Abraham Atsmon papers

Abraham Atsmon papers 

Abraham Atsmon papers 

oversize boxes boxes 2 4 

The Abraham Atsmon papers consist of identification papers, biographies, correspondence, reports, narratives, photographs, newspapers, protocols, and minutes documenting Atsmon’s family and pre-war life in Poland, his participation in a partisan brigade in the areas of Słonim and Brest during the war, his organization and leadership of a Holocaust survivor group (Sh'erit ha-Pletah) in the American occupation zone of Germany after the war, his support for the state of Israel, his emigration to Israel in 1948, and his subsequent efforts to record the Jewish resistance during the Holocaust. Biographical materials include identification papers, membership cards, a resume, a brief biography, andrequests for copies of Atsmon’s medical school diploma. Materials about the 51st Brigade primarily consist of historical narratives compiled in the early 1960s about a partisan group active in western Belarus during World War II. This series also includes meeting announcements and minutes, histories of the Słonim region, correspondence with Yad Vashem about the Brigade, and a list of Brigade members who died during the war. Photographs depict Abraham Atsmon, his family members, friends, fellow partisans, and David BenGurion. They document his family, military service, sports activities, university education, partisan activities, meetings of Jewish political groups, and the ORT school in Munich. Two photo albums document Atsmon’s partisan and refugee friends and the Second Congress of the Central Committee of Liberated Jews in the American Zone of Germany. Printed materials primarily consist of issues of Yiddish and Hebrew newspapers published by Jewish groups in displaced persons camps after the war. Additional printed materials include a 1935 Gestapo chart of political affiliations of Jewish organizations in Germany, invitations to the 1946 Conférence Européenne de la Resistance, a memorial booklet about the Jewish community of Łomża, a pamphlet about the ORT vocational school in Munich, an account of a Jewish partisan in the Słonim area during the Holocaust, and an account of the extermination of Jews in Lithuania. Materials about Sh'erit ha-Pletah (“surviving remnant”) consist primarily of reports and meeting materials documenting the political organization of Holocaust survivors in the American occupied zone of Germany after the war and are arranged in four subseries: 1) Central Committee of Liberated Jews, 2) Second Congress of the Central Committee, 3) Third Congress of the Central Committee, and 4) Subject files. Central Committee materials include correspondence, reports, and election materials documenting the work of the Central Committee and Atsmon’s participation in that work. Second and Third Congress materials include reports, programs, and speeches. Subject files include appeals between former partisans in Germany and Palestine to support each other’s causes and an unattributed manuscript describing the organizational activities of survivors after the Holocaust. 

The Abraham Atsmon papers are arranged as six series: I. Biographical materials, 1945-1975, II. 51st Brigade, 1959-1994, III. Photographs, approximately 1907-1978 (bulk 1945-1948), IV. Printed materials, 1946-1959, V. Sh'erit ha-Pletah, 1946-1980 (bulk 1946-1950)