Israel Magid (M / Poland, 1932), Holocaust survivor

Israel Magid (M / Poland, 1932), Holocaust survivor

Bella Birnbaum / Bertha Magid (F / Poland, 1936), Holocaust survivor

• KEYWORDS : <Refugees> <Soviet Union> -- <Selvino Children> <Canada>

Biography

Born in Poland in 1932. Died in Montreal, Canada, 2004.

USHMM

Bella Birnbaum (born Bertha Magid) is the daughter of Avraham and Rosa Magid. She was born on September 26, 1936 in Bialystok, where her father owned a textile factory. Bertha had an older brother, Israel, who was born in 1932. The family was moderately religious and Zionist. On September 15, 1939 the Germans occupied Bialystok, but in accordance with the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact they handed it over to the Soviet Union, and Bialystok remained under Russian sovereignty until June 1941. After the Soviets entered the town, they deported Bertha, her mother, and her brother to Siberia in cattle cars. Avraham, who had gone to another town in the German sector on business, was picked up and sent to a ghetto, where he perished. In 1946 Bertha, Rosa, and Israel returned to Poland and went to Wroclow. There they met agents of the Youth Aliyah movement who were organizing transports of children out of Poland. Bertha and Israel left their mother and traveled with the Bricha from Poland to Czechoslovakia and eventually to the Selvino children's home. Rosa remained for a time in Wroclow, where she remarried. In Selvino, Bertha and Israel made contact with an uncle in Canada who sponsored their immigration. Israel chose to remain in Montreal, but Bertha left for Israel at the age of 13 and a half to join her mother and stepfather.