Wartime

Questionnaire A regarding war damages[1]

1. INJURED PARTY

a) Surname and first name: Dr. Baumgarten Róża
b) Citizenship: Polish
c) Nationality: Polish
d) Date and place of birth: Warsaw, 27 September 1885[2]
e) Place of residence before 1 Sept. 1939: Koszykowa 35, apt. 16
f) Current place of residence: Koszykowa 35, apt. 16[3]
g) Profession practiced before 1 Sept. 1939: Teacher
h) Current profession: Employee of the Ministry of Industry
i) Marital status: Single

2. DAMAGE

a) When and where the damage occurred: In the ghetto, to which I was forced to move in 1940[4] (to Ogrodowa St. No. 4, apt. 6) [5]

b) Event that caused the damage: Burning of the entire ghetto[6]

3. WITNESSES

Witness's surname, first name, profession, and place of residence, as well as their relationship (kinship, professional, or financial dependence) to the injured party: 1. Tom Ewelina, university colleague, Master of Biology[7]

I. NON-MATERIAL DAMAGES

NON-MATERIAL DAMAGES CAUSED BY

1. Physical impairment: due to 12-hour shifts at the Schultz factory[8] in the ghetto on Nowolipie Street – resulting in severe heart insufficiency and hearing impairment

4. Non-material losses: Forced into the ghetto, sentenced to death. Escape from a transport convoy to the "Aryan side" in 1943, just before the final burning of the ghetto.[9] From July 22 to December 3, 1942: billeting and 12-hour shifts at the German Schultz factory, sewing military uniforms. Long-term, ineffective treatment entailed huge costs.

II. A. PROPERTY DAMAGE

DAMAGE TO MOVABLE PROPERTY AND FARM Number of pieces, set of rooms Price as of September 1, 1939 Amount of compensation claimed

1. Clothing:
a) clothes: woolen dresses, silk dresses

b) outerwear:  3 costumes, 1 new karakul fur, seal fur, 5 winter, autumn and summer coats

f) assorted: 2 muffs, 2 fur collars, 4 dressing gowns

2. Apartment

a) number of rooms as of September 1, 1939: 2

b) number of rooms destroyed

c) furniture sets: 1 candlestick (antique)

d) library: approximately 700 volumes[10]

e) scholarly collections: Several scholarly works in manuscript by the psychologist Prof. Dr. Franciszka Baumgarten (Bern, Switzerland), sent for publication[11]

f) works of art:

Painting by Fałat – *Landscape* (Bystra, 1926); *Landscape* by Stanisławski (1892); *Portrait of a Daughter* by Jankowski; *Peasant Cottage* by Henryk Szczygliński; *Still Life (Sunflowers)* by Lebrun-Woycicka; Caricatures by Szipiński (1916); *Landscape – Marsh Marigolds* – a huge painting by Ekkert. 

Head in Carrara marble by Henryk Kuna (1918). Persian carpet (90 x 140 cm). 

Bielsko carpet (170 x 180 cm), 2 small French carpets, 20 pieces of crystalware, 3 lamps. 

g) technical items and devices: Telefunken radio, Gramophone – 80 records, Swedish telephone (personal property)

i) miscellaneous: "Underwood" typewriter

3. Household goods

a) tableware, household and kitchen equipment, etc.: Silver cutlery set for 24 people (81 kg), 5 silver plates, silver serving platter, gold-inlaid Kuznetsov dinner service for 24 people, Ćmielów dinner service for 12 people, glassware, complete kitchen equipment (14 aluminum pots), and silver-plated cutlery set for 12 people.[12]

5. Liberal professions

a) type of profession: PhD in Chemistry – chemistry

b) furnishings and movable assets of the practice/office: complete laboratory fit-out (cabinets, tables)

c) apparatus, instruments, collections: 2 microscopes and 1 Zeiss polarimeter, autoclave, drying ovens, and other apparatus, as well as laboratory glassware and equipment

d) miscellaneous: professional library

III. OTHER LOSSES CAUSED BY:

1. DISPLACEMENT

b) from an apartment: pre-ghetto (occupied by a *Volksdeutsch*[13]), then to the ghetto in 1940

c) from a place of business: 2 years during which I had no earnings

2. DESTRUCTION, CONFISCATION, AND LOOTING

a) gold, valuables: 1 Omega watch, brooch with 5 pearls and 3 emeralds, gold chain

b) foreign currency:  500 Swiss francs. 20 US dollars (paper money) (lost in the ghetto)

c) circulating currency 400 PLN taken from a drawer (looting)

d) securities, shares, bonds, mortgage bonds, etc.: 4 Bank Zachodni bonds

4. FORCED LABOR

a) employment (wages insufficient for subsistence): in the ghetto, at the Schultz factory from July 22, 1942, to December 3, 1942; 12 hours a day for watery soup—nothing else 

[Name and address of workplace: Ema Schultz, Warsaw, Nowolipie (in the ghetto)]

[I was also led to his published volume and the published  entry from  page 23 reprinted here}:

Koszykowa St. 35, Apt. 16 /
Ogrodowa St. 4, Apt. 6

Baumgarten, Róża
teacher

Due to the Jewish origin of the owner, the collections were confiscated in 1940.

Paintings (and drawing):
J. Fałat, Bystra, 1926;
J. Stanisławski, Landscape, 1892; 
M. Jankowski, Portrait of Róża Baumgarten’s Daughter;
H. Szczygliński, Peasant Cottage;
W. Lebrun, Sunflowers;
E. Lipiński, collection of caricatures from 1916;
J. Ekkert, Marsh Marigolds (large-scale landscape)

Decorative arts:
Persian carpet, 90 × 140 cm;
Bielsko carpet, 120 × 180 cm;
two small French carpets;
set of table silver for 24 persons;
Kuznetsov porcelain service for 24 persons

Other:
H. Kuna, Head in Canary Marble (1918)

Source: APW, ZM WSW, ref. no. 142, file no. 5468, p. 910

In the first volume (page 95), there is this text:

A doctor of psychology, Róża Baumgarten, who lived alone before the war on Koszykowa Street, was forced, like all Warsaw residents of Jewish origin, to move to the ghetto on Ogrodowa Street. There, she was forced to do hard labor at the Schulz factory on Nowolipie Street.[244] During the liquidation of the ghetto in 1943, she and other residents were loaded onto freight cars bound for Auschwitz. She managed to escape from the convoy to the Aryan side "just before the final burning of the ghetto." During the displacement in 1940, the woman completely lost the artistic furnishings of her apartment, including a collection of paintings by artists such as Juliusz Fałat, Jan Stanisławski, Henryk Szczygliński, and others.

244: At Schulz's factory, Róża Baumgarten worked twelve-hour shifts from July 22 to December 3, sewing uniforms for German soldiers. According to the injured woman herself, she was confined to barracks. The difficult working conditions caused "severe heart failure and hearing impairment."