United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Zeni’s maternal family came from Lvov, but when her grandmother Beila Horenstein Blumenfeld was widowed, she moved to Czernowitz with her four children; Sara Frieda or Sali was Zeni’s mother. Sara was a nurse. She married Abraham Kleinman and their daughter Sheindl Etel Zeni (Janet) was born on April 11, 1935; her younger sister Reisl was born on January 1, 1941. After the German occupation of Czernowitz and establishment of the ghetto, the Kleinman family and the Grandmother were forced to move. In mid-1941 the Jews of Czernowitz and the vicinity were deported to Transnistria; the Kleinman family were forced into Mogilev Podolsk. In April 1942 Zheni wandered away from the camp; she was accosted by a German soldier who after finding out that she was a Jewish girl, tortured her and abused her physically and sexually. This left a profound mark on her life. Sometime after this incident the commandant of the camp murdered Zeni’s sister Reisl and her grandmother and aunt. In March 1944 the Soviets liberated the area; in 1948 the family immigrated to Israel. Zeni wrote a book about her family and her life: “The Angel over the Door” in Hebrew.
folder 1
Collection of photographs depicting the Kleinman and Rosenstein families in Czernowitz and Galati, Romania and later in Israel.
Klainman and Rosenstein families collection