Mirjam Zelwer Papers

Marie Zelwer (Mania or Marjan, later Brandstetter, 1933- ) was born in Błaszki, Poland to Haim Luzer Zelwer (?-1942) and Eta (Ida) Messer (died at age 82) and was raised Orthodox. Marie had a younger brother, Szlamek (Sam b. 1935), and a half-sister Helene Litwak Gordon. Her father owned a bus company.

After the German invasion of Poland in 1939 Hiam was drafted into the Polish army. Marie, Eta, Sam, and her aunt Zoszia fled Poland to the Soviet Union through Warsaw. They struggled to find refuge in small towns and after hiding in hotels, they crossed the border into Russia and eventually settled in Kowel (currently Kovel, Ukraine) at a Jewish Temple with other refugees. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union they fled again by train to Moscow. Soon after, they were taken by the NKVD to Siberia where Eta worked in a labor camp. After a few months they escaped in late 1942 and went to Asbest where Eta and Zoszia worked in an asbestos factory and Sam and Marie went to school. They also spent a short period of time on a farm before reuniting with their aunt and uncle in 1944 in Chemkent (now Shymkent, Kazakhstan) where they lived together until the end of the war.

After the war they returned to Poland in 1945 and Eta became ill. Marie’s aunt sent her and Sam to a kibbutz with the thought that they would immigrate to Palestine, but Eta found her children and wanted to keep the family together. They lived in a DP camp in Ulm where Marie went to school and studied languages and nursing. When her mother announced she was going to remarry, Marie left out of anger that her mother was trying to replace her father. She left for Palestine in 1947 aboard the SS Exodus and participated in the onboard resistance when British soldiers boarded the ship and ordered refugees to disembark and return to Europe. Marie returned to her family in Germany where she and her brother lived at the Bad Aibling IRO Children's Village, an International Refugee Organization (IRO) camp. An uncle sponsored Marie and Sam’s immigration to the United States and they arrived in San Francisco in 1950. Marie married Newell Brandstetter in 1953 and they had four children Hymie, Joey, Victor, and Rachelle. Marie’s mother, stepfather Abram Litwak, and half-sister Helene immigrated to the United States prior to 1953. Haim died in Treblinka in August 1942.