Portrait of the Korn and Mendler families in Nowy Targ, Poland.
Overview
- Caption
- Portrait of the Korn and Mendler families in Nowy Targ, Poland.
- Date
-
Circa 1937
- Locale
- Nowy Targ, [Krakow] Poland
- Variant Locale
- Neumarkt
- Photo Credit
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Robert Mendler
Rights & Restrictions
- Photo Source
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial MuseumProvenance: Robert MendlerSource Record ID: Collections: 2004.368
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Biography
- Robert Mendler (born Romek Reibeisen) is the son of Mundek Reibeisen and Hermina Mendler Reibeisen. He was born on July 6, 1925 in Nowy Targ in southern Poland near the Czech border. There his father owned a candy factory, and his mother worked in a soda water factory. He had two siblings Gienek (b. 4/22) and Henia (b. 6/28). In 1940, the first summer following the German invasion, Romek was sent to work in a stone quarry in Zakopane. He then did forced labor in Nowy Targ from 1940 to 1941 building highways and working in lumberyards. The following year, he was assigned work in a lumberyard in Czarny Dunajec. He traveled there daily by train while continuing to live in Nowy Tarny. However, on August 30, 1942 he was forced to leave home and live in Czarny Dunajec, which officially became a concentration camp. He stayed there for about nine months before being sent to Plaszow where he worked for several months building barracks for the camp. In 1943, Romek was assigned work in a steel factory in Ostrowiec for a few months and then was deported to Auschwitz. After first spending nine months in Birkenau, Romek worked in Buna-Monowitz. As the Soviets approached he went on a death march to Gleiwitz, Germany, and then was taken on a ten-day transport to Sachsenhausen. He worked briefly there in an airplane factory. From there he worked at a munitions factory in Oranienburg and a stone quarry in Flossenbuerg. On April 1, 1945 he came to Pocking before managing to escape under cover of American fire on April 28. He and three friends hid in a nearby farm until their liberation by a Jewish American serviceman, Bernie Schulman, on May 2, 1945. No other members of Romek's immediate family survived. Following liberation, Romek remained in Germany for four years until his uncle, Emil Mendler, sponsored his immigration to the United States. Romek left Germany from Bremerhaven on April 25, 1949 on board the SS Marine Jumper and arrived in Boston on May 5, 1949.
- Record last modified:
- 2008-08-11 00:00:00
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1129504
