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Eve Przemyski papers

Document | Accession Number: 2010.459.1

The Eve Przemyski papers include biographical materials, a handcrafted clandestine diary, and photographs documenting Eve’s prewar life in Równe, Poland (now Rivne, Ukraine), her internment in prisoner of war camps at Sandbostel and Oberlangen following the Warsaw Uprising, her service in the Polish armed forces at the end of the war, and her relocation to England and immigration to the United States with her husband, Richard Przemyski, after the war. Her handmade diary includes rich descriptions and illustrations documenting her internment in two POW camps in 1944 and 1945.

Date
inclusive:  circa 1925-1964
Language
Polish
German
English
Ukrainian
Genre/Form
Diaries.
Photographs.
Extent
7 folders
Credit Line
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Eve Przemyski

About This Document

Document Creator
Eve Przemyski
Biography
Eve Przemyski (Ewa Łada) was born in 1923 in Warsaw, Poland to lawyer and civil servant Tadeusz Łada (1877-1941?) and Maria Horoch Łada (1887-1967). Following Tadeusz’s retirement, the family lived on a working farm in Sosenski, Poland, near Równe (now Rivne, Ukraine). Eve and Maria moved to Równe following the Soviet invasion of eastern Poland in September 1939, and Tadeusz rejoined them in June 1941, after the German invasion of the Soviet Union. He was arrested in August 1941 for illegally listening to the BBC news and is presumed to have been executed.

Maria and Eve moved to Warsaw in May 1944 and lived with Eve’s maternal uncle, Jozef Horoch, at 12 Mokotowska Street. When the Warsaw Uprising began in August 1944, Eve joined the Armia Krajowa (Home Army), became a stretcher bearer, and met Danuta Szeniawska (1922-2007). The Polish forces capitulated in October, and Eve and Danuta were among 1,000 Polish young women insurgents taken to the Sandbostel POW camp (Stalag X-B). Eve worked cleaning offices and fashioned a handmade diary from German payroll documents and pencil stubs she pilfered. She and Danuta were transferred to the Oberlangen POW camp (Stalag VI-C) in December 1944, where Eve worked digging peat moss. They were liberated by Polish troops in the First Armored Division of the British Army in April 1945 and moved to nearby Niederlangen. When the British authorities announced that they would permit family unifications with Polish soldiers serving with the Polish Second Corps (Anders’ Army) in Italy, Danuta decided to join her step father, Captain Rozwidzki, and Eve accompanied her, having invented an uncle in Italy. Eve took a Morse typing course in Mottola and worked as a Morse code telegraph operator for the British Army.

Eve moved to Rome and met her future husband, Ryszard Przemyski (1924-1999). Richard had also fought in the Warsaw Uprising, survived the Luckenwalde POW camp (Stalag III-A), and joined the Polish Second Corps in Italy. The young couple was transferred to England, married in 1946, settled in Herefordshire, and had two children. In 1956 a distant relative in America arranged for the Przemyski family to immigrate to the United States, and they settled in Pennsylvania and Americanized their names to Eve and Richard.
System of Arrangement
The Eve Przemyski papers are arranged as three series: I. Biographical materials, 1927-1964, II. Diary, 1944-1945, III. Photographs, approximately 1925-1956

Keywords and Subjects

Administrative History

Legal Status
Permanent Collection
Provenance
Eve Przemyski donated the Eve Przemyski papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2010.
Funding Note
The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
The accessibility of this collection was made possible by the generous donors to our crowdfunded Save Their Stories campaign.

Rights and Restrictions

Conditions on Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions on Use
No restrictions on use
 
Record last modified: 2020-04-21 19:02:24
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn43008

Also in Eve and Richard Przemyski collection

The collection consists of an armband, documents, photographs, and publications relating to the experiences of Ewa Lada (Eve Przemyski) in Poland and prisoner of war camps in Germany during the Holocaust, and in Italy and England after the Holocaust, of Richard Przemyski in Poland and a prisoner of war camp in Germany during the Holocaust and England and the US after the Holocaust, and of Maria Lada and friends in Poland before and after the Holocaust.

Polish Home Army commemorative armband issued to veteran of Warsaw Insurrection

Polish Home Army commemorative armband issued to veteran of Warsaw Insurrection

Object

Red and white armband commemorating the Warsaw Insurrection issued to Ryszard Przemyski, a member of the underground resistance group, Armia Krajowa [Home Army], known as A.K. The armband has his group number VII, pseudonym Ruczaj, A.K., and the date. The Warsaw Rising or Insurrection, August 1-October 5, 1944, was the attempt by the Polish Home Army to retake Warsaw from the German occupying forces. They retook much of the city, but without the promised aid from Western Allies or the Soviet Union, whose forces were within sight of the city, the resistance was crushed. The Germans massacred or deported the populace and Hitler ordered the city burnt to the ground. Ryszard was a 15 year old high school student when Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. He was captured during the Warsaw Uprising in fall 1944 and sent to Stalag III-A prisoner of war camp in Luckenwalde, Germany. On April 22, 1945, Soviet troops liberated the camp and Ryszard joined the 2nd Polish Corps, a division of the British Army, in Italy. He met fellow A.K. member Ewa Lada in Rome. The war ended in May, and the couple moved to Camp Foxley, a displaced persons camp in England.

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