genes of moses gelles and genealogy of his descendants

GG Matters

2 Research Corner Pamela Weisberger

24 Gesher Galicia Board of Directors

24 Key Staff Volunteers Town Research

5 Kolomea Research Group Alan Weiser

5 Podhajce Yahoo! Group Jean Rosenbaum

5 Tarnobrzeg ShtetLinks Page Gayle Schlissel Riley

8 Skala House Numbers Project Racheli Kreisberg

20 Dębica 1938 Industrial Permits, Part 1 Stanley Diamond and Eden Joachim

Feature Articles

10 The Life Story of Markus Lustig Markus Lustig

15 Our Visit to Ancestral Cities and Towns in Ukraine

Tony Hausner

18 DNA Tests in the Search for Common Ancestors

Edward Gelles and Jeffrey Mark Paull

Triptych of Tombstones from Busk Cemetery

Volume 18, Number 1 November 2010

The Galitzianer 2 November 2010

Gesher Galicia Spring Meeting Next year’s Gesher Galicia regional meeting will be held Sunday, 22 May 2011 at the Center for Jewish History in New York City from 11:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m. The morning program will provide an online tour of the re-vamped Gesher Galicia Web site, updates on the Cadastral Map and Landowner Records Project and the new Galician 20th-century voter records project (read below), and a presentation by Hanna Palmon about her recent (October 2010) research trip to the L’viv and Ternopil arc-hives and her time in Busk, Ukraine. We’ll also have David Semmel talk about his new historical novel The 11th of Av, based on the lives of his Galician grandparents. (See page 4 for David’s introduction.) After the lunch break, the day will continue with a Jewish Genealogical Society of New York program with a Gali-cian focus, speaker TBA. Whether you live in the Greater New York area, or anywhere on the East Coast within easy reach of Manhattan, we hope you will make plans to join us on 22 May. The CJH is at 15 West 16th Street. Its Web site is http://www.cjh.org/.

Research Project, Web Site, and Family Finder Updates

Brian Lenius completed his work for Phase 4 of the Cadastral Map and Landowner Records Project in June, but due to his heavy workload this summer we have not yet received the fruits of his labors, which include more town inventories, photocopies, and digital images of these records. We expect to have these in hand by early December, and we will contact project donors at that time. The overhaul of the Gesher Galicia Web site is ongoing and we have plans to incorporate all of our data into an “All-Galicia Database”, so that one

can search everything by given name, surname, town, or keyword. GG board member Brooke Schreier Ganz is undertaking this monumental job as she counts down the months to her second child’s birth (a daugh-ter!), coming very soon. We also plan to switch from paper copies of the Gesher Galicia Family Finder to an online version, to make updating your entries and searching for con-nections easier. Our target date to premier the new site is early winter 2011.

State Archives of Ternopil Oblast, Ukraine, and Election/Voter Lists

Researchers are reporting a new sense of openness to foreign re-searchers at the Ternopil Archives, which is encouraging news to people researching towns whose records are held there. As many of you know, Alexander Dunai has undertaken re-search on behalf of the Gesher Gali-cia Cadastral Map and Landowner Records Project to obtain maps held in Ternopil, and he has also re-searched voter records there. During her October trip, Hanna Palmon re-ported gaining easy access to voter and kahal records there.

Some of these voter records are not listed in Miriam Weiner’s inventory on her Routes to Roots Web site, so it is possible that these may exist for your towns even if you have not found them in an online search. Gesher Galicia plans to extend its re-search arm to start obtaining copies of these records, which date from the early 20th century, most often for the years 1922–1930. Details about how this project will operate will be forthcoming soon.

These records usually bear the heading of “List of Electors for the Seim (Sejm)”, with the following headings: place or address, house number, name and surname, age, whether the individual was born in the town or how long he has lived there, and his occupation. See below a typed translated excerpt from the 1922 Grzymałów list. See also the close-up of the entry for Hanna’s grandparents, Hersch and Sarah, in the 1922 voter’s list for Busk (on page 3).

These lists, like landowner records, are community documents containing both Jews and non-Jews, and families are grouped together. As an example of years covered, these voter lists exist for Ivano-Frankivsk

Research Corner Pamela Weisberger


(formerly Stanisławów): 1877, 1882–1886, 1901, 1919–1927, 1922, 1930, 1931–1933, 1938, and 1940. You won’t gain complete family informa-tion, as children residing in a house-hold will not be included, but the lists will still enable you to track a family over time. There is a great ad-vantage to knowing how long some-one has resided in a town, as our an-cestors often meandered throughout Galicia. Usually people changed res-idence when they married, so infe-rences can be drawn from these records that may prove helpful.

The final goal is to index the in-formation in these records for inclu-sion in the All-Galicia Database.

Researching Busk? Hanna Palmon is researching the Harmelin family from Busk and Brody. She photographed the tomb-stones in the Busk cemetery (see the sample photo on the front page) a few weeks ago when she was there. Her photographs are on Picasa at http://tiny.cc/buskcemetery. We would like to translate the inscriptions. If you are interested in volunteering for this task, please contact me at pweisberger@

gmail.com. (Please note that this is a new e-mail address for me.)

Traveling to Poland I am currently in Poland on a study trip sponsored by the Forum for Di-alogue among Nations, a nonprofit Polish organization whose mission is to foster Polish-Jewish dialog, eradi-cate anti-Semitism, and teach toler-ance through education. The Forum fulfills its mission through seminars, publications, exhibitions, and ex-change programs targeted at Polish and Jewish youth and leaders. I will be learning more about their “School of Dialogue” educational program, which aims at broadening young

people’s knowledge about the long presence of Jews in Poland through self-exploration and commemoration of the prewar Jewish history in the place they live. Activities are tar-geted at Polish middle school and high school students and involve towns that once were Galician shtet-lach. This is a groundbreaking pro-gram: Students participating in the project learn the history of their town, often discovering blank spots on the map of knowledge of the no-longer existing Jewish community. Through individual work supported by Forum’s educators, they explore the history on their own and link their discoveries with the physical traces of Jewish past in their sur-roundings.

Students participate in four edu-cational workshops designed and conducted by the Forum’s profes-sionals. The students prepare their own projects commemorating the prewar Jewish community. The pro-gram ends with a festive Gala of Di-alogue, where each participating school is awarded a diploma of the School of Dialogue. During the Gala, the winner is announced for the competition for the best project pre-pared by students and devoted to commemoration and physical traces of the Jewish community. The win-ning school receives material prizes and the students who conducted the project are invited for a two-day study visit to Cracow and Auschwitz. The trip ends in Cracow, where I will conduct research in the archives and libraries. I will report on my findings in the next issue of this journal.

By researching and resurrecting the history of these places genealogi-cally relevant material may be unco-vered, and I’m eager to learn more about their work. This group had planned to present a lecture at the Ju-

ly 2010 IAJGS Conference but had to cancel at the last minute. We hope tthey can come next summer to the Washington, DC 2011 conference. If you want to learn more about the work of the Forum, go to http://www.dialog.org.pl/en/.

Renewal Reminder By now you should have received your Gesher Galicia annual renewal notice in the mail. What? You ha-ven’t seen it? We realize that these tend to be filed away and forgotten, so if you haven’t already sent in your check for your 2011 membership, along with any of your Family Find-er updates, do so today! Remember that you have the option of receiving electronic or paper delivery of The Galitzianer, and you can also add a donation to our general fund (or tar-get donations to special projects) at the same time you renew. Only cur-rent members will be listed in this year’s Family Finder and continue to receive The G, so don’t delay. Know someone interested in learning more about Galicia? Consider giving that person the gift of membership for Chanukah. You can also renew on-line via PayPal. The membership page is at http://www.jewishgen.org/galicia/ join_gg.html, where you can print a pa-per form to mail in, or go to http://www.jewishgen.org/galicia/paypal.html for PayPal instructions.

Your support helps us keep our projects and research going and brings us closer to learning more about our Galician ancestors, so a huge thank you in advance to all our members who have continued to support us for so many years.


If it is axiomatic that you only expe-rience your grandparents in their se-nior years, then how can you know who and what they were in their youth? For those with great family continuity, taking stock of them in their early years is comparatively easy—just look at your parents or your own early life and extrapolate back in time. But what could I do? My grandparents were immigrants from a place with strange traditions, different languages, and an opaque history. Comparisons rang hollow and my experience was worthless because there just wasn’t anything analogous between my youth in Vietnam-era America and Belle Époque Imperial Austrian Galicia, where they spent their formative years.

Luckily, a few months before my grandmother died, I flew down to Miami to spend the weekend with my Bubbie Fannie before heading to the beach with my college friends. Over the course of two late nights she told me her life story—not the familiar, middle-aged one that I

knew by heart that started with my mother’s birth, but another one. It was a story about her when she was my age.

It was a story of war, of siege, of cannons and marauding Cossacks. It was set in some unpronounceable town in a nation that no longer exists in a time before radios and airlines. A beautiful place with rivers, castles, forts, forests and parks; a place where people stayed up late, drinking and smoking in cafés and beer halls or taking in theater and cinema. There was joy and love, but there was also hardship, heartbreak, and death; the highs seemed higher, the lows, definitely lower. This wasn’t the gray, drab shtetl I’d imagined; it was dangerous, dynamic, edgy, and dare I say fun. To my utter astonish-ment, Grandma and Grandpa were, once upon a time, cool.

In the twenty-plus years since the last of my grandparents passed away, I’ve come to see that not only were they “cool”, they were also driven, courageous, loving people replete with all the warts and flaws we share as human beings. Were they Elia and Rivka? No, they were real people with infinitely complex, interwoven lives that we can only minimally

access and crudely recreate. They were not Elia and Rivka, but they could have been.

Note: 100% of the net proceeds from this novel will be donated to charities involved in the restoration and upkeep of Jewish sites in Przemysl. You can learn more about the book at http://www.amazon.com/11th-Av-

David-R-Semmel/dp/144959171X.

The 31st IAJGS International Confe-rence on Jewish Genealogy will take place from Sunday, 14 August, through Friday, 19 August 2011, at the Grand Hyatt Washington, Wash-ington, D.C.

Proposals are now being ac-cepted for presentations, workshops, panels, and other programming. The deadline for receipt of abstracts is 15 January 2011.

To submit your abstract, go to

http://www.dc2011.org/ and click the “Call for Papers” tab on the left. Please read all instructions before starting the submission process. E-mail and postal mail submissions will not be accepted. Submitters will be notified by 15 March 2011.

For questions, contact Jeff Malka at [email protected].

IAJGS 2011 Confe rence

The 11th of Av David Semmel


Membership One new member has joined the KRG since the last report. Our mem-bership is now 79.

Cadastral Maps and Land-owner Records and Surname

Searches Several inquiries about relatives who were past Kolomyya residents have been submitted. I conducted given name searches for them, which is the first step in providing full reports on findings in vital records, school records, and other records related to Kolomyya. Unfortunately, these people did not seek the final reports when they would have had to make donations in the name of Kolomyya to the Cadastral Maps and Landown-er Records Project run by Gesher Ga-licia, Inc.

The funding for Kolomyya in this project remains at $800 U.S. Project progress is slow due to the fact that only one researcher is en-gaged in the research. No significant information has been reported for Kolomyya yet.

KRG Activity The Coordinator is probably showing his age and has slowed down consi-derably in seeking or generating new information for the group. The door is always open to KRG members and nonmembers to suggest projects and to participate in them. Just submit your ideas to [email protected].

KRG member Rick Borten sub-mitted an interesting report on the Austrian census returns of 1869–1890, with an emphasis on Galicia. An article for The G is in preparation to share the information in the report.

KRRG Activities at IAJGS Con-ference in Los Angeles

A Yahoo! group was recently estab-lished for Podhajce (current name Podgatsy) researchers. This allows people who are researching this shtetl to make contact easily with each other and to submit questions or share information. Messages to the group are automatically preserved in an archive for future reference, while attachments (photos, documents, etc.) are preserved separately.

The group is moderated by two members so that only items relevant to genealogical research are posted. Information on the Yahoo! group was sent out to the 100 or so known Podhajce researchers. Thus far, more than 60 people have joined the new group.

To get an idea of how this works, you can visit the Podhajce Discus-sion Group site at http://groups.yahoo.com/

group/podhajce. Information on setting up your own shtetl’s discussion group is at http://groups.yahoo.com/start.

Our Yahoo! discussion group site does not replace our JewishGen ShtetLinks Web site at http://www. shtet-

links.jewishgen.org/podhajce but rather func-tions as a means of rapid communi-cation for our researchers.

Perhaps this will encourage oth-ers to explore the possibility of form-ing shtetl-related discussion groups. It has worked well for us so far. It’s free, setting it up is easy, and regis-trations for members is likewise easy.

The Podhajce Yahoo! group moderators are Jerome Schatten, pod-

[email protected], and Jean Rosenbaum.

I am delighted to report that the Tar-nobrzeg ShtetLinks site, http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/Tarnobrzeg/, is growing. I have recently added the following: • An article written by Andrew Tar-

nowski about the 18th century in Tarnobrzeg (under Research)

• More magnate documents; see Tarnowski archives. These early records from around 1800 were donated by Andrew Tarnowski. If anyone wishes to translate them let me know. Please check the docu-ments for your family names.

• An article under Cemetery about a tombstone that was discovered in an irrigation ditch wall (see below)

• A new synagogue photograph • Photographs from 1941 from a ga-

thering in New York of the landsmanshaftn, donated by Andee Schraf (under Kollel Records)

I would like to thank Sam Glaser for all his help with the Web site.

Tombstone Found in Irrigation Ditch Wall

Generates Newspaper Story Three years ago I received an e-mail from Wacek Pintal, a press photo-grapher from Tarnobrzeg. He told me about a tombstone with Hebrew writ-ing which was in the wall of an irri-gation ditch by the Vistula River. The next message from him con-tained pictures. It was difficult for us to communicate, but we managed. I speak only a handful of Polish words and he does not speak English.

After a week of conversations, Wacek, Tadeusz Zych (the Tarnobr-zeg deputy mayor), and I decided that a plaque or placement of the tombstone in the new cemetery would take place. Tadeusz had a city

Town Research

Kolomea Research Group

Alan Weiser

Podhajce Yahoo! Group

Jean Rosenbaum

Tarnobrzeg Shte t-Links Web Page Gayle Schlissel Riley


employee take down the tombstone from the irrigation ditch wall.

The story of the tombstone, Je-wishGen, and myself were written up in Nadwislanski, the weekly newspa-per. Wacek sent me a copy of the newspaper.

Translation of Article Thank you to Fred Hoffman for this translation.

Stone on Stone It is not a big stone. Some 30 x 20 cm. I saw it there, on the Vistula, many times. Others saw it too. But neither I nor the others paid any at-tention to it. That’s how it was for 50 years.

[photo caption] A fragment of the wall on the Vistula. Above it is the roof of Fregata restaurant. The arrow points to the location of the stone, which is enlarged in the left side of the photograph. [Photograph by W. Pintal.]

The story began on the Internet. Marek Duszkiewicz, a Tarnobrzeg man from the United States of Amer-ica, posted an appeal from an Ameri-can of Jewish descent, Gayle Schlis-sel Riley from California, on Tebe-gielka (a discussion list about Tar-nobrzeg). She was asking for any photos from the old Jewish cemetery of Tarnobrzeg. The cemetery existed before the war in the spot where the renovated market hall is currently located, next to the court buildings. I had no such pictures, but I remem-bered this one stone ....

On the Vistula, not far from the Fregata, is a little fountain. Many residents of the Przywisle settlement know it well from their numerous walks along the water. Just 10 years ago, interruptions in the water supply were an everyday occurrence for the people of Tarnobrzeg. Carts distri-buted water. Anyone who didn’t want water from their barrels went to this fountain. By it stood an em-bankment support (see the photo). And in its upper right corner ... this stone.

It would have been no different from the others, old and covered with moss, if it weren’t for the writing. The letters carved into it clearly showed that this was no or-dinary stone.

Rest in Peace When Ms. Riley received the photos, she was unusually excited, and had no doubt that this stone, or rather this fragment, was from a Jewish tombstone. She sent a copy to her cousin in Israel, who translated the inscription. There are individual words from three columns of the inscription: “upright” (in the sense of an upright person), “Kagan” (no doubt a sur-name) and “rest.” This American lady was shaken by my mailing.

I should add that Gayle Riley is a tireless researcher of the history of Tarnobrzeg, especially during the time when Jews predominated among its residents. Her ancestors came from there. She collects archiv-al material, photographs, old post-cards, population lists, and the like. You can familiarize yourself with the fruit of her searches on her Internet site about Tarnobrzeg: http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/Tarnobrzeg/. It is an impressive col-lection. There are, for instance, maps of Tarnobrzeg from the second half of the 19th century!

So it is no surprise that Gayle Ri-ley begged to know where this stone was from that was in the wall and whether it could be returned to the cemetery.

I did not know the answers to these questions. Fortunately, there are still people in Tarnobrzeg from the old days. One of them is Ryszard Durzynski, born there before the war. He remembers the old cemetery very well. His parents’ house stood next

to it, on the corner of what are now Pilsudski and Wyszynski streets.

Tombstones and Bones “This was a closed cemetery,” R. Durzynski remembers. “No one had been buried there since the early 20th century. It was surrounded by a wall and tall trees grew all over. Behind it was the synagogue, the present li-brary. During the occupation, the Germans ordered the liquidation of the cemetery. A rise that had been there was leveled, the wall was taken down, the trees were cut down, and the cajwi—which is what we called the tombstones from the graves—were shattered and thrown down eve-rywhere. There were also a great many bones. Jews who returned to the city for a time after their first ex-pulsion asked the Germans—no doubt with a bribe—for permission to gather the bones and take them to the new cemetery on Sienkiewicz Street.

“Here’s how it was with this wall. After the war, up until the mid-‘50’s, the Polish army organized training camps every year on the Vis-tula. There were tents and a field kitchen. They drew the water for this kitchen from the fountain. But it was


always muddy there, so for conveni-ence, some time in 1949, they erected a support and put the area around the fountain in order. They used whatever was nearby to build it, especially stones in the field. Un-doubtedly at some point they found the piece of the tombstone and with-out thinking put it in the wall. If they had wanted to conceal it, they would simply have turned it around to the other side.”

The facts support Mr. Durzyns-ki’s tale. After the war, pieces of Jewish tombstones were used to build roads and plazas. For example, in Opatow, tombstones were placed on the banks of the river Opatowka where it flows through the town. Not until the ‘90’s were they recovered and placed in reconstructed cemete-ries.

I sought the answer to the Amer-ican’s second question in the city of-fice. For both Mayor Jan Dziubinski and his spokesman, Jozef Michalik, a tombstone in the embankment wall was a complete surprise. They sug-gested that the conservator of relics deal with the matter. Further deci-sions were issued by the deputy mayor, Tadeusz Zych, who soon stated, “Putting anyone’s tombstone in a collapsing wall is a fact that should fill every decent person with shame. As quickly as possible, the city staff under me will take the stone from the wall. Its subsequent fate may be twofold. Either we can simply place it in the cemetery on Sienkiewicz Street, or it can become a fragment of a tablet commemorat-ing the old cemetery that we intend to put in the wall of the renovated market hall [illegible]. We will be glad to accept the suggestions of Jewish communities in this matter.”

One thing remains to be estab-lished: whether the stone comes from the old cemetery or the new? Only a few tombstones can be found at the new one. The rest, as the older resi-dents say, are under the pavement of

Sandomierski Street and the road to Ocice.

Wacław Pintal

[sidebar] In 1939, there were 3,800 Jews living in Tarnobrzeg. After the war, none of them returned. Up until the 1990’s, the only resident of Tar-nobrzeg of Jewish descent was

the modest and popular Dr. Olga Li-lien. But she did not live in Tarnobr-zeg before the war. She survived the occupation thanks to the nuns of Mokrzyszów, who concealed her at their farm. After her death, a me-morial tablet, located in the new hos-pital building, was consecrated to her.


Readers may remember the exciting days when the human genome project was being deciphered through an extensive DNA sequencing effort. The scientific community and the general public were positive that the revelation of the genetic code of hu-mans would teach us about disease susceptibility and patients’ reactions to drug treatments. It turned out that deciphering the DNA sequence, which is composed of four different deoxynucleotides, was insufficient to reveal nature’s secrets about humans and other living creatures.

It was with this same excitement that I started working on what was called the Skala House Number Project. My purpose was to construct a database of house numbers cited in vital records ordered through JRI-Poland and YIVO documents. I re-ceived these records from the mem-bers of the Skala Research Group (SRG) as well as from people whose roots were in Skala. In addition, some YIVO documents provided other valuable information, such as building and parcel numbers, which could all be linked to a given house.

My assumption was that by compil-ing the house number database, we would be able to learn new links be-tween families which had been living in Skala for years. It turned out that the data were insufficient to reveal the complete history of Skala. As with the human genome project, however, the Skala House Number Project revealed interesting and nov-el genealogy links. This technique can be applied to other towns in the same way that the human genome project findings are applicable to other organisms.

An excerpt of the database is shown below. Each entry has infor-mation on a birth, a marriage, sa death, or a property owner.

I was positive that once I knew who had lived in each house I would be able to learn much more about the Jewish families that had resided in Skala, some of which were being re-searched by my SRG colleagues. This is indeed the case: We can make connections between individuals based on the fact that they lived in the same house. But this is not al-

ways possible, and usually the data-base did not add new information but raised more questions: • Why did members of some fami-

lies live in many different houses? • Could people with different fami-

ly names living in the same house be related by marriage?

• Do sequential numbers belong to houses that were next to each oth-er or are these numbers random?

To address some of these ques-tions there was an urgent need for another piece of information, name-ly, cadastral maps of the 19th and 20th centuries that noted the house numbers on a map of residences and streets. This would enable unequi-vocal mapping of three pieces of in-formation: the house number, the building number, and the parcel number.

A few cadastral maps of Skala have recently been obtained. In this article I use the Skala House Number Project to expand upon two ways to extract genealogical information from civil records:

• cases in which we can link the cadastral map to a piece of genea-logical information

The As Yet Unrevealed Secrets of the Skala House Number Project Racheli Kreisberg


• cases in which we use the house number project to create new in-formation

Links between the Skala Cadastral Map and the Skala

House Number Project The YIVO Skala land estate docu-ment from 1880 shows that the “Ska-la Gmina Israelischka” (Jewish community of Skala) was located on garden parcel 205 and that building parcels 134, 140, 320, and 321 were all located on this parcel.

The 1859 cadastral map shows the Skala Juden Gemeinde on garden parcel 205. In the upper part of this

parcel, we can see building par-cels 320 and 321. This shows that we can make correlations between the cadastral map and the

information extracted from the YIVO 1880 land estate document. At this time, we do not know who lived in houses 320 and 321. Note also that house 321 seems to be located out-side of garden parcel 205.

On the cadastral map we see that Chaim Wainberg lived on garden parcel 146 and building parcel 360. A search of JRI-Poland extracts from Skala birth records shows that in 1879, a daughter Breine was born to Eidel and Chaim Weinberg (note that on the cadastral map the last name is spelled with an a and not an e). What we now need is a copy of Breine’s full birth record which, we hope, would confirm that she indeed was born in house number 360.

We also see that two other num-bers are on garden parcel 147: build-ing parcel 273 and house number 360. Based on the 1880 Skala Land Estate document from YIVO, this house was owned by Koppel Fisch-bach. In the JRI-Poland extracts are

two records related to Koppel Fisch-bach in Skala: Shlomo Aron born in 1873 and Mirke born in 1875 to Koppel and Henie Fiszbach. Again, we would have to order the birth records of Schlomo Aron and Mirke Fiszbach to confirm the correlation between the house number data and the cadastral map.

Information Extracted from the Skala House Number Project

without the Cadastral Map Even before we had the cadastral map, the Skala House Number Project provided some researchers with valuable data for their family trees and history. In 1858 in house number 27 there lived a couple I have studied extensively: Shimon and Chanzie Wiesenthal. They were the grandparents of my grandfather Simon Wiesenthal, who passed away on 20 September 2005. He always told his family—his daughter and son-in-law (my parents) and his three grandchildren—that during the Ho-locaust all family members (his and my late grandmother’s), a total of 89 people, had been murdered and that no family was left.

The marriage record of Shimon and Chanzie Wiesenthal, purchased via JRI-Poland, appeared in a list of couples who were married on various dates. The record provided the names of the groom and the bride as well as a house number. In the case of this happy couple, the associated house number was 27. A careful look at the complete list of marriage records showed that two women whose last names also were Wiesenthal lived in house number 27: Beile Wiesenthal Weidenfeld and Golde Wiesenthal Schwartz.

Correspondence from the 1960’s between Simon Wiesenthal and des-cendants of the Weidenfeld and Schwartz families led to the con-struction of an extensive family tree of the descendants of my great-great-great-grandparents Moses and Esther Wiesenthal. The grandchildren of

Shimon, Beile, and Golde kept in touch for many years after the Shoah. These bonds led to the recent unifica-tion of three family branches that had been cut off over the course of years. My parents, my siblings Danny and Joeri, and I grew up with the dogma that “there was no one left after the war”, so it is understandable why we were so excited to learn after my grandfather’s death that we are part of a large Wiesenthal family, some of whom are directly related to us and some of whom we assume are related but have not yet determined exactly how.

Now, 102 years after the birth of the late Simon Wiesenthal at the be-ginning of the 20th century, the search for family members that is taking place in the 21st century com-plements the search for those whose nefarious activities led to the disrup-tion and destruction of almost all Jewish families. Skala’s survivors can be proud of the collective and individual efforts that are being made to preserve the history of the Gali-cian town of their ancestors.

Acknowledgements I wish to give special thanks to: • my mother, Paulinka Kreisberg,

for hypothesizing that the Wiesenthals in house number 27 were siblings

• my “aunt” Helene Schwartz Kenvin for 5 years of joint gene-alogy studies revealing the history of the Wiesenthal family

• Tony Hausner, the Skala shtetl leader, for helping me with any-thing that could further develop the Skala House Number Project

• Pamela Weisberger for providing me with the Skala cadastral maps

• Brian Lenius for acquiring the Skala cadastral maps

This article is published in memory of Simon Wiesenthal, for his fifth Yahrzeit (31 December 1908–20 Sep-tember 2005). Racheli Kreisberg lives in Raanana, Israel and can be reached at [email protected].


Translator’s Note I was working on a list of Sandzer (Nowy

Sącz) Jews from prior to and during WWII

when I met Markus Lustig. He provided me

with many names of Sandzer Jews as well as

a great deal of the history of the Sandzer Jew-

ish community. He told me he was the head

of the association of former Sandzer residents

in Israel. In our conversations he slowly re-

vealed his amazing life experiences during

WWII. I urged him to write down these

events, which he did, in Hebrew. I submitted

them to Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. I also

asked him for permission to translate his life

story into English and to share his expe-

riences with English-speaking people. Here is

the life story of Markus Lustig.

I was born in 1925 in Nowy Sącz to Yaakov and Ita (Lustig) Kanengisser. My family consisted of my father, my mother, my sister Rachel, myself, and my brother Moshe. My name was Mordechai Kanengisser, but my parents did not have a civil marriage, so legally we children were Lustigs. We were surrounded by an extensive and warm supportive family. My fa-ther was a bookbinder. We lived in the Jewish section of Sandz. Things went along pretty well until Septem-ber 1939. As soon as Germans occu-pied the city, things went downhill. Jews were taken for all kinds of work details, daily ordinances were aimed at Jews, hunger became widespread, Jews were limited in their movement, and instant killings of Jews became a favorite pastime of the Germans. I was forced to work at various hard jobs until a traumatic event took place that affected me for the rest of my life.

On the evening of 29 April 1942, Germans murdered 300 Jews at the Jewish cemetery. From there, the Gestapo went to the Jewish street and began a killing spree. The street was densely inhabited by Jews and the Germans smashed through doors and windows and entered rooms shooting

everybody in sight. They entered our apartment building, which was part of a large complex of flats, and fired at will. The screams and shouts could be heard throughout the houses. We lived on the first floor but heard the commotion on the ground floor.

Soon enough they burst into our flat. They entered my parents’ room and asked my father what he did for a living; he replied that he was a bookbinder. They shot him, my cry-ing mother, and my crying sister, who was sleeping in their room. They then entered my bedroom, where I was sleeping with my broth-er. I heard one of the killers say, “Leave the kid.” But another man fired his pistol and shot my brother in the head. I froze. I was under the same blanket, but my head was at the opposite end. The killers then left the room and said sarcastically, “Good night,” in Polish. More shots took place on the stairs. I remained under the blanket until it was absolutely quiet. I then left my bed and saw my totally destroyed family. The next day, they were all buried in a mass grave at the site where the other Jews had been killed the previous evening.

My uncle provided me with a work permit in May 1942. He listed me as a locksmith. It was known that without a work permit or an impor-tant trade, chances were excellent to be sent to the BełŜec death camp. With the work permit, I was sent to the RoŜnów labor camp about 20 miles north of Sandz, where I worked from May to August 1942 on the construction of a dam. We had to dig 4 cubic meters of earth per day and in addition unloaded many bags of cement from trucks.

On 23 August 1942, the ghetto of Sandz was liquidated and I was sent to the Ritro sawmill labor camp near Sandz. I worked a 12-hour shift daily at the sawmill with little food. Here I received 25 lashes for falling asleep

on the job. I barely survived the beat-ing and lost my job inside the build-ing. I was forced to work outside in the cold Polish winter.

Mordechai Lustig in the Ghetto

In February 1943, I was sent to the Daimler-Benz plane factory in Rzeszów (Reishe in Yiddish), where plane engines were built. In April of the same year, I was transferred to the Rzeszów ghetto, where I came down with typhus, but I was lucky and recovered. This disease ravaged the poorly nourished inhabitants of the ghetto, who died like flies be-cause there was no medicine, no medical help, and no food. How I survived I do not know, but I over-came the disease. During August or September 1943, I was sent to the Pustków concentration camp.

Pustków Concentration Camp Pustków was a small village along the Dębica-Mielec railway, east of Tarnów, Kraków region, Galicia, Poland. The Germans occupied the area in September 1939. They imme-diately decided to build a big training base for Waffen SS combat units and evicted the inhabitants of 15 villages, including Pustków, from their farms, which were burned to the ground. The Pustków area also contained a military complex factory that pro-

The Life Story of Markus Lustig Markus Lustig


duced weapons for the Polish army. The Germans dismantled the military equipment and sent it to Germany. The factory buildings were left standing. The area was heavily fo-rested. The SS and Gestapo soon be-gan to send young Jews from the area to Pustków. At first the workers returned home daily, since there were no facilities for them at the camp. The harsh labor conditions, meager food rations, and individual mi-streatments soon reduced the number of Jews willing to go to Pustków. Work had to continue, however: Fo-rests had to be cleared, roads and training facilities had to be built. The camp was then closed and those who arrived remained in Pustków.

The demand for labor increased with time and so did the harsh labor conditions. The Heidelager (“desert camp”) of Pustków, as the military camp was named by the Germans, became a reality. Within this military complex was the Pustków concentra-tion camp.

The elaborate military building program required large labor forces that the Judenrats had to provide. When they failed, the Gestapo con-ducted round-ups to augment the la-bor force. Old people, young people, even children were sent to Pustków. It became known as a terrible place and everybody tried to avoid it. The work was back-breaking and the people were not fed, nor were they given proper tools or clothing for the work. Conditions were so alarming at the camp, where Jews died and were buried daily, that the Dębica Judenrat sent two emissaries named Immer-glick and Bitterkower to be liaison officials and help the inmates of Pustków. The Jewish community of Dębica did not have great resources but whatever they could spare they sent to the camp to help the Jewish inmates. They also sent a female doctor weekly to the Pustków camp, which became a hellhole of suffering long before the creation of the death camps of BełŜec and Auschwitz.

The attrition rate of Jewish workers increased with time since their energy was exhausted. Yet the building program continued and more Jews were brought to Pustków from all over Western Galicia, espe-cially from Rzeszów, Sandz, Tarnów, and Kraków. As fast as the Jews arrived, many quickly died due to the harsh labor conditions, starva-tion diets, and bestiality of the guards. Jews continued to arrive at Pustków until the ghettos in the area were liquidated and their Jewish in-habitants were dead. By this time, the big projects of the Pustków training base had been completed. Almost no Jewish workers survived the Pustków concentration camp, only a few esca-pees and a handful of skilled work-ers. No one knows the precise num-ber of Jews killed in Pustków, but estimates range from 7,500 to 12,000. Most of the Jewish arrivals were never recorded properly. Yet they built the largest SS training camp outside Germany, where vari-ous Waffen SS combat units received their military training. Here were trained many of the foreign SS vo-lunteers: Dutch, Ukrainian, French, Polish, etc.

Besides the Jewish camp at Pustków, there was also a French camp for war prisoners in 1940, but they were soon removed. Then there was a prisoner of war camp where thousands of Russians were kept. Some of them arrived by train while others walked from the Russian bat-tlefield. The Russian Jewish prison-ers of war were immediately selected and shot. Others died of hunger, malnutrition, and killings. Most of them died, especially during the harsh winter of 1942. There are no precise records; it is assumed that the number of dead reached about 5,000 soldiers. A few skilled Russian tech-nicians survived.

The rate of death was so fast that workers had to be constantly reple-nished. Soon Poles started to work, at first as paid workers, but slowly

the camp became a concentration camp for all purposes. Polish politi-cal detainees and resistance fighters were soon sent to Pustków. The camp ran until the area was liberated by the Russian Army in August 1944. Some of the Polish inmates survived the war, but most were sent to Auschwitz prior to liberation of the area. It is estimated that 2,500 Poles died at Pustków. Some ex-hausted inmates of Pustków were al-so sent to the death camps of BełŜec and Auschwitz.

Most of those who died or were killed at Pustków were cremated at a place called Chujowa Górka, later renamed Królowa Górna. The stench of the cremations was so potent that the German residents complained and the place was constantly elevated until it reached a height of 10 to 12 meters. The elevation reduced the stench of burning bodies from the immediate vicinity.

The Germans decided to reopen a Jewish concentration labor camp in Pustków toward the end of 1942 and beginning of 1943 and began to send skilled Jewish workers to this camp. I arrived with a transport of Jewish workers from the Rzeszów ghetto in the summer of 1943. We were re-ceived by a large group of Jewish workers that numbered about 100 men. All of them were specialists in their fields: tailors, shoemakers, plumbers, cooks, etc. In charge of the group was a man named Foltzi Waldhorn. He was a German Jew. Most of these Jews survived the war because they were needed and they worked for the high-ranking officers of the SS in the camp, including the SS camp commandant, Ober-sharführer Ernest Kops.

On reaching Pustków, we were given clean beds and two new blan-kets. We received for breakfast 250 grams of military bread and 10 grams of butter, honey, or jam. The group consisted of approximately 100 men and we had to build a new camp as well as a small workshop to produce


toys for SS families in Germany. The new camp was approximately a ki-lometer and a half from our camp. Lunch we received at the work place, where there was a field kitchen. Sup-per consisted of soup that was distri-buted in the barracks. Each morning, following roll call, we dragged parts of old barracks to the new camp that was being built. Here we also poured concrete for the base of the barracks of the new camp.

One day, at the end of the work day, a roll call was ordered prior to returning to our camp. One person was missing. It soon appeared that an SS man named Harki had hanged a Jewish worker named Berger from the city of Jasło and claimed that he hanged himself. We buried him and continued back to the old base.

Toward the winter of 1943, we finished the construction of the buildings. Meanwhile, several trans-ports of Jews arrived at the camp, in-cluding a group of Jews from Szeb-nie and one from Rymanów. The work force was now about 300 people. We lived in two barracks. Our camp bordered the Polish work camp. Of course, both camps were individually surrounded with barbed wire and overlooked by watch tow-ers. The workers in our camp were divided into work teams and each team had a specific job to perform. Once my small work team was sud-denly left without a task to perform. The kapo, or group leader, a German Jew named Munsher, made us parade back and forth on the assembly ground of the base until noon. This went on until they found a job for the group. The work consisted of repair-ing large bags, mainly wheat bags.

Our daily morning schedule was: 05:30 Reveille 06:00 Wash upper part of body 06:30 Morning roll call at assembly 07:00 Marched to work

Every week our SS guards would steal two bags of parcels from the Polish work camp and deliver them

to our camp. The Poles received food parcels from their families that were stocked in the office of the Polish la-bor camp. The Jews of course did not have parcels, since our families had disappeared a long time ago. Each barrack received a bag of food par-cels. The food was distributed evenly between the barrack inmates. Occa-sionally, there were shows organized within the barrack by Jewish theater artists from Warsaw who were in-mates of the barrack. We also had our own large field kitchen where we cooked food for our camp.

Things changed with the rapid advances of the Red Army into Pol-and. In February 1944, a group of 50 Jews from our camp at Pustków was sent to an unknown destination, nev-er to be heard from again. Then in March 1944, I was sent with a group of Jewish workers to the Plaszów death camp near Kraków, Galicia. The Pustków concentration camp ceased to exist in August 1944 with the approach of the Red Army. Many of the Jewish inmates of the second Pustków concentration camp sur-vived the war due to the relatively humane treatment of the skilled workers.

Plaszów Concentration Camp The city of Kraków in southern Pol-and was once the royal capital of the Polish kingdom. Here lived about 60,000 Jews in 1939 out of a popula-tion of 250,000 people. Most of the Jews resided in the old historical sec-tion of Kazimierz. The Germans oc-cupied the city on 6 September 1939. Shortly thereafter, Hitler appointed a Nazi lawyer named Hans Frank as the ruler of occupied Poland. Frank chose Kraków as his seat of adminis-tration. He immediately proceeded to control Jews by ordering the registra-tion of every Jew in Kraków in No-vember 1939. He tried every way he could to rid the city of Jews in order to reach a Judenrein city. The task was difficult, since many other Ger-man leaders had similar ideas about

their Jews. Nevertheless, transports of Jews from Kraków were sent in all directions. Still the city retained a large number of Jews, who were sent to the ghetto. The Germans also be-gan to build a large labor camp on the outskirts of the city in 1940. The camp was built by Poles and the first inmates were Poles. The first Jews arrived at the Plaszów camp in 1941 from the nearby city.

The Plaszów labor camp kept expanding, especially after the liqui-dation of the Kraków ghetto on 13–14 March 1943. The camp hit its ze-nith in May and June 1944 when the population reached 24,000 inmates, including Hungarian Jews. The camp underwent many changes and had many commanders, including the sa-distic commander Amon Göth, so vividly portrayed in the movie Schindler’s List. The mass killings and daily atrocities of this camp are well known and also well portrayed in the movie. The concentration camp constantly received people and steadily destroyed them. The favorite pastime of the commander consisted of shooting inmates. Most of the in-mates worked at the stone quarries and factories of the camp until they died or were killed.

I arrived with a transport of Jew-ish workers to Plaszów in March 1944. The camp had a bad reputation but we had no choice. The good life of Pustków was finished and I awa-kened to the reality of the Plaszów concentration camp. I was imme-diately assigned to a work detail. We had to spread sand along the road daily in the morning, especially near Göth’s villa. We also had had to clean the tower guard lookouts each day. Fear, brutality, and starvation were our daily companions. But I was lucky: I was ordered to report to the Schindler labor factory after a very short stay in Plaszów.

The Schindler Camp The city of Kraków attracted many industrialists, wheelers, and dealers,


among them Oskar Schindler. He knew the city well, since he was a Czech salesman of agricultural ma-chinery and visited frequently before the war. He was now determined to build for himself an industrial em-pire. Being a member of the German secret service, he soon established excellent contacts in the so-called Aryanization office that distributed confiscated Jewish property for pen-nies. He took control of an old ena-mel factory and renamed it Deutsche Emaillewaren-Fabrik (German Ena-mel Works). The factory produced kitchenware for the German armed forces. Schindler also managed to obtain army purchase contracts. His factory in Zabłocie, outside the city limits, was soon a booming enter-prise. The management and work force were entirely Jewish and came from Kraków.

Schindler protected his work force and fed them even if he had to buy food on the black market, which occurred frequently since the Ger-mans provided starvation rations, if any at all. This forced Schindler to sell products on the black market. He relished these activities and paved his way with bribes. He was arrested several times by the Gestapo but ma-naged to walk out and continue his activities. His business expanded by acquiring other factories, purchase contracts, and deals.

The Jews were slowly being squeezed out of Kraków and then the ghetto in the Zaborze area of Kraków was established. Here their numbers diminished by the day, and in March 1943, the Jewish ghetto of Kraków closed and the last 2,000 Jews were transferred to the nearby Plaszów death camp.

Schindler’s Jewish work force survived these moves in spite of all obstacles the SS put in his way. He sidestepped all mines and finally de-cided to build a camp on the factory site so his workers would not be ha-rassed going to and from work. He spent a small fortune getting the ne-

cessary permits to build the camp. The camp was surrounded with barbed wire and watch towers, but guards did not enter the camp itself. Many Jews tried to work for Schind-ler since it was considered a safe place. Another factory, the Madritsch Company, produced uniforms. This place also treated the Jewish work force well. The other industrial facto-ries exploited Jewish workers.

Schindler continued to obtain contracts and bribed even Amon Göth to provide him with Jewish la-bor for his growing production needs, which by now included hand grenades, boxes, and especially ena-mel products. One of the workers sent to Schindler was me, Mordechai Lustig, expert locksmith. I arrived at the factory and was immediately as-signed to work. I concentrated on my job for I wanted to do my best in or-der to keep the job. There was no ha-rassment and the food was good. I considered myself very lucky to be in this camp. I worked in various capac-ities, with metal boxes, hand gre-nades, and wheel bearings, and also dunked items in chemical baths to protect them from corrosion. These items were then moved into high-temperature ovens to bake the ena-mel coatings.

The food at the Schindler camp was very good compared to other camps. Frequently a Dr. Weihert (head of the JSS, Jewish Self Help Committee, in Kraków) came to the camp and brought money, food, and chocolates. These were donations from Swiss and American Jews. He also occasionally brought medica-tions to the camp. People tried to get jobs at the Schindler camp at all cost. The war was coming to an end and everybody wanted to survive, and a job with Schindler was a guarantee for survival.

Or so I believed, as did most of the Schindler’s workers. But we were wrong, or some of us were wrong, for in August 1944, a group of tech-nicians was assembled and led to the

train station near the Plaszów con-centration camp. I was issued one loaf of bread and a can of preserved meat. The train stood at the platform the entire day. It was extremely hot and we were 140 men in the car. Schindler appeared and bribed the attendants to hose down the wagons in order to cool them off. The trans-port then left for the Mauthausen death camp in Austria. Most of the workers still in the Schindler com-plex would be liberated in Czechos-lovakia by the Red Army.

Mauthausen Concentration Camp and Subcamps

Melk and Ebensee Mauthausen is a small Austrian city about 20 kilometers from the city of Linz. The camp was established in 1938. Most of the labor was provided by German prisoners from the con-centration camp of Dachau. The camp expanded and also managed many subcamps across Austria and Germany. The commander, Franz Ziereis, was a known sadist and de-lighted in killing inmates. He ordered Hungarian Jews and Russian prison-ers of war to be kept out of the bar-racks in the Austrian winter. The re-sult was obvious: Most of them died. The camp constantly received trans-ports as the German army retreated.

In August 1944 I arrived at Mau-thausen, where I remained for one week. I was kept in isolation but there was no room in the camp. Here I met the late Shimon Wiesenthal. I was then sent to the Melk camp, where I worked as a tunnel digger and then in an assembly plant for the production of V-1 and V-2 missile rockets. The work conditions were very demanding but there was hardly any food or accommodations. The camp was overcrowded and more inmates kept coming.

In April 1945 I was sent to the Danube River, where I was ferried because the bridge over the river had been destroyed. I then joined a death march to the Ebensee death camp in


Mauthausen Residence Card of Markus Lustig

Austria. At the camp I received daily 120 grams of bread and soup made of potato peels. I worked very hard in the tunnels. It was freezing, the bru-tality of the guards was beyond de-scription, and I slept with four other people in one bunk. The camp was terribly overcrowded. Inmates were dying on all sides and the Germans did not bury the corpses.

On 3 or 4 May 1945, we were assembled on the campgrounds. The SS told us that they wanted to save us from the American and English bombers and told us to enter the tun-nels. We knew that the SS had mined all the tunnel entrances and planned to blow them up with us inside. About 25,000 camp inmates unanim-ously refused to budge and answered the order with a resounding “NO.” The camp management left the camp and the guardhouses were handed over to civilian guards. They closed the camp and things began to disin-tegrate. A chaotic situation ensued with hangings, settling of scores, and killing of some kapos, functionaries, and block leaders.

Then the joyous day of liberation arrived, on 6 May 1945, when an American tank made its appearance and crashed through the main gate of the camp. We were very happy and began to eat the special food that the Army prepared for the camp inmates. This food was light and digestible, but provided little energy. Most of the inmates had digestive problems since their systems were severely

damaged, and this resulted in many deaths. I started to help GI’s with various chores and was given extra food, especially combat ra-tions that were rich in vita-mins and minerals geared to sustain combat soldiers in the field. I began to gain weight and felt stronger by the day. As my strength grew, so did my appetite

for the rich foods that I obtained from American soldiers for the vari-ous chores that I did. Liberated with me were about 20 youngsters from my native city of Sandz.

In July 1945, I started to work for the American Armed Forces in Austria. I worked in the kitchen serv-ing food to the GI’s and then kept house for four American officers. I then worked at various jobs with the American Army in Austria: running a fuel station, guard duty with a rifle, and finally supervising an officers’ nightclub. It was my job to see that the place was clean and well stocked with liquor, food, and musical records.

All these activities did not dis-tract my mind from the question of what would become of me. What had happened to my distant family? I re-membered that my mother had a brother who left Sandz prior to WWII for Germany and then went to Saõ Paolo in Brazil. I did not have the exact address, but I remembered his name, Chaim Lustiger, the city, and part of the street name. The of-ficers helped me establish contact with the family in Brazil. He indeed lived in Saõ Paolo, on Jose Paulina Street. He told me of family survi-vors and gave me their addresses. Among them was a nephew by the name of Nathan Lustig. He had es-caped to Russia and from there with the Polish Army of Anders he made it to the Middle East. The British used his language skills in question-ing German prisoners of war. We es-tablished contact that lasted until he

was discharged from the army and then contact was lost. My father’s sister and her husband escaped from Poland to Slovakia and survived the war with a daughter who was 6 years old. This girl now has 24 grandchil-dren.

My uncle Chaim from Brazil sent me immigration papers through the HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Asso-ciation) office. In November 1946, I left the job at the American Army in Austria and headed to Munich, Bava-ria. From there I was supposed to head to Paris and then to Brazil.

I remained in Germany for a while and then the United Nations divided Palestine and created the state of Israel. I decided to join the new Jewish country, and in April 1948 I enlisted in the Israeli Army in Germany and was sent to Hochland in Bavaria to undergo military train-ing. I was then sent to France and via the port of Marseille reached Haifa in July 1948. In Israel, I was attached to the Palmach Brigade that was sta-tioned at Kfar Yona and later was attached to the Harel Brigade. When the Palmach Army units were dis-banded, I was attached to the Golani Brigade. I was discharged from ac-tive service in the army in August 1949. I started to work for the big construction company of Solel Bo-neh. I married in 1958 and we have a son and a daughter. Both children married and we have five grandchil-dren. I participated in all of the Israe-li wars and retired from work in 1985.

I continue my active life by be-ing involved in various projects and also gave testimony in multiple Nazi trials. I have also participated in the production of films dealing with the camps. I am the secretary of the Nowy Sącz (Sandzer) Landsman-shaft Society in Israel. Shalom.

This story was translated from Hebrew by William Leibner, Jerusalem, Israel.


Introduction I have been studying my mother’s birth town, Skala, in the Ukraine, for the past 13 years and have been shtetl leader for the past 6 years. More recently, I have formed re-search groups for other towns in Ukraine, Poland, and the Czech Re-public. All of this inspired my wife (Toba) and me to visit these ancestral places to discover my roots. The fol-lowing is a diary of the Ukraine part of the trip. For other portions of the trip or to see other photos, please contact me at [email protected].

2–3 June We had a flight to L’viv via Munich, on United/Lufthansa. Pleasant, de-cent food which was offered many times through the night.

We met Alex Dunai, our Ukraine guide, at the L’viv airport, which is more the size of a bus station. This was a surprise considering that L’viv has a population over a million. We drove to the Opera Hotel, which is very nice.

Alex handed me a set of records I had requested about the Hausners. I was very glad to see them.

During the afternoon, we walked around downtown L’viv with Alex. Our hotel is next to the Opera House. We saw lots of trolleys, city hall, and the busy downtown. It is a pretty city. We walked by the Catholic church which Pope John visited.

Alex took us to Amadeus restau-rant and we made a reservation for the evening, but when we returned they had lost power after a heavy rainstorm, so we ate dinner at Opera Hotel restaurant, which was very nice. It was on the top floor, with a great view of the Opera House roof-top, and had very good food.

The only TV station with English is BBC.

4 June We went to the Chabad synagogue, which had a very beautiful interior and had been recently restored. We met Rabbi Mordechai Shlomo Bald and his wife, Sarah, who were both very friendly. The synagogue was built in the 1920’s. Not only had the synagogue been restored but so had its paintings, both of which were very beautiful. It has several hundred members, but only a handful general-ly comes to services. The members are mostly Russian and eastern Ukrainians who have moved to L’viv.

We visited the archives, in the old abbey building. We met with di-rector Pelts Diana Ivanivna, who knew Alex well. She understood English but did not speak it. I re-quested the death record for Sime Hausner, my great-great-grand-mother, which I hope to see on our return to L’viv. Their staff has been cut significantly so processing is slower.

Alex Dunai and Tony Hausner at Former School in L’viv Where Bernard

Hausner Taught

We visited several places where Bernard Hausner, Gideon’s father, lived and worked. Gideon was Adolf Eichmann’s prosecutor and made many important contributions to Israel’s history, as did Bernard.

We weent to memorials for the Jewish ghetto and to Janowska death camp, where more than 200,000 Jews lost their lives.

5 June We visited the town of Zhovkva (formerly Zolkiev), about 45 minutes away from L’viv, which had been 50% Jewish. Some of the houses were designed by the same architect as the former Golden Royz Synago-gue in L’viv. Very pretty town and buildings. It was market day there and quite interesting.

We went to Kaiser Wald Park in L’viv, where they had a display of 17th-century wooden houses from the Carpathian Mountains, many without chimneys to save on taxes. There was also a festival occurring at park, which involved many little girls in beautiful costumes.

Our Visit to Ancestral Cities and Towns in Ukraine Tony Hausner


In the afternoon, we toured the Armenian quarter and the Opera House lobbies, which are very beau-tiful.

Alex has been a real pleasure to be with and has taken very good care of us. We have had very interesting discussions about Jewish issues, Ukrainian and American politics, our families, etc.

6 June We traveled to Borshchiv via Terno-pil, the latter of which had a former synagogue and is now a town of 200,000; it was 35% Jewish at one time. My great-grandfather was born in Borshchiv and his father died there.

In Borshchiv we met Dymtro, the caretaker for the Skala cemetery, his wife, and his son, Oleg.

His wife’s grandparents saved Max Mermelstein, President of the Skala Benevolent Society.

Dymtro was a teacher for 43 years at a local school and his son also taught there for a while and was vice-principal. His son now deals with oil terminals in Odessa. They invited us into their home for lunch, but since we had already eaten, we just joined them for tea. They showed us a number of pictures, in-cluding one of his wife’s grand-fathers with Max Mermelstein and his cousins.

We saw the Borshchiv monu-ment, which reads: “In memory of the thousands of Mar-tyred Jews of Borshchiw, Skala, Ozeryany, “Koroliwka, Melnitza, Krywch and surrounding villages, murdered in the Spring “of 1943 by the German Nazis and their collaborators (may their names and memories “be blotted out) and buried in a mass grave in this field, which was a Jew-ish “cemetery that was later destroyed. “May G-d avenge their pure blood!

“May their pure souls be bound up in the bond of living!”

Erected in 1991 on the initiative of the survi-vors of the above named communities.

There were big cracks on the side of the monument, plus the letters are some-what faded. As pre-viously reported, the Borshchiv Jewish cemetery, which con-tained mass graves of several thousand Jews slaughtered during the liquidation of the ghetto in June 1943, was bulldozed by the So-viet authorities after the war and converted into a soccer field.

On to Skala. We drove through Main Street, then to the fortress, and looked over the River Zbruch (Zbrucz). We found my great-grandfather Zalman’s house. It is in major disrepair, not like the photos from 13 years ago by cousin Evelyn. It is owned by a woman now living in Russia. We found Fanya Gottes-feld Heller’s grandfather’s house and Max Mermelstein’s. We took photos of houses belonging to Jews using a map supplied by Max Mermelstein. We then drove over to Stare Skala (Old Skala).

We checked into the hotel in Skala, which has only five rooms and has large ornate gnomes located at several points outside the building; Meals had to be ordered well in ad-vance because of limited cooking fa-cilities. We then went to the ceme-tery and took 80 photos of graves-tones. It was very difficult navigating much of the cemetery because the grass was at least hip deep, if not greater, and many of the graves were hidden under the grass.

7 June At the cemetery we met with Dymtro and the construction engineer whom

Zalman Hausner’s Former Home in Skala

he brought along. The cemetery wall is in bad shape. They prepared in Ukrainian a list of repairs needed, which Alex translated and I have sent to Max Mermelstein.

While there, two men were cut-ting grass and weeds, which were quite high in many parts of the ceme-tery. Alex, Toba, and I finished tak-ing photos of all gravestones on both sides.

We revisited the Jewish houses to make sure all were photographed.

We went to Kamyanets Podils-kyy, now a city of 100,000 people and which at one time had been a large Jewish city. We visited the cas-tle in a beautiful setting on top of a hill. We saw the former synagogue and Jewish homes in the center of town.

Back in Skala, we visited Count Goluchowski’s estate, which is now quite run down, but at least some buildings are still in use. The build-ing near the entrance appeared to be a clinic. A large building further back had lots of kids in it; it appeared to be some event where food was be-ing served. The Count was the Mi-nister of Austria, very wealthy, who had Jews handle his financial affairs and who treated them well.


8 June We looked at the Skala hotel spa that some have said was formerly part of the mikvah; Alex didn’t think so, just water from the same source. I later learned that the spa is standing on the site of the former Jewish Community Public Bath, a huge complex built after World War I with the help of the American Joint Distribution Committee, which contained a giant steam room, a dry steam room, half a dozen private bath rooms with hot and cold running water (not available in any household in town), and “mikva” rooms for changing and resting. The complex was used by Jews and gentiles and small entrance fees were charged for its mainten-ance. Only in 1998 was it demo-lished by the current rulers and the site sold or leased to Austrian inves-tors for the spa hotel.

I wanted to give some books to the Skala mayor, but he was out of town, so I instead gave the books to the mayor’s secretary at the town hall. The books were Skala on the River Zbrucz (the translated Skala yizkor book) and My Grandfather’s Acres by Isaac Metzger, a fictional story of life for Jews in villages near Skala in the 1880’s, a fairly accurate picture of life during that time pe-riod. I wanted a close view of the River Zbrucz, so I climbed down the embankment to photograph the river.

We went to Melnitsa, the birth-place of my great-grandmother. There were two areas where graves-tones were located, but there were very few in each place.

We went to Chortkiv. Many gra-vestones were hidden in the deep woods; we photographed several. The synagogue in the center is now a children’s activity center. Many Hausners lived in this town, and at least some were relatives. It was the birthplace of Bernard Hausner, father of Gideon Hausner.

We drove to Ivano-Frankivsk (formerly Stanisławów), which now has a population of 240,000. It had

been 40% Jewish at one time. The current community hall once housed many Jewish merchants. The former Jewish school is now a college.

9 June We met with Hasidic Rabbi Moishe Leib Kolesnik in his synagogue, which was built in the 1890’s. It is the only active synagogue outside of L’viv in western Ukraine. He grew up in the area but trained in Lenin-grad. There is a very small atten-dance at services. The building is very beautiful outside, but fairly simple inside.

He was very pleasant and gave me several documents. He helped re-store the Kalush cemetery with sup-port from the company Dead Sea Works, Inc., which had done some work in Kalush. The company ex-tracts potash from the Dead Sea.

We drove to Kalush and picked up Baptist minister Roman Revak in the center of Kalush. He lives in Ga-lena, not far from Kalush, but once lived in Kalush. He had taken the bus to reach Kalush since his car had broken down a few weeks ago. He obviously went out of his way to meet with us. I thought he had some familiarity with the cemetery, which is why I had suggested meeting, but it turned out not so much. Kalush is where Osias Hausner lived at one time. He was grandfather to my great-grandfather Zalman.

The cemetery had an iron fence built around much of it, but not the entire area. There is a monument at the entrance to the cemetery. Much of the base of the monument had been removed. The site of the mo-nument had been a mass grave for many Jews killed by the Nazis. A large number of headstones were in the cemetery, and Alex and I photo-graphed quite a few. There are very tall grass and weeds so it is hard to get around.

Many pretty formerly Jewish homes are in the center of town.

We had pizza lunch and pleasant conversation in Galena with Roman. Privott, who lives in the U.S. and in-troduced me to him via e-mail, pe-riodically teaches a management course at a Baptist seminary in southwest Ukraine, where Roman studied. Roman travels every week for a few days to a couple of other towns where he also administers. When we dropped Roman off we met his children. Olya is graduating high school and I had spoken with her on the phone. She speaks very good English and spent summer at a camp with American kids last year in Ukraine. Other children were daugh-ter Natalie, 15, and sons Andrew, 12, and Maryan, 10.

On the way to L’viv we drove through Bolekhov (formerly Bole-chow) and saw a former synagogue and the cemetery with a wall newly erected by the Bolechow Jewish Her-itage Society. We also drove through Stryy (formerly Stryj). Both Bolek-hov and Stryy are ancestral homes of a friend.

10 June Alex picked us up at 10:00 a.m. and took us to the Museum on the Histo-ry of Religion. It has a number of Jewish items, as well as items from the Armenian Church, Ukrainian church, etc. We ate lunch and then left for the airport.

10–30 June The rest of our ancestral trip included Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, and Italy. We had many very moving and meaningful experiences in all these countries.

Tony Hausner is leader of the Skala Re-search Group and several other town research groups, and co-editor of the newly translated yizkor book, Skala on the River Zbrucz. He lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.


The application of DNA matching techniques to genealogical research is still at an early stage of develop-ment. The authors therefore believe that an example of such an applica-tion which corroborates and ampli-fies genealogical studies might be of wider interest.

Nearly three hundred years ago there lived a scholar in Brody, a town in Galicia that was home to an im-portant Jewish community. This scholar married the daughter of a Rabbi Gelles and was thereafter known as Moses Gelles of Brody. He was a member of the distinguished house of study known as the Brody Klaus. Many of his descendants re-mained in Brody and other Galician towns during the period of Austrian rule from 1772 to 1918.

The genealogy and history of the Gelles rabbinic lineage and its con-nections have been the subject of books by Edward Gelles, who is a direct descendant of an eponymous grandson of the scholar Moses Gelles (Edward Gelles, An Ancient Lineage, London: Vallentine Mitchell, 2006; Family Connections: Gelles-Shapiro-Friedman, Maastricht: Shaker Pub-lishing, 2009).

Another grandson of Moses Gelles of Brody was Rabbi Samuel ben Mordecai Gelles. He married Sa-rah Rachel Sheindel, the only daugh-ter of the famous Chasidic Rabbi Pinchas Shapiro of Koretz. This mar-riage produced a distinguished line of rabbis in the Kiev Gubernia, cen-tered on Ekaterinopol (now Katery-nopil), with a remit extending to the nearby towns of Zvenigorodka, Tol-na (now Talne), Shpola, and Kalerka (now Mokra Kalyhirka) (Shimshon Ahron Polonsky, Chidushei Horav mi-Teplik, Jerusalem: 1984; Mati-tiyahu Yechezkiel Guttman, Rabbi Pinchas mi-Koretz, Tel-Aviv: Mosad

ha-Rav Kook, 1950; Levi Grossman, Shem U’ She’erit, Tel-Aviv: Betzalel Printers, 1943; Jeffrey Mark Paull, The History and Genealogy of Po-lonsky-Paull Families, 2011).

Within the Russian Empire, Sa-muel ben Mordecai Gelles was known as Shmuel Mordkovich Po-lonsky, his family having a connec-tion with the town of Polonnoye. Po-lonsky became the family name of his descendants.

Jeffrey Mark Paull’s family has been in the United States for six gen-erations. His grandfather Ameri-canized the surname from Polonsky to Paull. Jeffrey was inspired by his discovery of family tombstones and old records and also by his study of the above-mentioned books on the Gelles family. He traced his imme-diate line back to Shmuel Mordko-vich Polonsky before introducing himself to Edward Gelles in Novem-ber 2009.

The genealogical researches of Drs. Gelles and Paull indicated that their most recent common ancestor was Moses Gelles of the Brody Klaus or possibly his son Mordecai Gelles. Edward Gelles and Jeffrey Paull are respectively 6th- and 10th-generation direct male descendants

of the said Moses Gelles. Aware of their ancestral connections, Dr. Paull invited Dr. Gelles to compare patrili-neal Y-chromosome DNA results.

Results The tests were carried out by

Family Tree DNA of Houston, Tex-as, a DNA testing laboratory which has built up a large database of more than 300,000 individual records. Clients are informed of matching maternal and paternal DNA results. These tests demonstrated that both Drs. Gelles and Paull belong to the relatively rare R2 haplogroup and that they have a near-exact match of 36 out of 37 Y-DNA markers. The test report puts the probability of a shared common ancestor within eight to twelve generations as very high, thus corroborating our conclusions drawn from genealogical evidence.

Below are the results of the Y-DNA 37-marker test for Dr. Edward Gelles carried out by Family Tree DNA on 10 August 2010. The Y-DNA 37-marker test for Dr. Jeffrey Mark Paull is identical except for an Alleles reading of 17 instead of 18 at Locus 32.

The descent of Samuel, son of Mordecai, son of Moses Gelles of

DNA Tests in the Search for Common Ancestors: Genes and Genealogy of the Gelles and Polonsky Families

Edward Gelles and Jeffrey Mark Paull


Brody, is well documented. The Y-DNA match supports the findings that Dr. Paull is a descendant of this Gelles lineage, while the DNA evi-dence also removes any doubts as to whether the younger Moses Gelles was a grandson of the Gelles scholar of the Brody Klaus through one of the latter’s sons. At least for the time being, it leaves open the question of whether the younger Moses was a brother or a cousin of Samuel ben Mordecai Gelles aka Shmuel Mord-kovich Polonsky.

Dr. Edward Gelles was educated at Bal-liol College, Oxford, where he obtained degrees of M.A. and D.Phil. He was en-gaged in teaching and research in Phys-ical Chemistry for some time. During recent years he has published numerous books and articles on Jewish genealogy and history.

Dr. Jeffrey Mark Paull holds a B.S. in Chemistry and an M.S. in Industrial Hygiene from the University of Pitts-

Ancestry.com has oral histories rec-orded by the U.S. National Park Ser-vice. Among them are interviews with Jewish immigrants probably from these Galician towns: Bilcze Zlote (index: Bilche Zlote), Blazowa (index: Blarzowa), Budzanów (in-dex: Pudzanow), Bystra (near Gor-lice), Czortków (index: Chertkov), Dukla, Glinyany (index: Glinev), Kolomea, Koropiec, Turka (Samuel Seifert, index: Austria), Lemberg, Rakobuty (index: Rokbuta), Rozborz (index: Rosber), Skalat, Tarnopol, Tarnow/Tarnov, Zagorz (near Sanok, index: Zagush), Zborów, Zloczow (index: Clochwof), and Zydaczow (index: Zydozchow). These are available free. search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=2142

burgh, and a Ph.D. in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University, Balti-more. He is the author of numerous oc-cupational and environmental health A new ShtetLink page has been created for Dzików Stary, Poland: shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/Dzikow_Stary/index.html

A new Yizkor Book Project has been started for Siedlce, Poland: www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/Siedlce/Siedlce.html

Three new yizkor entries have been created for Pinkas Poland:

Bilcze Zlote, Ukraine http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/pinkas_poland/

pol2_00115.html

Korolowka, Ukraine http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/pinkas_poland/

pol2_00489.html

Przemyśl, Ukraine http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/pinkas_poland/

pol2_00424.html

articles in professional journals. Dr. Paull has spent the past three years re-searching and writing a book on his fam-ily history and genealogy.

The Polish Genealogy Project has a section devoted to Galician re-sources, including directories and maps: http://polishgeno.com/?page_id=17

The Malopolskie Genealogy Society has a lot of Galician resources but is completely in Polish (try using Google language tools): mtg-malopolska.org.pl/bibliotekacyfrowa.html

Interactive map of Polish borders from the 10th century to 2004 (also in Polish, but town names are usually recognizable): http://polmap.republika.pl/polska1.htm

Join Gesher Galicia http://www.jewishgen.org/galicia/join_gg.html

Web News


JRI-Poland has acquired indices of industrial permits for Dębica (475 entries), Pilzno (165 entries), and Ropczyce (162 entries) for 1938. As these files don’t fall into JRI’s gener-al mission of vital records and Books of Residents, they generously offered the files to The Galitzianer for publi-cation. All entries include

occupation/business, surname, and given name(s). Many entries also in-clude place of work, place of resi-dence, and notes. All entries in this list are from Archive (Archiwum) #59, Fond (Zespomłynu) #111, Sig-nature (Sygnatura) #14 and are for Dębica for the year (Rok) 1938.

The indices will be published in four successive issues; Dębica is be-ing published in two parts due to the number of entries. About three months after each issue is published, the data will be offered to the Shtet-Link site for that town.

For further information, contact Eden Joachim at [email protected].

SURNAME (nazwisko)

Given Name(s) (imimłyn)

Occupation/Business (rodzaj

przedsimłynbiorstwa)

Place of Work (miejsce

wykonywania zawodu)

Place of Residence (miejsce

zamieszkania)

Translated Notes

(uwagi)

Page # (strona)

ADER Wolf materiały budowlane śółkiewskiego died 1939 1

ADLER Chana towary mieszane Mickiewicza disappeared during war 1

ALSTER Meilech blacharstwo 1 APFELBAUM Nariam materiały budowlane Kilińskiego 1 APFELBROTH Markus rzeźnik 1 ASCHEIM Majer woda sodowa Rynek 1 AUSENBERG Chaim skup bydła Mickiewicza 3 AUSENBERG Golda towary mieszane 3 AUSENBERG Pinkas mleczarz 3 AUSENBERG Rubin trafika 3 BAŁAMUT MojŜesz szklarz Legionów 5 BAŁAMUTH Naftali szklarz 3 Maja 303 BALSAM Moses skup produktów rolniczych Sobieskiego 303 BALSAM Samuel handel bławatny Rynek 5 BALSAM z d. VORSELTER Maria bławatne Rynek 303 BAUMAN Lieber rzeźnik Potockiego 5 BECK Chawa handel bławatny 5 BECK Chawa piekarz Rynek 313 BECK Jakub towary mieszane 5 BECKER Leon adwokat Mickiewicza 313 BEER Etka spoŜywcze Rynek 7 BEER Leib krawiec 7 BEER Maria spoŜywcze Rynek Sienkiewicza 15 BEER Sala rolne towary śuławskiego Sienkiewicza 15 BEER Samuel Jakub spoŜywcze 7 BEER Sara materiały budowlane 7 BEER Taube woda sodowa 7

BEINISCH Dawid Abraham transport Szkolna disappeared during war 303

BERGER Izrael woda sodowa 3 Maja disappeared during war 7

BERGER Pinkas towary mieszane Sienkiewicza Sienkiewicza 15 BERGER Sala blacharstwo Sienkiewicza 15 BERNSTEIN Beila handel bławatny Rynek 7 BERNSTEIN Beila Rynek 7 BERNSTEIN Mala bławatne 303 BERNSTEIN Mendel towary mieszane Sobieskiego 7 BETHEIL Chawa spoŜywcze Kraszewskiego 9 BLASS Jakub Chiel szewc Legionów 9 BLATT Bendet towary mieszane Kili ńskiego 9 BLAUSTEIN Leizer towary mieszane Mickiewicza 11 BLUM Sara Ryfka handel bławatny Rynek 11 BLUMENKIEHL f STRURM Tema towary mieszane Sobieskiego 11 BLUT Braindla towary mieszane Mickiewicza 11 BOBKER Józef towary mieszane Rynek 11 BOCHNER Hirsch materiały budowlane Mickiewicza 11 BOCHNER Hirsch spoŜywcze Mickiewicza 11 BODNER Berta krawiec Mickiewicza 11

Dębica 1938 Industrial Permits, Part 1 Stanley Diamond and Eden Joachim, JRI-Poland


BODNER Wigdor transport Mickiewicza 11 BRAUNFELD Johanna Gizela handel bławatny Kili ńskiego 13 BRENNER Nechuma towary mieszane Sobieskiego 303 BRENNER Rachela towary mieszane Sobieskiego 13 BRESSMAN MojŜesz jubiler Sienkiewicza 313 BRONCHEIM Eidla towary mieszane 3 Maja 13 BRONCHEIM Hersch rzeźnik Zanderera 13 BRONCHEIM Huda spoŜywcze Mickiewicza 13 BRONHEIM Huda spoŜywcze 15 BRONHEIM Mina krawiec Szkolna 303 BROSS Juda towary mieszane Rynek 13

BRUECK Mindla towary mieszane Rynek disappeared during war 13

BUCHSBAUM Samuel towary mieszane Rynek 13 BULTER Wolf fryzjer Mickiewicza 13 DAAR Alte Ŝelazne Zanderera 19 DAAR Feige galanteria Rynek 19 DAAR Feiwel parasole Sobieskiego 19 DAAR Maryem galanteria Zanderera 19 DERDIKMAN Brucha towary mieszane 21 DERSIEWICZ Benjamin skóry 23 DERSIEWICZ Salomon szewc Rynek 19 DILLER Jakub Izak bławatne Rynek 223 DOERFLER Feiwel towary mieszane Sobieskiego 19 DOERFLER Samuel galanteria Sobieskiego 21 DRELICH Izrael stolarz Potockiego 21 EBERT Jakub elektryka Rynek 25 EILL Mechel alkohole Sobieskiego 25 EISEN Józef towary mieszane Rynek 25 EISEN Naftali ślusarz Sobieskiego 25 EISEN Naftali transport Sobieskiego 23 EISEN Naftali Ŝelazne Sobieskiego 25 EISENBERG Debora galanteria 27 ELSTER Kiwa spoŜywcze Sobieskiego 25 ELSTER Michał skóry Sienkiewicza 25 ELSTER Moses skóry Mickiewicza 25 EPSTEIN Anna Sobieskiego 25 EPSTEIN Izrael róŜne Sobieskiego 25 EPSTEIN Rozalia towary mieszane Matejki 27

FAERBER Mendel towary mieszane Sienkiewicza disappeared during war 27

FAJGENBAUM Taube rzeźnik 27 FALIG Aron rzeźnik Sienkiewicza 27

FASS Pinkas spoŜywcze Piaski disappeared during war 33

FAUST Abraham materiały budowlane Sobieskiego 27 FAUST Abraham materiały budowlane Sobieskiego 27 FAUST Beila towary mieszane Mickiewicza 27 FAUST Chaim czapnik Rynek 27 FAUST Chaim czapnik Rynek 35 FAUST Rafael drzewne 33 FEIGENBAUM Helena ciastkarz Rynek 225

FERZIGER Aron Józef towary mieszane Sienkiewicza disappeared during war 35

FERZIGER Gitla galanteria 29 FERZIGER Helena spoŜywcze 29 FERZIGER Laja spoŜywcze Kili ńskiego 35 FERZIGER Leib spoŜywcze Kili ńskiego Kilińskiego 35 FETT Chana trafika 3 Maja 29 FETT Helena szewc Chłopickiego 29 FINK Itta Rachela róŜne Czarneckiego 29 FINK Itta Rachela spoŜywcze Czarneckiego 29

FISCH Helena towary mieszane Mickiewicza disappeared during war 29

FISCH Helena wyszynk Mickiewicza disappeared during war 29

FISCH Salomon spoŜywcze Mickiewicza 29 FISCHEL Jakub galanteria Rynek 31 FISCHLER Chana szewc Rynek 33 FISCHLER Mirla ciastkarz Mickiewicza 225 FISCHLER Mirla szewc Mickiewicza 31


FORSCHNER Abraham rzeźnik Mickiewicza 31 FORSTEHER Rachela bławatne Chłopickiego 31 FORSTHER Chana spoŜywcze Kili ńskiego 31 FRAENKEL Breindla skóry Rynek 31 FRAENKEL Józef róŜne 33 FRANCK Rachela szewc Rynek 31 FRANCK Rachela szewc Rynek 31 FREIBERG Erna wyszynk Mickiewicza Mickiewicza 35 FREIBERGER Herman galanteria Mickiewicza 27 FRIEDMAN Leia spoŜywcze Rynek 33 FRIEDMAN Pinkas spoŜywcze Kolejowa Rynek 35 FRIEDMAN Pinkas wyszynk Rynek Rynek 35 FRUEHMAN Berl towary mieszane 33 FRUEHMAN Jakub towary mieszane Chłopickiego 33 FRUEHMAN Szejwa galanteria śółkiewskiego 33 GANS Izaak konfekcja Rynek 37 GANZ Aron konfekcja Rynek Rynek 47 GELD Basia róŜne Mickiewicza 37 GELD Getzel spoŜywcze Mickiewicza 37 GEMBICZYNER Chaim towary mieszane 37 GEMBICZYNER Chaim Jakub towary mieszane śółkiewskiego 39 GEMBICZYNER Glickel tandeta Mickiewicza 37 GEMINDER Beila spoŜywcze Sienkiewicza 39 GEMINDER Naftali spoŜywcze Kraszewskiego 39

GESCHWIND Teofila krawiec Czarneckiego disappeared during war 39

GEWIRTZ Jonas skóry Legionów 39 GEWIRZ Ryfka galanteria Legionów 39 GLANZ Zindel towary mieszane Sobieskiego 39

GLUECKMAN Markus zegarmistrz Rynek disappeared during war 39

GLUECKMAN Markus zegarmistrz Rynek 39 GLUECKMAN Natan spoŜywcze 3 Maja 41 GOLDBERG Chaim Dawid galanteria Rynek 41 GOLDBERG Chaim Dawid wyszynk Rynek 41 GOLDBERG Chaskel wyszynk Mickiewicza 41

GOLDBERG Mendel towary mieszane Gawrzyłowa disappeared during war 41

GOLDBERG Sara Feiga galanteria Mickiewicza 41 GOLDBERGER Gitla towary mieszane Chłopickiego 41 GOLDBLATT Baruch skup produktów rolniczych 305 GOLDBLATT Maria spoŜywcze 43 GOLDBLATT Mozes materiały budowlane 305

GOLDBLATT Pesla towary mieszane Kili ńskiego disappeared during war 43

GOLDBLUM Chil piekarz 305 GOLDBLUM Hune piekarz 45 GOLDBLUM Hune spoŜywcze Rynek 43 GOLDBLUM Kalman piekarz śółkiewskiego 305 GOLDFARB Aron rzeźnik Zanderera 43 GOLDFARB Estera bławatne Rynek 43 GOLDFARB Gitla konfekcja Zanderera 47

GOLDFARB Leizer Dawid spoŜywcze Rynek disappeared during war 43

GOLDFARB Leizer Dawid spoŜywcze Rynek 43 GOLDFLUSS Maurycy aptekarz Zanderera 43 GOLDMAN Abraham hotel 3 Maja 43 GOLDMAN Eleonora wyszynk Rynek 89 GOLDMAN Erna wyszynk Mickiewicza 43 GOLDMAN Necha hotel 3 Maja 47 GRIESER Rafael skup produktów rolniczych 305 GRODER Chana towary mieszane Sobieskiego 47

GRUEN Abraham rzeźnik Mickiewicza lease of ritual slaughter 45

GRUEN Eliasz towary mieszane Sienkiewicza disappeared during war 45

GRUEN Sala towary mieszane Sienkiewicza 227 GRUENBERG Abraham piekarz 305 GRUENBERG Abraham szklarz Sienkiewicza 227 GRUENHUT Hirsch zegarmistrz Sienkiewicza 45 GRUENSPAN Chinka towary mieszane Sobieskiego 45


GRUENSPAN Izak młyn Mickiewicza 47 GRUENSPAN Natan róŜne 45 GRUENSPAN Szymon Izaak młyn 45 HACKE Izak adwokat Gawrzyłowa 51 HACKE Rafael norymberskie Rynek 49 HAND Abraham towary mieszane Zanderera 49 HARTMAN Salomon galanteria Mickiewicza 49 HARTMAN Salomon galanteria Mickiewicza 49 HAUSER Hinda papier Rynek 49 HAUSER Leib drukarnia Rynek 49 HERSCHLAG Grtzel piekarz Kili ńskiego 49 HERSCHLAG Rozalia spoŜywcze Kili ńskiego 49 HERSCHLAG Salomon piekarz śółkiewskiego 49 HERZBERG Moses Jakub bławatne Rynek 49 HERZIG Aron spoŜywcze Kościuszki Sędziszów 51 HOROWITZ Naftali Chaim trafika Mickiewicza 51 HOSZARD Marian i Mina dentysta Słowackiego 51 ISLER Fryda magiel Czarneckiego 51 JAKUB Chana piekarz Rynek 53 JAKUB Gitla ciastkarz 3 Maja 55

JAM Ryfka towary mieszane Mickiewicza disappeared during war 53

JERUD Chaim drzewne 3 Maja 55 JODŁOWER Natan rzeźnik śółkiewskiego 53 JUNGEWIRTH Sala Ida bławatne śółkiewskiego 53 KALB Ewa towary mieszane Sobieskiego 311 KAMPF Salomon skup produktów rolniczych Kraszewskiego 309 KANNER Dora woda sodowa Rynek 55 KANNER Gimpel róŜne 55 KANNER Hirsch materiały budowlane Mickiewicza 55 KANNER Izaak Leib blacharstwo Sobieskiego 55 KARFIOŁ Rachela obuwie Rynek 57 KEIL Abraham Izak tandeta Kościuszki 63 KIRSCH Herman blacharstwo Kili ńskiego 57 KIRSCH Herman towary mieszane 55 KIRSCH Jakub Izrael młyn Chłopickiego 309 KIRSCH Jakub Izrael spoŜywcze Chłopickiego 309 KIRSCHENBAUM Debora bławatne Rynek 57 KOERNER Małka towary mieszane Sobieskiego 59 KOPP Zygmunt materiały budowlane 229 KOPP Zygmunt trafika 3 Maja 311 KORNFELD Sara Nicha bławatne śółkiewskiego 311 KORNGUT Ida bławatne 59 KORNGUT MojŜesz materiały budowlane śółkiewskiego 309 KORNREICH Berta towary mieszane Kościuszki 59 KORNREICH Markus spoŜywcze Mickiewicza 59 KORNREICH Moses Leib transport Mickiewicza 59 KORZENNIK Lazar drukarnia Kościuszki 59 KOSS Dawid komiwojaŜer Mickiewicza 59 KOSS Pinkas meblarstwo 59 KRANZ Jakub dentysta Rynek 317 KREISWIRTH Chaim drzewne 3 Maja 61 KREISWIRTH Chaskel towary mieszane Mickiewicza 61 KRIEGER Aron Naftali szewc Sienkiewicza 61 KRIEGER Gedalie towary mieszane Sienkiewicza 61 KUKUK Hinda konfekcja śółkiewskiego śółkiewskiego 63 KUPFER Szulim bławatne Chłopickiego 309 KURZER Helena towary mieszane 63


©2010 by Gesher Galicia, Inc. The Galitzianer is intended to pro-vide a venue for the free exchange of ideas, research tips, and articles of interest to members of Gesher Galicia, Inc., who are researching Jewish family history in the com-munities that in 1872 were part of Galicia, a province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Galitzianer welcomes articles, lists of names, photographs, book reviews, and other relevant contri-butions—original or previously published—from members and nonmembers alike. Submit materi-al, preferably in electronic format, to the editor at

[email protected]

Authors are solely responsible for assertions and opinions expressed in their articles. The Galitzianer is not responsible for fact checking. Journals of other genealogical as-sociations may reproduce material from The Galitzianer, provided they credit this publication. Non-genealogical journals should obtain prior permission by writing to the editor at

[email protected]

Electronic copies of this publica-tion are for use by the original reci-pient only. They may not be for-warded to others or reproduced.

Gesher Galicia, Inc. Board of Directors

Pamela Weisberger President Research and Program Coordinator [email protected]

Vacant Vice President

Vacant Secretary

Ann Harris Treasurer Chief Financial Officer [email protected]

Shelley Kellerman Pollero Immediate Past President [email protected]

Rachel Heller Bernstein Director Corresponding Secretary [email protected]

Peter Zavon Director Editor, Gesher Galicia Family Finder [email protected]

Renee Steinig Director Discussion Group Moderator [email protected]

John Diener Director [email protected]

Tony Kahane Director [email protected]

Brooke Schreier Ganz Director [email protected]

Advisory Board

Susana Leistner Bloch JewishGen Liaison

Mark Halpern JRI-Poland Liaison

Mark Heckman Technology

Sandra Malek Legal Counsel

Brian J. Lenius FEEFHS and Archive Liaison

Alexander Dunai Ukraine Liaison

Committee Chairman

Leon Gold Membership [email protected]

The Galitzianer Key Volunteers

Janice M. Sellers Editor [email protected]

Suzan Wynne Associate Editor

Leo Albert Associate Editor

Carole Feinberg Copy Editor

Edward Rosenbaum Electronic Distribution Manager [email protected]

Webmaster

Max Heffler [email protected]

Gesher Galicia, Inc. Gesher Galicia, Inc. is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Contributions to Gesher Galicia, Inc. are tax deducti-ble for U.S. residents. Consider making a donation to Gesher Galicia's General Fund to support our ongoing research and programs. This can be done online via Paypal at http://tinyurl.com/aab5n9, or by mailing a check paya-ble to "Gesher Galicia, Inc.” to:

Ann Harris, CFO Gesher Galicia, 1522 So. Point View #2, Los Angeles, CA 90035-3912

genes of moses gelles and genealogy of his descendants

Documents

research project

new site

landowner records project

gesher galicia family

new galician

gesher galicia spring

project donors

century voter records