Korman and Maizel families collection

Szlama Maizels (later Samuel, 1916-1958) was born in Krasnik, Poland, to Ezril and Fajga (nee Halpern) Majzels. In September 1939, in accordance with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Germany invaded western Poland while the Soviet army annexed eastern Poland. German forces occupied Kraśnik on September 15. In December, a 12-member Jewish council was established in Krasnik, and over 1,000 Jewish refugees joined the 5,000 Jews already living in the city. On August 26, 1940, Szlama married Runia Korman (1918-1985), who was also born in Krasnik.

In 1941, Germany began preparing for an invasion of the Soviet Union, concentrating troops in Kraśnik and expelling a portion of the Jewish population. Runia was forcibly transported from Krasnik to the city of Lublin on February 9, 1941. She was then transferred to Majdanek concentration camp after it was constructed in the suburbs of Lublin that fall. She was assigned the number 20250 and worked as a forced laborer in the camp. Less than four miles from Kraśnik, German authorities established a military-industrial center at Budzyń, utilizing Jewish forced labor. Several members of Runia and Szlama’s families were imprisoned there and died around November 1942.

During the war, Szlama was imprisoned for a time in Gross Rosen concentration camp, where he was assigned prisoner number 69257. Although he was a furrier by trade, he was assigned to work as a journeyman butcher. On October 21, 1944, Szlama was one of 700 men transferred to the Brünnlitz subcamp to work at Oskar Schindler’s arms factory in German-occupied Czechoslovakia. Schindler was a German businessman who ran an enamelware and armament factory. He utilized about 900 Jewish forced laborers, protecting them from deportation. Schindler kept German camp personnel out of the camp and did his best to feed the inmates. After arriving at Brünnlitz, the prisoners had to install machinery in the ammunitions factory so production could begin in early 1945. Although food rations and living conditions were still poor, prisoners did not suffer from the same level of brutality and terror prisoners were subjected to at other camps. Additionally, the local population supplied the prisoners with some extra food rations when they could.

Schindler left the camp on May 7, 1945, the day Germany surrendered. On his way out, the prisoners gave Schindler a travel affidavit, attesting to his goodwill towards them. Soviet troops entered the camp on May 10.

After the war, Szlama reunited with his wife, Runia, who had been liberated at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany. The couple relocated to Hamburg, where their daughter, Noma, was born on March 8, 1947. On December 9, 1950, they left the Wentorf emigration camp and sailed for the United States on December 17. They settled in Baltimore, Maryland, where they changed their last name to Maizels, Szlama changed his name to Samuel, and had another daughter, Frances.