In 1991 when Ann Kirschner’s mother Sala was about to enter the hospital for by-pass surgery, afraid she might die, Sala Garncarz Kirschner handed her daughter a portfolio containing what turned out to be 352 letters, documents and photos that she had saved and guarded throughout the almost five years she had been in labor camps during World War II. The portfolio was a well-kept secret. Her daughter knew her mother was a survivor, but her mother had never been willing to talk about her experience. After the surgery, the two embarked on a project to reconstruct Sala’s life through interviews and through translating and putting in sequential order Sala’s collection – a “gift” to her family and to the wider world.
Sala Garncarz was the youngest daughter born into a large family of poor observant Jews who lived in Sosnowiec in western Poland. Because Sosnowiec and other towns near it were close to the German border, the Nazis established labor camps where they enslaved Jews to work to help their war effort. Sala Garncarz reported to a labor camp in Geppersdorf in late 1940 when she was just sixteen years old, was transferred at different times to other labor camps, and was liberated in 1945 from the Schatzlar labor camp in Czechoslovakia.
In this memoir Ann Kirschner has included many of the letters her mother saved. Many were from her sister Reizel who at first wrote from home and then from the Neusalz labor camp where she was taken along with a third sister, Blima. Another set of early letters are from Sala’s girlfriends back home who had not yet been deported to concentration camps or assigned to labor camps. A third set is from Ala Gertner, a woman ten years older than Sala who promised Sala's mother she would take care of Sala. Although the letters were censored, it is easy to read between the lines, and we can follow the progression from cheerful and hopeful to fearful and desperate.
Ann Kirschner did a lot of research to be able to contextualize the events in her mother’s life. Kirschner, for example, gives important background information about the Sosnowiec Jewish community and what happened to that community when the Nazis invaded Poland. She describes the role of Moses Merin whom the Nazis appointed as head of the Jewish Council and his double dealing as he tried to maintain his position and hold onto his life. She also gives us a short history of labor camps, as opposed to concentration camps, explaining the role of the Nazi officer Albrecht Schmelt who created and then administered a growing web of labor camps. (Oscar Schindler is probably the most well known factory owner whose factory was served by a labor camp.) She describes the vital role these camps played in the Nazi war effort and then their waning presence after Hitler’s 1942 Final Solution went into effect.
Sala Garncarz was released into a changed Poland. We follow her as she makes her way home to find out who is still alive. She then meets her future husband - an American GI, marries, and starts a new life in America, burying her old life in her heart and secreting evidence of her past in her portfolio.
The author has included many photos and copies of documents as well as an index and an extensive listing of sources divided into the following categories: Prewar Life in Sosnowiec, Poland and During the Occupation; Nazi Labor Camps and Organization Schmelt; Moses Merin and the Jewish Council; August 12, 1942; Ala Gertner and the Auschwitz Uprising; Schatzlar, Neusalz, and Dyhernfurth. She has also included a useful listing of "Additional Sources and Inspirations" which is mostly a listing of more general works on the Holocaust.
To watch and listen to a lecture on You Tube by Ann Kirschner about her mother's story, click here.
To read a document on the website of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum about forced labor as well as to see archival footage and to have access to personal testimonies, click here.
People
Family
Abram Simcha Garncarz – married to Rachel
Moshe Chaim Garncarz – son of Abram and Rachel; married Matel Sczydlov
Raizel Lea Garncarz – daughter of Abram and Rachel; married Yaacov Fischel
Josef Garncarz –nephew of Abram and Rachel; married Chana Feldman(second wife)
Miriam Chaya Garncarz – daughter of Josef and first wife
Moshe David Garncarz – son of Josef and Chana; married to Hendel
Laya Dina Garncarz – daughter of Josef and Chana; married to David Krzesiwo
Salusia and Moniek Krzesiwo – children of Laya Dina and David
Hersh Leib Garncarz – son of Josef and Chana
Avram Yitzhak Garncarz – son of Josef and Chana
Chaim Pincus Garncarz – son of Josef and Chana
Fiegele Garncarz – daughter of Josef and Chana
Yankov Aaron – son of Josef and Chana
Blima Garncarz – daughter of Josef and Chana; married to Jacob Goldberg
Raizel (Rose) Garncarz – daughter of Josef and Chana; married to Ezriel Lange
Salusia (Sala) Garncarz – daughter of Josef and Chana; married Sydney Kirschner
Joseph Kirschner – son of Sala and Sydney
Ann Kirschner – daughter of Sala and Sydney; married to Harold Weinberg
Elisabeth, Caroline and Peter Weinberg - children of Ann and Harold
David Kirschner – son of Sala and Sydney
Jennie, Jeremy, Gabby, Rachel and Yael Kirschner - children of Joseph and David Kirschner (not clear which children "belong" to Joseph and which to David)
Family of Chana Feldman (author’s great-grandmother – see above)
Asher Alter Feldman – uncle of Chana; married Tobele
Yacob Hainoch Feldman – son of Asher and Tobele
Blima Yockevet Feldman – daughter of Asher and Tobele
Esther Feldman – daughter of Asher and Tobele
Miriam Feldman – daughter of Asher and Tobele
Aaron Yosef Feldman – son of Asher and Tobele
Leah Dina Feldman – daughter of Asher and Tobele; married Yechiel Ophir
Moshe Leib Feldman – son of Asher and Tobele
David Feldman – son of Asher and Tobele
Shlomo Feldman – son of Asher and Tobele
Melech Feldman – son of Asher and Tobele
Mendel Wolf Feldman – son of Asher and Tobele
Rozia (Rose) Grunbaum Futter (?) Danziger (?); sister of Sala and Abram; cousin of Sala Garcarz (exact relationship not clear)
Sala Grunbaum Singer - sister to Rozia and Abram; cousin of Sala Garncarz (exact relationship not clear)
Abram Grunbaum – brother of Rozia and Sala; cousin of Sala Garncarz (exact relationship unclear)
Friends and Acquaintances
Sarah Schenirer
Sala Rabinowicz Poznanski - sister to Frymka and Glika
Frymka Rabinowicz Zavontz- sister to Sala and Glika
Glika Rabinowicz - sister to Sala and Frymka
Moses (Moshe, Moniek, Marek) Merin
Fani Czarna
Ala Gertner and Bernard Holtz - married
Wolf Leitner
Chaim Kaufman
Hokilo Dattner
Bela Kohn
Chaim Rumkowski
Sarah Czarka Helfand
Mitzi Mehler
Gucia Gutman Ferleger
Harry Haubenstock
Zusi Ginter Bloch - sister to Itka
Itka Ginter Bloch - sister to Zusi
Bronia Altman
Fryda Lipschitz
Mordechai Anielwicz
Eva Joskowitz
Friedl Silberstein
Sara Weisman
Roza Robota
Mala Weinstein
Anna Wajcblum Heilman - sister of Estusia
Estusia Wajcblum – sister of Anna
Regina Safirsztajn
Eugene Koch
Rose Meth
Morris Frank
Places
Bais Yaakov school, Sosnowiec, Poland
Sosnowiec, Poland
Wolbrom, Poland
Oswiecim, Poland
Bedzin, Poland
Warsaw, Poland
Skladowa transit camp, Poland
Geppersdorf labor camp,Germany
Neusalz labor camp, Poland
Grosse Sarne labor camp, Germany
Brande labor camp, Germany
Laurahutte labor camp, Poland
Gross Paniow labor camp, Poland
Blechhammer labor camp, Poland
Olkusz, Poland
Srodula ghetto, Poland
Kamionka, Poland
Flossenburg concentration camp, Germany
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, Germany
Auschwitz concentration camp, Poland
Ansbach, Germany
Waldenburg, Poland
Dyhernfurth concentration camp, Poland
Frankfurt, Germany
New York City – East Harlem, Brooklyn, Queens
Palestine
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