United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Estera Bojdman (later Ettinger, 1919-1999) was born in Łuck, Poland (currently Lutsk, Ukraine) to Froim-Aron Ettinger (1890-1942) and Rywko Ettinger (née Koszywker, 1893-1942) and had a sister Rachela (1924-1942) and two brothers Abram (1926-1942) and Lejb (1931-1942). Estera attended the University of Warsaw and moved back to Łuck in 1939. After German forces entered Łuck in 1941, Estera and her family were forced into the Łuck ghetto and into forced labor. In the summer of 1942 Estera was arrested and taken to the Lawrow labor camp. In November 1942 the camp was to be liquidated and, together with others, Estera set out to escape. She fell into a pit and hid from the SS men. At first she hid in Maly Omelianik in a basement. In the spring of 1943 she had to escape again because someone betrayed her hiding place. She went to Kiwerce (currently Kivertsi, Ukraine) where she hid in shops and basements. She soon obtained false papers under the name Genowefa Babicka. For some time she lived with a family under her false identity. In fall 1943 she escaped again, probably to the forest, when she was looking to connect with partisans. In 1944 she was liberated in Kiwerce by the Red Army, but was very sick with scarlet fever and returned to Łuck. Estera married Josef and they had a daughter, Hanna. Estera and Josef lived in Łuck until the summer of 1945 and then moved to Lwow (currently Livi, Ukraine) until the fall of 1946. They later moved to Poland and immigrated to the United States in 1969. Her father and mother died in the Łuck ghetto in 1942. Józef (Josef) Ettinger (1916-2003) was born in Odessa (currently Odessa, Ukraine) to Samuel (1884-1937) and Sophie (Stella) Ettinger (née Szajmon-Romanes, 1888-1942) and had an older brother Aleksonder (c. 1913-1942). Samuel owned a furniture store. Josef entered the Red Army possibly during his stay in Lwow (currently Livi, Ukraine) in 1940 and finished his law studies in 1942. In the summer of 1943, he was near Kursk when he was badly wounded. He completed his service and settled in Łuck where he reconnected with Estera, whom he knew before the war, and they married in May 1944. Neither Jozef nor Estera found anyone from their families who survived. His mother, Sophie, died in the Łuck ghetto.
Copyright Holder: Dr. Hanna Ettinger-Neuss M.D.
folders book enclosure 6 1
The Bojdman family papers are arranged as a single series.
The Bojdman family papers include correspondence, a diary, and photographs relating to the pre-war and wartime experiences of Estera Bojdman and her family in Łuck, Poland, in the Łuck ghetto, and in hiding. The collection also includes pre-war and post-war diplomas for Estera and her husband, Josef Ettinger. Correspondence includes letters to Estera from Michail Kaniewskyn who helped Estera after liberation, from her cousin who was in the Soviet Army, and to Estera from Wowa and Nachum Shrrachman in Frunze. Photographs and clippings include prewar and wartime photographs of Estera and Jozef as well as photographs of Froim and Rywka Bojdman, Rachela, Abram, and Leib Bojdman, Stella Ettinger, and Aleksander Ettinger. Some photographs were found after the uprising in the Łuck ghetto in August 1942. Also included are wartime photographs in Łuck and postwar in Warsaw. Education material include a high school diploma issued to Josef Ettinger, a diploma in engineering from Tashkent University, and a copy of Estera high school diploma. The diary, in Polish, was kept by Estera from March-June 1944 while she was in hiding. The collection also includes a certificate issued to Estera attesting that the stated building was owned by Rywka Bojdman, a registration book listing the residents in the building at 66 Kościuszki in Łuck which belonged to Rywka Bojdman, a list, prepared by Estera, of Germans and Ukrainians who tortured and murdered Jews in the Łuck ghetto, and documents found by Estera in 1944 in attic of her mother’s building.
Bojdman family papers