us-005578-irn501521
type: RecordSet
archival history: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
biographical history: Celina Hecht and Fay Nadaner (born Celina and Fela Friedmann) are the identical twin daughters of Rudolf and Dora (Bagon) Friedmann. They were born December 3, 1933 in Warsaw, where their father owned a jewelry manufacturing company, and their mother worked as a nurse. Rudolf's family originally came from Vilna, but he was born in Munich. Dora's family came from Bialystok. After the German invasion of Poland, Rudolf fled east, along with many other Jewish males. The twins and their mother remained in Warsaw. When the bombing of the capital subsided, they fled with Rudolf's mother and Dora's two older sisters to the Bagon family in Bialystok, which had come under Soviet occupation. Soon after their arrival, they were joined by Rudolf. Rudolf and Dora then decided to send the girls to live in the countryside where they thought they would be safer. In 1941, when the Soviets ordered the deportation of Jews from eastern Poland to the Soviet interior, Dora was permitted to remain so that she could return to her daughters. Rudolf, however, was deported to Siberia. They never saw each other again. Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Dora retrieved her daughters and brought them back to Bialystok. Soon after, they were ordered to move into a ghetto. Dora worked as nurse in the children's hospital in the ghetto and also as maid for a German officer, so that she could get more food for the children. In early 1942, Dora learned of an impending deportation action; she sent Celina to a farm and Fela, to a friend in the city, explaining that the girls were really only half-Jewish. Subsequently, the Gestapo arrested Dora when she went to get false papers for herself. However, after explaining that her children were only half-Jewish, she was released. This episode convinced Dora that she had to find hiding places outside the ghetto as soon as possible for her two daughters. She hoped she would be able to join them in hiding soon afterwards. Dora found a widow named Ja…
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had some members with language: eng
has or had subject: 686
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn501521
record resource extent: folder 1
record resource structure: The collection is arranged as a single series.
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: The personal narrative describes the Holocaust experiences of Celina Hecht (born Celina Friedmann), originally of Warsaw, Poland, who survived the war as a hidden child along with her twin sister Fay Nadaner (born Fela Friedmann).
title: Celina's story: a wartime childhood memoir