United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Jane Ponczek was born Janka Labiner in Czortków, Poland (now Chortkiv, Ukraine) around 1936 to Munisch Labiner and Sara Shajter Labiner. Her older sister died in infancy and her brother Alex was two years younger. She was visiting her maternal grandmother, Beila Shajter, in Skała-Podolska (now Skala-Podilska, Ukraine) when her family was arrested in Czortków in 1941 or 1942 under the German occupation. When Skała was raided the next day, she and Beila hid on the roof. Jane’s father was released, arranged for a Ukrainian family to look after Jane, and then disappeared. He is presumed to have been murdered in the Holocaust along with Jane’s mother, brother, and grandparents. Jane was located after World War II by an uncle who gave her false identification papers claiming she was his daughter and was born December 10, 1936. Her real birthdate is unknown. Jane and her uncle moved to Argentina in 1946, and Jane later immigrated to the United States.
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The Jane Ponczek photographs are arranged as a single series.
The Jane Ponczek photographs document her family before World War II in Poland. Photographs and copy prints include a wedding portrait of Holocaust victims Munisch Labiner and Sara Shajter Labiner in 1934 in Skała-Podolska, Poland; a photograph of the Shajter family in Skała-Podolska (Sara Labiner at the top left and Beila Shajter in the doorway); and a photograph of Chaim Weizmann with Holocaust survivor Jane Ponczek and other orphans in Wrocław, Poland after the war (Jane has her hand on Weizmann’s right shoulder).
Jane Ponczek photographs