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OPENED JANUARY 18, 2017

In 1945, a former convent near Dachau named Kloster Indersdorf became a temporary home for hundreds of displaced children in the immediate aftermath of World War II. To help locate relatives, a photograph was taken of each child to be circulated in search notices. Many of the children had changed markedly during the war, and some had even lost their names. The My Name Is… installation displays a selection of the children’s images and their individual stories (when known), conveying the powerful reality faced by these young people.

Images of the children from the Museum’s collection came through the gift of Robert Marx to the Yaffa Eliach Collection of the Center for Holocaust Studies. Dr. Eliach established the Center for Holocaust Studies, Documentation and Research — the first organization in the United States dedicated to the study of the Holocaust — in 1974. The Center’s collection was merged into the Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in 1990.

This set of prints survived thanks to André S. Marx, Principal Welfare Officer for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) Relief Team 182 that operated the Children’s Center at Kloster Indersdorf. Contextual images courtesy, United Nations Archives, photographs of Kloster Indersdorf from folder S-1058-0001-01, “Germany Mission –

Photographs 1944-1948.” 5

My Name Is... In times of war, the lives of children are among the most fragile and often shift in unimaginable directions.

When the end of World War II brought liberation to Europe, it also brought chaos and confusion. Children and teens who had managed to survive began the heartbreaking search for relatives. Many had survived concentration camps, forced labor, life in hiding, and the devastating loss of family members. Most The Lost Children of Kloster Indersdorf Kloster of Children Lost The faced great uncertainty after liberation, with no obvious path forward. For these “lost” children , immediate relief was needed.

To this end, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) secured an abandoned convent in the American zone of post-war Germany — not far from the Dachau concentration camp. Here at Kloster Indersdorf, an interna- tional children’s center was established to shelter and assist unaccompanied children as they searched for family members and new homes. The children’s center cared for hundreds of Jewish and non-Jewish children who represented more than 20 nationalities.

In October of 1945, a photograph was taken of each child holding a plaque with his or her name on it. Many children had changed markedly during the war; others arrived without clear identifying information. My Name Is... displays the Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust collection of photographs taken at the children’s center and conveys the powerful reality faced by children and teens caught between the 9 worlds of war and home. A PLACE TO CARE FOR CHILDREN OF WAR In July of 1945, 11 international volunteers with UNRRA’s Team 182 began their work at Kloster Indersdorf to assist non-German orphans found in the American zone of Germany. Beyond the basic services of shelter, nourishment, clothing, and medical care , Kloster Indersdorf offered education, recreation, and a therapeutic environment. The youngest children to arrive were often those who had been born to forced laborers. Many of the older children were forced laborers themselves and had survived The Lost Children of Kloster Indersdorf Kloster of Children Lost The the horrors of the concentration camps.

All residents at the children’s center needed the attention of caring volunteers and the kinship of others who had gone through similar experiences. The sheer number of children and the services needed kept the Team working around the clock. They enlisted the help of nuns who had previously worked at the convent as well as adult displaced persons who could teach the children in their own languages. Each child who arrived at Kloster Indersdorf was​ interviewed to promote healing and in the hope that their families or origins could be traced. Many children eagerly shared their stories, though others were understandably cautious. Some were simply too young to be able to report full or accurate information about themselves.

11 THE WAY “HOME” All of the children at Kloster Indersdorf were desperate to locate surviving family members or more distant relatives in safe countries. In mid-October of 1945, an American photographer, Charles Haacker, was brought to Kloster Indersdorf to photo- graph each child in the hope that the images might be published to find living relatives. A bed sheet hanging on the wall provided a neutral background, and a teen resident at Indersdorf — Salek Benedikt — artistically wrote each name on the nameplates. The Lost Children of Kloster Indersdorf Kloster of Children Lost The Some of the photographs were used as passport pictures as the children left to start new lives.

A main function of the center was to repatriate the children or find them new homes — in accordance with the wishes of each child. Many of the Jewish teens initially hoped family members had made it home after the war and were restless to return and investigate. The center staff allowed them to go search — equipped with backpacks, food, and paperwork. Though some reunions took place, many of the children were bitterly disappointed.

Kloster Indersdorf also became known as a place where adult displaced persons could look for their children. Many days the center received eager adults at its doors, searching for their lost children.

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Sinaida Grussman arrived at Kloster Indersdorf in August of 1945. She spoke only a few words of Romanian and Lithuanian, and her short stature led staff to believe she was born around 1937. After developing a trusting relationship with a Latvian teacher who was herself a displaced person, Sinaida revealed that she spoke Latvian at home and that her family had relocated to Russia 14 during the war. The teacher learned that Sinaida last saw her father when he joined the army, and that her sister was dead. No one at the children’s center was able to confirm Sinaida’s religion or nationality. Shortly after this picture was taken in October 1945, Sinaida was sent to England. The Lost Children of Kloster Indersdorf Kloster of Children Lost The

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Halina Bryks was 17 years old when she arrived at Kloster Indersdorf. After the murder of her parents, Halina was a forced laborer in the Markstädt and Fünfteichen camps — working in kitchens, construction, and munitions. After liberation, Halina went 16 back to her hometown of Olkusz in Poland. However, encountering anti-Semitism there, she decided to go to northern Bavaria, and then to Kloster Indersdorf. At Indersdorf, Halina was part of a group of 28 Jewish residents determined to go to Palestine. British authorities eventually permitted the group entry to Palestine in April of 1946. The Lost Children of Kloster Indersdorf Kloster of Children Lost The

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Chaim Swinik — originally of Minsk, Poland — was six years old when the war ended. He and his brother Aron had survived the war in Russia, where they lived with their stepmother. After the war, the brothers met a man who had been in a work camp with their father and learned of his death. UNRRA worker Greta Fischer brought 18 them to Kloster Indersdorf, which arranged for their placement in England. After a few years in England, their stepmother — then living in Israel — appealed to a Youth Aliyah organization so they could come stay with her. In February of 1949 they arrived in Israel, where they still live today. The Lost Children of Kloster Indersdorf Kloster of Children Lost The

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Stanisław Janowski was born in Warsaw in 1930. When he was nine years old, his father and older brother were killed in an air raid as the Germans invaded Poland. Stanisław’s cousin was active in the Polish resistance, and Stanisław became a messenger for the Warsaw Uprising. In the summer of 1944 his cousin was killed, so he lived on the streets with other boys until the Germans forced them to work in a BMW aircraft factory in Berlin. He was being transported west in the spring of 1945 when Americans liberated him near Munich. When the war ended, Stanisław went back to Warsaw where he learned that his mother had been deported to Germany. He searched former labor camps for her, without success. In Munich, UNRRA worker Greta Fischer found Stanisław homeless and hungry in the Deutsches Museum — a meeting point for displaced persons. 20 Greta brought Stanisław to Kloster Indersdorf, where he was amazed to have his own bed, decent clothing, and even chocolate. In 1947 Stanisław learned that his mother had survived the war, and he was repatriated to Poland , where he completed his education and became a geography teacher. He lives in Warsaw today. The Lost Children of Kloster Indersdorf Kloster of Children Lost The

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Nina Krieger was born in 1932 in Lwów, Poland. Her father was a textile trader who provided a comfortable home for Nina and her siblings. The children were raised by a nanny after their mother died of pneumonia in 1934. Nina’s father was killed in 1941, and the children were deported to the Lwów ghetto that year. One night, Nina and her siblings were taken to a forest with other Jews from the ghetto. Though Nina managed to hide in the forest, she witnessed the horrors that befell the others, including her siblings. On her own Nina survived — on bits of food offered, 22 hidden in a convent, and once owing to her blonde hair and blue eyes. After the war, she stayed in Kloster Indersdorf until August of 1946, when she came to the United States and was placed with a family in Cleveland. Years later, Nina’s granddaughter helped her locate a surviving sister in Israel. The Lost Children of Kloster Indersdorf Kloster of Children Lost The

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Jadwiga Schwlikowska was born in Munich in January 1945 to Josepha Brendel — a Polish forced laborer. As Jadwiga was being born, Munich was bombed and she and her mother were wounded and separated. In May, Jadwiga was taken to Schwabing Hospital and then to Kloster Indersdorf. At Indersdorf, UNRRA worker Greta Fischer described her as an “intelligent” and “lively child.” In late 24 1946, Jadwiga was adopted by Franciszek and Gertruda Zgraja in Katowice, Poland. She later went on to vocational school, became a tailor, and married. In the 1980s Jadwiga finally had the chance to meet her birth mother. Her birth father had passed away before they could ever find each other and reunite. The Lost Children of Kloster Indersdorf Kloster of Children Lost The

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Sofia Karpuk was born in 1935 in Pinsk, Poland. Her father was a highway engineer who joined the Polish resistance in 1943. That year, Sofia, her younger brother Janusz, and their mother were abducted and forced to work on a farm in Lower Bavaria. Their mother worked in the fields while Sofia did housework and Janusz tended the cows. They were given little to eat, and their mother became very ill. In February 1945, their mother died and a teenage laborer looked after Sofia and Janusz until the war ended. Sofia and her brother came to Kloster Indersdorf where they were relieved to have enough to eat, decent clothing, and other children as companions. Sofia enjoyed caring for the babies, and nicknamed one “little fish” in Polish​ (rybka). A staff member at Indersdorf decided to name the baby (who had no known name) Sofia Rybki — a nod to both Sofia Karpuk and the nickname.

Sofia and Janusz were repatriated to Poland and raised in 26 orphanages. Sofia eventually became a chemist in the textile industry, and Janusz became a successful handball player for the Polish national team. The teenage laborer who had cared for the siblings at the end of the war never forgot them, and after decades of searching, found them in 1980. The Lost Children of Kloster Indersdorf Kloster of Children Lost The

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Witold Scibak was born in 1928 in Toruń, Poland, into a comfortable non-Jewish household. But when German troops occupied Poland in 1939, the Scibaks were forced to move and were eventually taken to Germany. Witold and his father were imprisoned in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Witold was taken to Bergen- Belsen and eventually to a satellite camp of Dachau, where he was used for labor in an aircraft factory. After his liberation in April of 1945, he recovered in Schwabmünchen before coming to Kloster Indersdorf. This photograph shows him seated in bed, quarantined for a skin condition. A worker at Indersdorf encouraged Witold to 28 write to his aunt in Germany, and after only 14 days he heard that his sister and parents had survived. As he waited to be reunited with them, Witold made the best of his time at Indersdorf by forming a Polish scout troop. Witold was reunited with his family in Poland in the summer of 1946. The Lost Children of Kloster Indersdorf Kloster of Children Lost The

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Walter Hahn was born in Vienna in 1929. When Walter was 13, he and his younger brother Herbert were deported to Theresienstadt. They were liberated by the Soviets in May of 1945 and hitchhiked to the American zone in Germany with their friend Hans Neumann. The US Army took the teens to Kloster Indersdorf to pursue immigration to the United States and give them a chance to physically recover. Despite immigration restrictions, in May of 1946 Walter and Herbert were able to move to Philadelphia where a Jewish organization housed them with a local family. Herbert went on to become a 30 plumber but died in a work accident. Walter became a manager for Woolworth’s department stores, first in Seattle, and then in San Francisco. After decades of silence about his wartime experiences, Walter shared his story after renewing his friendship with Hans Neumann at a survivors’ reunion at Kloster Indersdorf. The Lost Children of Kloster Indersdorf Kloster of Children Lost The

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Hans Neumann was born in 1929. His father was an orchestra conductor and the family lived in a large, 10-room apartment in Berlin. As a young child, Hans didn’t realize he was Jewish; this changed when he had to start wearing a yellow star at school. By 1939, Hans — like the other Jewish children — was no longer able to attend his school, and his father was no longer permitted to work.

Hans had lost his mother to cancer in 1938, and by 1941 his father had been murdered in a concentration camp. Hans lived with his Aunt Hedwig and worked in her large restaurant in Berlin — where he regularly saw Hitler Youth singing songs. In July of 1942, Hans and his older brother were deported to Theresienstadt , where Hans remained until the camp was liberated by Soviet forces in May of 1945. His brother did not survive.

A few weeks after liberation, Hans traveled to the American Zone of Germany with former prisoners of Theresienstadt : Herbert and Walter Hahn. An officer at a DP center placed the three boys at Kloster Indersdorf. Just before this photo was taken, Hans 32 remembers playing soccer with Walter, Herbert, and nuns who worked at Kloster Indersdorf. When an opportunity became available for survivors under age 16 to go to England, Hans participated with altered documents showing his birth date as 1930. Hans went to England and became a corporal in the British Army. The Lost Children of Kloster Indersdorf Kloster of Children Lost The

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Mosche Birnbaum was born in 1928 in Fulda, Germany. On Kristallnacht he witnessed the destruction of his family’s second- hand clothing store. In 1941 his father was killed at Buchenwald. Mosche was later deported to Riga — along with his mother, his brother Salomon, and his sister Gustel. His mother and siblings were sent to Auschwitz and did not return. Mosche survived the Stutthof concentration camp and a death march before being liberated by the Soviet Army in Rieben, Germany. In July of 1945 he went to his hometown of Fulda to retrieve his birth certificate and some family items but was driven away by hostile Germans. Mosche stayed at the Zeilsheim displaced persons camp until going to Kloster Indersdorf to pursue immigration to England to be with his grandfather. Since Kloster Indersdorf didn’t serve kosher food, a UNRRA worker there arranged for him to go to the Feldafing 34 displaced persons camp — which had a kosher kitchen. Mosche was able to move to England, and he became a kosher baker there. Mosche immigrated to the United States in 1947, where he still lives with his large family that includes his wife, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. The Lost Children of Kloster Indersdorf Kloster of Children Lost The

35 BOYS OUT OF FLOSSENBÜRG Some of the earliest arrivals at Kloster Indersdorf were Jewish boys who had survived the death marches out of the Flossenbürg concentration camp.

As US Forces approached Flossenbürg in late April of 1945, most prisoners were forced onto trains heading in the direction of Dachau. When trains suffered damage from attack, the prisoners were forced to march on foot through grueling conditions. The Lost Children of Kloster Indersdorf Kloster of Children Lost The Many were liberated by American soldiers near Stamsried on April 23, 1945. After liberation, most went to makeshift field hospitals including Neunburg vorm Wald, Weiden, Stulln, and Meissenberg. Many of the teens stayed together with friends they had been with in the camps and arrived at Kloster Indersdorf with a fierce loyalty to one another.

When these teenage boys arrived at Kloster Indersdorf in August of 1945, they received white sweaters that were on hand at the center. Several of the boys are shown wearing the sweaters in these photographs taken in October of 1945.

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Sacher Israeler was born in Kraków, Poland in 1931 — the youngest of six children. He was about to enter the third grade when Germany invaded Poland in September of 1939. Upon learning that Kraków was to be made judenfrei (free of Jews), the Israeler family moved to Tarnow — where Sacher’s parents and two eldest sisters were shot in the street by Nazis. Sacher and his remaining siblings were sent to the Tarnow ghetto where he worked in a woodworking factory. He was brought to Flossenbürg concentration camp in August 1944 and put to work in an airplane factory. In April of 1945, Sacher was placed on a train with other prisoners, but the train came under attack by American planes. Guards marched the surviving prisoners toward Dachau, and after seven days of marching, the prisoners were liberated near Schwandorf by the 90th Infantry Division of the US Army. Sacher was treated for a wound and then spent the next 39 few months with the 90th Infantry Division until arriving at Kloster Indersdorf. At Indersdorf, Sacher learned of surviving cousins and aunts. He lived with family members in Paris and then Canada, until arriving in New York in 1949 — where he has lived ever since. My Name Is... Is... Name My

40 Jakob Bulwa was the eldest son of a Jewish horse dealer. His family The Lost Children of Kloster Indersdorf Kloster of Children Lost The was living in Poland when the Germans invaded in 1939. Two of Jakob’s cousins — Chanka and Frania — were rounded up with their parents and held inside the Great Synagogue of Piotrków with other Jews. Knowing these family members had stashed valuables for emergencies, Jakob was able to use the valuables to negotiate for his cousins’ release. However, he could not save their parents, who — along with the others in the synagogue — were taken to a nearby forest and executed.

Jakob and his immediate family were in the Starachowice ghetto, and while he was selected for labor, his family members were sent to Treblinka. Jakob endured forced labor at the Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen, and Flossenbürg concentration camps. He was liberated by American troops while on a death march toward Dachau, and with his friend Sacher Israeler, lived among the soldiers before going to Kloster Indersdorf. While staying at Indersdorf, Jakob learned that his cousins Chanka and Frania had survived and were at the Feldafing displaced persons camp. Jakob filled a suitcase with supplies from Indersdorf — coffee and chocolate — and reunited with them. 41

In 1946, Jakob was able to immigrate to the United States, where he had an aunt and uncle in St. Paul, Minnesota. Jakob eventually helped bring Chanka and Frania to the United States as well. My Name Is... Is... Name My

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Josef Lichtenstajn was born in Romania in 1929 — the second of four boys in the family. Before the war began, the brothers had a rigorous schedule of religious and secular education each day. Josef's family was placed in the Satu Mare ghetto before being sent to Auschwitz in early 1944. Soon after arrival, Josef and his brother Moishe were separated from the rest of the family members — who were murdered. After a few days at Auschwitz, they were sent to Birkenau and then the Buna sub-camp. As the Soviets approached, Josef and Moishe were sent to Buchenwald but were marched out of the camp when Americans approached. Josef and his brother were separated, and he was sent to Flossenbürg. “For days and days we marched, without food, without anything . . . I don’t know how I stayed alive.” After a few days at Flossenbürg, Josef was taken on another death march until he was liberated. UNRRA placed Josef at Kloster Indersdorf where he remembers the people working there 43 “wanted to give us everything.” Josef left Indersdorf for Scotland, stashing bread in his pockets for the journey, in fear of hunger. He left Scotland for London, where he and Moishe were reunited. They eventually relocated to Canada. My Name Is... Is... Name My

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Miklos Roth was born in 1931 in a farming community in Hungary. Though his older brother, Sandor, escaped to Palestine before the Nazis took over Hungary, the remaining family members were relocated to a Jewish ghetto and then to Auschwitz in 1944. At Auschwitz, Miklos and his father were selected for labor, but his mother, sister, and two brothers were murdered at arrival. Miklos and his father remained at Auschwitz for a few days before being sent to Gross-Rosen where they worked as slave laborers in the forest. As Allied forces advanced, prisoners in the camp were forced to march to Dresden. During the march Miklos tried to carry his injured father — until the Germans shot his father dead. Not long after Miklos and the survivors arrived at Flossenbürg concentration camp, the guards fled. American forces liberated Flossenbürg on April 45 23, 1945, and Miklos was taken to a field hospital to recover before going to Kloster Indersdorf. After nine months of living at Indersdorf, he boarded a US transport and was reunited with an aunt in the Bronx in May of 1946. My Name Is... Is... Name My

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Julius Weiss was born in Borysław, Poland in 1929. After the German occupation in 1941, nearly all of the Jews in the region were killed or deported. In 1943, his mother was murdered when caught carry- ing food from another town. During the war, Julius spent four years in the Borysław ghetto and then at the camps of Płaszów, Wieliczka, and Flossenbürg. While working at Flossenbürg, Julius and a small group of prisoners became adept at sabotaging German airplane parts.

The US Army liberated Julius during a death march out of Flos- senbürg in May of 1945. He recuperated at the Hotel Gres in Cham, where he worked for the Americans until being transfered to Kloster Indersdorf in October. Julius and other boys from Indersdorf went to England to learn maritime trades, and Julius completed his training in late April of 1947. He went on to become an officer in both the British and Israeli Merchant Marines, and fought in the 47 Israeli War of Independence , which he saw as partial redemption. In 1956 he came to the United States where he married and had a family, including a son — Herbert Isaac Weiss — whom he named after his father, Eisig. He spent most of his life in New York City. My Name Is... Is... Name My

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Lazar Kleinman was born in 1929 into a Hasidic family living in a Romanian village. Hungarian fascists took his father to the Russian front in April of 1944, while the rest of the family was placed in the Satu Mare ghetto. They were deported to Auschwitz, where Lazar passed himself off as 17 years old — saving himself from immediate gassing. That first night at Auschwitz, he learned from other prisoners that his mother and seven siblings were likely already dead and cremated. At the Buna subcamp, Lazar was a forced laborer — laying railroad track, unloading cement, and mining coal. When he was transferred to Oranienburg, he made a promise to G–d that if he survived, he would spend a year in yeshiva. Later he was transferred to Flossenbürg and forced onto a death march toward Dachau. He remembers watching prisoners who couldn’t walk being shot by guards in the forest. On April 23, 1945, an American soldier from New York found Lazar lying in a roadside ditch and took him to a field hospital to recover. From Indersdorf, Lazar went to England where 49 he stayed at a Jewish hostel and then kept his promise to study in yeshiva. He later went on to own a dress manufacturing company and start a family of his own — which he desperately wanted after losing his parents and nine siblings. My Name Is... Is... Name My

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Martin Hecht was born in 1930 in Transylvania — the youngest of eight children in an observant, Zionist family. The three eldest children made it to Palestine to prepare for the rest of the family’s arrival. But in 1944, Hungarian police deported the Jews from Martin’s village to a ghetto, and then to Auschwitz. Martin and three of his brothers were separated from his parents and sister and taken to Birkenau before being sent to Dörnhau labor camp. There they were assigned to build a railroad through a mountain but given very little to eat. Martin was determined to survive and sometimes took chances to steal bread for himself and his brothers. As they were prepared for a march to another camp, Martin and his brother Jakob were separated from their older brothers; they heard the shots of their execution shortly afterwards. Arriving at Flossenbürg, Martin and Jakob were sent on a death march toward Dachau but were liberated by American troops near Stamsried. Martin remembers Jewish-American soldiers calling out from their tanks in Yiddish, urging them to get behind the tanks for protection. After liberation they were placed in a displaced persons camp, but owing to the anti-Semitism they encountered there, were taken to Kloster 51 Indersdorf. The brothers immigrated to England as part of an effort supported by Jewish organizations to bring 732 children into the country. In England, they learned that their sister had also survived the Holocaust and had immigrated to Palestine. My Name Is... Is... Name My

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Herman Weinstock was born in 1933 to a family of Jewish cattle farmers in Okocim Górny, Poland. Herman, his parents, and seven siblings were forced into the Brzesko ghetto in 1942, and later deported to Mielec concentration camp. Herman and his older brother Roman were used as forced labor in an airplane factory while their mother and other siblings were sent to the Belzec death camp. Herman and Roman were transferred with their father to the Wieliczka subcamp and then to Flossenbürg, where they were put to work at the Messerschmitt airplane factory. Their father died in Flossenbürg, and Roman cared for Herman — once even hiding him under his coat during a selection process. The brothers were forced onto a death march from Flossenbürg toward Dachau but were liberated by American troops near Stamsried. Herman and his brother spent several months in Neunburg vorm Wald before they were sent to Kloster Indersdorf. After Indersdorf, the brothers went to England before immigrating to Israel in 1949. Herman joined the 53 Israeli Army, and Roman the Air Force. Both brothers were familiar with airplane mechanics and eventually built careers in the field — with Roman working for El Al, and Herman working for Israel Aircraft Industries. My Name Is... Is... Name My

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Mordka Topel was born in Ostrowiec, Poland in 1920, with the Hebrew name Mordechai Zev Topel. He was part of a Zionist, religious family that included several generations of rabbis. His father owned a shirt factory, and his mother died when he was three years old. Before the war, he was aware of anti-Semitism in his hometown and at school. During the war, he was impri- soned at several camps, including Majdanek, Blizyn, Auschwitz, Oranienburg, and Flossenbürg. On a death march from Flossenbürg to Dachau he was liberated by American soldiers and lived temporarily with the 90th Infantry Division of the US Army. He went to a displaced persons camp in Winzer, and then to Kloster Indersdorf in September of 1945. At Kloster Indersdorf he reported that he witnessed the killing of his father, and that he suspected his sisters were dead as well. He hoped to go to Palestine but took the opportunity to go to England on October 31, 1945. In England, he studied engineering and met Esther — the woman he would marry. The couple went on to live in Israel; Chile; Manhattan; 55 and Teaneck, New Jersey. He received his rabbinic ordination, and became an important member of Congregation B’nai Yeshurun in Teaneck. Throughout his life, he spoke about the Holocaust and his experiences. My Name Is... Is... Name My

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Bernat Nasch was born in Czechoslovakia in 1930. Bernat and his family were deported to Auschwitz in the summer of 1944. His mother and brother were gassed upon arrival. During inspections conducted by Dr. Mengele, Bernat slid into a line for those “fit for work.” He was then transported to the Gleiwitz subcamp, and later to the Oranienburg and Flossenbürg camps. At Flossenbürg, Bernat was forced onto a death march toward Dachau but was liberated by the US Army. He lived with a German farming family until an American soldier took him to Kloster Indersdorf. At Indersdorf, he spoke extensively with UNRRA worker André Marx, working through some of his disturbing experiences. From Indersdorf, Bernat immigrated to Manchester, England, where he spent two years in an Orthodox Jewish children’s home. He wrote to his uncle in Palestine 57 and learned that his older siblings had survived and immigrated there. In 1947, Bernat moved to Palestine as well, and later fought in the Israeli Army. He eventually married and moved to Belgium with his wife — where they live today. My Name Is... Is... Name My

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Naftali Sztajnberg was born in 1922 in Sosnowiec, Poland. In 1940, Naftali, his father, and older brother were taken to Silesia to do forced road construction for the Germans. From there, Naftali was a forced laborer at a number of camps: Johannsdorf, Blechhammer, Gräditz, Markstädt, Fünfteichen, Buchenwald and its subcamp Altenburg. He remembers the prisoners who gave him potatoes during Passover at Altenberg. In April 1945, Naftali arrived at Flossenbürg and was soon forced onto a train transport, which became a death march. He was liberated by Americans and taken to Kloster Indersdorf. With no word of his parents or brothers, he prepared to go to England with a group of 50 others from Indersdorf, but became ill with tuberculosis and could not depart. In 1946, he 59 went to Palestine with other Indersdorf residents, where he remained until 1950. He then went to Austria to seek information about his family members and learned they died at Auschwitz. After spending four years in Austria he moved to Brazil, where he lives today. My Name Is... Is... Name My

60 Eugenius Kamer was born in Kraków in 1930. In the summer of 1941, his parents decided that Eugenius would be safer living with non- The Lost Children of Kloster Indersdorf Kloster of Children Lost The Jewish friends of the family. He stayed with the Bartoniczek family for a month, until the family grew fearful of the consequences. His cousin smuggled him into the Jewish ghetto, where he learned his father was a forced laborer at the Płaszów camp nearby. One day, Eugenius saw his father passing by the gate of the ghetto with other laborers and begged to join him. One of the first assignments Eugenius received at Płaszów was to bury the bodies of prisoners who had been shot while trying to escape. In 1943, Eugenius and his father were transferred to Skarżysko-Kamienna, and later to Częstochowa, Buchenwald, and Flossenbürg. As the Allied forces advanced on Flossenbürg, camp administrators evacuated prisoners as quickly as possible, and Eugenius was placed on a different train than his father. When he arrived at the Mauthausen concentration camp, a prisoner told him his father was murdered on the train over a piece of bread.

On May 5, 1945, Eugenius was liberated from Mauthausen by American troops and came to Kloster Indersdorf with the help of a Jewish-American MP. After contracting typhus, he recovered in a hospital in Munich where he received news of surviving relatives 61 in Hoboken, New Jersey. Also locating relatives in Cuba, Eugenius immigrated there in 1947 to live with an aunt, uncle, and cousin. In Cuba he met the woman he would marry, and they moved with their children to the United States in 1961. My Name Is... Is... Name My

62 Tibor Munkácsy was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1925. He worked The Lost Children of Kloster Indersdorf Kloster of Children Lost The as a tailor until May 1944 when he was drafted into a Hungarian forced labor battalion. When the Soviets advanced, Tibor escaped with a group onto a German armored train and made it to Budapest. Tibor went into hiding but was discovered by a Nazi collaborator who recognized him from elementary school and knew he was Jewish. This was the first of three times Tibor would be captured. Eventually he was deported to Buchenwald in December of 1944, where he managed to get a tailoring assignment, which probably saved his life. In April, he was sent to Flossenbürg, and from there sent on a death march toward Dachau until he was liberated by American soldiers on April 23, 1945.

After liberation, Tibor stayed in a field hospital and then came to Kloster Indersdorf. When a film was made about the children at Indersdorf in September of 1945, Tibor asked if the director knew his half-brother in New York — the fashion photographer Martin Munkácsi. He did, which started a multi-year process of bringing Tibor to New York. Living for a while in England, Tibor immigrated to New York in 1950. He changed his last name to “Sands” when he became a US citizen and found work as a tailor before becoming 63 a photographer. He also did pro-bono photography assignments in New York for Lillian Robbins, the former director of Kloster Indersdorf. He became a well-known assistant cameraman, working on many films includingKlute and The Godfather. My Name Is... Is... Name My

64 The Lost Children of Kloster Indersdorf Kloster of Children Lost The

Alfred Buchführer (born Adolf Buchführer) was born in 1926 in Düsseldorf, Germany. When the Nazi Party came to power, his parents started calling him Alfred. Though the family lived in Germany, they were considered Polish and were consequently deported to the Rzeszów ghetto. From there, Alfred survived the camps of Dulka, Huta Komorowska, Płaszów, and Mielec before being sent to Flossenbürg. Alfred was at Flossenbürg when he was ordered on a death march. In an interview with a German newspaper right after his liberation, he recounted the march: “We no longer looked like human beings but rather like a herd of shivering poisoned animals . . . My mind had stopped working. Soon we were down to only eight prisoners. . . We all laid down on the ground expecting to be shot. But then a miracle happened — the 65 guards fled into the woods and we looked up into the surprised faces of American soldiers.” After his liberation near Neunburg vorm Wald, Alfred made his way to Kloster Indersdorf and immigrated to England in 1948. Today he lives in New York City. My Name Is... Is... Name My

66 Moszek Sztajnkeler was born in 1928 in Zakrzówek, Poland. In 1941, German forces ordered the town’s Jewish residents to move, but the Sztajnkeler family decided not to go. Moszek, his mother, and a The Lost Children of Kloster Indersdorf Kloster of Children Lost The sister hid in the attic of a farmhouse until they heard that the village would be searched. When Moszek went to see if the farmhouse was safe for their return, Polish guards caught him. Moszek became a forced laborer at Budzyn, Mielec, Wieliczka, and then Flossenbürg. From Flossenbürg, he was placed on a train to Dachau as the Allies attacked the area. When the guards fled, Moszek and a group of prisoners made their way to a village where they learned that the Americans had arrived on April 23, 1945.

A few days after liberation, they were directed to a displaced persons camp in Schwandorf. On the way, they went into aban- doned homes and took clothing to replace their prisoner uniforms. They used found guns to stop German soldiers for bicycles and watches — which they sold to buy food. Moszek and a friend went to Poland to sell some of the watches, but they were caught exchanging money on the black market. When brought to court, the judge recognized Moszek as a fellow former prisoner and let him and his friend go.

Moszek came to Kloster Indersdorf, where arrangements were made 67 for him to go to England. He eventually went to Israel where he met his wife-to-be, Rivka Pichota. They came with their children to the United States in 1961 with the help of Moszek's friend Steve Israeler (born Sacher Israeler) — who had also been at Kloster Indersdorf.

My Name Is... Is... Name My

70 Children sometimes arrived at Kloster Indersdorf without names or stories. Some could not remember their pre-war lives; others could not find words for what they had been through. Even some of the children who shared parts of their experiences — per- sisting through incredible emotional difficulties and linguistic challenges — could not provide clear and accurate information about their families and origins. The Lost Children of Kloster Indersdorf Kloster of Children Lost The The following photos of children at Kloster Indersdorf appear without biographical information, either because the children could not or did not share it or because it was never recorded. The Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust decided that it was still important to share these photographs. We acknowledge and honor the young lives they represent.

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Limited Edition

Curated by Melissa Yaverbaum. Elissa Cohen and Erica Blumenfeld of the Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust also made important contributions to the presentation of My Name Is....

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