Donating her parents' papers to the collection, Mindy Spiegel recalled Boruch Spiegel's story that they left Poland for Sweden illegally, in March 1946. Their passage from Gdańsk to Stockholm on a coal ship was organised by the young Bund activist Arkady (Avremel) Kahn, who had been a marine officer in Berling's army. Visas were available for Fajga Peltel (later Władka, Vladka Meed), who was already in Germany, and Izrael Czestochowski, incidentally the nephew of Boruch Szefner, a well-known Bund journalist of the Yiddish magazine ,'Folkscajtung', published in Warsaw. (Boruch Szefner fled to the United States on a visa from Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara during the first phase of the war; we do not know Czestochowski's story). Bełchatowska and Szpigiel used these visas and then had to legalise their status in Sweden, confirming their identities as newcomers with documents with other names. This process is documented in e.g., this letter.
This is a document issued by the Consular Section of the Polish Diplomatic Mission in Stockholm (i.e. the Polish Embassy), 17.10.1946, no. 7597 (appearing under the company imprint of the Embassy at the top left), another number (LB 43/46) is added in black pen at the top right, next to the date.
Typescript on Diplomatic Mission office paper, with stamps: one round, black, of the Embassy (POSELSTWO POLSKIE WYDZ. CONSULAR * STOCKHOLM *; in the middle a White Eagle without a crown) next to the signature of Piotr Maślankiewicz, the other is a rectangular grey one with, among other things, the stamp date of 26.10.1946. Confirmation that a woman named Fajga Peltel, b. 11.1.1920 (passport and visa numbers also given), “är identisk med” - is identical with Chaja Be[ł]chatowska (consular document no. indicated: S-1039/567), and the man who arrived in Sweden under the name Izrael Cz[ę]stochowski [!], b. 1.10. 1917 (passport and visa numbers also given), “är identisk med” - is identical with Boruch Szpigiel (consular document number indicated: S-1039/568).
Typed underlining of the words: “är identisk med”, “Chaja Betchatowska” [sic!], “Boruch Szpigiel”. Underlined (thickly, a couple of lines) in red crayon name notation: Israel Czestochowski and Boruch Szpigiel. Card with two holes (not punched) at left edge.
