Rabbi Armin Frieder papers

The collection documents the Holocaust-era experiences of Rabbi Armin Frieder and his family in Nové Mesto, Czechoslovakia (now Nové Mesto, Slovakia). Included are biographical materials of Armin including his passport and death certificate, his son Gideon’s report cards, and his sister Gittel’s school exercise book. The bulk of the collection consists of Armin’s writings and sermons, many of which were written during the Holocaust. The photographs include pre-war and wartime depictions of the Frieder family. There also some photographs related to Gideon’s wife Dalia’s family, the Boglers, primarily in Cieszyn, Poland. Copyright Holder: Dr. Gideon Frieder Rabbi Armin Frieder (born Armin Abraham-Abba Frieder, 1911-1946) was born June 30 1911 in Prievidza, Slovakia to Filip Frieder and Ružena Messinger. He had one brother, Emanuel, and one sister, Gittel. Armin studied to be a rabbi, and was ordained by 1932. He was a rabbi in Zvolen, Czechoslovakia (now Zvolen, Slovakia), from 1933-1937, and in 1938 moved to Nové Mesto nad Váhom. Armin married Ružena Berl (b. 1913). Their son, Gideon was born on 30 September 1937 in Zvolen, and their daughter Gita was born on 8 August 1940 in Nové Mesto. From 1942-1944, Armin was part of the Working Group, an activist group organized to stop deportations of Slovak Jews. The group bribed German officials, established work-camps as a means of stopping deportations, and provided hiding spots and false papers to Jews in Slovakia. In 1944, Gideon, his sister, and his mother fled to Nové Mesto to Banská Bystrica, Slovakia. Armin would go there separately. In October, the Germans attacked the village of Staré Hory, where the three of them were. Both Gideon’s mother and sister were killed, and he was wounded. A Partisan named Henry Herzog took Gideon and placed him with a family in Bully. The couple that took him in, Paulina and Jozef Striharzsik, cared for Gideon until the end of the war. After the war, Armin and Gideon lived in Bratislava, Slovakia. Armin died in 1946, and Gideon went to Palestine in 1947. He met Dalia Bogler while in high school. They married in 1960, and immigrated to the United States in 1975. He is currently the A. James Clark Professor of Engineering and Applied Science at the George Washington University and a volunteer at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Jehoshua Bogler (1913-1980) was born on 11 September 1913 to Baruch (b. 1883) and Feigel (Fanny, née Gutmann, b. 1882). Jehoshua had four brothers, Willy (Wolf, b. 1920), Salomon. Yakov (b. 1908), Elias (b. 1911); and one sister, Rosa (b. 1916). The family grew up in Cieszyn, Poland. Jehoshua was a builder and a Zionist, and he moved to Palestine in 1933. He married Hadassah (1915-1999) in the Usha Kibbutz, Palestine (now Usha, Israel) in 1935. Their first daughter Dalia was born on 4 September 1940 and Irith (Irith Korblit) was born on 2 May 1942. Only Jehoshua and his brother Willy survived the Holocaust.