak. One woman pointed at Dora. The young, beautiful and talented girl died a terrible death. The Germans bound her hands, tied a rock around her neck, and threw her in a river. Then they shot her. Her sister, Berta, the only one of Dora’s family to survive the war, learned the story of Dora’s death from some girls who were with her. 4 www.memoryprojectproductions.com Dora Rivkina Photo credit: U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Shulim Saleschutz was a nine-year-old boy living with his family in the town of Kolbuszowa when the Germans invaded Poland. Polish soldiers on horseback tried to fight, but they couldn’t defend themselves against the German tanks. Shulim’s father, known for his incredible strength, helped bury the dead horses after the battle. Life changed dramatically for all the Jewish people in town. Neither Shulim nor his brother, Shlomo, or sister, Rozia, were Shulim Saleschutz allowed to go to school. No Jewish children were. In 1941, Date of Birth: March 7, 1930 Place of Birth: Kolbuszowa, Poland Germans forced the Saleschutzes and other Jewish families to move into one small section of Kolbuszowa. Shulim lived in a crowded apartment with his parents, siblings, grandparents, an uncle, and two aunts. On his birthday in 1942, Shulim had to start wearing an armband with a Star of David, like the other Jewish men. He felt proud. The Germans forced Shulim and other men to work, clearing snow and fixing the roads. In July of 1942, Shulim Saleschutz was sent to the Belzec ex- termination camp. There, Shulim, Shlomo, Rozia, and their mother were gassed to death. He was 12 years old. 5 www.memoryprojectproductions.com Shulim Saleschutz Photo credit: U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Thirteen-year-old Moishe Felman was just about to begin a new year of school when the Germans invaded Poland in 1939. Moishe’s town of Sokolow Podlaski was bombed as troops entered the town. They set fire to the main synagogue and confiscated the grain business Moishe’s parents ran. Over the next two years, Jewish families like Moishe’s had to live with more and more restrictions. They had to wear a Jew- ish star on their clothing. They had to move to an area called Moishe Felman the ghetto, a part of the city where Jewish people were forced Date of Birth: 1926 Place of Birth: Sokolow Podlaski, to live. In 1941, on Yom Kippur, one of the most important Poland holy days of the Jewish year, the Germans began to round up people in the ghetto. Those who fought back or hid were shot. Moishe, his mother, and sister had to join their neighbors as all the Jewish people were crammed into the boxcar of a train. The train took them to the Treblinka extermination camp. Moishe was gassed to death there shortly after he arrived. He was 16 years old. 6 www.memoryprojectproductions.com Moishe Felman Photo credit: U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Ita Grynbaum and her eight brothers and sisters lived in a small, busy, one-story house in the town of Starachowice, Poland. The family had a tailor shop in the house. Ita’s mother and father often traded their work for firewood and food for the family. Ita helped her mother with chores around the house. In June 1939, Ita’s father came home from synagogue and went to bed. He was obviously not well, and Ita’s older brother Ita Grynbaum Chuna ran to get the doctor. But by the time they returned, Date of Birth: 1926 Place of Birth: Starachowice, Ita’s father had died. Ita’s mother and older siblings kept the Poland tailor shop running. Later that year, German troops took over the town. Ita had to work at a nearby factory. In October 1942, she was forced to join the other Jewish people in town in the marketplace. Then, she and others who were considered strong enough were sent to a labor camp nearby. Ita was put to work serving food to the Polish workers. When the deadly disease typhus struck the camp, Ita became ill. She was sent to the barracks for sick prisoners. Chuna visited her daily, often bringing her rags to pad her painful bedsores. With no medicine or doctors for the sick prisoners, Ita died of her illness after three months. She was 17 years old. 7 www.memoryprojectproductions.com Ita Grynbaum Photo credit: U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Shulamit Perlmutter, called Musia, was part of a family who loved learning. Her father was a professor at the university in Lvov. Her parents were both civic leaders in their town of Horochow, in eastern Poland. Private tutors taught Shulamit when she was just 4 years old. Three weeks after the Germans invaded Poland in September 1939, the Soviet Union took over eastern Poland. Many people who were trying to escape the Germans passed through Shulamit Perlmutter Horochow. But Shulamit’s life didn’t change much. Her father Date of Birth: December 16, 1929 Place of Birth: Horochow, Poland continued to teach at the university.

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