Karpfen family papers

Jack (Yankel) Karpfen (1906 or 1908-1999) was born in the village of Janzin, Austria (later Janczyn, Poland, now Ivanovka, Ukraine, near Peremyshlyany) to farmers Samuel Leib Karpfen and Rifke (Rebecca) Karpfen (née Stolzenberg). He had three sisters (Sarah, Esther, and Liza) and one younger brother (Markus). Jack decided to emigrate after two Cossack soldiers on horseback stole his new boots at rifle point while he was cutting down trees and loading logs onto his sleigh. A distant cousin named Phil who lived in Altoona, PA, sent Jack money around 1919 to help him migrate to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Jack spent three weeks aboard a ship in steerage, helped the kitchen staff, and was repaid with more food than he had ever had in the shtetl. In Buenos Aires, Jack worked in a factory painting brass beds during the day and went to school at night to learn Spanish. He immigrated to the United States in 1923 and became known as Jack Karp. He worked hard in New York City and sent money home to provide dowries for his three sisters. In 1931, Jack married Ruth Katzenstein (1906 or 1908-1985), who had immigrated from Wolfhagen, Germany in 1929. The couple’s daughter Sandra was born in 1939. All contact with the Karpfen family ended in 1941 when Germany invaded the Soviet Union. The entire Karpfen family, apart from Jack, was killed in the Holocaust. The Karpfen family papers primarily consist of letters from the Karpfen family in Janczyn, Poland (now Ivanovka, Ukraine, near Peremyshlyany) to Jack and Ruth Karp in New York between 1927 and 1941. The letters emphasize the difficulties they experience in their small town; thank Jack for money orders, packages of clothing, and newspapers he sent; and request more money and newspapers. In his final letter, Jack’s father writes that his mother goes to sleep holding their granddaughter’s baby picture. The correspondence files also include letters from Ruth’s family, the Katzensteins. The collection also includes photographs (six original and two copy prints) depicting the Karpfen family in Janczyn, Poland, and receipts for money transfers Jack sent to his family in Poland.