us-005578-irn516771
type: RecordSet
archival history: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
biographical history: Chaim Melamed (1925-2011) was born on March 10, 1925, in Zelechow, Poland. He was one of seven children of Mendel and Chana Melamed. His siblings were: Fajga Frymet (Fruma, b. February 5, 1916); Rachel (b. circa 1920); Sura (later Sara Lipka, b. October 12, 1922); Chumele (b. circa 1930); Isuchor (b. 1929); and Izrael (b. January 5, 1932). The Melameds were a very religious orthodox Jewish family, and they moved to Łódź, Poland in spring 1933 before Passover. Chaim disassociated from his family’s observance. He attended the Aleksander Yeshiva for a week in 1938 before returning home, and one day that year he went to hear Zev Jabotinsky speak. Two weeks after the invasion of Poland in September 1938, Chaim’s sisters, Rachel and Chumele, and his brother Isuchor, returned to Zelechow to live with their grandparents. All of them, including their paternal grandparents and maternal grandmother were killed in the town synagogue. Chaim and his remaining family members entered the Łódź ghetto in December 1939. Mendel Melamed and Chaim’s sister, Fajga, died while they were living in the ghetto. Chaim had a job peeling potatoes in the ghetto kitchen. He was then put to work building streetcar lines where he worked for a German named Meyer. In August 1941, Sara was married in the ghetto to Peretz Lipka. In August 1944, Chaim; his mother, Chana; his sister, Sara; and his brother, Izrael were deported to Birkenau concentration camp. It was there that Chaim was separated from his family. Chaim remained at Birkenau for only five or six days before he was one of 1,025 people selected to be sent to the Stecken forced labor camp. From there he was sent to Ahlem forced labor camp where he shared a bunk with Jack Tramiel, Moniek (Mickey) Millberger, and Abe Stern. Chaim was then sent on a death march to Bergen-Belsen where he was liberated on April 15, 1945. He weighed only 86 pounds and was sick for the next six to seven weeks with typhus. Peretz Lipka arrived at Bergen-Belsen on a Bri…
date: after 1916-1947
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had some members with language: deu
has or had some members with language: yid
has or had some members with language: eng
has or had subject: 904
has or had subject: 701
has or had subject: 843
has or had subject: 824
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn516771
record resource extent: folder 1
record resource structure: The Chaim Melamed papers are arranged in a single series.
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: The Chaim Melamed papers consists of postcards, correspondence, and photographs relating to the Melamed family before, during, and after World War II in Łódź, Poland, and Hannover, Germany. Pictured in the photographs are Chaim Melamed, Maryla Melamed, Peretz Lipka, Dawid Lipka, Isuchor Melamed and Fajga Melamed.
title: Chaim Melamed papers