Sadowski family collection

Ania Sadowski (born Ania Zilbiger, later Ania Drimer) was born on 16 April 1942 in a Soviet gulag in Kharitonovo, Archangielsk, Russia to Adolf Zilbiger (later Adam Sadowski, 1905-1979) and Ernestine Berglas (1911-2005). Prior to World War II, Adolf was a physician and Ernestine studied law. After the German invasion of Poland in 1939 they were deported to Bochnia, Poland. They then escaped to Soviet-occupied Lvov, Poland (Lviv, Ukraine). Adolf and Ernestine were deported to a labor camp in Kharitonovo, Archangielsk, Russia in June 1940 after refusing to accept Soviet citizenship. Despite Adolf’s occupation as a doctor, he and Ernestine were forced to perform manual labor cutting trees. After the German invasion of Russia in 1942, Adolf was permitted to work as the camp physician and even delivered his daughter. In 1944 the family was allowed to move to Kharkiv, Ukraine. In 1945 they moved back to Krakow and changed their last name to Sadowski. Their second child Martin was born in 1949. Ania became a pharmacist and met Marcel Drimer, also a Holocaust survivor, in Poland. They married and immigrated to the United States in 1961, settling in Virginia. Adolf and Ernestine immigrated to the United States in 1967. Adolf had a brother who also survived the Holocaust in Russia. Ernestine had a sister who perished. Ania is currently a volunteer with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.