United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Eugenia Shrut (1925-2003) was born Gina Tabaczyńska on May 20, 1925 in Kłodawa, Poland to grain merchant Naftali Tabaczyński and his wife Rozalia Szczecińska. Gina had two older brothers, Paweł and Mietek. From 1936 until 1939 Gina lived with her uncle’s family in Warsaw and attended the Mirlasowej gymnasium. In November 1940, the Tabaczyński family fled Kłodawa and was later forced into the Warsaw ghetto. Gina continued her education in an underground school in the ghetto, completed the high school curriculum, and passed a set of exams in 1942. Gina, her parents, her brother, Paweł, and his wife Bela worked in the business office of the Schultz Firma, which protected them from deportation through the spring of 1943. However, during the ghetto uprising that began in April 1943, Gina’s entire family was wiped out. Paweł, who had returned from Warsaw after having fled to the Soviet Union at the beginning of the war, was deported with his wife to Poniatowa. Mietek was killed in the revolt, and Naftali and Rozalia were deported and murdered in Trawniki. During the first few weeks of the uprising Gina was concealed in a bunker built by her boyfriend, Bolesław Szenfeld, on the grounds of the Schultz factory. She and other Jews hiding in the bunker, altogether 25 people, were able to escape from the ghetto on April 30 by bribing a German soldier. Gina and eight other Jews found refuge within Warsaw. A Polish man named Aleksander Pawłowski lived with them and became their protector and provider. Gina was eventually able to secure false papers and, posing as a non-Jewish Polish woman, volunteered for forced labor in Germany in August 1944. Gina was assigned to the Brzeg labor camp near Wrocław, where she worked with a crew repairing train tracks until the camp was liberated by the Soviets in February 1945. At the war’s end Gina returned to Poland, but she left for Paris in the spring of 1946. She remained in France until she was able to secure an American visa. In September 1947, Gina sailed aboard the SS Sobieski from Cannes to New York. The following year Gina married Marek Asch (nephew of Yiddish writer, Shalom Asch) and settled in Boston. She worked for a few years for HIAS as an interpreter for new immigrants. Gina later married a second time, to Jerzy Szrut (George Shrut, 1908-1997), a Jewish survivor from Zakroczym, Poland. Mark Asch (1914-1979) was born Marek (Mojsze) Asz was in Kutno, Poland on July 29, 1914 to Itta Gella and Jakub Asz. His uncle was Yiddish writer Shalom Asch. Marek had two sisters, Genia (Golda) and Roma, and a brother, Adam. At the outbreak of the WWII, Marek’s father was in London. Marek, Roma, Adam, and Itta slipped out of Poland in an ambulance in February 1940, after bribing a German official. Another bribe yielded transit visas for the family from the Greek consulate in Warsaw. From Greece, they made their way to Italy, and Itta joined Jakub in London. The others traveled to Lisbon via Tangiers and in June 1941 sailed to America aboard the SS Serpa Pinto. Itta and Jakub joined them in America at the end of the war. Marek’s sister Genia was not able to leave Poland with her family because her husband did not have a passport, and the couple perished in the Warsaw ghetto. Marek Asz married Gina Tabaczyńska in 1948. Gina’s second marriage was to Marek’s former brother-in-law, Jerzy Szrut (George Shrut).
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The Tabaczyński and Asz families papers are arranged as two series: Series 1: Biographical materials, 1939-1947 Series 2: Photographs, circa 1930-1961
The Tabaczyński and Asz families papers consist of biographical materials and photographs documenting Eugenia Tabaczyńska Shrut and her family as well as the family of her first husband, Mark Asch, before, during, and after the Holocaust in Kłodawa, Warsaw, the Warsaw ghetto, Italy, France, and America. Biographical materials include a Makabi membership card issued to Marek (Mojsze) Asz and a false permit issued to Itta Gella Asz for travel from Warsaw to Greece. They also include five documents issued to Eugenia (Gina) Tabaczyńska including a wartime work card for the Schultz Company, an identity card receipt permitting her to reside in Paris, a vaccination certificate, a ticket for the SS Sobieski, and a US INS visitor’s permit. Photographs depict the Tabaczyński and Asz families before, during, and after the Holocaust. Pictures in prewar Poland include a photograph of Marek Asz with other Makabi members as well as the Tabaczyński family and their relatives and friends in Polish cities including Ciechocinek, Kłodawa, Krynica, Otwock, Truskawiec, Warsaw. This series also includes a photograph of Gina’s cousin Gucia Tabaczyńska holding baby Ora in Tel Aviv. Additional prewar photographs depict Eugenia Tabaczyńska with teachers and students from the Mirlasowa school on trips in Warsaw and Vilna. Wartime Asz family photographs depict the Asz family in Trieste and Rome, and wartime Tabaczyński family photographs primarily depict family members and friends in the Warsaw ghetto. This folder includes a photograph of Gina Tabaczyńska sunbathing at the Warsaw ghetto “beach” following their graduation from an illegal ghetto high school. Postwar photographs in Poland and France depict Gina Tabaczyńska, family, and friends in Kłodawa and Lódź, Poland and Paris, Versailles, and Fontainebleau, France, including outings organized by the Ihud Zionist youth movement. This folder also includes photographs of the grave of Eugenia’s boyfriend, Bolesław Szenfeld. Postwar photographs in America depict the wedding of Gina Tabaczyńska and Marek Asz in Boston, a Seder night in Miami with the Asz and Scheinberg families, and HIAS staff members in Boston. These photographs include the writer Sholem Asch. Photographs of Poland in 1961 depict the Tabaczyński family home in Kłodawa and Aleksander Pawłowski, a Polish man who protected Gina Tabaczyńska and eight other Jews while they were in hiding on the “Aryan” side of Warsaw.
Tabaczyński and Asz families papers