Legacy of the Halperson family

Collection description

Holding institution (official language):: Żydowski Instytut Historyczny im. E. Ringelbluma

Scope and content:: The collection is composed of the Halperson family’s correspondence dated 1939-42 and family photographs. Janina Ludawska, née Halperson, has grouped the letters by date and sender, attaching a brief description to each section. She has also captioned the pictures, including those she took with her while leaving Poland in August 1939, those sent with the letters after World War II and those gathered after the war. She has also attached memoirs of her family to the collection.

- Janina Ludawska’s memoirs of the family: unit 1;

- Photographs of the Halperson and Wundheiler families: unit 2;

- Letters and postcards sent from Warsaw by her parents and her brother and his wife to Janina during her stay in Sweden: units 3-4;

- Letters and postcards sent from Warsaw by her family to Janina in Sweden: unit 5;

- Letters and postcards sent from Warsaw by her schoolmates to Janina in Sweden: unit 6.

Archival history:: The collection was sent to the Jewish Historical Institute (ŻIH) in November 2000 by Janina Ludawska, née Halperson.

Administrative/biographical history:: Dawid Halperson and Luba Halperson, née Kahan, lived in Warsaw at 31 Dzielna Street. The couple had two children, Michał and Janina. Michał (b. 1906) was married in 1933 to Paulina, nee Gurewicz; they had a son, Stefan (b. 1940). The whole family was enclosed in the Warsaw Ghetto. Janina’s parents were murdered in the Treblinka killing centre. Michał was shot dead in the street by a Jewish policeman during the great ghetto ‘liquidation’. Paulina and Stefan hid outside the ghetto limits for a short time; thereafter, forced to return to the ghetto, she killed herself and her child by poisoning.

Janina Halperson (b. 1921) left for Sweden in 1939 to attend a language course. She stayed there throughout the war and eventually returned to Warsaw in 1945. In 1968 she left her home country with her son Tomasz Ludawski (b. 1957), emigrating to Sweden. Tomasz died in 1986 of an illness.

All of Luba Halperson’s brothers and sisters were killed during World War II. Of Dawid Halperson’s family, two nephews who had left Poland before the war survived, along with Irena, the wife of another nephew named Rafał Wundheiler, and their son Stefan. Rafał committed suicide in the Warsaw Ghetto.

Access points: persons/families:: Halperson family; Halperson, Dawid; Halperson, Luba; Halperson, Michał; Ludawska, Janina; Wundheiler family

Finding aids:: A catalogue in Polish is accessible online.

It includes an index of the names of individuals in the photographs in file no. 2.

Author of the description:: Monika Taras; Żydowski Instytut Historyczny im. E. Ringelbluma; 2015