Berkowicz family collection

Eugenie Woijintal was born in 1909 in Poland. In 1936, she married Joseph Berkowicz, a former soldier of the Polish Army. The couple had one child that same year, named Rita. Joseph owned and managed a canning company in Warsaw, Poland, named Fabryka Konserw “Original.” His business exported pickles to the United States and shipped canned fish, tomatoes, pickles, and sauerkraut throughout Poland. Prior to the German invasion in 1939, he acquired a U.S. passport and left for the United States, taking advice that he should flee Eastern Europe. Meanwhile, Gene and Rita stayed behind in Warsaw, and Gene began working at the Tebens factory. In 1942, while away at work, Rita and other neighborhood children were playing in the yard when they were taken by German officers and sent to Treblinka. Rita would not survive her imprisonment. In 1943, Gene left the factory and remained hidden in a house with other Jews. When communities began evacuating children and the elderly to farms in the outlying area, she went along with them and worked on a farm until the end of the war. She was able to send telegrams to Joseph, and moved to Italy in November, 1945 with her brother. Joseph acquired the appropriate papers to bring Gene over, and she arrived in the United States in June, 1946.