Miriam Studniberg Webster

Marisha Studniberg was born in a Lodz, Poland hospital to loving and protective parents, Abram and Estera Dworja Studniberg. They lived in Radomsko, a long established town that dates back to the 11th Century. She had a younger brother, Icek, and they lived a comfortable life. Her father and his family owned a feather and down export business that supplied the stuffing for beds and pillows. The family lived in an apartment in a building they owned on a busy boulevard. A busy bakery occupied the building space below. While they did not live in a Jewish neighborhood, they were observant Jews and celebrated Shabbat, festivals and the holy days. Abram was a Zionist. 

Education was a priority to the Studniberg family and Marisha attended a Jewish elementary school. She was an outstanding student and loved her teachers. Her best friend’s father was the principal of her school. She was also athletic and loved ice skating at the popular community rink. The time she spent ice skating was her fondest childhood memory. 

In early September 1939, their pleasant life was destroyed when Poland was invaded. The family was still on summer vacation at a woodland resort when the low-flying planes appeared. The attack created panic and the Studnibergs, and many others, found themselves on the road to Lodz to find shelter. 

Ultimately, they returned to Radomsko from Lodz to find the city in shambles and their neighbors too terrified to leave their homes.

The family was forced out of their comfortable apartment by the end of 1939. They searched in vain for a reasonable place to live. Estera, Marisha and Icek traveled to family in Warsaw, but the conditions there were horrendous. They returned to Radomsko, where Abram had found a one-room space with a sheet to separate the kitchen from the bedroom. The place was on the edge of the Radomsko Ghetto. The location made it possible for their Christian friends to bring them some personal items from the home they had lost. 

Abram continued to work in his family’s feather and down business, but it was now confiscated by the Germans. 

Marisha’s parents prioritized their children’s good and welfare. Though their food was meager potatoes and bread, the children always ate first. Marisha and her friends attended school secretly—because it was forbidden by the Nazis. She walked to class with her books hidden under her jacket. Her everyday life was now filled with terror. The ghetto was crowded, and the sparse food was rationed. 

Radomsko Ghetto was set for liquidation October 1942. Abram’s contacts were able to give him advance notice and help him get false identification papers for Marisha to escape. Her brother was not so fortunate. 

With a heavy heart, Marisha transitioned from a young Jewish girl to a teenage Catholic girl named Marysia Studnicka. Her mother dressed her up as a young woman, put a crucifix necklace on her neck and and tied a babushka under her chin, to look like the local Polish girls. She wore lipstick for the first time now—to look older and she carried a Bible. She remembered that she could not hug and kiss her family goodbye, because she could not be seen crying as she made her escape late at night with the help of friends outside the ghetto. This would be the last time she would see her mother and brother. 

Her father had given her a strict plan to follow stay with known friends at specific locations until it was too dangerous and then move on. She was told to try to get work in Germany as close to the French border as possible. Send mail, when possible, through a trusted non-Jewish friend. 

Within months, Marysia Studnicka traveled from Radomsko to Warsaw to Lvov, staying in each place until signs were posted warning residents of the death penalty for helping Jews escape. Finally, she knew she had to go to Germany.

Marysia traveled by train from Warsaw to Mannheim, along with thousands of Poles in search of employment in Germany. Every step along the way, she was filled with fear of being discovered as a Jew. Her short stay with trusted friends in Warsaw had come to an abrupt end when signs were posted warning local citizens they would be shot if caught hiding a Jew. 

She heeded her father’s instructions to go to Germany and settle close to the French border. By Nov. 23, 1942, Marysia Studnicka was employed in the restaurant responsible for feeding the workers at the Heinrich Lanz AG factory. 

She was assigned a room in a barracks. Her roommate was a German girl, which was a great relief to Marysia. She feared getting too friendly with the Polish girls, lest they realize she wasn’t really one of them. They might detect a slight difference in her accent or dialect. She focused on working hard peeling potatoes and washing dishes. 

Eventually, the war came to Mannheim. There were midnight air raids that sent people fleeing to the bunkers. The factory was destroyed in 1943 and Marysia left the barracks and took a job in Zwiebruchen as a maid. Her new employer was the Heinrich Lanz factory director. He and his wife made sure Marysia attended church every Sunday—and confession. She helped with the cooking, cleaning and laundry and she never really knew if they suspected she was a Jew in hiding. 

When the factory reopened, she returned to her restaurant work in Mannheim until Liberation in 1945.

Marysia was 19 when Mannheinm was liberated by the US 3rd Army in 1945 and she remembers dancing in the streets. As Marysia Studnicka, she registered as a displaced person and found work in April as a waitress in the U.S. military canteen. 

An army officer directed her to a displaced persons camp where she was hired in December of 1945 as a Warehouse Clerk for the Aglasterhausen Children’s Center under the directorship of Rachel Green Rottersman of the United Nations Rehabilitation and Relief Administration (UNRRA). 

It is during this time that her father finds her in Mannheim. She learns to drive. She earns a license under her false name. It will not be easy for her to regain her true identity, because her original birth certificate was destroyed when she became Marysia Studnicka. She will eventually be legally recognized as Marysia Studniberg prior to immigration to the U.S. 

Many of the children arriving in the camps were Jewish orphans who came from concentration camps. The staff at Aglasterhausen cared for them and assisted in sending them on to new homes in Australia, Canada, Israel and the U.S. Rottersman had great faith in Marysia, who spoke excellent English, German, Polish, Russian and Yiddish. In 1947, Rachel sent her for training as a childcare worker. She was issued her diploma as Marysia Studniberg. 

Marysia was promoted to Second Class UNRRA officer and assists with admissions. Each of the children must be interviewed upon intake. She was uniquely skilled to translate their histories and typed up their stories. 

In 1948, Hollywood director Fred Zinnemann arrived in Mannheim to film “The Search,” a movie about a young boy (Karel Malik) who survives Auschwitz and searches Germany for his mother. Montgomery Clift stars as a U.S. Army engineer who meets the boy and looks after him until he reunites with his mother. The film was shot on location at Aglasterhausen and in the rubble of Mannheim. It garnered Academy Award nominations for Zinnemann, Clift and the screenplay writers Richard Schweizer and David Wechsler. Ivan Jandl received a Special Juvenile Academy Award for his outstanding performance as Karel Malik. 

Rottersman was a life force for the children and staff. Many stayed in touch with her throughout their lives. Maria and Rachel became lifelong friends and Rachel sponsored Marysia’s immigration to the U.S.

It seemed like forever until Marysia’s immigration papers were validated. Eventually, thanks to her sponsor Rachel Green Rottersman—and the Displaced Persons Act of 1948--she was welcomed to the U.S. along with about 200,000 others. 

On May 3, 1949 Marysia sailed from Bremen on the USS General R. L. Howze, a U.S. Navy Squire-class transport ship, into Boston, Mass. She recalled that the entire ship was filled with survivors. They arrived on May 18, 1949. 

Marysia stopped in New York City to visit with a friend for a few days. She then went to Chicago to stay with Joe and Rachel Greene Rottersman and their young son, John at 10048 Paxton in Chicago until her father arrived in Chicago. 

The reunited father and daughter rented an apartment at 5627 Dorchester Ave., in Hyde Park near University of Chicago. Eventually Abram returned to Germany to be with his brother Szlomo, sister-in-law Hanna and nephew Louis. There they built a business and their lives. 

Marysia remained in Chicago, attended night school to learn history and English as she prepared for her citizenship. She worked for the Traveler’s Aid Society as a translator and helped others who were relocating. 

Her life in the U.S. was just beginning.

Marysia—who by now was now called Miriam and sometimes Maria—was hired in the billing department for Ero Manufacturing Co. Ero made seat covers, convertible tops and accessories for cars and the auto industry was booming. Like many young Jewish people in the early 1950s, Miriam enjoyed attending dances organized by the area temples and organizations. 

At one of the dances organized by Hadassah, she met Lionel “Bill” Webster. He was a young Jewish man from the West Side of Chicago and recently discharged from the U.S. Army. Lionel, who had served with the Signal Corps in Occupied Japan, had come to the dance with his cousin. He asked Maria to dance, and they got along well. 

He became her Yankee Doodle and she his “DP”—Delayed Pilgrim. 

Their wedding took place on Nov. 11, 1951. They rented a small a third floor apartment at 7042 Chappel Ave., Chicago, and decided to start a family. Their first son, David Jay, was born on Nov. 3, 1953. It became clear with an active young family, they would need more space.

Lionel, Miriam and Davey moved to a two bedroom townhouse at 9538 S. Euclid Ave. in the Jeffrey Manor neighborhood of Chicago. The Southside area was a popular place for young Jewish families. It was close to the temples, excellent public grade schools and high schools. 

The Webster family welcomed their second child, Donald Ira, on Nov. 3, 1957. Amazingly, the boys were born on the same day, four years apart. Every year they would share a birthday—usually a party with their friends on Halloween, followed by neighborhood “trick or treating,” an annual U.S. tradition. 

Lionel took a job with U.S. Steel South Works and worked there for 30 years. The boys loved and excelled at baseball. The family was very involved in the Little League program. Maria volunteered at the concession stand. 

Dave showed a lot of promise as a young ball player. He would go on to compete on the Bowen High School team, winner of the city championship. He also played baseball for University of Illinois Circle Campus. He retained his baseball friendships his entire life. He died at age 65 of Pancreatic Cancer. In 2023 his friends dedicated the university coach’s suite in his memory. 

The Jeffrey Manor neighborhood where the brothers grew up, was a warm and friendly place for the family. There were children in every home on the block. Many of the parents were either Holocaust survivors, or U.S. World War II veterans. 

In 1972, the family moved from Chicago to the nearby suburb of Calumet City, Ill. This is where Donny attended high school and became a competitive tennis player. The family joined Temple B’nai Yehuda in Homewood, Ill., and Miriam became an active member in B’nai B’rith Women and volunteered at the local hospital and the soup kitchen in a community shelter. 

Miriam and Lionel maintained their connection to Mannheim after the death of her father in 1966. They returned every few years to visit with her Studniberg cousins and oversee an apartment building.

Throughout her life in the U.S. Miriam remained close with Rachel Greene Rottersman, who became like a second mother to her. She looked to Rachel for advice on life, child rearing and cooking. 

Miriam’s children were nearly grown by the early 1970s. Donny was an independent high school student, playing tennis, basketball and preparing for college. Davey, recently discharged from the National Guard, was a student at the University of Illinois Circle Campus. He was preparing for his career as an accountant and playing on the university baseball team. Lionel was still working hard at the U.S. Steel South Works plant. 

In April of 1983, Miriam and Lionel attended the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors in Washington, D.C., along with more than 20,000 other survivors and their families. That experience opened a Pandora’s Box for Miriam. 

Miriam had a lot more free time and she tried to fill it with volunteer work with her temple, B’nai B’rith and the hospital. But her memories of the war continued to cast a shadow on her life. 

Soon both her sons were married. Dave and his wife, Hollis, had their first child, Michael in 1983. Don and his wife, Nancy had a son, Mark, in 1987. More grandchildren followed over the years. 

Though thrilled to be a grandmother, she carried a burden, because she had never really shared the details of her war experiences with her children. While they understood her history and had an idea of what happened, it was never discussed. 

Miriam’s first effort at telling her story was recorded on audio cassette tape through the Yale Archives. She played this tape for her family for the first time in the late 1980s. 

In 1996, she recorded a video biography for the USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education (formerly Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation). After Lionel retired, the couple moved to a new house in Schererville, Indiana. She became more active in the Jewish community and her status as a Holocaust Survivor was noted. She was considered a “Hidden Child”—a young survivor who had been sent away by her parents to save her life. As older survivors passed away, the Jewish Federation of Northwest Indiana asked her to visit schools and tell her story. 

Later, as part of a support group of “Hidden Children” she contributed a chapter for the book, “Out of Chaos” edited by Elaine Fox. 

Miriam firmly believed that she survived to have children, grandchildren and great grandchildren to spite Hitler and the Nazis. She thought it was her duty to tell her story and make sure people did not forget what happened to her and her family and the Jews in Europe.

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Miriam Webster's grandchildren: Michael Webster, Benjamin Webster, Rachel Webster Finn; Mark Webster, Sarah Webster, Joseph Webster 

Miriam Webster's great grandchildren: Peyton Webster, David Webster, George Webster