Overview
- Description
- The Zyga Butler papers include a diary, correspondence, and photographs as well as academic, claims, employment, immigration, medical, and military records documenting Butler’s family, his military service in the Polish Army (Anders Army) during the war, the loss of his wife and son in the Holocaust, and his immigration to Australia.
Butler composed his diary between 1943 and 1944 in places including Jalawla, Iraq and Bashīt, Palestine while he served in the Anders Army and Ormskirk, Lancashire while he convalesced. It opens with a description of how much he missed his wife and son. He decided to address them in the diary because he was not able to talk to them. He was not yet aware that his wife and son had probably perished at Auschwitz in 1943.
The collection includes correspondence with personal friends and the World Federation of Krakow Jews. Photographs depict Zyga Butler with his son in 1939 and with members of the Ander’s Army during the war. Additional materials include military, medical, employment, academic, and claims records documenting Butler’s service and suffering during the war and immigration records documenting his immigration to Australia. - Date
-
inclusive:
1939-1979
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Elayne Topolski.
- Collection Creator
- Zyga Butler
- Biography
-
Zyga Butler was born Zygfryd Berntein in 1903 in Kraków, Poland to Wilhelm and Gustawa (Herzog) Bernstein. He lived in Lwów (now Lviv, Ukraine), Warsaw, and Katowice. He married Rachela Rozalia Manheimer (1914-1943?), had one son named Roman (1936-1943?), and worked as a Universal Pictures distributor. He fought with the Polish Army during the Soviet invasion in September 1939. He was taken prisoner by the Russians at Lwów and taken to Russia. He served with the Polish Forces under British Command (Anders Army) from April 1942 to April 1947 in Russia, Iran, and Iraq. He was evacuated to England in May 1945, lived in Ormskirk, Lancashire and in Whitchurch, Shropshire, and continued to serve with the Polish Resettlement Corps until April 1949. He changed his last name to Butler in 1967. He never saw his wife or son after September 3, 1939, but he believed that they were deported from Kraków to Auschwitz in 1943, and he was told by a witness that his wife died of typhoid at Auschwitz in October 1943.
Physical Details
- Genre/Form
- Diaries. Photographs.
- Extent
-
13 folders
- System of Arrangement
- The Zyga Butler papers are arranged as a single series.
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--Kraków. Jews--Poland--Katowice. World War, 1939-1945--Participation, Polish. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Personal narratives.
- Geographic Name
- Kraków (Poland) Katowice (Poland) Jalawla (Iraq) Bashīt (Palestine) Ormskirk (England) Australia--Emigration and immigration--History--20th century.
- Personal Name
- Butler, Zyga (1903-?)
- Corporate Name
- Poland. Polskie Siły Zbrojne. Polski Korpus, 2 Anders Army
Administrative Notes
- Holder of Originals
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- Elayne Topolski donated the Zyga Butler papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2016. Topolski was married to Butler’s nephew.
- 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.
- Record last modified:
- 2023-08-24 13:55:04
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn545348
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-
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Also in Zyga Butler collection
The collection consists of documents, photographs, prayerbook, diary, and artifacts illustrating the experience of Zyga Butler.
ID tags
Object
Pair of ID tags for Zygfryd Bernstein, made of pressed board and attached to a length of rope.
British Defense medal with certificate
Object
Round silver medal together with a certificate and the box in which the medal and certificate were shipped to Mr. S. Butler in Victoria, Australia in 1968. The medal has a portrait of King George VI on one side and the dates 1939-1945 and "The Defence Metal" engraved on the other. The certificate indicates that the medal was granted for service during the war of 1939-45 by the Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Army). The medal has an attached bar for use with a ribbon (not included).
British War medal with certificate
Object
Round silver medal together with a certificate. The medal has a portrait of King George VI on one side and the dates 1939-1945 and an image of a lion engraved on the other. The certificate indicates that the medal was granted for service during the war of 1939-45 by the Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Army). The medal has an attached bar for use with a ribbon (not included).
British War medal with certificate
Object
Round silver medal (a) together with a certificate (b) and the box in which the medal was shipped to Mr. Z. Bernstein in Cheshire, UK. The medal has a portrait of King George VI on one side and the dates 1939-1945 and the words "The Defence Medal" engraved on the other. The certificate indicates that the medal was granted for service during the war of 1939-45 by the Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Army). The medal has an attached bar with an orange and green striped length of ribbon.
WWI British War medal
Object
Round silver medal with a portrait of King George V on one side and the dates 1914-1918 and the image of a horse and rider on the other. The medal has an attached bar with an orange and green striped length of ribbon.