Dziunia Markus collection

<p>The collection documents the life of Polish-Jewish Holocaust survivor Dziunia Markus neé Wortmann and partly her family.</p><p>The bulk of the collection consists of photographic material. Pre-war images show the life of a well to do assimilated Jewish family in Poland. Depicted are several Wortmann family members including Dziunia’s parents and later Holocaust victims Maria neé Birenbaum and Maksymilian Wortman. Post war images allow insights into Dziunia’s life in England and the trips she took to various places around the world.</p><p>The documents in the collection focus on post war period and include an extensive testimonial by Dziunia on her life and wartime experiences. Among the contained correspondence are letters from her then boyfriend who managed to flee to Shanghai and the last letters from her parents written at the assembly point from where they were deported in September 1942.</p> <p>Estera Markus née Wortman (1922-2015), more commonly known by the Polish diminutive, ‘Dziunia’, came from an assimilated Jewish family in Otwoch, near Warsaw, Poland. Her father, who worked for a petroleum company, was a great sportsman and member of the local Maccabi sports club. Her mother was very active in the community doing social work.</p><p>After war broke out, Dziunia had a chance to escape with the family of her boyfriend but chose instead to stay. Eventually when the Germans decided to empty the Warsaw Ghetto Dziunia became separated from her parents and they were murdered in the Holocaust.</p><p>Dziunia survived the deportations and for a short while worked for a Polish aristocratic family before eventually being sent to Bergen Belsen on false pretences where she survived until the end of the war.</p><p>Thereafter Dziunia spent time in a Displaced Person Camp at Hillersleben thence after much shunting back and forth in Belgium to relatives in London.</p> Open