us-005578-irn521835
type: RecordSet
archival history: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
biographical history: Rita Slepian Sloan is the daughter of Natan Slepian. Natan was born in 1910 in Warsaw, Poland, to Itzhak and Rojza (Ryterbrand) Slepian. His father was a bookkeeper for a fashion bookstore. At the start of World War I, his family fled to Odessa, Ukraine, in advance of the German Army to join Rojza's sister and her husband, Genia and Aron Mandel, who were already living there. Itzhak opened a new bookstore, and Natan went to Russian school where he became fluent in Russian. Natan's younger brother, Harry, was born in Odessa in September 1919. At the end of the war, his father was mobilized and sent to the Western front. By then living conditions had deteriorated. Shortly thereafter, Rojza died of influenza, and Itzhak was left to care for his two young sons alone. Their life grew difficult under the Bolsheviks, and the government nationalized Itzhak's store making it increasingly difficult for him to support his family. Therefore, along with the Mandels, they fled across the Dniester River into Romania. From there they returned to Warsaw. Itzhak opened another successful store and hired a nanny to take care of his two sons. Natan graduated from high school in 1928 and began college where he met his future wife, Marysia Tomkiewicz. Natan started working for an Italian insurance company and married Marysia on December 25, 1933. Itzhak also remarried. Though Itzhak had nine siblings who had immigrated to the New York area, he refused to leave Poland. Following the outbreak of World War II, Natan heeded the call of the Polish government to report for mobilization in Bialystok. After a long journey by foot, he arrived there to discover the city under Soviet occupation. Natan stayed with Marysia's uncle, Lezer Tomkiewicz, and found a job as a bookkeeper. Natan contacted Marysia, and she left her family in Warsaw to join him in Bialystok. In spring 1940 after Natan and Marysia refused to relinquish their Polish passports, the NKVD arrested them and deported them to a labor …
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: 701
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn521835
record resource extent: folders 4
record resource structure: The collection is arranged as a single series.
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: The collection documents the pre-war, wartime, and post-war experiences of the Slepian family of Warsaw, Poland. Included are documents, photographs, and a photograph album related to the Wasseralfingen displaced persons camp where Nathan Slepian was the director.
title: Rita Sloan collection