Unique collection of identity papers, documents, and permits shedding light on the biography of Sala Helzel, a Jewish woman who escaped from the Krakow Ghetto in 1942, and managed to keep her Jewish origins secret and survive the Second World War under the fictitious name Ludwika Halska. The documents in the collection represent two periods: Papers and documents from the war years, under the fictitious name; and documents issued in the postwar years, after Sala had gone back to using her real name. Poland and Austria, early to mid-1940s. German, Polish, and English.
The collection recounts the story of the survival of Sala Helzel through the Holocaust years. Sala was born in 1923 in the Polish village of Rzepiennik, and following the fall of Poland in 1940, she was deported with her family to the Krakow Ghetto. She somehow managed to escape the Ghetto in 1942, and acquire official papers, certified with the inked stamps of the German authorities. These papers testified to the veracity of her fabricated identity, namely a Polish woman born in Krakow by the name of Ludwika Halska. With the help of these documents, she lived in Warsaw and worked as an X-ray lab technician until 1943. That year, she was drafted into a company of Polish forced-labor workers, and deported to Austria where she apparently worked as a cleaning woman in hospitals in the vicinity of Feldkirch. In 1945, she was liberated by Free French forces. It appears she subsequently immigrated to the United States, and from there to Israel.
Papers and documents issued to Helzel under her assumed identity as Ludwika Halska, including: • Kennkarte – an official identity document issued in territories occupied by Nazi Germany (document is gray, the color reserved for Poles). 1942. • An identity card for "Nichtdeutsche Verwaltungsdienst Angehörige" (Non-German Public Servants), giving her position as "laborantin" (lab technician). Warsaw, 1943. • An order issued by the Generalgouvernement (German occupation authorities governing Poland) in Krakow, Labor Division, to appear for deportation to Austrian territory for forced labor. • Cloth badge worn by Polish forced-labor workers ("Zivilarbeiter"), with the letter "P" in the middle. • Residence permit for the Austrian town of Kufstein (apartment shared with three flatmates), with detailed quota allotment of foodstuffs: sugar, potatoes, jam, eggs, fresh milk, and soap. 1943. • Additional items.
Papers and documents issued to Helzel after the war, including: • Identity document issued by the Austrian Republic, with Sala's photo. 1946. • Form, issued by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), filled-in, with personal details pertaining to Sala’s life during the war. 1946. • UNRRA Certificate of Temporary Residence Pending Repatriation, in transit camp (probably Displaced Persons' Camp) in Kleinmünchen (Linz), 1946. • Temporary identity certificate issued by the Polish (government's) Mission of Repatriation in Austria, 1946. • Additional items.
About 25 items. Size and condition vary. Overall good condition.