Dawid Tennenbaum poses in a toy airplane while on vacation with his parents.
Dawid (now David) Tennenbaum is the son of Jozef and Fanny Tennenbaum. He was born on March 31, 1931 in Lvov, Poland, where his father owned a fruit import/export business. Following the German occupation of Lvov in the summer of 1941, the Tennenbaums were able to remain in their home for approximately one year. During this period Dawid's father worked for the Germans collecting recyclable materials. In August 1942 the family was sent to the Kleparow ghetto on the outskirts of Lvov. A few months later, Dawid escaped from the ghetto with his mother. A Ukrainian professor who was a family friend assisted in their escape and found them a temporary hiding place at the home of an ethnic German in Lvov. Ironically, the son of the professor was a member of the Ukrainian SS then serving on the eastern front. The professor secured false papers for Dawid and his mother and found them a long term hiding place in December 1942 in the village of Zimna Woda. They were taken in by an elderly, retired, schoolteacher named Mrs. Sokolinska. The timing of their move to Zimna Woda was very fortunate because shortly after they left their first hiding place it was raided and those living there were arrested. Fanny hid under name of Franciszka Maria Wieczorkowska, while Dawid, who had grown his hair long, passed as her daughter, Teresa Marja Wieczorkowska. He also pretended to be retarded so as to avoid having to take the required physical exam to attend school. Dawid passed the time either playing by himself or reading one of the many books that were in the house. Occasionally during their first year in Zimna Woda, Fanny was able to return to Lvov and visit Jozef. However, her husband disappeared sometime in the spring of 1943.

Presumably he was deported to the Janowska concentration camp, but his fate is unknown. In September 1944 Dawid and his mother were liberated by the Soviets. He was then 13 years old. Subsequently, they moved to Krakow, where they lived in a JDC sponsored Jewish children's home for the next two years. Fanny worked in the home's kitchen. With the help of relatives in the US who had a contact in the JDC, Dawid and his mother were able to obtain transit visas. They left Krakow in 1946 for Paris, where they remained for the next four-and-a-half years while waiting for entry visas to the United States. In March 1951 they finally departed for New York from Le Havre on board the SS DeGrasse.

Date: Aug 1936
Locale: Poland
Photographer: Unknown
Credit: USHMM, courtesy of David Tennenbaum
Copyright: USHMM
Subject Classification:
LIFE BEFORE THE HOLOCAUST -- Poland -- Family/Friends/Portraits -- At Home/In Town