Meir and Paula Stein diaries and photographs

Meir Stein (1909-1970) was born in Bielsko, Poland and married Paula (b. Pola Znamirowska in Prezdborz, Poland, 1909-1988). They had one son, Israel, born in 1934 in Warsaw, Poland. After the outbreak of the war in 1939, they fled from Warsaw to Vilna (Vilnius, Lithuania) which was under Soviet rule. Meir attempted to obtain paperwork to immigrate to Palestine, but they were interned in the Vilna ghetto before the papers were approved. In 1941, the family fled to the Białystok ghetto where Paula worked as an operator for the Organisation Todt. Meir temporarily went to the Warsaw ghetto to look for other family members, but he returned after he witnessed the deteriorating conditions. While working as an operator, Paula became friends with a German soldier, Herbert Coehn, who agreed to help her family go into hiding. With the help of Stefania Dobrowolska, Meir, Paula, Israel, and Mata Klein, Israel’s aunt, went into hiding from 1943 until 1944. During this time, Meir and Paula began writing about their experiences. After the war, Meir, Paula, and Israel went to Belgium before immigrating to Israel in 1949. The Meir and Paula Stein diaries and photographs consist of three diaries written by Meir Stein and five diaries written by Paula Stein while in hiding in Białystok, Poland describing their experiences from 1941-1944. Also included in the collection are photographs from the Białystok Central Committee and pictures of Meir and Israel, Meir and Paula’s son. Meir Stein wrote four diaries while in hiding in 1944, but the first diary was lost after the war. The diaries are written in German and describe his experiences in the Warsaw and Białystok ghettos and the time his family spent in hiding from 1943-1944. This series also includes transcripts of the diaries in German. Paula Stein began writing her diaries in 1944 while in hiding in Białystok, Poland. There are five diaries and four loose pages. The diaries are written in Polish and describe her family’s experiences from 1941- 1943 while they were in the Vilna and Białystok ghettos as well as her efforts to find hiding places for relative after they fled the Białystok ghetto. This series also includes transcripts of Paula’s diaries and typed testimonies recorded by Paula after the war from Jewish survivors in Poland. Photographs depict members of the Białystok Central Committee and pictures of Meir and Israel Stein in the 1940s.