Serafina and Bola Friedler papers

Serafina Friedler was born Serafina Sigulim in Drohobycz, Poland (present-day Drohobyhch, Ukraine) in 1904. She married Egon Friedler of Borysław, Poland. Together, they had two children, Edek and Bola (later Bella Miller), both born in Borysław, Poland (now Boryslav, Ukraine). Egon, a businessman, owned a women’s boutique at which Serafina would sometimes work. The family had a comfortable life in city-center of Borysław, where they owned an apartment building. Upon the German invasion in 1939, Egon’s shop and all his goods were confiscated because he was Jewish. Shortly after, the Russian army took over the city and the family’s lives returned to relative normalcy with Egon working in the oil fields and Edek and Bola attending public schools. In 1941, the Germans reentered the city and instituted a series of pogroms, during which time Bola and her family hid with Christian neighbors and later, in a wine cellar. Eventually the family was arrested and deported Auschwitz. Egon and Edek were later deported to Mauthausen where they are presumed to have perished in 1945. Serafina and Bola survived and were liberated from Auschwitz in 1945. After the war, they traveled from Jewish home to Jewish home around the Silesian region of central Europe. In late 1945, they were sent to a displaced persons camp in Bad Reichenhall, Germany through arrangements made by the UNRRA. Serafina and Bola stayed in that camp for nearly four years until 1949, when they were sent to the Aschau transit camp. From there, the mother and daughter traveled to Boston, arriving December 1949 aboard the USS General C. H. Muir. As they had no family in the country, Serafina and Bola were sent to Omaha, Nebraska where members of the Jewish community there assisted them in procuring housing and employment. Once settled, Bola finished high school and got a job with Continental Grain Company. In 1952 they decided to move to New York, where Bola kept her job with Continental Grain. Both Serafina and Bola were naturalized in 1955.