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

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,

Rebuilding Jewish Przemysl?

Blog-friend Philip alerted me to this fascinating project. It's worth clicking through - even if, like me, you can't read Polish. There are many interesting photos and diagrams.

Recently an engineering student unveiled plans to rebuild from scratch the entire Jewish quarter of Przemysl, including (rather excitingly) the old synagogue. There are some computer generated images and details here:

I do hope this project is realised as it'd be wonderful to regain so much of the city's history.

Yours
Philip

Here is one of many computer-generated views of the reconstructed Jewish quarter. The dark brick structure is the Tempel.

This is the Alte Synagogue to the right (I think!) with a glass wall added.  Artistic license for the rebuilders?

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)

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.]

Family Research 101

I've received a number of emails asking for help in researching family root in Przemysl. While I always like to help, let me assure you that I have no secret stash of records or private access to Polish Archives! Luckily, much of what you'll need to get started is available to all on-line.

Think like a detective - develop theories, follow leads, keep an open mind, pay attention to details, and be sure to take notes when you interview the witnesses!

Researching your (Przemysl) tree:

1. Before you start searching I highly recommend that you invest in a program to keep track of your records - your tree. I use Family Tree Maker - it's OK - but I'm sure almost anything would do the job.

2. Populate your tree as best you can. The single best source for family information is your family! Call/email/write every living relation. Do they remember your great aunt's maiden name? Grandfather's birthday? Every detail is useful - keep them all. Look at old photos for clues. This is the fun part! Once you have a basic tree built, you can see what's missing and focus your energy there.

3. Join JRI-Poland and JewishGen then go to Family Finder Search and register your surnames. This puts you in touch with other looking for similar names in your towns. Email them - network! Download and read their Hints and their Research Guide.

4. Search the JRI - Poland Database These are the birth, death and marriage records from Poland that are over 100 years old. If you find a match, copy all the information. Remember: names change over time - the uncle your family knew as Morris might have been born Modrechi. Also check for children's names under the mother's maiden name - they were sometimes listed that way. You want to try to make connections - If you find a birth record with parental data, try to find the marriage record of the parents, etc. Search all of the other JRI databases: The JewishGen Yizkor Book Necrology Database, Galician Surname Index, etc...

5. ShtetLinks: Przemysl is a very useful site well worth perusing and joining. It is part of Gesher Galicia, the special interest group for the parts of Poland once ruled by Austria. They have an excellent search page.

6. For Shoah victims, you'll want to search The Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names at Yad Vashem.

7. For relations who came to the US, Ellis Island records can be of tremendous value as the ship manifests often show birthplace, name of person the passenger is going to and a name back in the old country. Again, names can be different than the one's you know. Web pages by Stephen P. Morse is a great place to start as he allows for more complete searching than the Ellis Island Search itself.

8. It's worthwhile looking at the old business directories for Przemysl if you suspect your family had a store or a business. I use this one: Search Engine for Online Historical Directories

This is only the beginning... happy hunting!

Przemysl Ghetto

Author Lukasz Biedka has written and maintains what is THE definitive web resource of the Shoah in Przemysl from September, 1939 to July, 1944.

This is a must read.

Przemysl Pix!

Taking a break from surfing through stories about the sorry state of the world, I came across this web site with loads of pictures of Przemysl. While most are modern, there are several of old postcards. I have a large collection of old cards and magazines, mostly of WW One (Przemysl was a pivitol fortress in WWI) and will post them when I get the time to scan!

Main PHOTO PAGE
Old Pix of PRZEMYSL
New Pix of OLD PRZEMYSL
Pix of ZASANIE (across the river)