Object numberM2013/035:032
DescriptionA French document dated the 24th February 1947. This letter requests the voluntary departure of Laura Pocher from her employment from the Labour Inspector. The back of the document shows that the letter was also used as an envelope. Another document in this collection [M2013/035:015] dated the 27th February 1947 confirms that Laura was voluntarily leaving her position at French fashion house, Le Grande Maison de Blanc.
Part of a collection of documents, including a 'P' badge, Arbeitskarte (Workers Card), letters, photographs and compensation claims donated by Roberta Freedman (daughter), that tells the story of her mother's escape from a ghetto, survival using false papers under the assumed name of Janina Senczuk, and work as a Polish forced labourer in Germany.
Laura Pocher (nee Wachs) was born in Lvov, Poland, in 1916. She lived with her parents, Mayer and Rebecca Wachs; she had two older brothers, Henri and Oscar, and two older sisters, Dorothy and Anna. Her brothers migrated to South Africa in their late teens to live with maternal relatives. Her father died in 1935.
After completing school, Laura participated in Hachshara, a Zionist agricultural training program, preparing youth to immigrate to Palestine, where she met Maurice Pocher, a dental technician. They married on 20 September 1940. On 23 March 1942 there was a raid on Jewish homes. Her mother was taken away by the Gestapo, never to be seen again, together with her sisters and their families. Laura escaped to a Polish friend's house where she was hidden for 10 days. She managed to obtain a birth certificate on the black market that belonged to a Catholic woman named Janina Senczuk. In August 1942, she again had to hide during a mass raid on Jews - in a cellar of a demolished house at night and in the daytime in the woods. On 7 September she was incarcerated with her husband in the Lvov ghetto.
On the eve of 25 November 1942, she escaped from the ghetto with money from her husband and with the help of a Polish friend of her fathers. He helped her to get a train to Krakow, and from there to Warsaw where she got a job as a seamstress with a company, Industrie Betrieb - Karol Szmidt, from the end of 1942 to May 1943. In a May 1943 street raid, she was caught and sent to do compulsory labour in Germany along with other Polish workers, working "as a kitchen maid and farm hand, from 5am to 11pm". She had to scrub floors and attend to the pigs and poultry, remaining on the farm until liberation.
Following liberation, with the help of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), she went to a DP camp in Bregenz, Austria. She struggled to reclaim her true identity, eventually having to obtain a certificate from the chief Rabbi in Austria to confirm her identity as Laura Pocher. She heard from a dentist who used to work with her husband that Maurice had died in the ghetto, most likely due to typhoid. Hoping this was not true, Laura tried to trace him through the Red Cross, but in vain.
From Bregenz, she went to Strassburg, France, and from there to Paris where she found work at a fashion house, working from September 1946 to February 1947, earning money for her trip to South Africa; to join her brothers whom she had located through the Red Cross.
She arrived in South Africa on 31 March 1947. She married a homosexual friend in June 1949, to obtain citizenship; the marriage ended in divorce in December 1950. Laura then met Morris Freedman, born 11 November 1908 to Russian parents Jacob and Henrietta Freedman, who had settled in London and had a 'schmatte' business. Morris was enlisted in the British army during the war in the Sinai, and then emigrated to South Africa. They married 27 September 1951 and had two children, Michael and Roberta. In 1960 the Freedman's began applying for positions in Australia; he arrived in 1960 and Laura and children arrived in April 1961 on the Dominion Monarch.
Part of a collection of documents, including a 'P' badge, Arbeitskarte (Workers Card), letters, photographs and compensation claims donated by Roberta Freedman (daughter), that tells the story of her mother's escape from a ghetto, survival using false papers under the assumed name of Janina Senczuk, and work as a Polish forced labourer in Germany.
Laura Pocher (nee Wachs) was born in Lvov, Poland, in 1916. She lived with her parents, Mayer and Rebecca Wachs; she had two older brothers, Henri and Oscar, and two older sisters, Dorothy and Anna. Her brothers migrated to South Africa in their late teens to live with maternal relatives. Her father died in 1935.
After completing school, Laura participated in Hachshara, a Zionist agricultural training program, preparing youth to immigrate to Palestine, where she met Maurice Pocher, a dental technician. They married on 20 September 1940. On 23 March 1942 there was a raid on Jewish homes. Her mother was taken away by the Gestapo, never to be seen again, together with her sisters and their families. Laura escaped to a Polish friend's house where she was hidden for 10 days. She managed to obtain a birth certificate on the black market that belonged to a Catholic woman named Janina Senczuk. In August 1942, she again had to hide during a mass raid on Jews - in a cellar of a demolished house at night and in the daytime in the woods. On 7 September she was incarcerated with her husband in the Lvov ghetto.
On the eve of 25 November 1942, she escaped from the ghetto with money from her husband and with the help of a Polish friend of her fathers. He helped her to get a train to Krakow, and from there to Warsaw where she got a job as a seamstress with a company, Industrie Betrieb - Karol Szmidt, from the end of 1942 to May 1943. In a May 1943 street raid, she was caught and sent to do compulsory labour in Germany along with other Polish workers, working "as a kitchen maid and farm hand, from 5am to 11pm". She had to scrub floors and attend to the pigs and poultry, remaining on the farm until liberation.
Following liberation, with the help of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), she went to a DP camp in Bregenz, Austria. She struggled to reclaim her true identity, eventually having to obtain a certificate from the chief Rabbi in Austria to confirm her identity as Laura Pocher. She heard from a dentist who used to work with her husband that Maurice had died in the ghetto, most likely due to typhoid. Hoping this was not true, Laura tried to trace him through the Red Cross, but in vain.
From Bregenz, she went to Strassburg, France, and from there to Paris where she found work at a fashion house, working from September 1946 to February 1947, earning money for her trip to South Africa; to join her brothers whom she had located through the Red Cross.
She arrived in South Africa on 31 March 1947. She married a homosexual friend in June 1949, to obtain citizenship; the marriage ended in divorce in December 1950. Laura then met Morris Freedman, born 11 November 1908 to Russian parents Jacob and Henrietta Freedman, who had settled in London and had a 'schmatte' business. Morris was enlisted in the British army during the war in the Sinai, and then emigrated to South Africa. They married 27 September 1951 and had two children, Michael and Roberta. In 1960 the Freedman's began applying for positions in Australia; he arrived in 1960 and Laura and children arrived in April 1961 on the Dominion Monarch.
Production placeParis, France
Production date 1947-02-24
Subjectlabourers, working conditions, employment
Object nameofficial correspondence
Materialpaper
Dimensions
- width: 134.00 mm
height: 207.00 mm
Language
- French Divisional Labor Inspection Paris, 24.2.47
Paris Madam Pocher
Labor Inspector
To the Director
Director,
The 24-2-47 you addressed a request (for voluntary departure:
Madam Pocher
24 - me Condorcet (9e)
employee of your institution.
In reply I have the honor to let you know that the dismissal was granted
Please accept this decision.
Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration.
Labor Inspector
Original
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Mrs Roberta Freedman