PESYE
ZALTSMAN-FRENKEL (PAULA
FRANKEL-ZALTZMAN) (b. February 23, 1916)
She was born in Dvinsk (Daugavpils), Latvia.
She received a Jewish and a secular education. She later became a bookkeeper. After the Germans under Hitler occupied
Latvia in 1941, she was confined in the Dvinsk and the Riga ghettos, from which
she was deported in 1944 to the Stutthof death camp. By a fortunate turn of events, she was sent
from there to work in a factory in Thorn (Toruń), where she survived until
liberation in 1945. She remained in
Germany until 1947 and then moved to Canada.
From 1953 to 1957, she lived in Israel.
In 1946 she began writing her memoirs from the ghetto years, which
appeared in book form under the title Heftling
numer 94771, iberlebenishn in daytshe lagern (Prisoner number 94771,
experiences in German camps) (Montreal, 1949), 175 pp., with an introduction by
Melekh Ravitsh. Aside from historical
documentation, this book also has a literary value thanks to the unmediated descriptions
full of numerous impressions of the tragic events, and—as noted by M. Ravitsh—it
is a voice in the Jewish chorus that accuses the world for the suffering of the
Jewish people. She was last living in
Mexico City.
Sources:
M. Ravitsh, introduction to Heftling
numer 94771 (Montreal, 1949) pp. 3-4; Y. Bashevis, in Forverts (New York) (January 5, 1950); Y. Yonasovitsh, in Unzer veg (Munich) (April 14, 1950); Di naye tsayt (Buenos Aires) 234 (1953);
M. Elkin, in Yorbukh (Annual) (New
York, 1950/1951), p. 76.
Paula Frenkel Zalzman was my great aunt. She lived with my grandparents in Montreal after she had spent several months at the Föhrenwald Displaced Person's camp near Munich after the War. I am currently writing and researching a book about this remarkable woman. You can see my progress and other related posts at www.facebook.com/Aunt.Paulas.Story.
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