us-005578-irn522519
type: RecordSet
archival history: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
biographical history: Aron Straser (born Aron Struczanski) was the second of Jona and Rywa (née Lapidus) Struczanski's three children. He was born in Smorgon, Poland (Smarhoń, Belarus) in October 1925. Aron had one older brother, Fajwel, and a younger sister, Rachel. Prior to the war, Jona was employed in the local textile trade while Rywa kept the home. In summer 1941 the Jewish residents of Smorgon experienced increasing persecution following the German invasion of the Soviet Union and Soviet-occupied Eastern Europe. In addition to marking their homes, German occupiers compelled the Jews of Smorgon to engage in forced labor. The Struczanski family, among others, were forced to work cutting peat in the bogs surrounding the city. On August 1, 1941, just weeks after the German occupation of the city, Jona was shot and killed. Over the course of the next four years Jona's widow and children struggled to survive their many transfers through the Nazi system of camps and ghettos. Aron, Rywa, Fajwel, and Rachel all survived the Holocaust, his older brother Fajwel died shortly after liberation on May 19,1945 from the effects of his years of physical deprivation and starvation. Aron, Rywa, and Rachel were reunited after the war at Bergen-Belsen where Rywa and Rachel were liberated. The former concentration camp was adapted to meet the needs of displaced persons, and it was here that Aron would meet Gucia Widawska (later Judy Straser), his future wife. Aron and Gucia later immigrated to the United States, and Rywa and Rachel immigrated to Palestine. Judy Straser was born in 1929 in Łódź, Poland, a city with a Jewish population of about a quarter of a million before World War II. She was ten years old when the Nazis entered the city in September 1939. The Nazis renamed the city Litzmanstadt. Early in the occupation, the Germans rounded up some of the Jews in Łódź and forced them to witness the hanging of four Jews. The Nazis warned that death would be the consequence of not obeying their rules. On…
date: circa 1918-1945
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had subject: 42
has or had subject: 701
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn522519
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 collection documents the Holocaust-era experiences of Aron Straser (born Aron Struczanski) and his family, originally from Smorgon, Poland (Smarhoń, Belarus). The collection consists of photographs depicting Aron’s father Jona Struczanski prior to his wedding in Smorgon, his family gathered around the grave of his grandparents, Aron shortly after liberation, and Aron’s future wife Gucia Widawska (later Judy Straser) shortly after liberation at Bergen-Belsen.
title: Aron Straser photograph collection