Gisi Fleischmann was a Zionist humanitarian activist in Bratislava, Slovakia. She founded the Zionist Organization for Women and was a member of the Jewish trade organization Histadrut in Slovakia. As the head of the Aliyah department of Hicem/Hias, she was instrumental in arranging for Jewish emigration to Palestine. She assisted Jewish refugees from Germany when they began to arrive in Slovakia in 1933, and again from Austria in 1938. Many refugees believed that the Danube would be a navigable way to Palestine. When her efforts to obtain visas for prospective emigrants in Paris and London failed, she rejected efforts to save herself and instead returned to her work in Slovakia during a particularly difficult time in her own life: the death of her husband, the murder of her brother, and her own children leaving for the safety of Palestine.
At the end of 1939, Slovakia became an independent state with a fascist puppet regime - controlled by the Nazis - under President Josef Tiso, an antisemitic Catholic priest, and Prime Minister Voitech Tuka. Authorities in Slovakia passed laws and decrees - mirroring the Nuremberg race laws published in Germany - aimed at marginalizing Jews by systematically abridging their human rights and civil liberties. Financial restrictions, revocation of licenses of Jewish physicians and lawyers, and the firing of Jewish public officials and banning of Jewish organizations occurred along with the “aryanization” of Jewish-owned stores and businesses. These would simply be expropriated by new owners: Slovakian or German. Jews were evicted from their homes - their property looted or destroyed - and crowded into “Jewish quarters.” Jewish children were expelled from public schools while adults would be conscripted for forced labor.
Deportations to extermination centers would commence in February 1942. Despite petitions to allow Jews to remain in Slovakia, Tiso did not interfere with the deportations, nor did government officials or other Catholic religious leaders. Indeed, bishops accused Jews of deicide and harming Slovakia’s economy.
Gisi Fleischmann had assumed a leadership role in the underground Bratislava-based “Working Group” which attempted to save Slovak Jews from deportation by having them transferred to neutral countries. Ultimately it was hoped that by negotiating with and bribing Nazi officials the Working Group would achieve a successful resolution to the deportation crisis. She corresponded with Saly Mayer, representative of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in Switzerland, Richard Lichtheim of the Jewish Agency and Nathan Schwalb of HeChalutz, both based in Geneva, requesting funds. She also traveled to Hungary to consult with Jewish leaders and to request their financial assistance. Gisi’s cousin, Rabbi Michael Dov Weissmandel - another founding member of the Working Group - incorrectly assumed that the halting of deportations from October 1942 to September 1944 had to do with the success of the Working Group’s mission, thus inspiring his belief that the Group could bribe government officials and Nazis for Jews throughout Nazi occupied Europe. The Working Group would call this the Europa Plan. But the Group could not raise sufficient funds, nor did they realize the Nazis had not been acting in good faith. Consequently, negotiations on the Europa Plan and the Children’s Rescue plan, which was also intended to rescue Jews, were aborted. Gisi Fleischmann’s involvement with the Children’s Rescue Plan led to her arrest on two occasions. Friends again tried to encourage her to emigrate to Palestine and save her life as the Nazi noose seemed to be tightening, but she refused.
Gisi Fleischmann continued to work on rescuing Jews, refusing offers to save herself and go into hiding. She would be arrested in 1944 and sent on the very last Slovakian transport to Auschwitz where she was murdered upon arrival.
--Michael D. Bulmash, K1966
Browse the Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection.
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Josef Tiso Postcard
2012.1.373
Postcard with black and white photograph of Josef Tito, an older man wearing black. Includes blank postcard lines on back.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Josef Tiso (1887-1947) was a Slovak politician and priest, head of the Nazi satellite Slovak state and involved in the deportation and massacre of Jews. He was convicted and hanged at war's end.
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Postcard from Slovakia to Ferramonti di Tarsia Internment Camp
2014.1.359
Front: Green border; two indecipherable circular hand stamps; typed text; hole punch at top right corner. Back: Typed text filling up entirety of back.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Postcard from Julius Janovitz from Slovakia to family member Izabela Janovitz, who had been a passenger on the ill-fated Pentcho and, having been on the island of Rhodes, under Italian control, quartered in a stadium, has by the time of this writing been moved, along with most of the passengers, to the Ferramonti di Tarsia internment camp.
Ferramonti, near Tarsia in Southern Italy, was the largest Italian concentration camp. Opened in June 1940, Ferramonti held almost 4000 Jewish prisoners, most of whom were refugees from Germany. It was neither a slave labor camp nor an extermination center along the lines of German and Polish camps. Indeed, inmates were treated well, and there were organized cultural activities, a library, and a synagogue. After Mussolini’s downfall in 1943, many internees at Ferramonti either joined the Allied war effort or were transferred to Camp Oswego in New York.
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Postcard from Slovakia to Ferramonti di Tarsia Internment Camp
2014.1.360
Front: Green border; red 'Slovensko' postage stamp in top right; three circular hand stamps; typed text. Back: Typed text filling up entirety of page.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Julius Janovitz from Zvolen, Slovakia here corresponds with Fridrich Kohn, another internee of the Ferramonti di Tarsia Italian internment camp who was possibly a passenger on the Pentcho.
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Postcard from Slovakia to Rhodes
2014.1.361
Front: 'Trapa' repeated along edge to create a border; drawing of Star of David in upper left corner. Back: Handwritten text, Large black ink blot on top.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Postcard from Julius Janovitz to Bella Janovitz, whom he refers to as a civilian intern of war, and as a former passenger on the ill-fated Pentcho, is now in the “concentration camp” on the island of Rhodes. Interesting is the drawing of the Star of David recto. Julius, who was perhaps Bella’s father, perished in the war. Bella was ultimately to be relocated to the Italian internment camp of Ferramonti di Tarsia and survived the war.
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Censored Letter from Margit Heitlinger, a Former Passenger on the Steamer Pentcho
2019.2.302
Lined letter written in purple with large “C 1” stamped in purple in top right corner.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Censored letter written by a 20-year-old Jewish refugee, Margit Heitlinger, about her experiences on the island of Rhodes, assuring her aunt in Tel Aviv, Palestine that having survived the shipwreck, she is in the “fortunate area” of the island (probably the Rhodes soccer stadium).
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Letter from Nathan Schwalb (1908-2004) to Roswell McClelland
2022.1.23
Typed letter, 7.6.45 at top right, signature of N Schwalb at lower right
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Nathan Schwalb was a Polish member of the HeChalutz movement, a Zionist youth movement that trained young people for agricultural settlement in Palestine. Moved by the growing plight of Jews in Europe, Schwalb relocated to Switzerland to offer his assistance. He became the representative of the World HeChalutz movement in Geneva, and an important resource for persecuted Jews in Europe, raising and transferring funds, sending parcels through the Red Cross, and helping Jews escape from Europe.
In the effort to gather and communicate information regarding the plight of Jews in German-occupied countries, Schwalb corresponded with fellow HeChalutz activists, including Saly Mayer of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Dr. Abraham Silberschein of RELICO, and Gisi Fleischmann regarding the situation of Jews in Slovakia.
This letter to Roswell McClelland (the representative of the War Refugee Board in Bern, Switzerland) from July 1945, concerns a package Schwalb attempted to send to acquaintances (“girlfriends”) in Mauthausen concentration camp (probably after it had become a DP camp), detailing the content of the package (clothes, food, a sewing kit, etc.). He states he knows that much is to be done and that the items he sends are only a small part. He hopes they will be happy with the items. And “we will be happy if we can take care of them until they regain their health.” He thanks McClelland and wishes him strength for the trip to the camp. The letter is signed by Schwalb.
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Typed Coded Letter Possibly by Bratislava Working Group Member Updating Recipient on Issues Relating to Occupation by Germans
2022.1.22
Typed letter on onion skin paper with -9- at top and Bratislava, 24.XII.1942
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
This letter with no name given in the salutation is from Bratislava, Slovakia, typed in German, and signed “Josef.” It employs coded language that Gisi Fleischmann herself would use in her own correspondence, updating the recipient on events pertaining to European Jews, especially in Slovakia. For example, the name “Ziviah” in Gisi’s correspondence is typically a reference to children smuggled out of Slovakia, or events surrounding this. Where the letter says “Aunt Aliyah” cannot help, this may be a reference to friends and others in her circle importuning her to go to Palestine where her two children are living so that she is out of harm’s way. As of the date of this correspondence, almost 60,000 Jews have been deported to concentration and death camps as well as ghettos. The transports seemed to come to a standstill two months before this document was sent to its recipient. The Working Group incorrectly attributed this lull to their own efforts. The Europa Plan was conceived: bribing the Germans to save Jewish lives. As of this date on the letter, however, the Working Group could not know that the plan would not be carried out and that the Germans could not be trusted. Indeed, information had been received from agents in October of 1942 that deported Jews were being murdered at Treblinka and Belzec, information that would be used to solicit help from foreign powers. If “Joseph” is another “nom de plume” for Gisi Fleischmann, this letter has a decidedly disconsolate tone. Letter signed “Your Josef, formerly of Kibbutz Borochov in Lodz.”
Letter from “Eli” of Bratislava, typed as addendum to correspondence above, ostensibly letting recipient know that he is healthy and doing well and that his wife and friends are still with him. He does miss the family but follows “with interest the development of the children, Esra and Tnua …” No messages from Jescha and family … “in lively contact with Nathan.” Again, does the need for secrecy require coding the children’s names, i. e., are these Gisi’s two children in Palestine? Is the Nathan mentioned here Nathan Schwalb?
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Censored Postcard Sent from Nitra, Slovakia, to Red Cross in Madrid, Spain
2014.1.270
Front: Tan postcard with orange printed postcard lines. Includes typewritten address, as well as black, red and purple hand stamps, a blue sticker and markings in black pencil. Also has a brush of blue ink across the left side.Back: Typewritten message with two black hand stamps and various purple pencil markings.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
After the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia in 1939, Slovakia partnered with the Axis powers. The Jozef Tiso government was the first to consent to deportation of its Jews. Between March and October of 1942 almost 60,000 Jews were concentrated in labor and concentration camps. Slovak authorities transported the Jews to the Generalgouvernement where the Nazi SS sent most of them to extermination centers. A second wave of deportations occurred at the end of the Slovakian Uprising, from August to October, 1944. German units deported 13,000 Jews to Auschwitz, Theresienstadt and other camps. Many in hiding or fighting with partisan units were murdered by Hlinka Guard units working with the Germans. Approximately 100,000 Slovakian Jews perished during the Holocaust. Moritz Zilz, of Nitra, Slovakia, addresses a censored postcard to the Red Cross in Madrid on May 4, 1943, inquiring about Frieda Honigsbeer. The Yad Vashem Data base of Shoah Victims' Names lists many Zilz family members from Nitra, Slovakia, murdered in the Holocaust. Moritz Zilz is one of them, murdered in Auschwitz.
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Postcard to Man Interned at Ferramonti di Tarsia Internment Camp
2014.1.357
Front: Purple 'generalgouvernement' printed postage stamp in right corner; J.U.S. hand stamp on left side with eagle symbol hand stamp below. Back: Typed note, purple J.U.S. hand stamp at bottom center.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Ferramonti was the largest internment camp established by Mussolini in 1940. Over 3,800 Jews were imprisoned there, most of whom were foreign-born. Prisoners were released six weeks after Mussolini's downfall in September 1943.
Postcard from the J.U.S. Jewish Support Team (Judische Unterstutzungsstelle fur das Generalgouvernement) in Krakow, 1943, to internee Friedrich Kohn in Ferramonti di Tarsia, Cosenza. Mr. Kohn who had been on the ill-fated Pentcho, had been rescued and taken to the island of Rhodes along with other survivors of the shipwreck. This postcard - censored - was sent several months after the final Nazi assault commenced on the Jewish ghetto at Krakow, the capital of the General Government. Hans Frank was the Governor General of the region and was headquartered there. Oskar Schindler’s enamel factory was located here as well.
Subject: search operation.
Your letter of 10.11.1.to the J.U.S. which was handed to us recently, could not be answered because the J.U.S. was inactive from December last year because of the new regulations of the Jewish camps and the Jewish residential districts in the General Government.
J.U.S. has now been allowed to resume her activities with the approval of the relevant authorities. For the time being, this extends to the mediation of gifts from neutral and friendly foreign countries for the Jews in the G.G. The investigations into the whereabouts of Jews in the G.G. are outside our area of activity, so we regret not being able to serve you with the desired information.
Sincerely, Dr. Weichert.
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Letter by Gisi Fleischmann, Leader of the Bratislava Working Group
2022.1.21
Typed letter on onion skin paper from Bratislava, 2.XII.1943
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
A leading member of the underground Working Group in Bratislava, Gisi Fleischmann maintained a secret underground correspondence - written in code - with several Jewish organizations in the free world. She would give updates on the condition of the European Jews in Slovakia, and attempt to secure aid for refugees and locals in need. The major recipients of this coded correspondence were Richard Lichtheim of the Jewish Agency in Istanbul and Nathan Schwalb of HeChalutz in Switzerland, but she would as well be in contact with Saly Mayer of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, also in Switzerland. As of the date of this correspondence - December 2, 1943 - Gisi and the Working Group members would have already been in discussions about both the Europa Plan and the Children’s Rescue Plan, both efforts to save Jewish lives from mass murder through bribery and negotiations with the Nazis.
“We are looking for any way to bring the children to Naomi [Slovakia],” Gisi had written in the past to Schwalb. Her pervasive use of the name “Naomi” in this and other correspondence is a coded reference to the situation of Jews in Slovakia. The identities of “Michael,” “Dr. Artzi,” “Dr. Zorer,” “Vanya,” “Judith,” “Mendel,” “Gordon” and others mentioned are less obvious, but in all probability refer to members of the Working Group. “Uncle Sally” may be Saly Mayer, and “Michael” may be Rabbi Michael dov Weissmandel, Gisi’s cousin and co-leader of the Working Group.
The background of this document is as follows:
After transports from Slovakia to concentration camps in Poland were halted in October 1942, the Working Group members tried to bribe Heinrich Himmler through Dieter Wisliceny - SS captain and deputy of Adolf Eichmann - into stopping the deportation of European Jews to extermination camps in Poland (the Europa Plan). Wisliceny demanded a bribe of three million dollars, which far exceeded the Working Group's ability to pay, and negotiations appeared to end. Wisliceny would propose a plan to exchange 5,000 Jewish children for German prisoners in September 1943. However, when Gisi Fleischmann was caught attempting to bribe the wife of a Slovak government official in what was known as the “Koso affair,” her arrest resulted in the severing of communications with Jewish organizations in Switzerland and thus the inability of the Working Group to raise the necessary money to fulfill its mission. Gisi was forced to go into and out of hiding to avoid further arrest. However, she would be arrested again in January 1944. Wisliceny left for Berlin, thus ending negotiations, and in October 1944 Gisi herself would be deported to Auschwitz, murdered upon arrival, unable to bring the children to “Naomi.”
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Postcard, Written in Hebrew, with Handwritten Star of David
2012.1.355
Tan postcard with printed green postcard lines and decorative border. Addressed to Dr. Nathan Grunburg. Return address has a handwritten Star of David next to it. Includes a message written in blue ink in Yiddish.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Postcard, written in Hebrew to a Dr. Nathan Grunburg, with handwritten Star of David-perhaps a requirement to identify him as a Jew; with Slovakian stamp with Josef Tiso's picture. The latter was an antisemitic priest, and a fervent Nazi supporter, who deported Jews to death camps. Tiso was executed for his crimes after the war.
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Red Cross Form Sent from Nitra, Slovakia, to Palestine
2014.1.271
Front: White Red Cross stationery with printed and typewritten text. Includes several red and purple stamps.Back: Printed black text.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
After the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia in 1939, Slovakia's Josef Tiso government partnered with the Axis powers. Jews were deported, and 60,000 Jews found themselves in labor and concentration camps by October 1942. Jews were also sent to the General Government where many were placed in extermination centers. Other deportations occurred in 1944. The Red Cross message system was a chief means of communication during World War II, utilizing printed forms that took weeks to reach their intended party and only allowed messages of 25 words or less. Leo Zilz of Nitra, Slovakia, sends a message using the Red Cross form to Lea Honigsbeer, formerly of Nitra now living in Palestine, inquiring about friends and family members. The Yad Vashem Data base of Shoah Victims' Names lists many Zilz family members from Nitra, Slovakia, murdered in the Holocaust. Leo Zilz is one of them, murdered in Auschwitz.
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Postcard From Roswell McClelland to Nathan Schwalb
2022.1.24
Postcard with typed message to Nathan Schwalb from Roswell McClelland , January 18, 1946.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Belated New Year’s postcard sent from Roswell McClelland in “Beautiful Old Bern” Switzerland to Nathan Schwalb in Geneva where Schwalb works. He asks Schwalb to “stop by” to discuss some issues. Signed by McClelland.
During the Nazi occupation of Europe in the early 1940’s, Roswell McClelland and his wife Marjorie worked in a number of European countries for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), the Quaker relief organization. Roswell McClelland was involved in programs to provide refugees with financial aid, clothing, and assistance in the emigration process. One of his initiatives was to supply aid for inmates at Les Milles internment camp. By 1943 both were managing the AFSC office in Geneva, Switzerland. Marjorie worked to select children for the USCOM children’s transport to the United States in the summer of 1942. In 1944 McClelland was appointed director of the Swiss office of the War Refugee Board, assisting Jewish victims of the war and Nazi persecution in rescue and relief efforts, and coordinating with other agencies doing the same, including DELASEM and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. With his gift for foreign languages, McClelland was able to translate the so-called Auschwitz Protocols - the report written by two Slovakian escapees, Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler - which were eyewitness accounts of the mass murder of Jews in the extermination camp. A summary of the report was sent to the main office of the War Refugee Board prior to submitting the completed account. As a result, bombing the railway lines to Auschwitz was considered, but ultimately rejected by Secretary of State John McCloy. However, the report was used as evidence in the Nuremberg trials.