Contains five photographs depicting Miriam (b. April 10, 1933) and her brother Josef (b. 1935); her father Alter Zunszajn, textile merchant from Wereszczyn, Poland, and portraits of two friends: Moszek Gryff and Ryfka Kuperstok, whom Miriam befriended in Helenowek children’s home.
folder 1
Miriam Raz photographs
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Miriam Zunszajn was born in Wereszczyn, Poland; her mother, Henia Winograd gave her the name Masza, after Henia's brother Mosze. Masza had two younger brothers, Josef and Natan, b. 1937. After the German invasion of Poland, Alter Zunszajn was forced to become the head of Jewish Council. In May 1942 under the pretenses of renewing IDs, Germans murdered almost all the Jewish residents of Wereszczyn. Masza avoided the massacre by miracle; she heard her mother’s voice telling her to survive. Masza found safe haven in house of Urbach family, who were in hiding as well. Isidor Urbach, a dentist, his five children and his Polish wife took Masza in as well as another Jewish girl. In summer 1944 Soviet Army liberated the area. Masza missed living among Jews and she reached Jewish orphanage in Helenowek and from there through illegal immigration, she left Poland and reached Palestine. She settled in Kibbutz Gan Shmuel. She is a mother of three and grandmother of nine.