us-005578-irn625886
type: RecordSet
has beginning date: 1922-01-01
has end date: 1998-12-31
has end date: 1957-12-31
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had some members with language: swe
has or had some members with language: pol
has or had subject: 1139
has or had subject: 101
has or had subject: 701
has or had subject: 819
has or had subject: 904
has or had subject: 304
has or had subject: 824
has record set type: Item
history: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
history: David Wolf Witelson (ca. 1890-ca.1942) married Rela Abromczyk (ca. 1892-1942) and they lived in Pabianice, Poland. David worked as a shopkeeper and Rela was a housewife. They had at least six children including Zoshia Witelson (later Zoshia Zarska, 1907-1944), Pinkus Witelson (ca. 1912-1939), Morris Witelson (ca. 1914-?), Joseph Witelson (ca. 1916-?), Ruska (later Rena Frieberg, 1918-?), Hela Witelson (later Helen Laks, 1922-2017). Zoshia Witelson married into the Zarska family. She had a daughter, Helinka Zarska (1935-1944) born in 1935. After September 1939, during the Nazi occupation of Poland, the three Witelson sisters were sent to work. Hela worked in a factory making army uniforms, Zoshia worked in a factory that made furniture which was shipped by Nazi soldiers to Germany, and Rushka worked as a hospital nurse. In February 1940, the Pabianice ghetto was established. Nazi soldiers raided the family’s apartment and demanded the crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling. David Witelson was ordered to remove it, but while trying to unhook the chandelier, a crystal fell to the floor and shattered. The soldier screamed that the chandelier was ruined, and the family feared they would be shot. Instead, they were sent to the ghetto. Zoshia already had an apartment within the walls of the ghetto, so the family moved into her apartment. In May 1942, the Pabianice ghetto was liquidated. Fearing for the lives of her mother, sister and niece, Rushka brought them to the hospital where she worked. However, all the patients of the hospital were rounded up, forced to dig their own grave, and executed. Their mother, Rela Witelson died along with over 150 hospital patients. Zoshia and her daughter Helinka survived because a German soldier decided to send them to the Łódź ghetto along with the other healthy hospital workers. Hela Witelson remembered being marched out of Pabianice to the shouts and jeers of their onetime neighbors and acquaintances. The Witelson family was sent…
identifier: irn625886
record resource extent: folders oversize box 2 1
record resource structure: The Witelson and Laks families collection is arranged in two series. Series 1. Biographical materials, 1947-1998. Series 2. Photographs, 1922-1957.
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: The Witelson and Laks families collection includes biographical materials related to Hela Witelson (later Helen Laks) and Richard Laks. The collection includes the Swedish marriage certificate of Hela Witelson and Richard Laks, February 23, 1949; Helen’s reissued Polish birth certificate which states her given name was Chaja Szajndla Witelson, 1998; and Richard Lak’s R.E.M.E. Record of Service card, 1947. The collection also includes a includes a photograph album and loose photographs related to the Witelson and Laks families of Poland. The photographs include pre-war and post-war photographs of the families in Poland, Sweden, and Israel, as well as studio portraits and candid photographs, 1922-1957.
title: Witelson and Laks families collection