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Letter sent to Salomon Itzkowic from his wife Esther
[nb-NO]Object number[nb-NO]M2002/019:006
[nb-NO]Title[nb-NO]Letter sent to Salomon Itzkowic from his wife Esther
[nb-NO]Description[nb-NO]Undated letter to Salomon Itzkowic, an internee in Argelès-sur-Mer Southern France, from his wife Esther in Antwerp. In the letter Esther writes that she has at last received mail from him after a long period of time, she is overjoyed because she constantly fears he is dead. She writes: My dear husband it is very bitter and dark for me. My life is very difficult to manage with three children. God should only help me that you should come. Parts of the letter are difficult to decipher, the translator suspects sections are written in code.
Salomon Itzkowic was born in Wietrzychowice near Tarnow, southern Poland, on 1 March 1901. His mother died when he was young and he was looked after by an older sister. He went to Cheder until his barmitzvah and had no other formal education. Pogroms in the Krakow province in 1919 was possibly the reason he left Poland with his brother Nuta (Nathan) and went to Germany in 1922. In 1928 he married Esther Goldberg (born 21 October 1903 in Czechow, Poland). Nazi Germany pursued an aggressive policy of forced emigration for Jews, and Salomon and Esther and their two sons Achim (born 1929 in Berlin) and Berthold (born 1932 in Berlin) left in July 1938 for Belgium. Esther was pregnant at the time; Arthur was born in Antwerp in 1939.
In May 1940 the Nazis invaded Belgium, Salomon was arrested by Belgian authorities as he was a Jew of German nationality, and taken to a camp at St Cyprien in the south of France. After six months the disease-ridden camp was closed and he was moved to the camp at Argeles-sur-Mer. He was deported leaving Esther was alone with the boys, then aged 11, eight and one. Esther and the three children were deported from Malines to Auschwitz on 10 October 1942. Salomon never met his third child and he never saw his wife and children again.
In August 1942 Salomon escaped from the camp and with the help of a smuggler crossed the Pyrenees into Spain; from Madrid he went to Gibraltar and boarded a ship to England, arriving on 6 May 1943. In April 1946, Salomon made urgent requests to tracing services about the whereabouts of his wife and children, in the hope that they survived. Records indicated that Esther survived Auschwitz and was sent to Flossenburg (arriving 2 December 1944), and was then transferred to Mehltheuer subcamp. After receiving notification from the London Beth Din that he should be regarded as a widower, Salomon married Antonia Pressburger (born Vienna 1921), in St John's Wood Synagogue on 2 June 1946. They had a son, David, and eventually migrated to Australia in November 1948.
When Salomon died in 1981, David found letters in a wallet that his father had received between August and December 1940 from Esther and the boys. He donated them to the Sydney Jewish Museum. Salomon had never told David about Esther and the boys. The letters describe the heart-breaking difficulties Esther had with the children, her loneliness and desperation and details of attempts to arrange Salomon's return, without success.
Salomon Itzkowic was born in Wietrzychowice near Tarnow, southern Poland, on 1 March 1901. His mother died when he was young and he was looked after by an older sister. He went to Cheder until his barmitzvah and had no other formal education. Pogroms in the Krakow province in 1919 was possibly the reason he left Poland with his brother Nuta (Nathan) and went to Germany in 1922. In 1928 he married Esther Goldberg (born 21 October 1903 in Czechow, Poland). Nazi Germany pursued an aggressive policy of forced emigration for Jews, and Salomon and Esther and their two sons Achim (born 1929 in Berlin) and Berthold (born 1932 in Berlin) left in July 1938 for Belgium. Esther was pregnant at the time; Arthur was born in Antwerp in 1939.
In May 1940 the Nazis invaded Belgium, Salomon was arrested by Belgian authorities as he was a Jew of German nationality, and taken to a camp at St Cyprien in the south of France. After six months the disease-ridden camp was closed and he was moved to the camp at Argeles-sur-Mer. He was deported leaving Esther was alone with the boys, then aged 11, eight and one. Esther and the three children were deported from Malines to Auschwitz on 10 October 1942. Salomon never met his third child and he never saw his wife and children again.
In August 1942 Salomon escaped from the camp and with the help of a smuggler crossed the Pyrenees into Spain; from Madrid he went to Gibraltar and boarded a ship to England, arriving on 6 May 1943. In April 1946, Salomon made urgent requests to tracing services about the whereabouts of his wife and children, in the hope that they survived. Records indicated that Esther survived Auschwitz and was sent to Flossenburg (arriving 2 December 1944), and was then transferred to Mehltheuer subcamp. After receiving notification from the London Beth Din that he should be regarded as a widower, Salomon married Antonia Pressburger (born Vienna 1921), in St John's Wood Synagogue on 2 June 1946. They had a son, David, and eventually migrated to Australia in November 1948.
When Salomon died in 1981, David found letters in a wallet that his father had received between August and December 1940 from Esther and the boys. He donated them to the Sydney Jewish Museum. Salomon had never told David about Esther and the boys. The letters describe the heart-breaking difficulties Esther had with the children, her loneliness and desperation and details of attempts to arrange Salomon's return, without success.
[nb-NO]Date[nb-NO] circa 1940
[nb-NO]Subject[nb-NO]signs of life, desperation, psychological effects, internment camps, coded message
[nb-NO]Object name[nb-NO]letters
[nb-NO]Material[nb-NO]paper
[nb-NO]Dimensions[nb-NO]
- whole width: 160.00 mm
height: 180.00 mm
[nb-NO]Language[nb-NO]
[nb-NO]Credit line[nb-NO]Sydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by David Itzkowic, 2002. This collection is donated in memory of Anny and Salomon Itzkowic.