us-005578-irn722962-irn513700
type: RecordSet
archival history: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
biographical history: Maria Segal was born Miriam Polanowicz on 15 June 1935 in Okuniew, Poland. She was second to the youngest child of Lejb Polanowicz, a shoemaker and Laja Rymerman Polanowicz. Maria had six siblings: Nicha, Moshe, Josef; Elka; Szajndl Szandulka, and Sonia. Lejb was an observant Jew and his wife, Laja, tried to accommodate the demands of the orthodoxy, despite not being raised as such. In the summer of 1940 the Germans deported all 500 Jews from Okuniew to the Warsaw ghetto. Maria’s maternal uncle, Itzhak Rymerman, took in the Polanowicz family. They lived in one room, on Nowolipki Street. All the members of the family worked, but the food was always scarce. A Polish woman from Okuniew, Stasia Polanska, entered the Warsaw ghetto on regular basis, smuggling in food and selling it to the desperate Jews. Maria, who was at that time 7 years old, left the ghetto together with Stasia and traveled with her to Okuniew. There she was able to collect money owed to her father and bring back food to her family. Maria was able to do the same once more, but the third time around, she was unable to enter the ghetto. She distinctly remembers that her mother told her: “Go, at least you are the only one in the family that has a chance to survive, because all of us will be killed sooner or later.” Maria stayed in Okuniew with Stasia and her husband, Janek, and her duties included taking their cow to the pasture. At one point it became impossible for Maria to stay with them. The couple drank alcohol excessively and Maria was scared of their yelling. She escaped their small hut to Stasia’s parents, who lived nearby. Maria continued to be a pasture girl and by now she took care of six cows. In the spring 1943, Maria met a daughter of the local grocer, who managed to flee from the Warsaw ghetto. Toba Zylbersztajn (?) and her boyfriend found a safe haven with Mr. Miller, an owner of a flourmill in Okuniew. Toba reported to Maria, that she saw her family being deported by the Germans, likely t…
date: circa 1930-circa 1955
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had subject: 701
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn513700
is or was included in: us-005578-irn722962
record resource extent: folder 1
record resource structure: The collection is arranged as a single series.
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: The collection contains photographs documenting the Holocaust-era experiences of Maria Segal (born Miriam Polanowicz), originally of Okuniew, Poland. Includes pre-war depictions of Maria and her family in Okuniew; Maria as a hidden child in 1943; Maria’s First Communion in 1945; her trip to Denmark in 1947; and her immigration to France.
title: Maria Segal photographs