After escaping the Mir ghetto in August 1942 with his father, Jack Sutin (1923-2017) organized a small band of Jewish partisans and lived in a small bunker where he was eventually reunited with Rochelle Szleif (1924-2010). They first met at the beginning of the war at a Soviet school. Rochelle found Jack after fleeing a ghetto when her mother and sisters were shot, swimming across the Niemen River, and working for abusive Russian partisans. The couple remained in the forest until the end of the war and were married in a Jewish ceremony in the Soviet Union. They then lived in the Neu Freimann DP camp, where Jack worked as both camp administrator and photojournalist for the Yiddish newspaper"Jidisze Cajtung" Their daughter Cecilia (now Dobrin) was born in the camp. The family immigrated to the US in August 1949. https://www.startribune.com/obituaries/detail/178855/
Label on reel reads"Reel 2 Family and Freiman"
Additional family photographs are available in the USHMM Photo Archives.
Neu Freimann was a DP camp in the Munich district, part of the American-occupied zone, open from July 1946 to June 15, 1949. Residents - both Jewish and non-Jewish Polish DPs - lived in confiscated workers' housing. The camp became predominantly Jewish with an average population of 2,570 Jews per year.
Family footage showing Rochelle and Cecilia Sutin in the Neu Freimann DP camp. Walking in park, Cecilia in baby carriage. CUs, Cecilia taking a bath, eating. 01:03:19 Julius Sutin (Jack Sutin's father) with Cecilia in carriage. 01:04:41 An older Cecilia with two other children posing for the camera and playing in the street. DPs opening a box, shopping at a street market in the camp, purchasing goods, conversing. Sign,"Uhrmache". Man holding two bottles of wine. DPs gathering for a celebration? DP holding up a bunch of grapes. Cars, bicycles, sausage. 01:08:53 (poor quality) INT, Rochelle cooking in the kitchen. Cecilia with her grandfather Julius. 01:12:10 Rochelle pushing Cecilia outside in a carriage. 01:12:56 Julius chopping wood. 01:13:28 CUs of Cecilia.
Sutin family footage