Selections from the Sala Garncarz Kirschner collection

1. Photographic portrait of Sala Garncarz Kirschner (1924–2018), ca. 1936

2. Esskarte (ration card), issued February, 1942

3. Postcard from Ala Gertner to Sala Garncarz Kirschner, Będzin: July 15, 1943

The Dorot Jewish Division holds an important Holocaust collection of more than 300 letters addressed to a teenage Jewish girl named Sala Garncarz Kirschner (1924–2018) from the Polish town of Sosnowiec between 1940 and 1945. The youngest of 11 children, Sala was an inmate in seven different Nazi labor camps in Europe but managed to stay in touch with her relatives and friends imprisoned in other camps. Many of them perished either in the labor camps or following their transfer to Auschwitz . Miraculously, Sala survived and managed to rescue their precious letters. Even one surviving letter represents the utmost value for history, but a collection of this scope is extraordinary, especially considering how young Sala was. Open letters were a required format in the camps, and inmates had to write in German. The Nazis reviewed all correspondence and their censorship stamp, a “Z” for the German zensiert (censored), appeared on most of them.

In May 1945, Sala was liberated from Schatzlar. A few months later she met her future husband, Corporal Sidney Kirschner of the U.S. Army, in Ansbach, Germany, and they soon married. In May 1946, she arrived in the United States. 

Seen on display is a small selection of documents from the collection: Sala’s photograph taken at the age of 12 in her native Sosnowitz; a letter from her close friend Ala Gertner (191?-1944) dated July 15, 1943, sent from the camp in Bendsburg (Będzin); and Sala’s food ration card for February 1942 from the camp of Geppersdorf (Rzędziwojowice) in Poland. 

Ala and Sala befriended one another on the way to the Geppersdorf labor camp in October 1940. Although the two were later separated, they remained in touch for as long as it was still possible. As a member of the underground resistance group at Auschwitz, Ala was hanged on January 5, 1945 for her role in the only armed uprising at the camp. In her letter to Sala from the camp in Bendsburg (Będzin), she wrote about the beauty of the day, good spirits, and great hopes for the future for her and her husband, Bernard, whom she had married in the camp.