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Members of the Taca and Berkowicz families pose outside a farm house where they stayed while on vacation.

Photograph | Photograph Number: 42575
Members of the Taca and Berkowicz families pose outside a farm house where they stayed while on vacation. Pictured in the front row from left to right are: Bina Berkowicz, Basia Berkowicz, Szmul Taca, Ela Taca, and Basia Chudy. In the back row are: Natan Taca, farmer's wife, Mania Taca, Fela Taca and Chaim Ber Berkowicz.

Members of the Taca and Berkowicz families pose outside a farm house where they stayed while on vacation.

Pictured in the front row from left to right are: Bina Berkowicz, Basia Berkowicz, Szmul Taca, Ela Taca, and Basia Chudy. In the back row are: Natan Taca, farmer's wife, Mania Taca, Fela Taca and Chaim Ber Berkowicz.

Date
1936
Locale
Poland
Photo Designation
LIFE BEFORE THE HOLOCAUST -- Poland -- Family/Friends/Portraits -- Vacations/Outings
Photo Credit
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Barbara Berkowicz Soloway

About This Photograph

Biography
Barbara Soloway (born Basia Berkowicz) is the daughter of Chaim Ber and Bina (Taca) Berkowicz. Basia was born December 2, 1930 in Sierpc, Poland, but grew up in Warsaw, where her father was joint owner (with his five brothers) of a fish-canning factory. The family belonged to the Jewish socialist Bund, and Basia attended the Kalecka Jewish school for girls. In the spring of 1939, Chaim, fearing a German invasion of Poland, obtained a merchant's visa to attend the New York World's Fair. He also got tourist visas for his wife and daughter. Since he was of military age, Chaim was required by law to purchase return tickets and leave his Warsaw apartment intact. On June 7, 1939 the Berkowicz' sailed for New York from the port of Gdynia on the SS Pilsudski, arriving on June 16. They did not return to Poland. Four of Chaim's brothers succeeded in leaving Poland by way of Lithuania, after securing Sugihara transit visas to Japan. From Japan they sailed to New Zealand, and in 1943, reached the United States. Bina's father and sisters perished in the Warsaw ghetto, and her brother was killed in Slonim.

Keywords and Subjects

Rights and Restrictions

Photo Source
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Provenance: Barbara Berkowicz Soloway
 
Record last modified: 2001-08-20 00:00:00
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1129432