Hand-carved wooden chain carried to Australia by a Jewish refugee

Dora Szajner (later Factor, 1897-1972) was born in Działoszyn, Russian Empire, to Hillel (?-1924) and Rosa Chaja Isbitska Szajner. Hillel was a Hebrew teacher, calligrapher, folk carver, and a felcher [traditional healer]. Dora had seven siblings, four brothers and three sisters, including Max Moszek (1905-1942), Sarah (later Koopman, 1908-1993), Hela (later Helen Bialogurski), Roza (Rosa), Joseph, Yakob, and Armand Hersz (1914-1998). Roza and Joseph died of Tuberculosis as children. Dora worked as a seamstress in Dzialoszyn for a local Jewish family that produced Bridal wear. The Szajner family moved to Plauen, Germany, in 1917, where the local Jewish community employed Hillel as a reader. Dora often listened to classes at a local college through an open window and took notes. Her German was self-taught, but she spoke fluently and was a good writer.

In 1923, Dora married Heinrich Faktor (later Charles Factor, 1897-1991). He was born to Yitzhak Leib and Yitta Faktor, and his family ran a textile factory in Poland. Heinrich immigrated to Germany around 1918, and worked as a peddler before establishing a small textile business. Dora and Heinrich settled in Falkenstein, because he had been given permission to live there as a stateless immigrant. To remain a Polish citizen, Heinrich needed to return to Poland every three years. He never returned, and lost his citizenship. In 1924, Dora’s father, Hillel, passed away. Dora and Heinrich had three children: Adolf (later Adrian Factor, b. 1924), Helmut (later Henry Factor, 1925-2018), and Ruth (later Oviss, b. 1932). The family celebrated the high holidays, supported the local Jewish community, and kept a kosher home. Heinrich and Dora established a small women’s clothing factory. Dora served as a designer for the business and dealt with clients, while Heinrich managed approximately 12 employees and internal aspects of the business. Dora’s sister, Sarah, lived with the family and worked in Auerbach as a secretary for a prominent Jewish businessman, Salman Schocken, who had chain stores all over Germany.

On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany. Under Hitler, authorities began suppressing the rights and personal freedoms of Jews. Not long after, several members of Dora’s family, including her mother, Rosa Chaja, and several siblings, Max, Armand, and Jacob among them, immigrated to France. Rosa Chaja settled in Paris, Max joined the French Foreign Legion, and Armand became a painter-decorator north of Paris. For at least some period of time between 1934 and 1938, Sarah lived at Gut Winkel, an agricultural training center for Jewish youth hoping to immigrate to Palestine, near Brandenburg, Germany. Dora and Heinrich also remained in Germany, and Heinrich began using his Hebrew name, rather than his Germanic-sounding birth name. They instructed their children to do the same, so Heinrich, Adolf, and Helmut became Chiel, Abraham, and Hillel. Ruth continued to use her name, and sometimes Dora used her Hebrew name, Devorah. The Nazi authorities passed new laws that restricted the number of Jewish students who could attend public schools. At one point, a teacher used Abraham as a teaching aide to illustrate prominent “Jewish features.” Later, the Faktors’ company was forbidden from employing German workers. The company lost many clients, though some community members continued to do business with the family.

At the end of September or early October 1938, German authorities arrested most of the Jews of Falkenstein who were Polish citizens and deported them to Poland. A number of local Germans formed a human chain around the Faktor family’s house to stop the soldiers from arresting them. The Faktors were stateless immigrants, and the local policeman used the family’s stateless situation as an excuse not to arrest them at the time. On November 9, 1938, during the Kristallnacht pogrom, the family received a phone call from relatives in the neighboring town of Plauen, warning them not to leave the house because of impending riots. The family heard the sound of smashing and things being broken outside their house and remained inside. Their business was shut down and they were no longer allowed to enter the premises. The following day, a friend warned Chiel that he would be arrested within the hour, which allowed him to change into warm clothes before local officers came to arrest him and 14-year-old Abraham. Some neighbors tried to prevent their arrest, but they were forced into a truck flanked by SS officers who beat people as they boarded. A local doctor evaluated their medical condition, and because he knew Chiel, the doctor listed Abraham as medically unfit for labor and he returned home after a week. In the meantime, Chiel had been transported to Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar. He arrived at the camp on November 13, and was held under protective custody.

Local authorities told Dora that that he might be released from Buchenwald if the family could pay a large sum and provide proof of imminent immigration. Chiel’s American relatives, the Factor family of the United States, helped to get him released on December 3. Chiel’s paternal great uncle, Max Factor (born Maksymilian Faktorowicz, 1877-1938), had settled in the US and built Max Factor & Company, a prosperous cosmetics company in Hollywood, California. When Max Factor died in August 1938, he directed his heirs to help their relatives leave Europe. The American Factors provided 10,000 marks to free Chiel and paid for tickets to the US. Unfortunately, they were unable to secure a visa due to quota restrictions. Chiel was required to leave Germany within two weeks of his release, so agreements were made with political connections to secure the necessary visas for France. Chiel, Abraham, and Hillel left at the end of December, and Dora, Ruth, and Sarah joined them in early January 1939. The American Factors supported Chiel and Dora’s family while they lived in France. Sarah immigrated to London, England, later that year, where she worked as a domestic servant. Dora and Sarah’s sister, Hela, also made her way to England.

In July 1939, during the Bastille Day military parades, Chiel realized how susceptible France was to attack. He decided that his family needed to leave and began making plans. His relatives were only able to secure visas for Ecuador or Australia, and Chiel chose Australia because he had a brother, Szulek Factor, there. That September, Germany invaded Poland, prompting France and Great Britain to declare war. Not long after, Dora’s brother, Armand, was drafted into the French army. With France at war, no passenger ships were departing from ports there. At this time, Italy was a neutral nation, so on December 31, Dora, Chiel, and the children traveled by train to Genoa, Italy. Shortly after arriving, they boarded the motorship Remo and sailed to Australia. While underway, the ship’s Captain suggested that everyone wear lifejackets in case Italy chose an ally and entered the war, prompting an attack on the ship. The ship arrived in Freemantle, Australia, on February 4, 1940.

The family settled in Melbourne and quickly became part of the local Jewish community. They anglicized their surname to Factor, and the men anglicized their given names: Chiel became Charles, Abraham to Adrian, and Hillel became Henry. Dora and Ruth continued to use their birth names. Everyone found work at clothing factories and began English lessons. Later on, Charles worked at a factory making military uniforms and Henry began working in a factory making army blankets, which exempted him from military service. Adrian worked as a sign writer.

The Australian Factors received very little correspondence from Dora’s family following Germany’s invasion of France in May 1940. In the latter half of 1940, her brother Armand’s army division was captured by German forces. He was sent to Stalag XI B, a prisoner of war camp near Bad Fallingbostel, Germany, where he worked as a lumberjack. After the French Foreign Legion was disbanded, Dora’s brother, Max, returned to France. On May 14, 1941, Max became a prisoner at Beaune-la-Rolande detention camp in France. While imprisoned, he carved wooden chains depicting daily life in the camps, based on the technique he learned from his father, Hillel. Max also painted portraits of the camp commanders, which earned him special privileges. Among these, was having his wife visit. On June 27, Max was loaded onto a packed train car. The following day, he was deported, on Transport 5, to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in German-occupied Poland. He was killed on September 15. Dora’s brother, Yakob, joined the Maquis, a French resistance group.

In late 1942, Adrian was called-up to serve in the Australian army. He joined the 6th Employment Company, though he never saw action. The war in Europe ended in May 1945, following Germany’s surrender. After the war, Dora learned that her mother, Rosa Chaja, had likely died of natural causes in Paris. Yakob survived and remained in France. He later married Hentsza and they had a son, Bernard. Sarah had sailed to the United States aboard the SS Mauretania in late April 1943, arriving in New York City in early May. Later that month, she married Louis Koopman (1888-1996), a lawyer originally from Germany. He had immigrated to the US from the Netherlands in February 1940. The couple later settled on a farm in New Hampshire and had a son, Ernest. Hela also immigrated to the US, changed her name to Helen, and married Fred Bialogurski. Armand remained a POW until spring 1945, when he was liberated. He married Sylvia Kostmann (Sylvie, 1912-1983) in 1947, and immigrated to the US in the 1950s. He settled in New Hampshire, near Sarah, and became a well-known graphic artist and ceramicist. In 1989, several years after being widowed, Armand married Dr. Linda Morley (1940-2018). Most of the Polish Faktor family was murdered in the Holocaust. Eventually, Charles and Dora began managing another clothing factory and she began designing again. In 1949, Henry married Mary Rotbart (1928-2006), a Polish Jewish refugee from Germany. They ran a clothing factory and had three children. Adrian became a professional musician. In 1950, he married Betty Farb (1929-2017), a Jewish refugee from Austria who survived in hiding. They had two children. Ruth married Frank Oviss in 1953, and they had 3 children.