- Description
- Consists of postcards and letters, in Yiddish, written mostly by Josef Fishelov (Fiszelow) near Pinsk, Poland (now Belarus), from 1920-1948. The postcards are colorful and depict Yiddish greetings and artistic scenes, including of emigration. The correspondence, most of which is undated, was sent to his mother and siblings, many of whom immigrated to the United States in the 1920s. Includes several letters written 1939-1941 and two postwar letters, written in 1945 and 1948 by Josef's son, Nachum, who emigrated to Palestine after the war; in these letters, he explains what happened to the Jews of Pinsk.
- Date
-
inclusive:
1920-1948
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Linda Ewall-Krocker and Renee Fisher
- Collection Creator
- Josef Fiszelow
- Biography
-
Josef Fiszelow (Fishelov) was born in 1889 near Pinsk, Poland (now Belarus). He was one of five children born to Nuchem and Chaja Ruchel Fiszelow: Chaim Joseph (1886-1929); Josef (1899-1939); Anna (1891-1972); Pauline (1902-1986); and Benjamin (1907-1994). Most of the family emigrated from eastern Europe prior to World War II. Chaim left first, in 1910, moving to the United States, where he died in 1929. After Chaim arrived in the United States, he brought Anna (Nechumke) and her husband, Yoel Fisher, in 1911, and several years later was able to bring Pauline (Perel) and her husband, Avraham (Albert) Rosenberg. After the death of her husband Nuchem in 1920, Chaja immigrated to the United States with her youngest son, Benjamin in 1923. Josef and his wife, Sura Devorah, and their son, Nuchem Berel (born 1925), remained in Pinsk. Josef and Sura both perished in the Holocaust. Nuchem survived in the Soviet Union and in Germany in concentration camps, immigrating to Palestine after the war.
