Erika WAGMAN or WALDMAN / Nitra, Slovakia/ Bergen Belsen, Germany

ericaSurname: WAGMAN/WAKSMAN or WALDMANN
Name: ERICA / ERIKA
Birth Date: ca 1941 (?)
Birth Place: Nitra, Slovakia (?)
Father’s Name: HEINRICH (?)
Mother’s Name: Unknown

ERIKA’S STORY
In the summer of 1945 Erica was brought from Bergen Belsen to Sweden.
In Bergen Belsen she had been saved through the efforts of Mrs. Loba Tryszynska. This wonderful lady had received Erica from another woman prisoner who also had a child.
This first woman told Mrs. Loba that Erica’s mother had died and that she herself could not take care of more than her own child.
Mrs. Loba was also the one who accompanied Erica and other children to Sweden.

In Sweden she was registered as Erica Waldman born 1941 from Nitra Czeckoslovakia. Later she was adopted by the Jewish couple Mac and Karin Kocklia who gave her a happy life.
This couple tried for years to find out who Erica’s parents were.
From what they found out, supposedly Erica’s father was Heinrich Waldmann and the family came from Nitra in Slovakia.
At Yad Vashem in the Arolsen index cards we did find Erica Waldman, born 1941 on a card from Sweden after the war. We did not find any Waldman person from Nitra now Slovakia.
By pure chance, looking for a baby boy named WAGMAN, we found an Arolsen card for Paul Wagman, born 1923 from Nitra who was killed in Majdanek.
Would there be an Erika too?
Yes, two cards.
The first shows Erika Wagman or Waksman, born 1941, Czeckoslovakia, at a Luebeck Assembly Center.
The second one shows Erica Wagman coming from Bergen Belsen on a list of DPs leaving on Kastleholm, 25 July 1945.

RESEARCH JOURNAL JUNE 2005
WAGMAN FAMILIES
From the Arolsen cards we should now concentrate our efforts on Wagman families from Nitra.
Could Erica’s father be Heinrich Wagman?
Who was Erica’s mother?
WALDMAN FAMILIES
In case she is Erica Waldman, could her father be Heinrich Waldman?

DEPORTATIONS FROM NITRA
We should check any possible lists of deportations from Nitra in Slovakia to see if members of families named WAGMAN or WALDMAN are listed.

FROM NITRA TO UNKNOWN CAMP
When the deporation train left Nitra, did it go straight to Bergen Belsen or – more likely, did it first go to another camp, like Auschwitz?

BERGEN BELSEN
Unfortunately Erica is not registered in the Bergen Belsen book of prisoners.
Is it possible that during the winter of 1944/1945 the registration of new prisoners in Bergen Belsen broke down?

THE SHIP KASTLEHOLM
We think Kastleholm was a Swedish ship going between Luebeck (Germany) and Malmoe (Sweden) in the summer of 1945. Is there any way of confirming this, and is there any passengers’ lists hidden away in some archive in Sweden?

Previous Comments

written by PM, May 12, 2009
At Vad Yashem, there is a listing for Henrich Waldmann who was born in Stropkov in 1911. Prior to WWII he lived in Stropkov, Czechoslovakia. During the war he was in Rejowiec Ghetto. Henrich perished at the age of 31.
Also on Jewishgen, under Stropkov, there is a Henrich Waldmann, Sept. 14, 1911 (Stropkov), transported May 23, 1942, Stropkov to Rejowiec, perished.
From what I have read, Jewish families from the surrounding areas were moved to a concentration point in Nitra. About 3,120 from Nitra and its surroundings were expelled in three transports to the Lublin district in Poland. Men fit for work were taken off in Lublin, and transported to Maidanek, but all the others were sent to Rejowiec ghetto in the Chelm sub -district in Eastern Poland. Those who survived the ghetto were sent from the ghetto to Maidanek (or Majdanek). Many prisoners were sent from Maidanek to Bergen Belsen when the camp was being liquidated during the period January-May 1944.

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