Sobel family papers

The Sobel family papers consist of a journal, photographs, and subject files relating to Herman, Salomea, and Judyta’s pre-war and postwar experiences in Ukraine and Poland. The collection includes a journal kept by Herman for his daughter from 1925-1937 documenting his observations of his family’s life and his memory of fighting in World War I, an English translation of the journal, originals and copies of family photographs from World War I to 1967, a copy of a postwar letter, and a newspaper clipping relating to Herman’s participation in the discovery of one of the Ringelblum Archive milk cans in Warsaw. Frederika Judyta Sobel (also known as Judwiga or Jadzia, 1924-2012) was born in Lwów (L’viv) Ukraine to Herman (1897-1950) and Salomea Sobel (1897-?). In 1935 they moved to Boryslav, Ukraine where Herman worked as an engineer. They survived the war by hiding in their neighbor’s home. The Miezin family hid two Jewish families consisting of seven individuals behind a false wall. After the war Herman, Salomea, and Judyta moved to Łódź and Herman resumed his work as an engineer throughout Poland. He was instrumental in helping uncover the Ringelblum Archives hidden beneath the rubble of the Warsaw ghetto. The family intended to move to Israel, but Herman died shortly before they planned to leave. Salomea and Judyta moved to Israel in 1950. Judyta studied art and left for New York in 1956 to continue her education. There she met Yitzchak Cukierman (later Irving Zuker) and they married six months later. Yitzchak was born in Kraków in 1916. He studied architecture at the Jagiellonian University before the war and was imprisoned in the Kraków ghetto. Yitzchak, his brother Heniek, and sister, Yetti Rosenzweig, all survived on Schindler's List. Yitzchak’s other brother, Moniek, was killed in the Kraków ghetto and his parents perished in Auschwitz.