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KLARA SALAMON PAPERS, 1943‐1945 2007.23

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place SW Washington, DC 20024‐2126 Tel. (202) 479‐9717 e‐mail: [email protected]

Descriptive summary

Title: Klara Salamon papers

Dates: 1943‐1945

Accession number: 2007.23

Creators: Klara Samuels (Salamon) (1927‐2012)

Extent: 4 folders, .1 linear feet

Repository: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives, 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place SW, Washington, DC 20024‐2126.

Abstract: The Klara Salamon papers include documents concerning Klara’s experiences as an adolescent held in a protected prisoner of war camp in Bergen‐Belsen between 1943 and 1945. Transferred to Bergen‐Belsen from Hotel Polski, Klara and her parents held Palestinian papers and were given a number of privileges. This collection includes a diary made of toilet paper sewn together by Klara and notes and a birthday card passed between Klara and her friend Nina while interned in the camp. Also included is one post‐war document from U.S. Army Captain Dr. John Hollander asking Lieutenant Smith to please take care of Klara and her family.

Language: French, Polish, Russian, English

Administrative Information

Access: Collection is open for use, but is stored offsite. Please contact the Reference Desk more than seven days prior to visit in order to request access.

Reproduction and use: Collection is available for use. Material may be protected by copyright. Please contact reference staff for further information.

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Preferred citation: (Identification if item), Klara Salamon papers (2007.23) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives, Washington, DC.

Acquisition information: Klara Samuels papers donated her papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2006.

Related materials: A memoir authored and published by Klara Samuels titled God Does Play Dice is also held by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum under call number DS135.P63 S26 1999.

Accruals: Accruals may have been received since this collection was first processed, see archives catalog at collections.ushmm.org for further information.

Processing history: Colleen Benoit, April 2016

Biographical note Klara Samuels (née Salamon, 1927‐2012) was born to Moses and Rosza Salamon in Warsaw, Poland. There, Moses worked as a physician and Klara attended a private Jewish girl’s school. Upon the German invasion of Poland in 1939, Klara’s home was bombed and she and her family were forced to move in with an aunt and uncle before deciding to flee further eastward. The family arrived in Białystok, in the Soviet‐occupied part of Poland, and remained there until the spring of 1940 when they learned they would be forced to register as German refugees, and would have to choose between moving further into Russia, staying in the annexed zone, or returning to Poland. They decided to return but traveled to Lida, a small town near the Lithuanian border, where they intended to cross illegally. Klara and her parents were arrested for being “suspiciously close to the border,” and Moses remained in prison until 1941, when upon his release, he rejoined Klara and Rosza in Slonim and reopened a medical practice there. After hearing rumors of mass shootings of Jews later that year, the Salamon family decided it was safest to move into the Warsaw ghetto and arrived in 1941. In 1942, with the advent of mass deportations from the ghetto, the Salamon family went into hiding in a small, internal attic with the family of Moses’s former partner, Dr. Jellin. Through her father’s contacts, they obtained Aryan papers and Klara and her mother managed to leave the ghetto as Poles in October 1942 and Moses in 1943. Later in 1943, the Salamon family checked into Hotel Polski, a hotel in Warsaw the Germans designed as a place where they claimed they would not harass immigrants waiting for visas. After being at the hotel only two days, Klara and her parents were sent to Bergen‐Belsen concentration camp in June 1943. By this time however, the family held Palestinian papers and for this reason, they remained in protected part of the camp where they did not work and were allowed to keep their belongings and manage their own affairs. In December 1943, Rosza died of natural causes. Klara and her father were liberated by the British in April 1945 in Magdeburg, Germany. After the war ended, Klara and Moses were issued a passes to France, where they boarded a boat to Palestine. Klara moved to the United States to attend Barnard College in 1947. Moses remained in Tel Aviv. Klara graduated with a degree in chemical engineering and married Bertram Samuels in 1955.

Scope and content of collection The Klara Salamon papers comprised documents created primarily by Klara while she was held in the Bergen‐Belsen concentration camp from 1943‐1945. These papers include a diary made of toilet paper sewn together by Klara and notes and a birthday card passed between Klara and her friend Nina while interned in the camp. In her diary, Klara muses in four different languages, about her friends and a particular boy named Alek in an adjacent stammlager whom she was attracted to. During her

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internment, Klara wrote love notes to Alek, which she passed to him through a friend. Ultimately, the messenger girl and Alek married after the war. Also included in this collection is one post‐war document from U.S. Army Captain Dr. John Hollander asking Lieutenant Smith to please take care of Klara and her family, as Klara briefly worked in the Allied hospital set up near Magdeburg. On the basis of this note, Klara, her father, and twelve others were able to leave Germany and enter France.

System of arrangement The Klara Salamon papers are arranged as a single series.

Indexing terms Samuels, Klara (1927‐2012). Salamon, Moses. Salamon, Rosza (‐1943).

Holocaust diaries.

Hotel Polski (Warsaw, Poland). Bergen‐Belsen (Concentration camp).

Holocaust, Jewish (1939‐1945)‐‐Poland‐‐Warsaw‐‐Personal narratives. Hiding places‐‐Poland‐‐Warsaw. Jewish ghettos‐‐Poland‐‐Warsaw. Physicians‐‐Poland‐‐Warsaw. Holocaust survivors.

Warsaw (Poland). Białystok (Poland). Slonim (Belarus).

CONTAINER LIST

Series 1: Klara Salamon papers, 1943‐1945

Folder Title 1 Birthday card, approximately 1944 2 Diary, 1943‐1944 3 Notes and letters, approximately 1943‐1944 4 U.S. Army request for assistance, 1945

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