Jan Szelubski papers

Jan Jakow Szelubski was born on March 25, 1916, in Lida, Lithuania (now Belarus) to Tuwia and Miriam Szelubski. His older sister, Jochewed, immigrated to Palestine in 1935. In 1938 Jan was drafted into the Polish army and served in Vilna, Poland. A short time before the end of his military service, World War II broke out, and Jan fought with his unit near East Prussia. On September 24, 1939, his unit was taken POW and transferred to Oświęcim, Poland. Two weeks later the POW’s were taken to Stalag 4a, where Poles and Jews were separated. One Hundred POWs volunteered to work in a coal mine in Saxony, where the physical conditions were better. During this period Jan corresponded with his parents and younger sister Sonia in Lida and received food packages from home. Unbeknown to Jan, his parents forwarded all his correspondence and photographs from the POW camp to his sister Jochewed in Palestine. The papers consist of pre-war, wartime, and post war photographs, documents, and identity cards illustrating the life of Jan Szelubski before the Holocaust in Lida, Lithuania, (now Belarus). During World War II, Szelubski was a company commander of the Armia Ludowa during the Warsaw uprising and received the "Virtuti Militari" medal for his bravery. After the war, he joined the diplomatic service.