Overview
- Description
- Consists of fourteen vintage photographs of the donor and his family before the war in Jablonowo, Poland; after the war in Otwock, Poland and in the Helenowek, Poland, orphanage; and a photographic portrait, circa 1964, of Elisabeth Sonnenberg, the donor's wife.
- Date
-
creation:
1918-1964
- Collection Creator
- Sven Sonnenberg
- Biography
-
Sven Sonnenberg was born in Grudziadz, Poland, on October 17, 1931 to a Jewish father, Martin Sonnenberg, and a non-Jewish, German mother, Louise Theophil. He had a brother and a younger sister, Sylvia, who was born on October 20, 1934. Martin Nathan Sonnenberg was born in 1897 and served in the German Army during World War I. During his military service he was wounded and hospitalized in Königsberg, East Prussia. Louise was his nurse. They married in 1918 despite the dissatisfaction of Martin’s family. Louise and Martin lived in Jablonowo, Poland where the Sonnenberg family business was located. All members of the family worked in the business. Martin worked as an accountant and salesman in the wholesale of grain, lumber and other building materials. His mother, Laura Sonnenberg, and his three brothers, Alfred, Magnus, and Ari, all worked together. The Sonnenberg family spoke German at home. Martin and Louise lived in a small house in the vicinity of the larger house where the rest of the family resided.
In 1939, during the German invasion, the Sonnenberg family escaped Jablonowo towards the Southeast of Poland. Martin was arrested by the advancing German Army and was imprisoned in Brodnica. He was released after a few days, and the family returned to their hometown of Jablonowo. The Germans confiscated the Sonnenberg family’s two houses. At the end of September 1939 the Jews of Jablonowo were transferred to Dzialdowo and after a few weeks, in November 1939, to Plock, Poland. At first they lived in a rented apartment on Krolewska Street, but after the establishment of the ghetto in Plock they were forced to move to Szeroka Street. For the next year and a half the Sonnenbergs lived in Plock. Sven’s mother did not have to stay in the ghetto since she was a non-Jewish German, but she never considered abandoning her husband and children.
During February and March 1941, six transports of Jews from Plock arrived in Radom District. The Sonnenberg family was transferred to the Drzewica ghetto, not far from Opoczno, Poland, in the Radom region. Sven, Sylvia, and his parents found one room in the ghetto. His grandmother and his three uncles were forced to stay in the synagogue with many other displaced Jews. He witnessed the death of his grandmother and his two uncles, Magnus and Alfred, from hunger. His other uncle, Ari, died of typhus. Martin made sure that during the many round-ups for deportations to the Treblinka death camp his family stayed hidden. In the late fall of 1942, during the final liquidation of the ghetto, Martin bribed a Polish policeman so that Louise, Sven, and Sylvia could flee to the nearby forest. Martin promised to join them later, but he never did. They stayed in the forest for a day or two and decided to return to Drzewica. As they walked towards the ghetto it became clear that it had been liquidated. Louise and her two children stayed for a day hoping Martin would appear. Louise found a room in a partially destroyed house, assembled some broken furniture, and settled down with her children while Sven foraged for food in the fields. Louise found a job as a cook in a camp for Polish conscripts of the Organisation Todt. This position assured adequate nutrition and relative safety from persecution. Louise explained to the German officials that her identification documents had been lost and that she was awaiting the issue of new ones.
In early spring 1945 the Red Army liberated the area, but Louise decided to stay in Drzewica to await the return of her husband. After about a month, when only a few of the Jews had returned, Louise, who wanted to leave Poland, took her children to Lódź. The Jewish Committee placed Sven and Sylvia in the Helenowek orphanage and arranged for Louise to work there as a cook. Louise and the children traveled to Jablonowo to recover some of their pre-war property. The house was demolished and everything else had been stolen. After a short while Louise became ill with tuberculosis and was placed in a sanatorium in Otwock, Poland, near Warsaw. She died of heart failure in 1949 and was buried at the Jewish cemetery in Lódź. Sven and Sylvia continued to live in the orphanage until graduation from high school in 1951. Sven was admitted to the Department of Aeronautical Engineering at the Polytechnic in Wroclaw, Poland. After one year he transferred to Warsaw Polytechnic where he graduated in 1957. His sister, Sylvia, was accepted to study in Moscow. Sven married Elisabeth in March 1968, and they left Poland soon after. Sylvia remained in Poland. Sven and Elisabeth settled in North Carolina. Elisabeth died in March 1998.
Physical Details
- Language
- English
- Genre/Form
- Photographs.
- Extent
-
1 folder
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
- Conditions on Use
- Material(s) in this collection may be protected by copyright and/or related rights. You do not require further permission from the Museum to use this material. The user is solely responsible for making a determination as to if and how the material may be used.
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Holder of Originals
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- The collection was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum by Sven Sonnenberg in 2002.
- Record last modified:
- 2023-02-24 14:03:47
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn510334
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Contact Us
Also in Sven Sonnenberg collection
The collection consists of one armband with a blue Star of David worn in the Drzewica ghetto, one yellow badge worn in the Płock ghetto, one coin from the Łódź ghetto, and two photographs.
White armband with a blue embroidered Star of David worn in the Drzewica ghetto
Object
Sven Sonnenberg was forced to wear this armband in the ghetto in Drzewica, Poland. Sven Sonnenberg was born in Grudziadz, Poland, on 17 Oct. 1931 to a Jewish father, Martin Sonnenberg, and a non-Jewish, German mother, Louise Theophil. In Nov. 1939, Sven, his parents, and his younger sister, Sylvia, were deported from Jablonowo, Poland, to the Płock ghetto. When the Płock ghetto was liquidated in 1941, the family was transferred to the Drzewica ghetto. During the liquidation of the Drzewica ghetto in 1942, Louise, Sven, and Sylvia escaped to a nearby forest where Martin was supposed to join them, but he never came. Louise found jobs as a cook first in a Polish conscript camp and then at the Helenówek orphanage. She died in 1949 of tuberculosis, and Sven and his sister were raised at the orphanage. Sven emigrated to the United States in 1968.
Badge
Object
Sven Sonnenberg donor wore the badge on his outer clothing, front and back, in the ghetto in Płock, Poland
Łódź (Litzmannstadt) ghetto scrip, 10 mark coin
Object
10 mark coin issued in the Łódź ghetto in Poland in 1943. Nazi Germany occupied Poland on September 1, 1940; Łódź was renamed Litzmannstadt and annexed to the German Reich. In February, the Germans forcibly relocated the large Jewish population into a sealed ghetto. All currency was confiscated in exchange for Quittungen [receipts] that could be exchanged only in the ghetto. The scrip and tokens were designed by the Judenrat [Jewish Council] and includes traditional Jewish symbols. The Germans closed the ghetto in the summer of 1944 by deporting the residents to concentration camps or killing centers.
Sven Sonnenberg papers
Document
One photograph of Elisabeth Sonnenberg donor's wife dated October 8, 1964, in Warsaw, Poland, and one photograph of Sven and Sylvia Sonnenberg at an orphanage in Helenówek, Poland, circa 1948.