Object numberM2020/003:005
DescriptionHousing rental agreement for an apartment in Krakow leased by Hermina Silberfeld under the false identity of Jadwiga Jarzemiszewska in May 1942.
Hermina Silberfeld was born to Polish Jews Nathan and Anna (nee Hollander) on 27 November 1914 in Miskolc, Hungary. In 1918, the family returned to their home in the small town of Stary Sacz, Poland. Hermina attended a reputable convent school, which gave her a knowledge of German and Catholicism that was particularly helpful for Hermina’s survival during the Holocaust.
In September 1939, Hermina, her parents and other relatives fled east by horse and cart. The Germans were bombarding Poland as they travelled and Hermina remembered hiding in ditches as the planes flew overhead. Halfway through their journey they managed to board a train, but during the trip Hermina was injured in the head by shrapnel from a German attack. They sheltered in the Ukrainian town of Drohobych while Hermina recovered and then moved on to Tarnopol. After several months there, Hermina went alone to join her brother Isidor in Lvov, where he had secured her a job as a bookkeeper. Sometime after she left, her parents were transported to Siberia by the Soviet regime.
In 1942, Hermina attained false identification papers of a Polish-Catholic woman, Jadwiga Eleonora Jarzemiszewska. As Jadwiga she was able to find new accommodation and work, and at the end of 1942, move to Krakow to better safeguard her secret. She was questioned by Gestapo officials and at one stage held in a Jewish prison as a suspected Jew, but released after a week. In 1943 she moved to Warsaw and then to Budapest, where she was until liberation.
After the war she kept the name Jadwiga and got work in Bucharest typing the testimonies of concentration camp survivors for the Association of Polish Jewish Refugees. She found out her father had died of hunger and disease, but her mother and brother survived. She was reunited with them in Poland. She lived in Katowice, Poland, with her husband Jan Sapera who she met and married in 1946. Jan was also a survivor, having been in a POW camp, a work camp in Biala Podlaska and the Lodz Ghetto. They immigrated to Australia in 1958 with their three children. In the last decade of her life she re-adopted her Jewish name Hermina.
Hermina Silberfeld was born to Polish Jews Nathan and Anna (nee Hollander) on 27 November 1914 in Miskolc, Hungary. In 1918, the family returned to their home in the small town of Stary Sacz, Poland. Hermina attended a reputable convent school, which gave her a knowledge of German and Catholicism that was particularly helpful for Hermina’s survival during the Holocaust.
In September 1939, Hermina, her parents and other relatives fled east by horse and cart. The Germans were bombarding Poland as they travelled and Hermina remembered hiding in ditches as the planes flew overhead. Halfway through their journey they managed to board a train, but during the trip Hermina was injured in the head by shrapnel from a German attack. They sheltered in the Ukrainian town of Drohobych while Hermina recovered and then moved on to Tarnopol. After several months there, Hermina went alone to join her brother Isidor in Lvov, where he had secured her a job as a bookkeeper. Sometime after she left, her parents were transported to Siberia by the Soviet regime.
In 1942, Hermina attained false identification papers of a Polish-Catholic woman, Jadwiga Eleonora Jarzemiszewska. As Jadwiga she was able to find new accommodation and work, and at the end of 1942, move to Krakow to better safeguard her secret. She was questioned by Gestapo officials and at one stage held in a Jewish prison as a suspected Jew, but released after a week. In 1943 she moved to Warsaw and then to Budapest, where she was until liberation.
After the war she kept the name Jadwiga and got work in Bucharest typing the testimonies of concentration camp survivors for the Association of Polish Jewish Refugees. She found out her father had died of hunger and disease, but her mother and brother survived. She was reunited with them in Poland. She lived in Katowice, Poland, with her husband Jan Sapera who she met and married in 1946. Jan was also a survivor, having been in a POW camp, a work camp in Biala Podlaska and the Lodz Ghetto. They immigrated to Australia in 1958 with their three children. In the last decade of her life she re-adopted her Jewish name Hermina.
Production placeKraków, Poland
Production date 1942-04-29 - 1942-05-01
Subject, survivors
Object namelegal documents
Materialpaper
Dimensions
- width: 210.00 mm
height: 299.00 mm
Language
- German
Polish To the head of the department of housing - City of Krakow ... Request approval of their verbal agreement for rental of a furnished three room apartment at ... no 3, Level 2, I. An amount of 40zl was agreed as a monthly rental fee. A further amount of (?) is agreed for incidental costs. Krakow, 28 April 1942 Signatures Decision by the Apartment of Housing The verbally agreed rental arrangement is approved. Termination of the rental without prior approval of the Department of Housing is not permitted. The Department of Housing may terminate the rental agreement at any time. Termination of the main rental agreement will automatically terminate this sub-rental agreement. Krakow, 1 May 1942 Signature and seal of the Head of the Deparment of Housing
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Tessa Boucher