John and Barbara Helman papers
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
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The John and Barbara Helman papers are arranged as two series: I. Biographical materials, 1945-1951, II. Photographs, 1937-1948
John (Janek) Helman (1909‐2002) was born in Łódź to Szmaja (1868‐1938) and Rywka (1895‐1943) Helman. He had his six brothers and sisters. He fled Łódź after the German invasion and again after the formation of the Łódź ghetto but eventually joined his family in the ghetto and worked hauling human waste. He was beaten and suffered a spinal injury in the ghetto, and his mother died there in 1943. When the ghetto was liquidated in 1944, he was deported to Auschwitz with his sister, Elka, and her son. Elka was killed at Auschwitz, and her son was presumably killed there as well. Two weeks after his arrival, John was transferred to the Görlitz concentration camp, where he worked in a tank factory, suffered a foot injury, and had his foot amputated. He was liberated from Görlitz in 1945 by the Soviet Army and returned to Łódź. Among his family, only he and one brother, Tevye, and one sister, Laja (married name Pakin), survived the war. He traveled to the Bergen‐Belsen displaced persons camp to find his sister and also found Bronia Wiewióra, whom he had known before the war. The couple married, moved to Hannover, had two children, Carol and Joseph, and immigrated to the United States in 1950. Barbara Helman (1919-1988) was born Bronia Wiewióra in Łódź and survived the Łódź ghetto, Auschwitz, Salzwedel, and Bergen-Belsen. Her parents, Abram Josef (1879-1944) and Kraindla (1972-1944), are believed to have been killed at Auschwitz. She found acquaintance John Helman at the Bergen‐Belsen displaced persons camp and married him. The couple moved to Hannover, had two children, Carol and Joseph, and immigrated to the United States in 1950.
Copyright Holder: Carol Stulberg
The John and Barbara Helman papers consist of biographical materials and photographs documenting the Helman and Wiewióra families from Łódź, John and Barbara’s survival of the Łódź ghetto, John’s survival of the Auschwitz and Görlitz concentration camps, and the couple’s postwar marriage and refugee and immigration status. Biographical materials include identification papers, certificates, and correspondence documenting John’s status as a survivor of the Łódź ghetto, Auschwitz, and Görlitz; his marriage to Bronia Wiewióra; her survival of the Łódź ghetto; and the couple’s refugee and immigrant status. Photographs depict Barbara and John Helman, their young children, and their relatives including John’s sisters Roszja and Elka and brother Shlomo, and Barbara’s brother and sister-in-law, David and Bluma (nee Jangerson), another brother, Yael, cousins Oscar and Sam (Szlamek) Pakin; and aunt Laja Pakin. This series also includes a photograph of Barbara’s friend Bella Pruszynowska (who married Albert Peters) stading with a group in the Łódź ghetto, a photograph of the Jewish Committee of Hannover, including Rabbi Abraham Lipshitz, and a copy print of Chaim Rumkowski and Hans Biebow in the Łódź Ghetto. Most of the photographs were taken in Łódź before the war, in the Łódź ghetto, or in Hannover after the war. after the war.