MZ-438-D

This is a letter from Józefina Liebermann, sent on August 30, 1946 from Oświęcim to Adam Druks, her grandson in Palestine. Adaś, my dear grandson! There is not much to write about us. We still live with the Schoenkers, we have a nice, sunny room […]. Our hosts are really nice. […] a celebration for children of workers took place in our factory on Saturday, to mark the end of the half-school. It was very nice, the agenda was well chosen, the children were gifted, we were given all the honours, nevertheless we felt like strangers. They from us, and we from them, have grown apart. Such is life here in general. There is no one to talk to. This is also an answer for your daddy, what kind of life we lead here. It’s still good enough here that everyone knows us and treats us kindly, but the cold is impossible to warm up even with radiators. There are no friends at all, we don’t even go to the cinema for lack of company […]. Before the outbreak of World War II, the Liebermanns and the Druks, who were related to them, were co-owners of Emil Kuźnicki’s roofing felt factory in Brzezinka (founded in 1888). In 1939, both families fled to the East to escape the incoming war. Their odyssey led through Lvov, labor camps in the depths of the USSR (Kozmodemyansk in the Mari Republic and Omsk in Siberia), to Uzbekistan (Tashkent and Samarkand). The Druks – Iro, Łucja and their children Adam and Elinoar – landed with General Anders’ Polish Army in Teheran and Baghdad. They finally arrived in Palestine on December 31, 1942. Due to their advanced age, Joachim (1876-1950) and Józefina (1879-1958) Liebermann remained in Samarkand and returned briefly to Oświęcim after the war. They finally joined the rest of the family after the war in 1947.