Simona G. Frajndlich papers

Simona G. Frajndlich (1921-2006) was born Gita Witorz in Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland. Her family owned a factory in Łódź where she attended school. During the war, Gita and her family were forced into the Piotrków Trybunalski ghetto until its liquidation in 1942. During the liquidation, Gita was saved by her father’s friend. Throughout the remainder of war, she was transported to several slave labor camps in Germany and Poland, which include Skarżysko-Kamienna and Leipzig. As the American front moved towards Leipzig, the camp was liquidated. The inmates of the camp were forced to march until they were eventually liberated by the Russians. After the war, she used her nephew Simon’s ID papers, changing her name from Gita to Simona. Not wanting to go back to Poland, Simona tried to go through Turkey in order to migrate to Israel. In Landsberg displaced person camp, she opened a school and went on to attend school herself in Heidelberg, Germany. Simona immigrated to New York City in 1947 to attend school at CCNY to become a medical technologist. In 1949, she traveled to Israel and met her husband David Frajndlich. They traveled back to the United States in 1953, where she would be a medical technologist in her husbands practice. The couple adopted their son Abe Frajndlich at age 10. The papers consist of an identification card, certificate, University student book, letter of recommendation, three letters from Chemisches Institut der Universität, biographical documents on war experience, an admission pass, and courtroom map.