Leib (later Louis) Szapiro was born in Pruzhany Poland on May 5, 1913 to Moisze and Albernah Szapiro. Leib married before the war and had two children. His wife and children later perished in the Holocaust. Before the war, Leib belonged to the Zionist movement, Ha'Shomer Hatzair. From Pruzhany, Leib was deported to Auschwitz where he was tattooed with number 99471. He and his H"Shomer friends organized the people from Pruzhany while in Auschwitz and pooled their food to give to the weakest members of the group. (They later were honored in the Pinchas Pruzhany after the war.) He also was incarcerated in the Dachau sub-camp of Allach. After liberation he went to the Feldafing displaced persons camp and worked in the UNRRA office. Jenta Dobes (later Helen Szapiro) was born in Pruzhany on August 17, 1917. Around 1935 she moved to Vilna to live with her aunt. She married within a few months of her move and had a son named Reuven. After her husband was drafted into the Russian army, she remained in Vilna living with his parents. In 1941 she was forced to relocate to the Vilna ghetto where she lived with her aunt and son. Reuven died when he was about three years old. Afterwards her aunt hung herself. When the Vilna ghetto was emptied, she was in a number of labor camps. Following liberation Jenta made her way to the Feldafing displaced persons camp where she met Leib Szapiro. They married in March 1945. On November 3, 1947 they immigrated to the United States on board the Marine Tiger. Both Helen and Louis had extended families including parents, siblings, aunts and uncles and cousins but each was the sole survivor of their families in Europe.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
folder 1
Consists of photographs (45) from the collection of Leib Szapiro, originally of Pruz︠h︡any, Poland (now Belarus), and his wife, Jenta Dobes Szapiro, originally of Vilna, Poland (now Vilnius, Lithuania). Consists of pre-war photographs of Leib and Jenta's extended families, and life in the Feldafing displaced persons camp, including photographs of Jewish life in the camp. Includes a 1947 certificate of identity in lieu of a passport for the couple and copies of the American naturalization papers.
Szapiro family photographs