Cukier and Cohen families papers

Max Cohen was born Max Cukier on March 15, 1884 in Warsaw, Poland to Zacharias Cukier and Estera Cukier. He had at least three brothers: Charles Cukier (later Charles Cohen), Israel Moshek Cukier, and Gerson Cukier (Gerson Zucker). Max immigrated to the United States in 1903, and settled in Rochester, New York where he worked as a tailor. His brother Charles and his mother Estera also immigrated to the United States around that time. Max’s brother Israel lived in Białobrzeg, Poland, and had at least three sons and two daughters. Israel’s son Shmul Cukier as well as his two daughters immigrated to Palestine before World War II. His son Jakub Cukier served in the Polish Army with his older, unnamed brother. They were both later imprisoned in Russia, and the older brother was killed in 1943. Jakub survived the war, but both his parents were killed. He likely immigrated to Palestine to join his surviving siblings. The collection primarily consists of correspondence of brothers Max Cohen and Charles Cohen, both of whom immigrated to the United States before World War II from Poland, from their nephews Jakub Cukier and Shmul Cukier. Early letters concern Max’s attempts to help Shmul immigrate to the United States in the early 1920s. Postwar letters from Jakub inform his uncle Charles that he and his older brother served with the Polish Army, were imprisoned, and that his parents and older brother all perished in the Holocaust. No restrictions on access