Post by pjotr on Mar 2, 2018 17:58:17 GMT 1
Dear Facebookers all over the world:
I have a special request. My 94 years old grandmother from Jewish Polish origin (living in the Netherlands since 1930) tells a lot about her pre war history in Bielsko Biala, Poland. Beacuse of the German occupation of Poland during the Second World War, almost all archives were destroyed. So we do not have any information about her family in Poland. Now I am wondering if there is anyone who has information about her uncle: Sammy (Samuel) Landau, his wife Gita and their children Sabine en Leo. I do not have the exact birthdates, but we think Sammy was born between 1890 and 1894. He was a pharmacist and he worked in the Dranch pharmacy in Bielsko. I know it’s a long time ago, but since Facebook has many members all over the world, maybe there is a chance we can get some more information. Please share this update! That would mean a lot to us.
Rosalie Anstadt
Below, a picture of my grandmother, Lidy Bleiberg (1920-) in 1946
Lidy Bleiberg
Extra info Bielsko Biala
BIELSKO (Ger. Bielitz), town in southwest Poland on the river Biala opposite *Biala , amalgamated with Biała in 1950 to form the city of Biała-Bielsko. A community existed in Bielsko in the first half of the 19th century, which was authorized to open a prayer hall in 1831 and a cemetery in 1849. It became an independent community in 1865. The Jewish population numbered 1,977 in 1890 increasing to 3,955 by 1921, and approximately 5,000 in 1939; most were German speaking. According to the 1921 census, 2,737 declared their nationality as Jewish, of whom 513 declared Yiddish as their mother tongue. The Jewsin Bielsko took an important part in the city's commerce and woolen textile industry. Most of the communal institutions were maintained jointly with the Biała community. Michael Berkowicz, Theodor Herzl's Hebrew secretary, taught religious subjects in the secondary school at Bielsko, and attracted many Jews to Zionism. The Hebrew scholar and bibliophile S.Z.H. *Halberstam lived in Bielsko and the scholar Saul *Horovitz officiated as rabbi there from 1888 to 1895.
[Abraham J. Brawer]
Holocaust and Postwar Periods
With the dissolution of Austria–Hungary in 1918 according to the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, both cities became part of the reconstituted Polish state. The ethnic German citizens formed an aggressively anti-Polish, rabidly racist and anti-Jewish Jungdeutsche Partei sponsored financially by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Third Reich and trained in propaganda, sabotage and espionage activities against the Polish state. Its members smuggled military weapons, and waged a campaign of intimidating other members of the community to leave for Nazi Germany, with tangible incentives. A considerable number of young ethnic Germans joined the rank-and-file of the Party during the mid-1930s as a result of the Nazi indoctrination and aggressive recruitment.
The approach of the Germans led to mass flight but many had to return to the city when their escape routes were cut off. The German army entered the town on Sept. 3, 1939, and immediately initiated an anti-Jewish reign of terror. On Sept. 4, 1939, the Nazis burned down both synagogues in Bielsko and the Ḥ.N. Bialik Jewish cultural home. A few days later the Germans and Austrians burned down the two synagogues in nearby Biała, and its Orthodox Jews were forced to throw the holy books into the fire. In the summer of 1940 a ghetto was established in Bielsko. The ghetto was liquidated in June 1942 when the town's remaining Jewish population was deported to the death camp in Auschwitz. Bielsko was amalgamated with *Biała in 1950 to form the city of Bielsko-Biała. After the defeat of Nazism in 1945, the remaining German population fled westward or were expelled by the Soviet-installed communist government.
Two well-known Holocaust survivors from Bielsko-Biała are Roman Frister and Gerda Weissmann Klein. Both have written an autobiography about their experiences during World War II.
After the war a few hundred Jews settled in Bielsko-Biała. A children's home for orphans, survivors of the Holocaust, functioned there for a few years. The Jewish Cultural Society ran a club until June 1967 when the Polish government initiated its antisemitic campaign. After that date almost all the remaining Jews left Poland.
I have a special request. My 94 years old grandmother from Jewish Polish origin (living in the Netherlands since 1930) tells a lot about her pre war history in Bielsko Biala, Poland. Beacuse of the German occupation of Poland during the Second World War, almost all archives were destroyed. So we do not have any information about her family in Poland. Now I am wondering if there is anyone who has information about her uncle: Sammy (Samuel) Landau, his wife Gita and their children Sabine en Leo. I do not have the exact birthdates, but we think Sammy was born between 1890 and 1894. He was a pharmacist and he worked in the Dranch pharmacy in Bielsko. I know it’s a long time ago, but since Facebook has many members all over the world, maybe there is a chance we can get some more information. Please share this update! That would mean a lot to us.
Rosalie Anstadt
Below, a picture of my grandmother, Lidy Bleiberg (1920-) in 1946
Lidy Bleiberg
Extra info Bielsko Biala
BIELSKO (Ger. Bielitz), town in southwest Poland on the river Biala opposite *Biala , amalgamated with Biała in 1950 to form the city of Biała-Bielsko. A community existed in Bielsko in the first half of the 19th century, which was authorized to open a prayer hall in 1831 and a cemetery in 1849. It became an independent community in 1865. The Jewish population numbered 1,977 in 1890 increasing to 3,955 by 1921, and approximately 5,000 in 1939; most were German speaking. According to the 1921 census, 2,737 declared their nationality as Jewish, of whom 513 declared Yiddish as their mother tongue. The Jewsin Bielsko took an important part in the city's commerce and woolen textile industry. Most of the communal institutions were maintained jointly with the Biała community. Michael Berkowicz, Theodor Herzl's Hebrew secretary, taught religious subjects in the secondary school at Bielsko, and attracted many Jews to Zionism. The Hebrew scholar and bibliophile S.Z.H. *Halberstam lived in Bielsko and the scholar Saul *Horovitz officiated as rabbi there from 1888 to 1895.
[Abraham J. Brawer]
Holocaust and Postwar Periods
With the dissolution of Austria–Hungary in 1918 according to the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, both cities became part of the reconstituted Polish state. The ethnic German citizens formed an aggressively anti-Polish, rabidly racist and anti-Jewish Jungdeutsche Partei sponsored financially by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Third Reich and trained in propaganda, sabotage and espionage activities against the Polish state. Its members smuggled military weapons, and waged a campaign of intimidating other members of the community to leave for Nazi Germany, with tangible incentives. A considerable number of young ethnic Germans joined the rank-and-file of the Party during the mid-1930s as a result of the Nazi indoctrination and aggressive recruitment.
The approach of the Germans led to mass flight but many had to return to the city when their escape routes were cut off. The German army entered the town on Sept. 3, 1939, and immediately initiated an anti-Jewish reign of terror. On Sept. 4, 1939, the Nazis burned down both synagogues in Bielsko and the Ḥ.N. Bialik Jewish cultural home. A few days later the Germans and Austrians burned down the two synagogues in nearby Biała, and its Orthodox Jews were forced to throw the holy books into the fire. In the summer of 1940 a ghetto was established in Bielsko. The ghetto was liquidated in June 1942 when the town's remaining Jewish population was deported to the death camp in Auschwitz. Bielsko was amalgamated with *Biała in 1950 to form the city of Bielsko-Biała. After the defeat of Nazism in 1945, the remaining German population fled westward or were expelled by the Soviet-installed communist government.
Two well-known Holocaust survivors from Bielsko-Biała are Roman Frister and Gerda Weissmann Klein. Both have written an autobiography about their experiences during World War II.
After the war a few hundred Jews settled in Bielsko-Biała. A children's home for orphans, survivors of the Holocaust, functioned there for a few years. The Jewish Cultural Society ran a club until June 1967 when the Polish government initiated its antisemitic campaign. After that date almost all the remaining Jews left Poland.
