Helene Rosenbach Deutsch

I've just learned about Przemysl-born Helene Deutsch in an email from a Polish journalist living in Vienna. Born Helene Rosenbach in 1884, she lead an extraordinary life.  After a brief affair with Polish socialist leader Herman Lieberman, she traveled to Vienna and joined Sigmund Freud's infamous Wednesday night meetings of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, first becoming his assistant and later, colleague. She moved to Boston in 1936 and died in 1982 leaving behind pioneering work in woman's psychoanalysis and psychology.

I'm a Polish journalist living in Vienna. I have a very close relation to Przemysl, the hometown of my mother and my summer stays during my childhood (not so remote, whatsoever!).

I wanted to draw your attention to a fascinating biography of Helen Deutsch. Born in Przemysl, she was Sigmund Freud's long time assistant and later successful authoress and psychoanalytic in the US. Her autobiography "Confrontations with Myself", containing a description of her childhood environment was published originally in 1973, got translated to Polish only in 2008. This book was greeted with much interests and brought anew attention to Przemysl's Jewish past. This is also when I realized that the house Helene Deutsch would grew up in (described in her memoir) , was the same house that the family of my mother lived!

Also in Vienna the biography of Helene Deutsch is again brought to light. In 2000 a city park was named after her. In 2008 in the in the campus yard of the main university of Vienna, an artistic intervention took place. Its aim was to change the male-dominated image of this institution. The plates with the names of female scientists were put on the 154 busts of their (male) famous colleagues, a.o. Helene Deutsch was remembered.

For some time I've tried to document Deutsch's biography and those latest signs of commemoration, ie running the blog: rynek26.blogspot.com. I had the privilege to get in touch with Dr. Sanford Gifford (1918-2013), who was one of the closest friends and colleagues of the Deutsch family, after they moved to the USA. I also know about an extensive collection of private documents which is stored at Harvard University. It contains Deutsch's notes and research on Przemysl. Attached to this email I'm sending you some excerpts that I could receive - should you once be interested in exploring this archive, I'd love to help you!

There are many other biographies linked to Przemysl (and Vienna as well), a.o. Karl Duldig or Franz Marek , but anyway, I'm keeping my finger crossed for your very valuable work! I hope there is not only the past, but also the future for the Jewish life in Przemysl!

Warm greetings from Vienna,

Happy scenes in Przemysl 2 years before the Shoah

From blog-friend Michal in Israel:

Skiing Przemysl's Tatar hill with the Yeti?

Some pre-war photos of my grandmother's parents and sisters, the city is Przemysl in Poland and it's about 1937.  My grandmother loved dogs and she worked as a pharmacist all her life. Except my grandmother who escaped to Leninbad during the war they were all murdered by 1942. I'm always looking for information about Bethauer, Dawid and Kudesch families from Przemysl and L'vov.

The happy dogs of Przemysl!

Strolling...

The family store

Laura/Lea Walder (Bethauer) - Michal's GGM

2014 Przemysl Cemetery Appeal

Please help us again this year with a generous donation to fund the yearly maintenance effort.

Dear Friend of Jewish Przemysl,

Again, it is time to ask for your help in maintaining the Przemysl’s Jewish cemetery.

As you know, the cemetery sits on a hill, and this year, undermined grave foundations, washed out pathways, and soil erosion/vegetative overgrowth from storms has been particularly bad – and costly to repair.

While we have a host of upgrade projects waiting on financial sponsors - constructing a path through the whole of the cemetery so that the older parts are more accessible and creating historical brochure for the cemetery to give visitors historical perspective, to name but two - 100% of the funds we are asking you to contribute today are needed just to keep us ahead of the elements.

US tax-deductible donations may be sent to:

Remembrance and Reconciliation, Inc. 

 c/o David Semmel 2256 E Gramercy Park Dr. Bloomington, IN 47408

Or by PayPal at: http://www.remembrance-reconciliation.org/contribute.php

While you will hear much, much more from us in the coming months regarding Przemysl’s Scheinbach Synagogue, formerly used as the town’s library, we invite you to click this link for a little teaser of what is coming: http://www.jewish-heritage-europe.eu/2014/07/22/update-on-state-of-przemysl-synagogue-new-challenges

And please, click below and “LIKE” us on Facebook! It is the best way to stay current on R&R news and to connect with others interested in Jewish Przemysl. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Remembrance-and-Reconciliation-Foundation-Inc/122028827857921

Thank you for helping to preserve the cemetery-and soon, the Scheinbach Synagogue, two of the remaining Jewish treasures in Przemysl, Poland.

Warm regards,

David Semmel
John Hartman
Marla Raucher Osborn

For Remembrance and Reconciliation, Inc.

Update on state of Przemyśl synagogue: new challenges

In an article she wrote for Jewish Heritage Europe last month, blog-friend Marla alerts us to some potentially troubling news about roof leaks at Przemysl's Scheinbach Synagogue.

Built between 1910 and 1918, the synagogue was used as a stable by the Nazis, then a textile warehouse after WW2. Since the late 1960s it has housed the city’s public Library: the Library recently moved out to new premises. The building was restituted back to Jewish ownership (via the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage, or FODŻ) in 2006; the city of Przemyśl has been paying rent on the building, and under the terms of its lease its obligations to pay rent and perform routine maintenance continue through 2016.

The Old Jewish Hospital and Cemetery

Blog-friend Marla found this wonderful Pre-War photo of the entrance to the Przemyal Jewish Hospital on ul. Słowackiego Street. Across the street was the old Jewish cemetery, today a vacant lot.

Across the road Domicela and Marla stand at the site of the 'old' Jewish cemetery; the entrance gate is all that remains.

Przemysl B'nai B'rith

Longtime blog-friend Michal recently discovered that her great-grandfather, Dr. Oswald Bethauer, was the president of B'nai B'rith in the Przemysl area in 1937.

I have attached two files: one is the book of all the Bnei Brith organizations in Poland in 1937 including Przemysl, and the other is a picture of my GGF with a pin of the symbol of Bnei Brith on the jacket.

Family Silverman

From e-landesmann William:

Shalom David,

I am trying to trace ancestors with very little real hard info but I might get lucky!

Based on a bunch of photographs taken in Przemysl around 1875 (also some in Lviv) and a little census info, I am looking for Solomon Silverman b1827 with daughter Esther b1855 Have you any info on these please?

Regards, William

William sent me a trove of post cards. His great grandfather is to the left. He is not sure who many of the people below are, other than that they seem to be related to the Silvermans of Przemysl.

My grandfather was Emanuel Silberman. I don't think we are closely related.

Anyone look familiar?

Remembrance and Reconciliation on Facebook

Thanks to the ever-energetic Marla, Remembrance and Reconciliation Foundation, Inc. is now on Facebook. LIKE it here!

 In addition to updating on R&R's ongoing work of maintaining and restoring the Przemysl Jewish Cemetery, our Facebook page is the place for announcements of exciting new initiatives, like our current proposal to convert the former Scheinbach Synagogue building in Przemyśl into a Galician Cultural Center which would be used for historical, artistic, cultural, and religious purposes.

 And if that's not enough, the page is constantly posting interesting photos, videos, and comments covering all things of interest to Jewish Przemysl, including the photo below from the YIVO archives:

Notice of daily low-cost lunches available at the kehile for individuals and families, Przemyśl c. 1926

Bina

From time to time I wonder why I bother keeping this blog up. Last week I was reminded why.

I had just received an email from yet another brother/sister of Jewish Przemysl looking for any traces of their family that still may exist. One of the items she forwarded was the birth certificate of her Przemysl father.  I looked over it, marveling as I always do at the tight calligraphy of pre-typewriter data collection.  Then I saw something that I had not seen before.

Under Column 10 "akuszera," (midwife) was the name "Bina Silberman." Bina, born Blima Malz, happens to be my great-grandmother. 

Bina was, and still is, the stuff of deep family lore. She was always described as not a midwife, but as the midwife of Przemysl. She delivered everyone's grandparents. Of course, there was no picture, no real sense of who she might have been as a person. When I wrote my novel about pre-WWI Przemysl, The 11th of Av, she became one of my main characters in the form of Gitla, the town's mystical midwife.

Dig deep enough and I'm related to you. Dig deeper and our distant relations were best friends. Your grandfather sold mine their dairy. Mine made your family's armoire. That's why we all search and keep searching, because is some way, we are all connected.

Found Missing matzevot in Przemysl

This is an update to an earlier post on Jeff:. Does anyone know the answer to his three questions, below?

The photo below was taken in the Przemysl cemetery in 1949. It shows the matzevot of my great grandmother, Rachela Nadel (died 1944), and my her nephew, Tzwi Leizer Rosiner (died 1943 and interred in Jewish cemetery in 1949).

Last week I sent someone to the cemetery and he located the matzevah of Tzwi Leizer Rosiner. It is clear from the photos attached to this email that the matzevah had been toppled off of its original location and when the cemetery was renovated the matzevah was accidentally placed on the foundation of another grave, just off to the left-hand side. In other words, the Rosiner matzevah is now on the grave of another person. Please see the photos attached.

You can see from the 1949 photo the metal enclosure/fence of the other grave which is still present today. Unfortunately, my great grandmother's matzevah is no longer there.

The questions that I have are as follows:

1. Do we need to contact anyone to obtain permission to remove the Rosiner matzevah from its current location and place it back where it should be?

2. Do we need to contact anyone to obtain permission to place a new matzevah up where my great grandmother's matzevah used to be?

3. Can you recommend anyone in Poland who I can hire to create new matzevah with hebrew letters and move the Rosiner matzevah?

Best regards/Kol Tuv,

Jeff

Looking for family Stein

Dear Sir,

I am a daughter of Stefan Stein, a Holocaust survivor born in Przemyśl (Poland). My father’s mother, four brothers and a sister were killed in Holocaust; my father survived the war at Horodenka, in my mother’s family home.

I am trying to get some knowledge about the life of my family killed in Holocaust, because I don’t want that they fall into oblivion. Also, I have a dream to find a trace of a member of the family who survived the Holocaust, and whose children or grandchildren are alive.

I have never known any family from the side of my father; even one photo have not remained. The only traces after those people are the documents, which luckily remained untouched in the Office of Przemyśl and in the Archive of Przemyśl. Thanks to them, I could construct my little family tree, but still I have no trace of any living family member and I didn’t find any photo.

I live in Poland (in Łódź), I am a retired teacher of mathematics. I have no family except my sister Irena. I would like to join some research group to work together; we could exchange sources of information about Przemyśl, perhaps find some photos. I know a little Yiddish and Hebrew.

Ms. Marla Raucher Osborn, whom I met in the Facebook, in the “Polish-Jewish matters” group and in the Polish “Drugie pokolenie” (Second Generation)group, advised me to contact you.

I would be very happy if you could help me to join a group working on Przemyśl. As you don't know me, I am sending, in the attachment, the copy of my father’s (Dawid Stein) birth certificate from Przemyśl.

Yours truly

Krystyna

Missing matzevot in Przemysl

Photos and an email from a long-time Jewish Przemysl supporter:

I am attaching three photos which were taken in the new Przemysl cemetery in 1945 or 1946. I have seen some videos on youtube of the cemetery but have not noted the memorial stones that are the first two photos of this attachment. I thought that you might be interested in them for historical reasons.

(photo credit Hirsch Dingott zt'l, all rights reserved)

More importantly, I am very interested in locating the two matzevot on the third photo which have a fence around them. The grave of Ruchla Nadel (left) is that of my great grandmother. She died on the day that she was liberated by the Russians. I was in the cemetery two times but was not able to locate these stones. The Rosiner grave on the right is that of Ruchla Nadel's nephew. I only recently obtained these photos and did not have them when I visited the cemetery. I assume that the Nadel plaque has been vandalized. However, with this photo, I am hoping that I may be able to locate the foundation of the graves and then have new ones erected.

By any chance do you have photos of all of the matzevot in the cemetery including those that are destroyed? Do you know someone in Przemysl that I can hire to survey the cemetery with the photo and try to locate the graves.

This is a project we really need to get going on. The cemetery is huge and only a small portion of it is well preserved. Knowing what is where is the first step to uncovering all that is there.

Best regards, Jeff

All saints day in Przemysl Jewish cemetery

thanks to John Hartman

Professor Mario Hübner Lehrer

 Dr. Pablo Santiago Hübner Varela, from Montevideo, Uruguay, is searching for information on his father Professor Mario Hübner Lehrer (1925-2008) who was born in Nizankowice, south east of Przemyśl just over the present-day Ukrainian border. He was descended from a long line of rabbis and scholars and after immigrating to Uruguay with is parents he went to university became a noted scientist. Pictured below, he converted to Catholicism in 1950.

If you have any information on his family  you can email him at hublan(at)netgate[dot]com[dot]uy

Pablo writes:

My father was Jew, my mother Spaniard. He born zadik Kohen, family of Rabbis, chief of Jewish communities, Town Hall Council etc. For me is important all about Lehrer Family, Hübner family, Nizankowice, Nyzhankovychi specially where born my father. Also Dobromyl an Bircza where HÜbner comes from and Lwow,Lviv, Lemberg. Also Lublin and Krakow.

Grandfather ABRAM JAKOB LEHRER

Great-grandfather Abram Jakob Lehrer with friends walking in Nizankowice

Mania Lehrer Ganz in Przemysl

Abram Jakob Lehrer at Yeshiva Jajma Lublin,1930 near him is his son, the future Rabbi Efraim Lehrer Ganz

My father Mario, Majer, besides him Naftali Hübner his father, Chaja Hinda or Hela Lehrer Ganz, Hübner by marriage and the eldest people, Abram Jakob Lehrer and his wife Leah Ganz (really Lehrer by marriage and birth.