Helen and Willie Abraham photograph collection

Helen Abraham (born Hencia Wagner, 1923-2014) was born on 12 May 1923 in the village of Dąbrowica Mała, Leżajsk, Poland to Yehudit Zimmerman Wagner (1886?-1942) and Majer Wachs Wagner (1887-1935). She had three older brothers, Aron, Mendel, and David. Her father Majer worked as a farmer and died in 1935 from an accident.

After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the Wagners lost their farm and became forced-laborers for another farm in the village. In 1941 her brother Mendel fled to Russia and presumably perished there. In 1942 her mother died of pneumonia and her brother Aron was killed by the Gestapo. Helen and David were then sent to Tarnogród ghetto. In the fall, Helen, David, and their cousin Jacob Blumenfeld escaped from the ghetto right before it was liquidated on 2 November 1942. David went into hiding in Poland, but was eventually found and killed. Helen obtained false documents and travelled to Kraków, Poland posing as a Polish Catholic. She found work in a munitions factory in Menden, Germany. She befriended a Polish girl named Carolina Wilk, who knew Helen’s secret and helped her conceal her identity.

After the war, Helen went to the Ainring displaced persons camp. She immigrated to the United States on the SS Ernie Pyle on 3 January 1947 from Bremen, Germany. She settled in New York City with her American cousins Rose and Mitchell London. She married Willie Abraham in 1948 and had three children, Judy, Michael, and Marsha.

Willie Abraham (born Yisroel Wolf, 1925-2005) was born on 1 May 1925 in Vel'ky Rakovec, Czechoslovakia (present day Velykyi Rakovets, Zakarpat'ska Oblast, Ukraine) to Mendel and Miriam Hoffman. His father Mendel (d. 1940) was born in Lipecká Poľana, Czechoslovakia (Lypetska Polyana, Ukraine). Willie had one older sister, Tzivya (later Cilia Wizel, 1923-2005). His mother died six months after he was born, and the family moved to his father’s hometown of Lipecká Poľana. For unknown reasons, Willie and Tzivya were later brought to their mother’s hometown of Vel'ky Rakovec where they were eventually adopted by their maternal uncle Majer Dovid Abraham and his wife Toby Gottesman Abraham. Majeer Dovid worked in Vel'ky Rakovec as a farmer. Both Willie and Tzivya changed their last name to Abraham.

In 1939, Vel'ky Rakovec was occupied by Hungary. In 1944 Willie and his aunt and uncle were deported by Hungarian troops to the Munkács ghetto. They were then deported to Auschwitz II-Birkenau where Willie and Majer Dovid were immediately separated from Toby. Willie and Majer Dovid were separated soon after. Willie was then deported the next day to the Gusen II subcamp of Mauthausen, where he was a forced-laborer producing aircraft parts for the Messerschmitt Me-109 fighters. Both Majer Dovid and Toby perished at Auschwitz II-Birkenau.

In early 1945, the prisoners of Gusen II were sent on a forced-march to the Gunskirchen sub camp to Mauthausen. The camp was liberated by the United States Army in early May 1945. Willie returned home to Vel'ky Rakovec to find his house occupied. He reunited with his sister Tzivya, and they decided to go back to Austria. They went to the Bindermichl displaced persons camp where Willie found work with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. He was in the camp until October 1947 when he immigrated to the United States. He settled in New York City and learned how to become a baker. He met his wife Helen Wagner (12 May 1923 - 9 April 2014) through a mutual friend who was also a Holocaust survivor. They married in 1948 and had three children, Judy, Michael, and Marsha.