Yad Vashem requests help in finding women from concentration camp diary

While at Gabersdorf, Regina Honigman kept a diary of poems, autographs from fellow prisoners and an improvised Haggada.

By MICHELLE MALKA GROSSMAN
Page 51 of Regina Honigman's diary, with her version of Dayenu from the Passover Haggada (photo credit: YAD VASHEM ARTIFACTS COLLECTION, DONATED BY FAY (LUSTIGMAN) EICHENBAUM AND ESTHER (LUSTIGMAN) GORDON)
Page 51 of Regina Honigman's diary, with her version of Dayenu from the Passover Haggada
(photo credit: YAD VASHEM ARTIFACTS COLLECTION, DONATED BY FAY (LUSTIGMAN) EICHENBAUM AND ESTHER (LUSTIGMAN) GORDON)
The Yad Vashem research team is requesting help from the public in tracking down information about people named in a journal and Haggada written during the Holocaust.
The diary belonged to Regina Honigman who worked in a slave labor factory at Gabersdorf Camp in Czechoslovakia where she made linen thread from morning to night for years on end.
In addition to accounts of her daily life, Honigman listed the names of fellow prisoners, which are listed at the end of this article, along with some of their autographs and poems.
Honigman was originally from Zawierce, Poland but was sent to work at Gabersdorf following a decree by Nazis that every Jewish family in the town send one family member for forced labor. Honigman's parents and sisters were eventually murdered in Auschwitz, but she and one brother survived the war.
She continued writing in the journal even after being transferred to a displaced persons camp and eventually moved to Australia with her husband whom she met at the DP camp. Honigman died in 1992 and her daughters donated the diary to Yad Vashem in 2005, following Lustigman's passing.
Regina Honigman, after her liberation in 1947. (photo credit:YAD VASHEM ARTIFACTS COLLECTION, DONATED BY FAY (LUSTIGMAN) EICHENBAUM AND ESTHER (LUSTIGMAN) GORDON)
Anyone with information about the individuals or about Gabersdorf Camp is encouraged to contact Yad Vashem's artifact collection by phone at 972-2-644-3598 or by email at museum.artifacts@yadvashem.org.il
The names listed in the journal (with locations in Poland) are:
Hanka Apelbaum (Sosnowitz)
Rusia Ajnveder (Bendsburg)
Rozia Berliner (Sosnowitz)
Adela Birenstok
Helga Blumenfeld
Marie Blusztajn
Jacka Butnik (Jaworzno)
Hela Cymbler
Gusta Feiler (Oswiecim)
Lotti Finger (Jaworzno)
Ruth Frichler (Skoczow)
Cyla Friedman
Karola Garnicowna
Hanny Goldfaden
Mania Goldszmidt
Hela Golenzer (Sosnowiec)
Pola Golenzer (Sosnowiec)
Sala Grossman
Henia Haliciewicz
Behirah Hocherman (Sosnowiec)
Estera Holand
Zosia Joachimowicz (Jaworzna)
R. Kleinfeldowna (Warthenau)
Bela Kuchman
Genia Lewkowicz (Bendsburg)
Maryla Lollman
Regina Manesbaum (Sosnowicz)
Ruzia Merik (Sosnowitz)
Fela Niciarz (Zawiercie)
Regina Perlgricht
Mania Pariser
Rozia Reich (Jaworzno)
Lola Schon
Guta S 'Mici Spilman (Bendsburg)
Pola Szapiro
Jadzia Sztainfeld
Rozia Sztirlberg
Hania Tombak(owna)
Gienia Wajnglik
Edzia Wislicka
Jochke Wasserberger (Auschwitz)
Irka Wolnerm
Bronislawa Zagorska (Jaworzno)