Family Herzfeld

December, 2021 - Some updates from Samuel

Regarding the article on my family that is published on your blog there are a few elements that should be corrected - we received some new info this year from Mr. Diamond (JRI Poland).

List of siblings : Malvina, born in 1914 (not 1905)

We can add Rachla, born in 1902, died in 1918 from tuberculosis.

The family picture was actually taken in ca. 1916, not in 1921. My grandfather Eliasz is actually not in the picture (he wasn’t born at that time). The baby right to the mother is Malvina and the teenage girl is Rachla.

Like most of these tales, it starts with an email...

My grandfather was Eliasz Herzfeld, born in Przemysl on October 5th, 1919.

He was in the Przemysl ghetto until the very end of its existence and was then deported to Stalowa Wola labour camp in 1943. He escaped miraculously and hid until the end of the war. All his relatives who were in Przemysl at the time of WWII perished in the Holocaust, either in the gas chambers of Belzec or in the Przemysl ghetto, a question mark that remains unanswered to us.

His siblings were:
- Izak Herzfeld, born on April 9th 1904, married to Beracha
  Tenenbaum. They had a child, Hadasa Herzfeld, born on
  September 5th, 1932.
- Malvina Herzfeld, born c. 1905
- Markus Herzfeld, born on August 12th, 1906.
- Aron Herzfeld, born on March 1st, 1911. He immigrated
   to Belgium before WWII and hid during the war.
  He passed away in 2013 at the age of 102.
- Moische Herzfeld, born on January 16th, 1913.

His parents were Salomon Herzfeld, of whom we unfortunately don’t know much (no picture, no place & date of birth) and Dwojra Tanenbaum, born on August 5th, 1878 in Przemysl.

If you have any information concerning the Herzfeld & Tanenbaum families from Przemysl, or might know anybody who could help, I would be much grateful. Samuel

The Herzfeld family in Przemysl c.1921- left to right: Aron ; Moische ; the mother Dwojra ; Eliasz; Malvina and Markus . Absent from the picture are Izak and the father Salomon. Aron and Eliasz were the only members of the family to survive the Holocaust.

Aron (3rd from L) and friends in Przemysl (the Rynek?) c. 1928

Aron in the Chorus of the synagogue c. 1924

Private investor buysthe house in which 13 Jews found shelter during World War II

From Virtual Shtetl:

NEWS

2015-05-22

ENTREPRENEUR WANTS TO SAVE THE HOUSE - A JEWISH HIDEOUT

In Przemyśl, a private investor has purchased a house in which 13 Jews found shelter during World War II. He wants to preserve this place for future generations.

The place in question is the old tenement house at 3 Tatarska Street. Since 1942 up to the liberation, two orphan girls – 16 years old Stefania Podgórska and her 9 years old sister Helena – had provided an asylum to the Diamant family of 13 people. They all survived the war. After the war, Stefania Podgórska married one of the rescued Jews – Maksymilian Diamant.

In 1979, both women were awarded the title of the Righteous Among the Nations.

In 1996, this extraordinary story became a base of the film “Hidden in Silence” directed by Richard A.Colla.

Three years ago, the deserted and neglected building at 3 Tatarska Street was put up for sale. Social workers and politicians came forward with various ideas concerning its future. There were suggestions, for instance, to make the building over to the Foundation of Jewish Heritage in return for giving up a part of claims concerning the restitution of property of the former Jewish community in Przemysl.

In April, the house was purchased by Maciej Piórkowski, owner of a private enterprise “Orion” dealing with renovation of monuments of history.

During today’s telephone conversation with a representative of the Virtual Shtetl website, Maciej Piórkowski said: “You can call it a whim but I wanted to save the historic building from oblivion and preserve it for the sake of its history. I do not have any precise plans at this stage. I would like the house to be accessible to visitors where they would be able, for example, to watch a film telling the story of hiding Jews there.”

The house is in a poor technical condition. Now, the new owner faces a difficult challenge of renovating it.

Author: Krzysztof Bielawski
Sources: Polskie Radio Rzeszów, own information

Poland National Day of Judaism in Przemysl

Our friend Domicela shared videos from the Jewish cemetery.


OGOLNOPOLSKI DZIEN JUDAIZMU - PRZEMYSL

Part 2

Part 3

The Story of Mann

As we have become accustomed to, Lukasz in Warsaw comes through with the answers regarding Family of Mann:

Hello David,

I owe you some stories on Przemysl. The last question about Manns deserves an answer. Fasten your belt, I'll take you and Kenny on a ride.

"His sister's name was Clara, I believe.", writes Kenny. Klara died in 1941 and her tombstone is among not so many (ca. 750 out of thousands) that survived.

The sentence on the plaque of Klara's tomb reads: "To my mum who taught me to be eternally young. Son."

What's more, we have a story about her funeral, written by her granddaughter. This is a piece:

“I’m on Slowackiego Street. A little higher up is the Jewish cemetery, where my grandmother was buried during the winter. I think back to her wretched funeral: that little coffin on the rickety cart, Mother and I following behind. I go to the cemetery. […] It’s quiet and peaceful in the cemetery. Fat insects crawl over the grass. The old stone grave markers tell the histories of former families. The gold letters of the shining sepulchres call to those who have gone and assure them of the impeccably good taste of those who have remained. My grandmother’s grave is off to the side. In the beaten clay a black marker has been stuck. ‘Klara Mann, born… died 12 XII 1941’... a beginning and an end. I stand by my grandmother’s grave but I do not cry. I am not thinking any more of her lonely death. She loved me so much. In my thoughts I beg her to help me rescue my parents and my brother.”

Sounds familiar? Yes, this is a part of memoirs I uploaded at ARC website years ago.

Aleksandra Mandel was the daughter of Salomea Mandel (born Mann), Klara's daughter, and Aleksander Mandel. She was the only survivor. She later changed her first name to Cecylia. Diminutive of Cecylia is Cesia (pron. Tsesha) and it must be "someone known as Aunt Tseckia", as Kenny writes. Kenny may not remember that Cesia visited them in Africa, sometime in 60's. This visit was foreseen in prophetical conversation in Przemysl ghetto, moments before it's liquidation started:

"‘To turn my Mother’s sad thoughts to other things – my Mother, who is so bravely bearing the burden of our poverty – I hug and kiss her, and talk to her about my uncle, who from far, from Africa, writes to us through Switzerland and who will certainly help us as soon as the war finishes.

“And you, Mama, will be the first great lady of Africa, and Tata and Jozio will eat bananas for breakfast and pineapples for dinner.”

Mama looks around at our shabby little room, at the lamentably empty cupboard, at the unlit stove, and says: “Child, you might see it, but my grave will be growing grass by then…”

And next passage:

“The Gestapo bang on our window.

“We’re coming,” says Tata, “Here you are, my watch, it will stay with you.” He puts the old watch that was his father’s down on the buffet.

“Think that you were with us on a ship during a wreck, and we went down, while a life buoy brought you to shore...”

“Uncle will ask you to Africa after the war,” Mother adds.

Here is the most disinterested, sublime love in the world. Even now my parents don’t think of themselves.”

After the war Aleksandra/Cesia lived in one of Galician towns and worked as a journalist, like her father. She wrote an article about her african trip which is remembered there.

She and her husband founded an obelisk at Przemysl cemetery commemorating her parents and her brother.

The rest is also true - her son Oles and a grandson Maciek are well known photographers indeed, now in Krakow.

Aleksandra deposited her memories in 1946 at Jewish Historical Commission in Krakow. They are kept at Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw now.

I wish you, all your family, and Kenny too, sweet and peaceful New Year.
And Gmar Hatima Tova.

Lukasz

A Catholic Woman Remembers Przemysl

CORRECTION! Hello, I am the Renata mentioned in this blog. One correction ... I was born in New York City in 1951, not in Przemysl. My mother, Wanda Michniowska, was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1911, also not in Przemysl. Her parents were from Poland and came to the States for ten years, as newlyweds, to earn money. They flipped brownstones in Brooklyn, had three children born to them there, two of whom died in infancy. They finally returned to Poland after World War I. They bought a beautiful, Beaux Arts apartment building at the current address,
. My mother lived there until 1947, when she returned to the USA in hopes of finding work to help support her widowed mother and older brother, still living in devastated, war-torn Przemysl. 

 I've had a fascinating back-and-forth with Renata - a Catholic woman born in Przemysl. She found me while doing research on her tree; it seems we have an intersection. The Jerzy she mentions, below, was the step son of my great uncle, Izaac (Edward) Metzger. His story, and how he came to adopt Jerzy, is outlined here.

My mother was from Przemysl, so I enjoyed reading a bit of its' history, and Anna Wojtowicz, Jerzy's wife, is a distant cousin of mine. We've both been working on our mutual family tree and her husband, Jerzy, hoped that we would find out what became of his father. While that question has not been answered, at least your article sheds some light on the subject. Thank you! I appreciate the time, effort and work that went into returning to Poland for answers and writing this.

Isaac + Family

After I responded, we talked about our connection - In 1939, Izaac Metzger went off to join the Red Army fighting the Nazis, just like his Catholic neighbor. Both men left wives and children behind in Przemysl. Isaac survived to return to Przemysl; his neighbor did not. His wife and children were gone, murdered. He ended up marrying this neighbor's widow - Aneila, adopted her young son Jerzy, and started calling himself Edward.

More from Renata:

Edward/Isaac

I think people's lives are so interesting, that in many cases it IS almost like reading an intense piece of fiction. Your uncle, Isaac/Edward is a prime example. It was emotionally moving to see a picture of him with his wife and four little children, looking happy and fulfilled, and to imagine how he must've felt when he returned home from war to learn that his whole family had been eradicated. I'm amazed that he had the resiliency to start life over again with someone else, that he didn't just curl up into a bitter ball of hate and despair, as many did. Aniela was still relatively young when they married and I'm surprised they didn't have any children of their own, but nevertheless, both of them seemed to make the most of their own, horrible situations and obviously must've found comfort in sharing their mutual burdens. It sounds as though he liked his stepson, Jerzy who obviously needed a father figure. Still, a Polish/Jewish connection must've been a difficult way for both him and Aniela to live. My understanding from my mother's stories, from the era in which she lived in Poland (1919-1949) was that Jews were not generally liked in Przemysl. There was a lot of prejudice against them and probably envy as well. Some were persecuted, especially the orthodox ones that really stood out. My mother was born in Brooklyn and moved back to Poland with her parents when she was 8. She used to tell me about how tough it was to get accepted by her classmates when her parents uprooted her and took her back to the old country. Her new classmates didn't like her because she was a well-to-do American girl (in their eyes) and it was the Jewish girls, who understood ostracism, who welcomed her into their circle and helped her get up to speed in her new school and maintained warm friendships with her until everyone scattered to go to college, so she developed good relationships with Jewish people in Przemysl, but I think that was the exception.

Maybe after the war, anything went. People were just trying to survive and move forward, but prior to the war, Aniela would've had a hard time living in Przemysl, being openly married to a Jewish man, although he tried to become integrated; had a "street name," had a last name that could've just passed for German, and didn't look strikingly Jewish.

Click below to read more...

Read more »

Postcards from Przemysl

Posted below are post cards sent from Przemysl to relations in Basel. One of the things that makes these so interesting are the dates - 1943 - right in the midst of the holocaust. The Nazi cancellations and Hitler stamps are disturbing reminders of the awful backdrop of that year.

Original email from Charles:

My grandmother Lifsia Intrator was born In Przemysl and a great part of her family lived there. She had 9 brothers and sisters and several of them died in the Shoa. I had the opportunity to see a number of old postcards written to my late grand-aunt Cescha who lived in Basel by one of their sisters Hadassa Eisenberg Intrator and some friends.

I found several, to me unknown names: Frieda Blech ( maybe also Frieda Rubenfeld) Pola Ungar,. There is also a postcard in Polish that I do not understand but where

Charles Mahler Antwerp Belgium.

Chick to see Charles' family history: "Israel Intrator in Przemysl."

Anyone care to take a stab at a translation?

Moses Rubinfeld of Rybotycze near Przemysl

Over the transom comes a wonderful letter (as received) and a link to a very nicely done website about Rybotycze, a small town about 15 miles southwest of Przemysl. The image below is of the town's synagogue, painted from an old black and white photo.

My name is Moysey Rubinfeld,born Rybotycze near Przemysl.

I'll visited very often Przemysl an help renowate the jewisz cemetery,work together with mr.Gletner. Erect a memorial for all jewish people who were perished by the nazis Al Kidush Haszem. Also I'll absolutly renowated the jewish cemetery in Rybotycze, lift up more thet hundred stones /matzejwes/, makes a a fense around the cemetery and build a memorial. If you will be interested I can send you pictures.

Also you can take alook at my internet site WWW.FORUM-RYBOTYCZE.pl

Best wiszhes

M.Rubinfeld

From his site:

Moses Rubinfeld

This is the text of the letter (in original spelling) sent to the participants of Polish-German-Israeli meeting of young people and the inhabitants of the Rybotycze place, 30 July 2007.

Honorable visitors, friends, compatriots!

I want to apologize very much, please forgive me I am not present here and I cannot meet with you. My age and health condition do not allow me to go on such journeys any more. But I was born here, in Poland, in Rybotycze, my first years, though very hard, I spent in a beautiful and never forgotten town-Cracow and everywhere I go, I always go from Rybotycze. Fragments of gauges from Rybotycze's synagogue saved by Tadeusz Kowalik, donated to Moses Rubinfeld, before emigration from Russia to the USA. They are now exhibited in the museum YAD VA SHEM in Jerusalem and in the Museum of Holocaust in Washington. In 1939 when I was returning from Cracow, because the war began, several of my peers stayed in Rybotycze, it was possible to talk to them about memories of our childhood, it was before 1955 - when I arrived after the war I was only by myself, there was only me. There is a simple poem: "Everything passes slowly, great luck and everything that hurts, everything passes as our destination wants and only one thing stays- the memory " Noemi Szac. I have been traveling throughout Poland for 60 years, by car, by train and it brings only the memory of these times, when by all those means Jews were transported only in one direction -the direction of their extinction. Strolling in Rybotycze, as the only Jew who has survived here, I used to go from one house to another asking just one question :" What happened here with my family, father, brothers, relatives and with all other Jews of this village. There was only one answer: we do not know anything, we did not see anything! For a person with the normal way of thinking answers like that can create a suspicion, whether all the people in such a place have both their hands and their conscience clean. Close your eyes and try to imagine how this small town looked like 60 years ago, where Poles lived next to Jews and Ukrainians - a colourful world where Polish, Yiddish and Ukrainian sounded. After all this, it is hard to imagine that in such place there were neighbours who helped Germans to murder innocent people - children, women, and eldery people. They burgled houses and synagogues, you can still find in their flats some rests of stolen things. Why am I mentioning this? By it, I want to emphasize that, as the president of Poland has said, the neighbours differed: some of them were arsonist and thieves, the others were saving human lives. Also barns differed, some were burnt with alive people inside, in the others people were saved. I have a very big experience when it comes to this issue. I remember when in Cracow on Shoemaker's Street and on the market at Wedel's, there were inscriptions:entrance - Jews and dogs not allowed. But I will also never forget it, when a Polish soldier saved my life in 1939. Escaping on foot from Cracow, at night, I hooked for a train, which was going on east, in the morning I found out that I arrived to Rzeszów, here two young soldierds took me to the Commander of military station, who did not want to hear my explanations and gave an order to shot me down as a German spy. While they were taking me to to the railway station, this soldier came, a former director of an army canteen, which was situated in Cracow, and with which our company had business. He stopped us and ordered to release me. And now, traveling from Cracow to Przemyśl via Rzeszów I am affraid of taking photos here as I do not want to be charged of being an American spy (a joke). I can remember the first time after the war when I went to Rybotycze, everybody was looking at me as at a kind of a hero from a fairy tale, some of them were even touching me with their hands, it was hard to belive that there is a Jew who had survived. Some of them were staring ame with displeasure, they were surely affraid that I came back for my heritage, for the square where my house had beensituated, for my land. But it was, and still is, something that I do not need. I just want to commemorate the memory of our parents, brothers, sisters, all Jews from our town who were innocently murdered and I have not been able to explain so far where they are buried, though, it seems to me that some people know it. Jewish cemetery on Polish land is a house of alive people, not the dead ones. (Szewach Weiss-a former ambassador of Israel in Poland) If we want our tombs to be respected somewhere in the world we have to respect these tombs which are situated on our land too. . /priest Bartminski-Krasiczyn/ I am still related this country, I have a citizen status of Poland, which surprises some of my acquaintances, but I was born here, lived here, I lost here all my relatives, a beautiful girl with whom I falled in love and who was murdered with her family. Sometimes I ask myself: why only I have survived when everybody else was murdered? But even now, after 60 years, I cannot answer this question, even though, during those 60 years I have managed with my wife to build a family - we have two daughters, two grandsons, they are independent and help each other. In 2000, I found a woman whose parents were from Rybotycze, her name was Rachel Salik, after her mother - Gans, it was her cousin with whom I was in love. The monument of her mother, who was killed in Auschwitz, is on the cemetery in Przemyśl. The girl died in April 2007 and was buried in Paris. I have been always looking for somebody, in August I managed to find, thanks to the Internet, my cousin in Paris, the daughter of my mother's brother, who had survived the war and lived in Paris, he died in 1990. Our meeteng, in September last year, was amazing. There met two people, two cousins, who knew about each other nothing. She has got a husband now, two children( a daughter who is married and has a child, and a son who is 28 now). They are all wealth but do not know anything about Rybotycze and they are not even interested in it. Rachel used to say that each of us should leave a trace, a memory of us. This trace will be a renovation of the cemetery in Rybotycze and a documentary film "The Lights of the House" and in which there is shown Rybotycze, a beautiful nature of the Carpaty mountains, fields and forests, streets with storks on pillars and roofs. The river Wiar, flowing from mountains and people living there. I am very pleased that so much has changed in Poland, new generations have grown up, they have a different way of thinking. Nowadays, one can meet young people from Israel, Germany and Poland in Rybotycze. My small town resemblances what it used to be, when there was a friendship between different nations. Let it be a begining of something new, something better. Finally, we understood that we are all children of one God, no matter what are the differences between us. We have to remember that a human being is not born to become a hero, but to become a good person. I get on realy well with my neighbours. The family of Mr. Jan Bakalus, his wife Magda and their children, they are all very good people. At first, it was we who were vistiting them, when our children were small, now they always wait for us. Everything what we managed to do here in Rybotycze and Przemyśl was partly because of Mr. Eugeniusz Bakalus's help. He was my plenipotentiary, spent a lot of time and effort on this project, also his wife helped a lot. Ending my memories, I would like to thank all the people who helped to renovate the cemetery in Rybotycze: the authorities of this province and city and the mayor of Przemyśl. Separate thanks for help to Mr. Z . Kopczakow head forester from Bircza and a forester from Rybotycze Mr. Z. Podgórny. I would also like to thank the organizers of this project and the participants of it.

Moses Rubinfeld

Anna, a young woman in the photo

More from Anna on Przemysl during the war:

Thank you for trying to help me to find the fate of my dentist Mr. Rosenblueth and his family.

I explain to you my friendly connection with him. He attended to my teeth for a number of years, as I needed correction as a little girl of eight. I and my parents were very grateful to him and later we became friends. Unfortunately, when the Germans bombed Przemysl on 7th Sept.1939 his house was hit and burned to the ground. He only managed to save his skeleton dentist chair which he transported to my parents at Dworskiego for safe keeping.

I email Anna and asked her three questions. First, "In the photo, which one are you?"

1. I am in the photo Anna Switalska in the first row second from the left between my friend Dziunia Gottdank and Maria Jurasz. (see below)

Next, I asked, "Are you Jewish?"

2. I am Polish but I had many Jewish friends.

And finally, "How did you and your family survive the war?"

3. This is a long story. When the war started I was 15 and still a pupil at the secondary school, Gimnazjum Kupieckie at Dworskiego 25. The Russians occupied half of Przemysl up to the river San. They evicted us from our flat and we had to live for 2 whole years in the cellars while they have enjoyed living in our flat including the kitchen. They re-named the school Molotow which I attended for further 2 years. When the Germans invaded Przemysl in June 1941, the Russian fled and we were able to get back into our flat. The Germans re-named the school Hoehere Handels Fachschule which I continued to attend until matriculation.

Then suddenly my father broke his leg. The Germans did not allow to send an ambulance for Poles, so it took 3 hours to wait for a passing cart to take him to hospital with an open wound. There was only one Ukrainian doctor and no penicillin. My father got gangrene and died at the age of 60.

After his death my mother's family in Vienna arranged for my mother and me to join them. As a foreigner (born in Poland) I had to clear the streets of Vienna after bombing in order to receive ration cards for food. When the war ended I could not believe that I am still alive. Through the British Cross in Vienna I managed to trace my brother who was missing for 6 years. He fought the Germans in the South (Tobruk, Monte Cassino etc.) with the Polish Army under Gen. Anders. My mother and I went immediately to Innsbruck and went to the Polish Red Cross. We paid 10 Dollars each to be taken by foot at night through the Alps (Brenner Pass) over the border to Italy to join my brother. We met in Verona and then went to Cingolli where he was stationed. After a month he brought the message from his Headquarters that all Poles cannot return to Poland because the Russians are still there and half of Poland in Russia, but Britain allowed them to come and live in England with their families.

We traveled to Britain and I am still living here, married with two grown up sons. My husband and I visited Przemysl once and I still have some friends there and am corresponding with them.

She concluded her note with a question back to me, and to all of this blog's readers:

By the way, who sent you the photograph? Are any of my Jewish colleagues and friends in the photo still alive?

Warm regards, Anna.

Did any of the young Jewish students in the photo survive the holocaust? I don't know.

Izio Felder's life in Przemysl

Izio (Izaac) Felder is a Przemysl native who survived the ghetto, transport, and the holocaust. He immigrated to Australia after the war. He was kind enough to share some of his recollections of pre-Shoah life in Przemysl with us:

How well I remember the Alte Shul (old school) and the place in front of it called "Rybi Plac," the fish-place. I passed that place every day; it was the center of Jewish life in Przemysl.

To the left of the synagogue, about 3 houses away, was the "Kahal," the building of the Jewish community of Przemysl. Another 2 houses to the left was my Polish school. To the right of the synagogue was a small lane where there was the entrance to a room in the Alte Shul which was called the little Beth Hamidrash. Further to the right was Ratuszowa Street which was also a very Jewish street. Opposite the Alte Shul was the Jewish bath house which was quite large and was owned by the "Kahal," the Jewish community of Przemysl. There were separate tiled bathtubs, a steam bath, and a mikvah. (see a map of Jewish Przemysl here)

My mother and other Jewish mothers have gone to the Fish place to make shopping. The peasants come there very early in the morning with such goods as butter, green vegetables, eggs, chicken, ducks, geese, potatoes, etc. Przemysl did not have greengrocer shops; it was all purchased directly from the peasants.

There was no such thing as buying dead plucked chickens. They had to be killed by the religious shohet. On Thursday and Friday there were live fish sold there, mostly carps and pike - in Polish language szczupak fish. My mother bought those fish live and kept them home in a tin bath with water for several days.

The Fish place was a very lively and busy place. I bought there ice cream for 2 groszy and apple juice called cider, also 2 groszy. And hot cooked broad beans for 2 groszy per portion and roasted pumpkin seeds.

To me Przemysl looked a large city but now I can see that by world standards a population of 65 000 is not large. However, Przemysl was an important city because during the WW1 there was a large fortress there - the biggest after Verdun - and there was a big army there with lots of officers and officers aristocrats. In that Austro-Hungarian army there were also Jewish officers.

In the fortress there were 100,000 horses and a big demand for services. After WW1 there were too many doctors and lawyers in Przemysl and Przemysl became poorer because the demand for goods and services has dropped.

Przemysl had a lot of religious beggars and at least 15 of them came to our house every day. Each got 1 groszy. There were also some rich Jewish people and some in the middle.

In Przemysl the Jewish people made about 30% of the population but there was not a single Jewish policeman , railway official, in the fire brigade, postman or in the government office. Yes there was a lot of anti-Semitism, particularly after 1935 when Jozef Pilsudski died and the government in Poland was taken over by the anti-Semitism. Life became still harder every day.

- - Izio Felder

If anyone wishes to ask Izio about his recollections of Przemysl, email David and I will get you his email address.

“When he opened his mouth, I saw the gates of the crematorium"

Though not from our town, Michael Goldman-Gilad's holocaust story revolves around Przemysl. His amazing story is recounted in the Yad Vashem E-Newsletter.

“In a Sentence, I Felt Like I was
Going Through the Holocaust All Over Again”
Interview with Michael Goldman-Gilad,
Investigative Officer for the Eichmann Trial
Interviewers: Yael Novogrodsky and Limor Bar-Ilan

Michael Goldman-Gilad was born in 1925 in Katowice, Poland. After the outbreak of the war, he escaped with his parents, brother and eight-year-old sister to Przemysl. From there, he was deported to Szebnie and later, in November 1943, to Auschwitz-Birkenau. After a month and a half in the camp, he was transferred to Buna-Monowitz – Auschwitz III – where he worked in the I.G. Farben factories until the evacuation of the camp in January 1945. He was then forced on a death march, from which he managed to escape and hide with a Polish family. In February 1945, after liberation, he volunteered to fight in the Soviet army and was wounded in one of the battles. In September 1945, he reached the Pocking DP camp in Germany, and in May 1947, boarded the immigrant ship “Hatikvah” to Israel. The ship was seized at sea by the British navy and forced to change course to Cyprus, where Goldman-Gilad spent a year and a half in a detention camp.

After the establishment of the State of Israel, he immigrated to Israel, settling in Tel Aviv, and enlisted in the police. In 1960, following Adolf Eichmann’s arrest, he was attached as an Investigation Officer to Bureau 06 – a special unit set up within the police to conduct the investigation. He also served as personal aid to Gideon Hausner, Attorney General, who headed the prosecution. In 1963, he left the police, and was sent twice to Latin America as emissary on behalf of the Jewish Agency. He later returned to Israel and served as head of the Central Administration for Schlichut, managed by the Jewish Agency, until his retirement in 1995. Today, Goldman-Gilad is a member of the Yad Vashem Council, a member of the Commission for the Designation of the Righteous Among the Nations, and a member of the Bialik Institute Directorate. He is married to Eva (nee Goldschmidt), who was born in Jerusalem, and has five children and eight grandchildren. He is currently writing a book of memoirs, due for publication in the near future.

His story is riveting; truely must-reading for any student of the Shoah and anyone interested in learning about the holocaust in Przemysl.

An excerpt:

“A story that other than once before, I’ve never told anyone”

While at a labor camp in the Przemysl ghetto – I was young, sixteen-and-a-half, closer to seventeen years old – and belonged to a group of boys called the “Transport Commandos”. We weren’t skilled laborers, so we were made porters. We had a horse and carriage, and under Gestapo supervision, we had to enter abandoned homes, empty the contents, and transfer it all to warehouses in the camp, in an orderly fashion: closets here, books there, shoes here. The collected possessions from the abandoned homes were processed at workshops by skilled workers: cobblers, tailors and other artisans. They would process, launder and repair the collected property, and this would be sent to Germany.

In the summer of 1943, shortly before they liquidated the ghetto, the SS discovered that the person operating the Przemysl railway station was a converted Jew, and he was executed together with his family, even though his wife wasn’t Jewish. We had to go to his home, which was outside the ghetto, with our carriage, empty the house and transfer the contents back to the camp. When we entered the house, I saw a very large library in the living room, and when we started taking the books out, I saw he had many books about trains. He was director of the train station and also a rail engineer.

We already knew about the trains. We knew what was going on, where Jews were being taken on the trains. I decided that when we brought these books into the camp, I would hide them so they wouldn’t reach German hands. This was sabotage of the first order, punishable by death.

When we reached the camp, I placed these books separately. With the help of some friends who were with me, we hid them in various workshops, so they wouldn’t reach the hall that was serving as a library, where they would arrange the books by subject. The Jewish prayer books would be gathered separately and sent to Berlin to the Alfred Rosenberg’s "Institute for the Study of the Jewish Problem”.

Three days later, I suddenly hear someone calling me. The Jewish head of the camp is calling me to come out; I didn’t know what for. I see Josef Schwammberger, who was the commander of several camps – Przemysl among them - on behalf of the SS, standing next to him, with a dog restrained by a leash. He had a heavy leather leash, with an iron buckle. He used to yell at the dog “man, get the dog!” (in German), and the dog would attack. That was his expression. This is why, when we were interrogating Eichmann, I was so angry at Less for referring to Eichmann as “sir’ – I was called “dog” and he’d be “sir”?

We all knew that if someone was summoned to Schwammberger, he was finished, because Schwammberger used to draw his gun and shoot for no reason. And so if there was a specific reason, all the more so.

I had no idea why I was being summoned to Schwammberger. I approached him. He removed the leash from the dog and looked at me. He had the same murderous look even [much later] when he was on trial as an octogenarian. He asked me: “To whom did you sell the books?” (in German). In the first moment I was confused, but I came to my senses and realized what this was about. I instinctively found an answer, I had to find some answer. I said that when we reached the courtyard with our carriage, it was time for a lunch break, we went to eat the soup we were given, and when we returned to the carriage, the books were no longer there – meaning that people had taken the books to read them.

Schwammberger struck me around the neck with the leash and said, “bring the bench!” I understood he did not believe my story.

The bench was a special bench where they would lay down whomever he [Schwammberger] decided would receive 25 lashes. After 25 lashes with the buckle at the end of the leash, he would then transfer the person to Ghetto B. (There were two ghettos: Ghetto A, which was the workers’ ghetto overseen by the SS, and Ghetto B, of the “non-workers”, overseen by the Gestapo, and Polish police at the entrance. They would occasionally transfer people from Ghetto A to Ghetto B, where the women and children were, and from where transports were sometimes sent to the death camps. Where we were, in Ghetto A, there were no longer any children.) After 50 lashes he would take out his pistol and fire; we knew that.

When I was laid down on the bench, I started counting. I thought I could last for as many lashes he would give, if it were 25 or maybe more. He started beating me, and I through the beatings I managed to count 13, 14, 15, and then fainted. Later, when I awoke, I again felt I was being beaten, and fainted several times.

Suddenly I couldn’t feel anything. I didn’t know there were eighty lashes. During the lashing, they took people out to the courtyard to be witnesses, and they were the ones who counted. My friends are the ones who told me later. They said they wanted to know if I am to be transferred to Ghetto B or shot. They are the ones who counted eighty lashes. Dr. Buzminsky stood in the courtyard, saw and counted [..]

Everything fell silent. I awoke and heard Schwammberger’s voice, “aufstehen!” (get up!) I want all the books back here in three minutes!” (in German).
...

Quoted text Copyright © 2007 Yad Vashem The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority

Yoachim in 1930

These heartbreaking photos just came in from Yoram in Israel.

It is just recently that I have managed to identify the identity the child in the attached picture, maybe it will be of interest for you. This is a picture of Yohachim Kammerman taken in ~1930 in Przemysl. Yoachim perished with "Ada" his mother, in Belzec camp in 1942.

His father "Abele" (below) survived the camps and lived the rest of his life alone in Sweden.


Never Again.





UPDATE: Lukasz B. writes: I'm not 100 percent sure, but it is most probably corner of Franciszkanska and Serbanska St., by the house where Herman Liberman lived (not in the background, to the right).

A river runs through it

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, also known as the Nazi-Soviet pact, divided up Poland between the Germans and the Russians. In the southeast, the line ran down the San River, splitting Przemysl in half - the Nazis on the Zasanie shore and the Reds on the Przemysl side.

Signed in August, 1939, the division of Przemysl would last until June 22, 1941 when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa.

The photo above shows Russian Przemysl from the German Zasanie side. The three posters, from left to right are: Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov, Western Army head Kliment Voroshilov, and, of course, "Uncle" Joseph Stalin. Below Stalin are the words "Workers of the World Unite!" written in Ukrainian. (photo from the collection of L. Beidka. All rights reserved)

Many Jews joined the Red army on that day in June, including my great uncles Elia Silberman and Isaac Metzger. Isaac, also known as Edward, made it back to Przemysl after the war to find his wife and three children murdered. Elia, his wife and two children were never heard from again.

You gotta have HEART

Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

This site contains an excellent collection of holocaust histories of Polish towns, including Przemysl.

Przemysl

Przemysl is a city in Poland, situated on the San River, in the Lvov district, Eastern Galicia and before the Second World War approximately 24,000 Jews lived in Przemysl.

The Germans bombed Przemysl on 7 September 1939 and the following day the bombing continued setting fire to the shopping centre Pasaz Gansa.

Many of Przemysl inhabitants fled the city, to escape the bombings, and the Germans entered the city for the first time on 15 September 1939, approximately 20, 000 Jews lived in Przemysl, including refugees from western Poland.

The Germans immediately began to humiliate the Jewish inhabitants and started to arrest members of the Jewish intelligentsia, physicians, lawyers, industrialists and Jewish political activists. Forty-three leading Jewish citizens were arrested, taken for forced labour, savagely beaten and then shot. Among the forty-three was Asscher Gitter, whose son had emigrated to the United States in 1938, hoping that one day his father would join him.

...

I urge you to read the whole account. (Copyright Lukasz Biedka, and Chris Webb H.E.A.R.T 2007)

Rare (and sad) photo

Nazi troops marching into Przemysl on Grunwaldska Street (Zasaine).

(From the collection of L. Biedka.)

Jacek Szwic's well earned award

Jacek Szwic was recently recognized by the Israeli ambassador to Poland, the City Council of Pittsburgh, and the Jewish Historical Institute for his work in the preservation of the memory of the Jews of Przemysl.

In addition to playing a major role in the erecting of the monument at the Grochowce forest mass grave site, Mr. Szwic was primarily responsible for the indexing of the stones at the Jewish cemetery on Slowackiego St. He has also staged three exhibitions on the Przemysl synagogues and ghetto, and contributed to and edited two book on these topics. As a reporter for local weekly Zycie Podkarpackie he has often written about Jewish Przemysl.

The ceremony took place at the Krakow Muzeum Galicja, on June 1. Jacek Szwic was among nine awarded this year.

Click HERE for the news story in Polish.

Hat tip: Lukasz B in Warsaw

The Jewish Armed Resistence has become a Modern Army

Not specifically Przemysl, but worth the detour. A very big hat-tip goes out to EF at the American Thinker for this:

This Sunday is Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) for victims of the Shoah (Holocaust) in commemoration of the deliberate slaughter of six million Jews. Over 90% of European Jewry died in five years. From the ashes: the Israel Air Force Eagles fly over the Auschwitz death hell 3 1/2 years ago. To those who threaten a second Holocaust: Never again!

Przemysl Slicha

JewishGen has again added to their English translation of the Sefer Przemysl - the Przemysl Memorial (Yizkor) book. For those of you who have not seen it, this is THE source for first-person history of Jewish Przemysl from the middle ages through the shoah.

What caught my eye was the Przemysl Slicha. According to the book: The Slichot Scroll that is recited in the city of Przemysl on the eve of Rosh Chodesh Nissan, the fast day in memory of the libels against and the martyrdom (Sanctification of the Divine Name) of the aforementioned Rabbi Moshe. Was March 19, this year.

The first stanza:

{Alef} Oh G-d and G-d of our fathers
You are the G-d of gods and the L-rd of lords
Unique, you are first among the early ones and last among the latter ones
Where is your zealousness and might about which our forefathers have told
The great, mighty and awesome G-d who does not play favorites?

Read the whole Slicha here.

It is a beautiful and instructive scroll. But what really amazed me about the recitation can be found in the translator's footnotes:

# This Slicha is a fourfold acrostic (i.e. each stanza has four lines that start with the same letter of the alef-beit. I notated each stanza with the appropriate letter. After tav, there are other stanzas starting with various letters, forming an acrostic with the name of the author

# These 8 letters seem to be a cryptic, poetic reference to a year. In this genre, years are often coded with a hidden message. The 8 letters can be read as Mehuma Tzara – which stands for “confusion and distress” and may be a reference to “The year of confusion and distress”. The numerology of these 8 letters adds up to 390. This could be the year 5390, which would be 1630 (the millennium is often assumed).

# After the alphabetic acrostic concludes, the next verses begin with the following letters: shin beit tav yud samech beit reish yod tzadi chet kuf zayin tzadi lamed chet zayin kuf vav alef mem tzadi alef vav. This type of acrostic is usually the signature of the author. This is similar to the Akdamut poem, which is a twofold acrostic, and then ends with the letters of the author. If I put these letters together, I get the statement (extraneous letters which I could not fit in are in parentheses): Shabtai (samech) the son of Reb Yitzchak zatzal chazak vematz (alef vav). This would mean: Shabtai the son of Reb Yitzchak of holy blessed memory, may he be strong and mighty.

Kind of makes the New York Times Acrostic Puzzle look like a snap!

[JewishGen's Translation Fund Donation Form provides a secure way to make donations, either on-line or by mail, to help continue this project. Donations to JewishGen are tax-deductible.]

Maurice Papon died a free man

My grandfather's sister was Chaya Silberman. Her and her husband, Muni Getter came to France in the late 20s to escape from war torn, antisemitic Przemysl, Poland. Life was good until the Nazis invaded and occupied in 1940. Soon thereafter, with the aide of efficient French collaborators like Maurice Papon, Jews were rounded up and and put on cattle cars, headed back to Poland for the gas chambers of Auschwitz. Just before Chaya and Muni were taken, they managed to hide their 13 year-old daughter Florine in convent in Grenoble--yes, there were righteous Frenchmen.

Chaya was murdered, probably not long after arrival at the Birkenau camp. Forced to strip naked and disgorge all valuables, she was gassed with Zyklon-B in a sealed room with hundreds of others before being incinerated in specially designed ovens.

Muni miraculously survived Auschwitz and returned to France in 1946 to find his daughter. Months later they were reunited and soon sailed to America where they lived for a time with my grandparents in the Bronx.

Muni died in the 70s, while Florine passed away a few years ago.

Why do I care that Maurice Papon lived to be 96 and died a free man, protected by the French government, living in the lap of luxury? Here's why:

Chaya Silberman Getter - born June 6, 1906 in Przemysl, murdered 1942 in Auschwitz:

French Nazi-era collaborator Papon dies

By ELAINE GANLEY, Associated Press Writer Sat Feb 17, 6:11 PM ET

PARIS - Maurice Papon, a former Cabinet minister who was convicted of complicity in crimes against humanity for his role in deporting Jews during World War II and became a symbol of France's collaboration with the Nazis, died Saturday. He was 96.

Papon, who underwent surgery on his pacemaker at a clinic east of Paris last week, died in his sleep on Saturday, said his lawyer, Francis Vuillemin.

Papon was the highest-ranking Frenchman to be convicted for a role in the pro-Nazi Vichy regime.

The April 2, 1998, guilty verdict was the culmination of a trial that offered a painful look at one of the darkest periods in modern French history.

However, Papon — who at one point fled France to avoid prison — lived out his final years a free man, released from Paris' dour La Sante prison on Sept. 18, 2002, because of failing health.

In a February 2001 letter to the justice minister, Papon said he had neither "regrets nor remorse for a crime I did not commit and for which I am in no way an accomplice."

Papon served only three years of a 10-year sentence for ordering the arrest and deportation of 1,690 Jews, including 223 children, from the Bordeaux area to Nazi death camps.

"We fought ... so that he would pay," said Michel Slitinsky, a Bordeaux historian who narrowly escaped a Papon-ordered roundup and who uncovered documents implicating him. "He paid. Sadly, he only spent three years in prison, a golden prison, at that."

When Papon was released, the Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld said that the decision to free him showed that "part of the French establishment does not admit that a man like Papon can die in prison."

Papon's lawyer, Vuillemin, said Saturday his client "fought till the end."

"He died a free man," Vuillemin told LCI television.

Papon had been a civil servant par excellence. During the war, he held the No. 2 post in Bordeaux' Gironde region in southwest France from 1942-44. Trial documents showed Papon, responsible for Bordeaux's Jewish Affairs department, was greatly appreciated by the Germans for his "efficiency and reliability."

After the war, Papon enjoyed a brilliant political career, easily slipping into the machinery of the postwar state. He rose to become Paris police chief under then-President Charles de Gaulle in 1958, holding the post until 1967. He was named budget minister in 1978 under President Valery Giscard d'Estaing and kept the post until 1981.

It took 16 more years to bring the case against Papon to court in France, which struggled for decades to come to terms with its collaboration with the Nazi occupiers.

While found guilty of complicity, Papon was absolved of guilt in the deaths of the Jewish deportees, most of whom perished at Auschwitz. The jury accepted the defense argument that Papon was not aware of the Nazi plan to exterminate Jews.

Papon relentlessly proclaimed his innocence, arguing that he was only carrying out orders. On his final day on the stand, he said he was a victim of "the saddest chapter in French legal history."

He fled to Switzerland after the guilty verdict and was apprehended a week later. Papon had said that exile was the only way to maintain his honor. Then-Prime Minister Lionel Jospin called Papon's flight a "final sign of indifference, contempt and provocation with regard to all victims of the Holocaust."

Papon was promoted five times during the war, becoming police supervisor in the Gironde from 1942-44. Afterward, he became cabinet director of Gaston Gusin, named by de Gaulle to administer Bordeaux when the Germans pulled out in August 1944.

He later headed Algerian affairs in the Interior Ministry and went on to head prefectures in Constantine, in eastern Algeria — then part of France — and in Corsica.

Papon would have slipped quietly into retirement after President Giscard's defeat in 1981 were it not for Slitinsky's perseverance.

Slitinsky, whose father perished in Auschwitz, stumbled on documents revealing Papon's role and gave them to a newspaper for publication. Klarsfeld, the Nazi hunter, then fought to bring Papon to trial.

Slitinsky said the former minister "carried on his shoulders the responsibility for 1,600 arrests, including 250 children."

Because of Papon's credentials, and efforts at the highest levels to shield him, the case dragged through France's legal system. In 1994, President Francois Mitterrand admitted he had intervened to stall the case.

[cross posted to LearJet SWAT Team]

The Broken Silence of The Holocaust Survivor

Today, Bruno Ritter is a retired, bronze-star decorated US Army combat veteran living a normal, happy life with his wife and children. That he is alive is nothing short of a miracle. When he decided to tell his story of loss and survival to a German court after keeping it to himself for decades, he helped bring justice to one of the last Nazi officer to be brought to trial.

Bruno was born as Moshe Schatzman in Przemysl in 1928 to Isak Schatzman and Sabina Ritter, a barber and a beautician. He grew up on the second floor of the family owned building that also housed the shop where his parents worked. Their's was a typical, uneventful working-class story in a medium-sized town until Poland was occupied by the Nazis in 1939 and began the systematic extermination of Przemysl's Jewry. Over the ensuing five years, he lost everything; his mother and father, his extended family, neighbors and acquaintances - all murdered.

Somehow, passing through a series of jails, forced labor and concentration camps, Bruno managed to survive the Shoah.

After the war, he came to Kansas City, adopted his mother's family name and joined the US Army, serving from Europe to Vietnam as a proud American citizen - his tragic and heroic past gladly forgotten.

Normally, that would be the end of the historical part of a holocaust survivor's story - but not for Bruno Ritter.

As fate would have it, justice finally caught up with the brutal, sadistic Nazi SS officer who oversaw the murder of the Jews of Przemysl, Joseph Schwammberger, when he was extradited from Argentina to stand trial for his crimes in 1990. Ritter was called to be a star witness at the trial and his testimony was key in convincing the court to condemn this monster to life in prison. Schwammberger died in prison in Germany in 1997.

A few years ago, Washington Post writer Marc Fisher wrote a piece about Bruno Ritter, a son of Przemysl, titled:

The Broken Silence of The Holocaust Survivor

Please read it. It is a moving story about an amazing life.

Special thanks to Wendy Hodgden, Bruno's American daughter, for sharing her father's story.

Edward Wichura 1927 - 2006

Obituary by Lukasz Biedka

The Jewish-Polish actor Edward Wichura passed away on June 4, 2006 in Warsaw. Born in Przemysl on July 5, 1927 as Esriel Leimsieder, he was the son of Moritz Hut of Zablotka, Brody and Mirla Leimsieder.

Wichura was the only survivor from the final liquidation of the Przemysl Ghetto - the Nazi transport from Zwangsarbeitslager Przemysl to the Stalowa Wola forced camp during September, 1943. He lost all his entire family in the Shoah - his father was beaten to death by Germans while his mother and sister perished in gas chambers of Belzec.

After graduating from the Polish State Theatrical Academy in 1951, he made his stage debut at the Nowy Theater in Lodz where he remained a featured player until 1961. Edward then moved to Warsaw, where he acted in several prominent theaters – Polski (1962-65), Klasyczny (1965-69), and Rozmaitosci (1972-88).

A highly regarded and universally recognised face in Polish cinema, Wichura appeared in lead and supporting roles in at least 25 feature films from 1953 to 1989. He was also popular on the small screen, playing major parts in several dramatic and action series on Polish television, including the role of Shmaltzovnik, a policeman who blackmails Jews (“Kolumbowie”, 1970.)

Edward Wichura left behind a short testimony entitled “Notes of my memory – on Jewish martyrdom in Przemysl ghetto” which will be published next year by the Polish Center for Holocaust Research.