Overview
- Description
- The collection consists of pre-war photographs of Bracha Plotnik with family and friends in Bedzin, Poland, several wartime photographs, and postwar photographs from various displaced persons camps including the Weiden and Beyruth DP camps.
- Date
-
inclusive:
1931-1947
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Bracha Plotnik
- Collection Creator
- Bracha Plotnik
- Biography
-
Bracha Plotnik (born Bracha Chmielnicka, 1920-2003) was born on April 2, 1920, in Będzin, Poland to Dov Aleksander Chmielnicki and Ester Fajner Chmielnicka. She had three siblings: Ada (b. 1921), Szymon (b. 1923), and Różka (b. 1925). The family continued to live in their apartment on 41 Kołła̜taja Street in Będzin for the first two and a half years of World War II. In May 1941 they were forced into the Będzin ghetto in Poland, and settled on Landerweg (Długa) Street. From 1940 to August 1943, Bracha took part in the kibbutz hachshara "Farma" established on a piece of land between Kamionka and Środula, Poland. In August 1943, during the liquidation of the ghetto, Bracha was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. She was imprisoned there until the evacuation of Auschwitz on January 17, 1945 when she was transferred to a series of concentration and labor camps including Gross-Rosen, Ravensbrück, Malchow, Leipzig, Dresden, and Görlitz. Bracha was 25 years old when she was liberated by American troops on April 26, 1945. Soon after her liberation, Bracha was sent by a Zionist youth movement to Warsaw, Poland, to organize an evacuation of Jewish children from the Świe̮tego Jezusa orphanage. Along with Yehuda Szulman, a representative from Palestine, Bracha accompanied almost one thousand orphans to Palestine. In April 1946, they sailed aboard the SS Champollion from Marseilles, France. Bracha settled in Kibbutz Mishmar Hasharon. Her sister, Ada Blacharz, the only other surviving member of the Chmielnicki family, also settled in Israel.
Physical Details
- Genre/Form
- New Year cards. 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
- Topical Term
- Jews--Poland--Będzin. Ethnic neighborhoods--Poland--Będzin--1940-1950. Refugees--Germany--1940-1950. Refugee camps--Germany. Collective farms--Poland--1940-1950.
- Personal Name
- Plotnik, Bracha. Szapiro, Malka Gutensztajn. Belfer, Meir. Lajchtman, Iza. Krzesiwo, Motek. Zimmerman, Szlamek. Teler, Adela Fajner. Fajner, Izidor. Fajner, Sala. Feldberg, Mosze. Szlezyngier, Szlamek. Urbeitel, Mosze. Szapiro, Lusia. Meryn, Halinka. Luksenburg, William, 1923- Luksenburg, Helen. Elek, Szymon. Blacharz, Kalman.
Administrative Notes
- Holder of Originals
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- Bracha Plotnik donated the collection to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1999.
- Record last modified:
- 2023-09-12 13:09:42
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn516972
Download & Licensing
- In Copyright - Use Permitted
- Terms of Use
- This record is not digitized and cannot be downloaded online.
In-Person Research
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-
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