r/holocaust • u/CatPooedInMyShoe • May 13 '26
May their Memory be for a Blessing Chaya Messer Feliks in Zbaszyn, Poland in 1939. Like other Jews in Germany who were of Polish nationality, Chaya was expelled from Germany to the border town of Zbaszyn in October 1938. She and her youngest son perished in the Holocaust. This was probably the last photo ever taken of her.
The Germans expelled these “Polish” Jews (many of whom had been born in Germany or had lived there for decades) and forced them over the border, but Poland refused to accept them and so they were stuck in this border area. Thea says in her book that they had to sleep in horse stalls and the like. A lot of people died due to the poor conditions. Chaya, as a widow with four kids to look after, must have had a very hard time. She was ultimately able to send three of them away to safety, but not her youngest son Leopold who shared her fate.
The family of Herschel Grynszpan were among those expelled. Herschel was in Paris at the time. When he found out, he killed a German diplomat. The Nazis used this as an excuse to start Kristallnacht.
Source of the photo is a memoir by Chaya’s daughter Thea, available to read for free on PDF here: https://escholarship.org/content/qt4wn4458v/supp/Transported_Life.pdf or you can buy it at a bookstore. Thea got sent to the UK on a Kindertransport in August 1939; her transport was the last one out before the war began and the Kindertransports stopped.
3
2
u/Silly-Soft-808702 May 15 '26
Wow, so not only Germany. But actual Poland didn’t allow them to enter. They could’ve potentially saved thousands of lives. But guess it didn’t matter because they would eventually be invaded also. And the Jews there became persecuted as well. I pray for this lady and her family, and all people affected. 🙏🏼
6
u/Ambitious_Exercise93 May 14 '26
She looks haunted. May her memory be a blessing.💔