Sara Szrojt papers

The Sara Szrojt papers are comprised of documents and photographs collected by Sara during her incarceration in a Soviet forced labor camp and in the years before and after. The documents consist primarily of postcards from Sara’s mother and father written in 1941 shortly before they went into hiding in Lublin. Also among the documents is a marriage certificate for Chana and Jankiel, reissued in 1946. The photographs depict the Szrojt family and friends before and after the war in Lublin and images of a Jewish cooperative of upholsterers and curtain-makers in Wrocław, Poland c. 1950. Some of the photographs depict Mojżesz Szust and his family. Also included are group photographs taken in the Soviet forced labor camp. Sara Szrojt was born to Jankiel and Chana Szrojt in Lublin, Poland, where Jankiel worked as a lawyer. As aggression toward Jews increased in Poland, Sara fled to Lwów, Poland, leaving her mother, father, and brother, Leon, in Lublin. While in Lwów, Sara stayed with her material aunt, Pola and finished high school. In 1940, Sara was arrested and sent to a labor camp in what is present day Yoshkar-Ola, Russia. There, she was put to work building a railroad, and later worked in a kitchen. Sara survived the labor camp and after the war ended, settled in Wrocław, Poland with Mojżesz Mendel Szust, whom she met in the Soviet camp and later married. Together, the couple had a daughter, Anna. In Wrocław, Mojżesz worked as an upholsterer and Sara, as a manager in an obstetrics and gynecological doctor’s office. The couple divorced around 1968 and in 1971, Sara and Anna immigrated to Sweden.