Pauline and Joseph Charatan papers

Pauline Charatan (née Margulies, nicknamed Pepa) was born on 13 December 1925 in Busk, Poland (Bus’k, Ukraine) to Eizig (1900-1944) and Szyfra (née Rauvogel, 1904-1944) Margulies. She had three younger sisters: Fanny (1928-1944), Hadassah (1931-1944), and Dora (1931-1944). Pauline’s family were forced into the Busk ghetto in around July 1941. Around 1942, Pauline’s mother sent her to live with a woman on a farm in Gleisdorf, Austria. She went under the false identity of her friend Zofja Aldona Fedorska. She survived the Holocaust in Gleisdorf, but her parents and sisters were killed in Busk on 2 May 1944. Pauline met Joseph Charatan in Germany in 1946. They married in Munich on 23 November 1947. Their son Zygmund (later Edward Zygmund Charatan) was born on 5 March 1949. In September 1949 the family immigrated to the United States and settled in Brooklyn. Their daughter, Debrah was born in 1957.

Joseph Charatan (1921-1996) was born on 10 June 1921 in Lwów, Poland (Lviv, Ukraine) to Leopold and Helen (née Gold, b. 1899) Charatan. He had two siblings: Ludwig (1925-2018) and Clara (b. 1923?-1943). Joseph, Ludwig, and Clara all worked as forced-laborers after the Germans seized control of Lwów from the Russians in 1941. Clara was murdered on 30 March 1943 in a mass killing of Jewish workers from the Lwów ghetto. Shortly after her death, Leopold and Helen went into hiding in a bunker on a nearby farm owned by Stanislaw and Katarzyna Niedziolka. Joseph and Ludwig were deported to the Janowska concentration camp around April 1943 where they continued to work as forced-laborers. They escaped in spring 1943 and joined their parents in hiding. They remained hidden until liberation by the Russian Red Army on 27 July 1944. After liberation Joseph was conscripted into the Red Army. He lost his leg helping rescue someone from a minefield. In 1946 the Charatans left Poland and went to Munich, Germany. Joseph met and married Holocaust survivor Pauline Margulies. Their son Zygmund (later Edward Zygmund Charatan) was born on 5 March 1949. In September 1949 the family immigrated to the United States and settled in Brooklyn. Their daughter, Debrah was born in 1957. Stanislaw and Katarzyna Niedziolka were recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 2000.