us-005578-irn523229
type: RecordSet
archival history: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
biographical history: Vera Lechtman (b. 1938) was born to Sioma (1916-1945?) and Tonia (nee Bialer,1918-1996) Lechtmann in Paris, France. Born in Dunajewce, Russia (now Dunaivtsi, Ukraine), Sioma soon moved with his parents Israel and Feiga (nee Blatt) Lechtmann to Vienna, Austria. He had three sisters: Hava and twins, Luba and Buza. Following a period of increasing violence and the outbreak an Austrian civil war in 1934, the family immigrated again to British-controlled Palestine, where he began working in construction, met, and married Tonia Bialer (1918-1998). Tonia’s family—parents Aharon (1890-1961) and Rachel (nee Wojdyslauza [Wermeister?], 1892-1967) Bialer, and siblings Avraham (Romek, 1912-1945), Joel (Julek, 1919-1999), and Noemi (Ema)—had emigrated from Łódź, Poland, that same year, following Tonia’s brief imprisonment for communist activities. Both Sioma and Tonia joined the M.K.P. (Palestinian Communist Party). In 1936, after their marriage, both were arrested by the British authorities for their communist political activity, and later forced to leave Palestine. Considered stateless, they could not be deported to a specific country and were free to go where they wanted. They left in 1937 to join the fight against fascism in the Spanish Civil War. They traveled first to Paris, France, where Tonia realized she was pregnant. After completing training in France, Sioma continued to Spain and joined the Austrian division of the Communist International Brigade. Tonia remained in Paris, where she gave birth to her first child, Vera, on June 26, 1938. Near the end of the war, Sioma’s brigade and the defeated Republican fighters they supported fled from Spain to France, a country that agreed to take the fighters. On February 8, 1939, Sioma was sent to Saint-Cyprien, a reception center for Spanish refugees, and later, an internment camp for foreigners. Tonia and Vera moved to Oloron St. Marie to be closer to Sioma. Later that spring, he was among almost 19,000 refugees transferred to a…
date: circa 1927-circa 1940
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: eng
has or had some members with language: fra
has or had subject: 701
has or had subject: 1980
has or had subject: 843
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn523229
record resource extent: folder 1
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: Contains photographs and documents relating to Vera Lechtman's parents, Sioma and Tonia Bialer Lechtman, before World War II in Vienna, Austria, and in Łódź, Poland; their immigration to Palestine in 1936; and their subsequent immigration to Europe in 1938. Includes photogaphs of Sioma Lechtman in the Gurs concentration camp in France, where he was interned after fighting in the Spanish Civil War.
title: Sioma and Tonia Bialer Lechtman papers