United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Chaim Eli Seitel was born on June 3, 1909 in Nadwórna, Poland (Nadvirna, Ukraine) to Leiser Seitel and Race Grünstein Seitel. In 1938 he married Frieda Knoll who was born on March 3, 1915 in Nadwórna to Mendel Menachem Knoll and Kittel Kwartler. The couple moved to Kibbutz Ein Ha’Yam near Atlit, Palestine around 1939. Following the 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland, Nadwórna was annexed into the Ukrainian SSR and was occupied by Germany in 1941. By the end of 1942 most of the Jewish population of Nadwórna had been murdered in Nadwórna or Stanisławów. After the war the city was once again absorbed into the Ukrainian SSR.
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The Setiel and Knoll families papers are arranged in three series: • Series 1: Biographical materials, 1921-1991 (bulk 1921-1943) • Series 2: Correspondence, 1936-1981 (bulk 1936-1942) • Series 3: Photographs, approximately 1900-1990 (bulk 1933-1959)
The Seitel and Knoll families papers consist of biographical materials, correspondence, and photographs documenting the Seitel and Knoll families from Nadwórna, Poland, before the Holocaust and Chaim Eli and Frieda Knoll Seitel’s immigration to Palestine around 1939. Biographical materials include Frieda’s Nadwórna elementary school report cards, Chaim’s military document, their marriage certificate, a ketubah, receipts documenting the couple’s support of the Jewish National Fund and World Zionist Organization, and information about their baby boy, Eliezer. This series also includes a notebook that contains poems and notes in Yiddish. Correspondence includes letters and postcards from Chaim in Krakow to Frieda in Nadwórna from 1936 and 1938 as well as letters and postcards to Chaim and Frieda in Palestine from family and friends in Nadwórna and elsewhere from 1938-1942 and 1981. Photographs depict the Seitel and Knoll families in Nadwórna and group portraits of the Dror “Freiheit” Zionist Socialist organization in Poland, and they include photographs given to Chaim and Frieda before their emigration to Palestine.
Seitel and Knoll families papers