us-005578-irn618419
type: RecordSet
archival history: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
biographical history: Samuel Baral (b. 1904) was born in Kraków, Poland and married Franciska (Franka) Baral (b. 1906 in Kraków, Poland). They had three children, Aneta (b. 1929), Martin (b. 1932), and Jacob (b. 1935). Samuel ran a fur import business with his father and Franka kept a traditional Jewish home. After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the family fled and sought refuge with relatives in Rzeszów, Poland and Lviv, Ukraine, but they returned to Kraków without Samuel because they thought that Franka and the children might be safer on their own. In 1941, Franka and the children were forced into a ghetto where Samuel joined them. Franka worked outside the ghetto in a factory and was able to help Martin and Jacob escape under the barbed wire fence. They went to the home of their former housekeeper where they stayed for a few months before going to their aunt’s home in the Bochnia ghetto. Franka, Samuel, and Aneta hid in an attic in a different section of the ghetto, until Franka and Aneta escaped to Tarnów, while Samuel went to Płaszow. Samuel survived the Holocaust by being placed on Oskar Schindler’s list. In Tarnów, Franka worked as a seamstress. She made dresses for Aneta and herself and they convinced the guards they were Germans and walked out of Tarnów. They returned to Kraków, looking for Martin and Jacob, and joined them in Bochnia where they hid on the outskirts of town and posed as Catholics. In 1943, the Germans turned Bochnia into a labor camp and Franka and the children fled to Hungary. The family was smuggled out in a truck with a false bottom and abandoned in the forest. Franka decided they should separate and walk to Slovakia. She arrived at the border in a day and a half and learned that the children had been arrested. After a few weeks, the family was sold to an underground Jewish organization which arranged for their transportation to Hungary. In July 1943, they arrive in Budapest. Franka obtained lodging at a hotel, but was warned that the Gestapo was sear…
conditions of use: Copyright Holder: Dr. Jim J. Baral
date: circa 1940-1966
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had identifier: 3
has or had identifier: 2
has or had some members with language: ces
has or had some members with language: pol
has or had some members with language: eng
has or had some members with language: ron
has or had subject: 684
has or had subject: 843
has or had subject: 105
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn618419
record resource extent: folders oversize folders 3 2
record resource structure: The Samuel and Franka Baral papers are arranged as a single series.
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: The Samuel and Franka Baral papers consist of biographical information, correspondence, immigration documents, and testimony relating to Samuel Baral and Franka Baral’s experiences fleeing Kraków, internment in a ghetto, going into hiding, and immigrating to Palestine and Australia. The collection includes a certificate of naturalization and a certificate of registration for Australia issued to Franka and travel documents for Samuel to return home as well as a letter from Samuel’s mother, Juda, to the German Compensation Collection Agency and a copy of Jakob Baral’s birth certificate. The collection also includes letters to Franka from Ilonka Nemes, recognized as Righteous Among the Nations, who hid Franka and six children in Hungary.
title: Samuel and Franka Baral papers