New acquisitions

David and Tauba Opat

Judy Sher & Dr Anna Hirsh

Wedding celebration for Duwid Opoczynski and Tobka Wojnsztajn, Pabianice, Poland, 1939.

Acollection that came into the JHC a few months ago contains photographs and documents belonging to Holocaust survivors, Tauba (known as Tobka or Toni) and David Opat. Judy Sher donated her parents’ historical items that had been carefully kept for decades after the war ended, and these items tell us a heartbreaking narrative. This may demonstrate the vagaries of fate, but more troubling is the consideration that events were caused by heavily restricted visas – including by Australia – that fatally prevented Jews from migrating to safety.

In January 1939, Tobka Wojnsztajn married Duwid Opoczynski, in Pabianice, Poland. Pabianice, located 15km from Lodz, was an industrial town with paper mills, textile production and chemical factories. There were around 13,000 Jews in the town’s population of 68,000. Soon after the wedding celebration, Duwid, his mother Shprynza, his father Laizer Mayer, younger brother Ben and brotherin-law Jakow Warszawski left for Melbourne, where other family members had migrated some years earlier. The intention was to set up home and work, and then bring out the rest of the family.

When war erupted a few months later in September, leaving Poland became nearly impossible. Tobka, who was around 20 years old, and many members of the Opoczynski and Wojnsztajn family were trapped.

In February 1940, Tobka was forced into the Pabianice ghetto. She was relocated to the Lodz ghetto on 15 May 1942; in May 1944 she was deported brie y to Auschwitz, and then transported to the notoriously harsh conditions of Stutthof concentration camp, in the north of Poland near the Baltic Sea. After two and a half months in Stutthof, Tobka was sent to a concentration camp in Dresden, part of the Flossenburg sub-camp system, where she was set to work as a forced labourer in a munitions factory. She arrived in a second Flossenburg camp, Zwodau (or Svatava) in Czechoslovakia near the German border on 13 February 1945, the day that Dresden was carpet bombed. From here, Tobka was moved onto Theresienstadt concentration camp. Then, as the Soviets advanced, Tobka, with a group of other female prisoners, were sent on a death march. Tobka was likely with her cousin Idit Schinicka. Tobka’s daughter Judy Sher wrote: “my research suggests that on 20 January 1945, my mother and other mostly female prisoners were incorporated into a Death March that originated in Upper Silesia and ended on 5 May 1945 in Volary, Southern Bohemia ... of the approximately 1350 women who marched, only 118 survived.”

After liberation, Tobka worked on a farm and regained some strength. From there she and Idit went to Modena in Italy, and stayed for 18 months. Duwid, now called David, nally discovered his wife was alive. From Italy, the cousins went to Cairo, Egypt on their journey to Australia, assisted by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. A marconigram dated 13 September 1946 reads “Cable received will be waiting for you. David.” The couple reunited soon after. Tobka and David created their family with two beloved daughters, Fran, born in 1949, and Judy, in 1952.

Often, the end of this narrative is framed as: survivors came to Melbourne to start their new lives, joyful to be in a democratic country far from the troubles of Europe. Unfortunately, the death toll from the Holocaust does not include those whose health was severely and irreparably damaged from years of deprivations, starvation and torture. Cousin Idit married in 1947 but died from breast cancer only six months later in February 1948. Tragically, Tobka didn’t enjoy her freedom and family for long. She became very sick, and passed away in 1958 at the young age of 38 years old.

Judy Sher is the younger daughter of Tobka and David Opat. She and her sister Fran live in Melbourne. They have 5 children between them and numerous grandchildren. Dr Anna Hirsh is Manager of Collections & Research at the JHC. If you have material to donate to the JHC Collection phone (03) 9528 1985 or email collections@jhc.org.au