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Groups portrait of survivors of the Biala ghetto in front of a Yiddish sign that reads, "Biala Ghetto, the first day of Sukkot 1942. Honor to the memory of our martyrs."

Photograph | Photograph Number: 29952
Groups portrait of survivors of the Biala ghetto in front of a Yiddish sign that reads, "Biala Ghetto, the first day of Sukkot 1942. Honor to the memory of our martyrs." Gitta Rosenzweig is in the front row, third from right.

Groups portrait of survivors of the Biala ghetto in front of a Yiddish sign that reads, "Biala Ghetto, the first day of Sukkot 1942. Honor to the memory of our martyrs."

Gitta Rosenzweig is in the front row, third from right.

Date
1945 - 1947
Photo Designation
DISPLACED PERSONS/RETURN TO LIFE -- DP Camps/Postwar Communities -- Poland
Photo Credit
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Gitta Jaqueline Rosenzweig
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About This Photograph

Biography
Gitta Rosenzweig was the younger child of Udes Zagman (b.1904) and Usher Rosenzweig (b.1905). Usher worked as the town clerk in Biala Podlaska. Her brother Izhak (b. 1933) was shot by Nazis in the streets of Biala Podlaska in 1942. Shortly thereafter, in the fall of 1942, the Jews of Biala Podlaska were deported to to a camp in Miedzyrzec Podlaski. During this deportation march, Udes deposited three and a half-year-old Gitta on the side of the road and instructed her to hide behind a tree until the transport passed. She hoped Gitta would be spared by virtue of her blond hair and blue eyes. Gitta was found by a local farmer who kept her for a short time before transferring her to a Catholic orphanage in Shitniki. There, she was given the name Maria Czekanska. During her three years at the orphanage Gitta knew nothing of her Jewish origins. Udes and Usher were both killed in Treblinka. After the war, Ida Rosenstein (later Koper), a family friend, heard that the Rosenzweig child was seen in the orphanage. She decided to bring Gitta out and reunite her with her uncle, David Zajgman in Paris. Ida found her, but the orphanage did not want to release her since she had already been baptized. With great difficulty, Ida succeeded in obtaining her release from the orphanage; she brought Gitta first to Lodz and then put her on a train to Paris.

Keywords and Subjects

Rights and Restrictions

Photo Source
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Provenance: Gitta Jaqueline Rosenzweig
Source Record ID: Collections: 2002.352
 
Record last modified: 2015-04-30 00:00:00
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1108904