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Selma Engel papers

Document | Accession Number: 1999.A.0201

The Selma Engel papers consist of Selma's diary, biographical materials, and photographs. The diary (1943-1944), written while in hiding in German occupied Poland, describes Selma's arrival at the Sobibór concentration camp, the Sobibór uprising and her escape with her husband Chaim, the farming couple who hid them in Plisków, and Chaim and Selma's health issues. Biographical materials include repatriation cards for Selma and Chaim under assumed names, a 1946 letter documenting the deaths of Chaim's family members in the Holocaust, and Chaim's prisoner of war work card. Photographs depict Selma's family members in the Netherlands and Selma and Chaim with their baby in Odessa.

Date
inclusive:  circa 1926-1946
Language
Dutch
Polish
German
French
Genre/Form
Photographs.
Diaries.
Extent
3 folders

About This Document

Document Creator
Selma S. Engel
Biography
Selma Engel (1922-2018) was born Saartje Wijnberg in Groningen, Netherlands, to Samuel Wijnberg and Alida (Nathan) Wijnberg. Her family moved to Zwolle in 1929 and ran a kosher hotel. Selma's father died of natural causes in 1941, one of her brothers survived in hiding in Utrecht, and her mother, two other brothers, and sister-in-law all perished at Auschwitz. Selma avoided deportation to Auschwitz by hiding, but she was eventually arrested, imprisoned, and deported to Sobibór in April 1943 via Vught and Westerbork. At Sobibór she met her future husband, Chaim Engel (1916-2003), who was born in Brudzew, Poland, raised in Łódź, and captured by the Germans while serving in the Polish Army. Selma and Chaim participated in the Sobibór revolt on October 14, 1943, escaped, and hid on a farm in Plisków. They moved to Zwolle after the war, relocated to Israel in 1951, and immigrated to the United States in 1957.
System of Arrangement
The Selma Engel papers are arranged as one series: I. Selma Engel papers, approximately 1926-1946

Keywords and Subjects

Administrative History

Legal Status
Permanent Collection
Provenance
Selma Engel donated the Selma Engel papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1999 and 2007. The accession formerly cataloged as 2007.69 has been incorporated into this collection.
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.
Additional Accession Number
2007.69
Primary Number
1999.A.0201

Rights and Restrictions

Conditions on Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions on Use
No restrictions on use
 
Record last modified: 2020-09-30 08:15:34
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn502258