us-005578-irn520904-irn521962
type: RecordSet
archival history: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
biographical history: Edgar (Ed) Gaerber was born on August 28, 1929, in Lvov, Poland (Lʹviv, Ukraine) to Dr. Bernard and Fanka Rosenmann Gaerber. The family lived in Zloczow, about forty miles from Lvov, where Dr. Gaerber practiced medicine. He had met Fanka in Vienna while studying medicine. The Jewish population of the town numbered 6000, a majority of the population. The family was well off and Edgar’s father owned one of only four cars in town. In 1938, Fanka’s mother came to live with the family. On September 1, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland. In two weeks Lvov was surrounded and, a week later, the Soviet Union invaded from the east. The family left for Zaleszczyki planning to cross the border into Romania. At the crossing they met Jan Kwapinski, a Socialist and former mayor of Łódź, Poland. He convinced them not to flee Poland and that the Soviets would protect them. They returned to Lvov where the Soviets immediately confiscated Dr. Gaerber’s automobile. His medical practice was closed and he had to work at a clinic. Most businesses were nationalized and Jewish organizations were closed. Edgar attended a Russian school. Kwapinski stayed with the Gaerber family for a few months, then was deported to Siberia. In June 1941, Germany retook the region when it invaded the Soviet Union. Edgar and his mother were in nearby Kalusz during the German invasion. They went to Lvov but later made their way back to Zloczow. The German occupation was brutal. Immediately after German troops entered Zloczow, the local Ukrainians organized a pogrom, during which 2000 Jews were murdered. Labor camps were set up and Jews were taken for forced labor. The Gaerber family had to leave their home and moved to an apartment above a drugstore. Edgar’s father prepared a hiding place between the floor of their apartment and the ceiling of the store and the four hid there during a roundup. In the spring 1942, Dr. Gaerber wrote to the daughter of Jan Kwapinski in Warsaw and asked for help. Her husband Jerzy St…
has beginning date: 1937-01-01
has end date: 1944-12-31
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had some members with language: pol
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn521962
is or was included in: us-005578-irn520904
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 papers consist of 17 false documents that enabled the Gaerber family of Lvov, Poland (Lʹviv, Ukraine) to survive the Holocaust.
title: Gaerber family papers