Metadata: Collection of letters of the Stupaj family
Collection
- Country:
- Poland
- Holding institution:
- The Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute
- Holding institution (official language):
- Żydowski Instytut Historyczny im. Emanuela Ringelbluma
- Postal address:
- Archiwum, Żydowski Instytut Historyczny im. E. Ringelbluma, ul. Tłomackie 3/5, 00-090 Warszawa
- Phone number:
- (+48 22) 827 92 21
- Email:
- secretary@jhi.pl
- Reference number:
- 312/S/370
- Title:
- Collection of letters of the Stupaj family
- Title (official language):
- Kolekcja listów rodziny Stupaj
- Creator/accumulator:
- Stupaj family
- Date(s):
- 1932/1948
- Language:
- Polish
- Yiddish
- English
- Extent:
- 1 archival unit (18 letters) (0.01 linear metre)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection includes the following:
The 9 letters from 1932-1938 from Gostynin, Gąbin and Włocławek are typical family private correspondence, dealing with everyday matters, joys and concerns related to children, financial problems, and health problems. The letters were sent to the USA; those in Polish are addressed to the mother and signed by Gucia with her son, Jakub, Renia, Izia, Rebecca, and Hela. The letter sent from Gabin on 12 August 1938 is addressed to uncle Szlamek; a young girl asks for help with emigration to the United States. Two letters are written on the letterhead of the People's Bank in Gostynin, one on the letterhead of Ch. Bagno, G. Gombiner i S-ka in Gostynin, the rest on ordinary notebook pages.
5 postcards from the period March-June 1941 sent by Gedale Gombiner from the ghetto in Gostynin, Bina Hertman from Krasnystaw, Abram Stupaj from the ghetto in Izbica, Hela and Jakub Stupaj from the Warsaw ghetto; in these cards, they thank the addressee for the parcels sent and ask for more; they also raise the issue of emigration, for which they are applying and have already started arranging formalities at the consulate.
4 postcards from 1945-1948 sent by Jakub Stupaj; the first card from Dr. Jakub Stupaj, MD, written in June 1945, informs Isaac Stupay in New York that only he (the eldest brother Jakub) and Zygmunt (the eldest son of their brother Abram) survived from the whole family; they escaped from the camp in 1942 and went into hiding. It also describes the fate of Jews during the Nazi occupation. In subsequent postcards, he deals with the topic of emigration from Poland. Dr Jakub Stupaj sent the last card to London to to his brother Stanley.
- Archival history:
- The collection was donated to the Jewish Historical Institute Archive on 26 September 2008 by Arthur M. Stupay through the Museum of the History of Polish Jews.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The Stupaj family came from the vicinity of Włocławek. Some of them lived in Gąbin, Gostynin and Włocławek. During the Second World War, part of the family ended up in the Warsaw ghetto. Only Jakub Stupaj, a doctor who lived in Łódź after the war, and Zygmunt, son of their brother Abram, survived from the whole family. We have no further information on the members of the Stupaj family. Arthur Stupay reported 26 people to the list of Holocaust victims created by Yad Vashem. Among them were Rebecca Stupay, née Wasserman (addressee of letters from the 1930s) and her children Jakub Stupaj, Chaja Hela Stupaj (b. 1905).
- Access points: persons/families:
- Gombiner, Gedale
- Hertman, Bina
- System of arrangement:
- The collection is arranged chronologically; the letters are in alphabetical order.
- Finding aids:
- No finding aids exist.
- Yerusha Network member:
- The Taube Department of Jewish Studies of the University of Wrocław
- Author of the description:
- Agnieszka Reszka; The Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute; June 2020
