Thursday, May 24, 2007

Grandson's trip home


I've recently been corresponding with an American engineering professor whose grand parents were from Przemysl. Prof. Danny's story has loads of interesting tidbits about our town from before the Shoah.

He's heading back this summer to try and locate his grandmother's grave.
In our October 2005 visit, with the help of a good Polish friend, and the good memory of my mother, who lives in Rechovot Israel, we were able to find the house she was born in Slowackiego 47, where my grandfather Avraham Schwartz had a tobacco and liqueur store.
Where, no doubt, my grandfather bought cigarettes...
The cemetery is on the same street and the lot between it and the Catholic cemetery belonged to my grandfather, who used the money to move the ENTIRE family to Haifa in 1937.
Thank Ha-shem for that!
The communal grave of the 102 Nazi victims from 1939 is on the edge of my grandfather land lot. My Grandmother Batia Yahre Schwartz is buried there (died around 1931/2) and my mother remembers that she was placed in area No. 6 of the cemetery.
Does anyone know or have a map of the cemetery layout?
We visited the Scheinbach synagogue, on the same street, and it is in great condition as a public library. My grandfather was the Ba'al Kore, before he left for Palestine.
Baal Kore is the Torah reader
We found at Koleyova 5 (the train street) the 5 story building that my uncle, Shemuel Schwarz, the architect, had built and lived on the top floor. We also found the photo studio of my uncle, on Slowackiego, just as it gets to the downtown. He was active in the Temple synagogue.

We could not find my mother's school: Hebrisca Schola Co-Edcatzina on Ulicia Gurna (the hill street).
Anyone know what became of this school?

Labels: ,

Saturday, May 19, 2007

A few notes

Shalom to everyone... I apologize for the light blogging this past month... life just got a bit busier than I had expected... a few quick items:

1. Lukasz B is putting together a collectin of original photos of pre-war Jewish Polish towns for a major exhibition. If you have any old pictures that you would be willing to allow us to scan and use, please email me.

2. I have been looking at Mitchell Levins wonderful This day... in Jewish History site every day-and every day I learn something new. Check it out!

3. Our friend Michal of Rent in Shekels fame will be visiting Przemysl this summer. She asks for pointers on where to stay, and who and what to see. Again, email me and I will forward. Thanks!

Przemysl Slicha - Update to the update

I have forgotten to mention the name of the person who translated the Slicha into English: Jerrold Landau. Thank you for your wonderful work, Mr. Landau!