In the family archive of the descendants of the Feibysowicz-Gartenberg family, there have been kept a post-war photo showing 5 Holocaust survivors from Brzesko. For many decades, these people remained anonymous. However, after seeing this photo, we could right away recognize the woman standing on the left, Sabina Schmukler, née Teeman. And after a few days, thanks to sisters Ewa and Lucyna Platner, we managed to identify the sitting woman. It is Feigel Lesch, whose story is exceptionally tragic.
Feigel lost in the Holocaust her entire family, husband and four children. Apparently, the children were shot in front of her. The Platner sisters remember that Feigel kept in touch with their father, Szymon Platner, for many post-war years and wrote to him from New York.
Thanks to this information and cooperation with Toni Platus (granddaughter of Salomon Feibysowicz), we could rfecreate the history of this family and find many documents.
Feigel Lesch was born in Brzesko on December 9, 1896, as the daughter of Juda Schiffer and Chaja Tydor. As her parents had only religious marriage, Feigel had to use her mother’s surname, Tydor. It was a very large family: Feigel had 13 siblings, but 2 brothers and 4 sisters died in infancy. Out of remaining 8 siblings three were murdered in the Holocaust, Feigel survived the war and I couldn’t find any information on the fate of 4 others.
Feigel’s mother died in 1926 and her father died 4 years later; their matzevot still stand at the Brzesko Jewish cemetery.
Here lies
Chaia Liba
Schifer
Daughter of Mr Yitzhak Tydor
Died on 12 of Tamuz 5686 [June 24, 1926]
A woman humble in her deeds
May her soul be bound in the bundle of life
Here is buried
Yehuda Schifer
Son of Mr Shlomo Zalman
Died on Hoshana Raba 5693 [Tishrei 21, 5693 = October 21, 1932]
Honest man who supported
Himself by the toil of his hands. May his soul be bound in the bundle of life
Feigel married Szabsie Zachariasz Lesch from Piotrków Trybunalski, and the young couple settled in Brzesko. At the beginning, they also had only a religious marriage, which not recognized by the state back then. They got legally married only on June 30, 1942, in the Brzesko ghetto. The couple had four children: Selma, Peisach, Sara Beila and Lipne. I managed to find both birth and school records of all the children. Like their mother, they attended the public primary school in Brzesko. Peisach, Sara Beila and Lipe were not particularly good students, first of all they had problems with the Polish language, probably because they spoke Yiddish at home.
Selma, born on March 21,1919, attended Brzesko primary school in 1925-1932, murdered
Peisach, born on November 28, 1920, attended Brzesko primary school in 1926-1934, married Mala Mann. Peisach was murdered in the Holocaust together with his wife, her parents Mojżesz Keiner/Mann and Pessel nee Gutfreund/Hoffer and her 6 siblings
Sara Beila, born on April 1, 1923, attended Brzesko primary school in 1929-1937
Lipe, born on December 13, 1924, attended Brzesko primary school in 1931-1939
It is so difficult to look at these school reports, knowing that these young people were murdered in 1942. Their whole lives were ahead of them. The oldest, Selma, was only 23, the youngest, Lipe, was less than 18. There is nothing left of them – only birth records and several school certificates.
Of the entire family, only Feigel survived. I can’t even imagine how she managed to continue living having lost her husband and children. She was in the Buchenwald concentration camp; a few years after the war she left Poland, most likely she first went to Canada, then to the USA.
May the memory of all Holocaust victims be an eternal blessing.
© Anna Brzyska, 2025