us-005578-irn698921
type: RecordSet
archival history: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
biographical history: Ben Zion Kalb (later Colb, 1910-1973) was born in 1910 in Strzyzow, Poland. His father, Reb Abraham Kalb, worked as a shochet, and he had three siblings, a younger brother, Mendel, and two sisters, Malka (later Halpern) and Slava. Slava immigrated to Palestine before World War II. In Krakow in 1937, Ben Zion met Clara Lieber (b. October 20, 1911 in Stryj, Poland) and they were engaged in the summer of 1939. She had four younger brothers: Elimelech, Yoel, Leib and Enzel. After the invasion of Poland, Ben Zion was beaten by German police and fled to Slovakia, where he remained throughout the war. He became involved in smuggling and currency trading, ultimately working with the Slovak resistance organization known as the Working Group, led by Rabbi Michael Dov Weissmandl. Though Ben Zion made plans for Clara to illegally cross the border using false papers and a smuggler, the situation deteriorated in Poland. Mendel was killed by a German, and Clara, who had escaped to Vishnitz, was deported to the ghetto in Bochnia. She lived in a home that included a member of the Jewish Council named Mandelbaum, who was able to free her after her arrest on several occasions. In early 1943, Ben-Zion was able to contact Clara and instructed her to cross the border to Slovakia. Clara took a train to Zakopane, where she met a man who hid her in a pig sty until one of Ben Zion's associates, Jan Melec, escorted her over the border over the mountains and into Slovakia. In Slovakia, she was given false papers under the name"Helena Knapikova" After Clara crossed the border, Ben Zion became more involved with the Working Group to help others to escape from Poland. He used his own funds to pay couriers and people providing quarters. Rabbi Weissmandl supplemented those funds through the Working Group and through funds sent to international Jewish organizations in Switzerland. Though Ben Zion mainly rescued children, he is also credited with rescuing Rabbi Shlomo Halberstam, the Bobover Rebbe, a…
date: circa 1940-1968
has beginning date: 1942-01-01
has end date: 1945-12-31
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 2
has or had identifier: 3
has or had identifier: 1
has or had some members with language: yid
has or had some members with language: slk
has or had some members with language: deu
has or had subject: 701
has or had subject: 684
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn698921
record resource extent: folders book enclosure 4 1
record resource structure: The Ben Zion Kalb papers are arranged as a single series.
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: The Ben Zion Kalb papers consist of a diary, photographs, and documents related to the rescue work of Ben Zion Kalb (later Colb) who helped refugees cross the border between Hungary and Slovakia as part of the Slovak Working Group. The collection includes lists of names of those he assisted, photographs of Kalb with people he rescued, and correspondence with Itzak Zuckerman and Rabbi Michael Dov Weissmandl as well as a partial typed copy of the Vrba-Wetzler report. The diary was kept by Ben Zion from September 4, 1944 to January 1945.
title: Ben Zion Kalb papers