The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. has acquired a collection of artifacts documenting the survival story of Halina (Kurc) and Adam Eichenwald, members of the Kurc family whose experiences during the Holocaust were chronicled in the popular book and 2024 Hulu miniseries, We Were the Lucky Ones.
The collection was donated by Miami resident Ricardo Eichenwald and his family, and includes original documents that were essential to his parents' survival.
The Kurc family, who owned a successful fabric business, lived in Radom, Poland, before World War II. After Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland in September 1939, Adam Eichenwald was mobilized into the Polish Army. Halina and Adam were later reunited in Lwów, where Adam became active in the Polish underground, specializing in creating forged documents.
The couple later lived under the identities of married Polish Christians Halina and Adam Brzoza in Warsaw.
After liberation in May 1945, Halina and Adam were reunited with her family in Łódź, Poland. They ultimately immigrated to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1946, joining Halina's brother Addy, who had been instrumental in hosting the family.
The donated collection includes:
- Halina Kurc and Adam Eichenwald’s passports and identification cards, with real and fake identities.
- Two architecture study notebooks belonging to Adam.
- Forged identification documents of Halina and Adam under the name Halina and Adam Brzoza, including an identification card, marriage certificate, and employment records.
Museum officials said they are in a race against time to rescue evidence of the Holocaust “as the survivor generation passes,” underscoring its mission to ensure the permanence of Holocaust memory and understanding.
“Many people know the story of the Kurc family through the book or miniseries We Were the Lucky Ones,” said Kyra Schuster, lead acquisitions curator at the Museum.
“This collection is special because it includes the original documents used by the Kurc family, which were essential to their survival," Schuster said. "People who only know the family through their story will have an immediate personal connection when they see these documents and have a better understanding that these were actual events that occurred to real people.”
Ricardo Eichenwald, who was born shortly before his parents' 1946 journey to Brazil, grew up hearing stories of their adventures but not about the Holocaust.
“My father’s sister and young nephew were killed during the Holocaust, so for him, it was too painful of an experience to talk about,” said Ricardo Eichenwald. “He didn’t even apply to receive compensation funds from the German government.”
The family's story gained international attention following the 2017 publication of We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter, the granddaughter of Addy Kurc. Coinciding with the 2024 Hulu series premiere, 30 members of the extended Kurc family, including Ricardo, came to the Museum in person to donate the artifacts.
“It was natural for us to give these photos and mementos to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum so they could be shared and appreciated by visitors and people beyond our family,” Ricardo Eichenwald said. “This is not ours anymore, but the fact that it will be classified, organized and preserved gave us certainty that future generations will better understand survivors’ way of life.”
