Research conducted in several archives allowed to establish that 36 pre-war Jewish students of the Brzesko high school (gymnasium) managed to survive the war, most of them in the USSR or because they left Poland before 1939.
1. Sara Feigel Bienstock
Born in Brzesko on July 7, 1906, daughter of Mojżesz and Sussla née Gelberger/Vogelhut, attended Brzesko high school from 1916 to 1923. In 1939, Sara Feigel married Henryk Grunberg from Rzeszów and in 1942 in Kraków gave birth to son Jerzy. She was in the Kraków ghetto, later in the Płaszów concentration camp. The entire family survived; after the war they were in a refugee camp in Germany.
2. Birnbaum/Kohs Efroim
Born in Brzesko on January 20, 1898, son of Dawid Kohs and Bluma Rojza Birnbaum from Jadowniki. Efroim attended high school from 1911 to 1913; lived first in Brzesko, then in Germany. He married Klara Knopf and had two children, Manfred (born in 1927) and Noemi (born in 1933), both born in Berlin. In November 1938, he emigrated with his family to Palestine.
3. Birnbaum Eliasz
Born in Zakliczyn on August 24, 1900, son of merchant Leib Birnbaum and Zlata Marjem née Hofstatter. Eliasz attended high school from 1912 to 1920. He survived and after the war filled out a questionnaire searching for his relatives.
4. Braw Mojżesz
Born in Doły on December 3, 1916, son of Josef Braw and Beila Mirla née Buchfuhrer. Mojżesz attended high school from 1930 to 1933; in 1955 submitted testimonies to Yad Vashem regarding the deaths of his parents, two brothers, and two sisters. At that time, he was living in Israel.
5. Ebelstein Abraham (Adolf)
Born in Brzesko on January 28, 1898, son of Jakob Ebelstein, a sheet metal worker in Brzesko, and Mesche Warenhaupt. Abraham lived on Głowackiego Street in Brzesko, attended high school from 1911 to 1914, and was a top student. He moved with his family to Ostrava in the Czech Republic, where he graduated high school with honors in 1915. He married Liza Porudominsky and settled in Berlin, where their daughter, Mary, was born in 1926. In 1937, Abraham emigrated with his family to Palestine.
6. Finder Samuel
Born in Wojnicz on January 1, 1902, son of propinator Kiwa Finder and Rozalia née Grossbart. Samuel attended Brzesko high school during the 1913/14 school year. Before the war, he lived in Antwerp; he managed to obtain an American visa and emigrated to the USA in May 1941.
7. Fischler Perla
Born in Brzesko on September 28, 1915, daughter of Chaskel Haber/Fischler and Chaja née Vogelhut/Fischler. Perla attended high school from 1929 to 1935; in 1939 she married Jakob Goetz from Grybów in Kraków. Jakob was murdered in Auschwitz on January 22, 1942; Perła survived and returned to Kraków.
8. Furst Lea (Laura)
Born in Vienna on May 20, 1915, daughter of Jakob Furst, a Jewish religion teacher in Brzesko, and Fryderyka née Feingold. Lea attended high school from 1931 to 1935. She survived the war with her parents and brother in the USSR. Lea married Brzesko-born Abraham (Roman) Ullman and in 1949 emigrated with her family to Israel. She died in 2001.
9. Furst Mordechaj (Marian)
Born in Komarno (now in Ukraine, Lviv Oblast) on April 4, 1919, son of Jakob Furst, a Jewish religion teacher in Brzesko, and Fryderyka née Feingold. Marian attended high school from 1931 to 1937. He survived the war with his parents and sister in the USSR, emigrated with his family to Israel in 1949, li9ved in Israel till his death in 2008.
10. Gelberger Israel Leib (Leon)
Born in Brzesko on November 13, 1909, son of merchant Rubin Ausenberg and Sussla (Zofia) Gelberger. He attended high school from 1920 to 1928, and right after graduating from high school, he was accepted to study at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. Leon became a doctor, worked in Wolbrom, and started a family there. From the beginning of the war until November 1942, he was in Wolbrom, then in the resettlement camp in Sosnowiec, where he volunteered to work as a doctor. From there, he was sent to the Breslau-Neukirch and then to Auschwitz concentration camp, where his wife and daughter were murdered. Israel Leib was liberated from Buchenwald. After the war, he remained in Poland, but in 1946, he changed his surname to Gelewski.
11. Gelberger Hirsch (Henryk)
Born in Brzesko on April 15, 1914, son of merchant Rubin Ausenberg and Sussla (Zofia) Gelberger. Hirsch attended high school from 1925 to 1927. He lived in Brzesko and married Ryfka Kling in 1942. Rifka perished in the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1943. Hirsch survived and remarried. His second wife was Helena Kirschbaum, born in Otwock in 1919. After the war, he and his wife spent some time in a refugee camp in Munich, intending to emigrate to Australia. Finally, in 1949, he emigrated to the United States with his wife and their daughter, Sofia, born in 1948.
12. Goldman Lea
Born in Brzesko on September 24, 1906, daughter of merchant Moses Chaim Goldman and Ettel née Riegelhaupt. Lea attended high school from 1916 to 1924, became a teacher, and married, taking the last name Konigsberger. Lea survived the war in the Soviet Union; after the war she first lived in Kraków and later emigrated to Israel. Lea had children and grandchildren, died in Jerusalem in 1993
13. Goldman Berta
Born in Brzesko on November 9, 1913, daughter of Mojżesz Chaim and Etel née Riegelhaupt. Berta lived in Brzesko and attended high school from 1924 to 1933, finishing her final year. She survived several concentration camps and settled in Stockholm after the war.
14. Goldstein Ida (Jola)
Born in Borzęcin on May 11, 1908, daughter of merchant Abraham Goldstein and Sima née Steinlauf/Elsner. Ida attended high school from 1919 to 1921. She settled in Germany, married Ernst Goldberg, and gave birth to a son, Albert, in Berlin in 1935. In 1939, the family emigrated to Bolivia, where Ida gave birth to their second son, Aleksander.
15. Herschkowicz Marjem Ittel
Born in Brzesko on October 10, 1915, daughter of Wolf Leib Herschkowicz/Scheidlinger from Radłów and Feigel née Kornhauser from Wieliczka. Marjem Ittel attended Brzesko high school in the 1930/31 school year. She married a school friend, Arie Leib Steinlauf, and emigrated to Palestine before the war.
16. Hofstatter Mala (Amalia)
Born in Zakliczyn on July 24, 1903, daughter of Majer Hofstatter, a pharmacist in Brzesko, and Chana née Laufer. Mala attended high school from 1913 to 1919. She survived, lived in Israel after the war, and provided testimony at Yad Vashem regarding her father’s death.
17. Hofstatter Sara Judit
Born in Zakliczyn on January 7, 1905, daughter of pharmacist Majer Hofstatter and Chana née Laufer. Sara Judit attended Brzesko high school from 1916 to 1920. She married, taking the surname Spiegel. Her husband perished in the Holocaust, but Sara Judit survived and lived in Israel after the war.
18. Itzkowicz Leibisz
Born in Szczurowa on December 16, 1914, son of merchant Pinkas and Gittla née . Leibisz attended Brzesko high school in the school year 1930/31. He survived, after the war lived in Israel; in 1956 he submitted testimonies to Yad Vashem regarding the death of his father, three brothers and a sister.
19. Klapholz Jakob Ozyasz
Born in Brzesko on May 16, 1897, son of Mayor Henoch Klapholz and Rachel Lea née Klapholz. Jakob Ozyasz attended high school from 1913 to 1918. Before the war, he lived in Austria; he married Debora Fisch and had a son, Herbert, born in 1932. In 1943, the family managed to get to Switzerland and in June 1946, all 3 of them emigrated to the USA. Jakob Ozyasz died in New York on September 7, 1950.
20. Klapholz Benedykt
Born in Kraków on December 21, 1899, son of merchant Meilech Klapholz and Margula (Julia), née Pomeranz. Benedykt attended Brzesko high school from 1911 to 1918, passing his high school leaving examination in 1918. He married Emilia Zelcer, a native of Warsaw, and moved to Vienna, where in 1936 the couple had a daughter, Marietta. Just before the war, Benedykt and Emilia managed to emigrate to Palestine, but their daughter remained in Warsaw with her grandparents. Marietta survived the war on Aryan papers thanks to Stefania Matuszewska, who cared for her for over four years. The parents reunited with their daughter in 1946; in 1950, they left Israel for the USA. Benedykt Klapholz died on February 29, 1968.
21. Klapholz Rachela (Rozalia)
Born in Brzesko on August 19, 1900, daughter of bank director Kasriel Klapholz and Malka née Nattel. Rachela attended high school from 1911 to 1915. She married Menasze Friedlandt, and lived in Vienna before the war. Rachela managed to escape first to England and, in May 1940, to the United States. She had no children. Rachela died in New York on August 10, 1988 and was buried next to her brother Jakob.
22. Klapholz Rachela Kreindla (Roza)
Born in Brzesko on July 22, 1901, daughter of merchant Meilech Klapholz and Margula (Julia) née Pomeranz; attended high school from 1911 to 1915. She married Leon Stolz and settled in Vienna, where she gave birth to a daughter, Erika Sara, in 1927. When the war broke out, Rachela Kreindla fled with her husband and daughter first to Rome, then to Lisbon, from where the entire family emigrated to the USA in August 1941. She died in 1986.
23. Klapholz Jakob
Born in Brzesko on May 22, 1902, son of bank director Kasriel Klapholz and Malka née Nattel; attended high school in the 1913/14 school year. Before the war, Jakob lived in Vienna with his wife, Frida; emigrated first to Palestine, and in August 1940 to the USA. In the US, the couple had a son, Henoch (Henry), named after his great-grandfather, Brzesko Mayor Henoch Klapholz. Jakob Klapholz died in New York on March 14, 1987.
24. Hirsch (Herman) Krauter
Born in Dąbrowa Tarnowska on May 17, 1898, son of Chaim Krauter, a printer and bookstore owner in Brzesko, and Lea née Muller. Hirsch attended Brzesko high school from 1911 to 1918. Before the war, he lived in Vienna with his wife Regina. In 1939, the couple managed to emigrate to the United States, where their son, Allan, was born in 1942. Hirsch Krauter died in New Jersey in 1989.
25. Lindner Salomon
Born in Pomianowa on August 10, 1907, son of Mojżesz (Maurycy) Lindner and Perla née Loffelholz. Salomon was a high school student from 1917 to 1919. Before the war, he lived in Belgium; he managed to obtain an American visa and leave Brussels for the USA, thus avoiding the Holocaust.
26. Loffelholz Regina
Born in Pomianowa on November 18, 1906, daughter of Mojżesz Dawid and Laja née Wasserberger; attended Brzesko high school from 1916 to 1922. Regina became the piano teacher, married Tarnów-born doctor Izydor Eichenholz, and lived in Kraków on Stradom Street. During the war, she first worked in Kraków as a nurse in a Jewish hospital, and later was sent to concentration camps in Płaszów and Rawensbrück. She was liberated in May 1945. After the war, Regina was in a refugee camp in Germany with her husband and their adopted daughter, Maria Witkowska; in 1948, she wanted to emigrate to Palestine.
27. Juda Leib (Leopold) Loffelholz
Born in Brzesko on April 8, 1908, son of Mojżesz Dawid and Laja née Wasserberger; attended high school from 1916 to 1922. Juda Leib enrolled at the Jagiellonian University, became a lawyer, and lived in Krakow. When the war broke out, he fled to Lviv. He survived in the Soviet Union and returned to Krakow in 1946.
28. Sass Maria
Born in Zator on November 8, 1904, daughter of Adolf Sass and Roza Weiss. Maria attended high school in the 1913/1914 school year, during which time she lived in Brzesko with Salamon Kohs. She became a nurse and lived in Kraków. Maria survived the war in the Soviet Union and returned to Kraków. In 1948, she changed her surname to Wolska.
29. Schiff Samuel
Born in Gródek on January 25, 1913, son of Jakob Schiff, attended Brzesko high school in the 1929/30 school year. Samuel studied at the Polytechnic University in Lviv and became a mechanical engineer. Evacuated to Chelyabinsk, he survived the war in the Soviet Union.
30. Seelengut Sara
Born in Brzesko on May 16, 1906, daughter of merchant Chaim Majer Seelengut/Goldman and Ettel née Zollman; attended high school in the 1916/17 school year. Sara moved to Kraków, where she married engineer Bertold Strelinger and gave birth to a daughter, Anita, in 1937. During the war, she used the name Ludwika Strelinger. She, along with her husband and daughter, were in the Soviet Union, from where they escaped to Iran as refugees, thus avoiding the Holocaust.
31. Spielman Riwka (Regina)
Born in Borzęcin on May 6, 1909, daughter of Jakob Spielman and Sara Sussel née Mingelgrun Riwka was a student at the Brzesko high school from 1920 to 1924. She survived, lived in Israel after the war, and died in Tel Aviv in 1997.
32. Steinlauf Arie Leib (Leon)
Born in Brzesko on July 1, 1914, son of Jozef and Scheindla Drobne née Steinlauf. Arie Leib attended high school from 1926 to 1934. In 1936, he emigrated to Palestine, thus avoiding the Holocaust. He married a schoolmate, Marjem Ittel Herschkowicz.
33. Storch/Mehler Stefan
Born in Krakow on November 28, 1911, son of Mendel Storch/Mehler and Fania née Westreich, attended Brzesko high school in the 1930/31 school year. Stefan lived in Krakow, survived the war in the Soviet Union, and returned to Krakow in 1946.
34. Strauber Lea Marja (Leonja)
Born on February 19, 1912, daughter of Yisrael Ber Strauber and Ettel Yetti née Bruck; attended Brzesko high school in the years 1923-1932. In 1931 Lea converted to Catholicism; during the war she was hiding in Wierzchosławice, was helped by a local priest and managed to survive.
35. Torbe Juliusz
Born in Tarnów on December 20, 1923, son of attorney Chaskel (Zygmunt) Torbe. Juliusz attended Brzesko high school from 1935 to 1938. His father survived the war in the Soviet Union and stated on his post-war registration card (1946) that his son, Juliusz, lived in England.
36. Ullman/Gewurtz Estera
Born in Brzesko on May 16, 1907, daughter of Markus Ullman/Gewurtz and Lieba Reisel née Zellnik/Warenhaupt. Estera attended high school from 1918 to 1926, graduating in 1926. She studied philosophy at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. Estera married dentist Alfred Langsam, settled in Kraków, and gave birth to sons Adam (1934) and Henryk (1938). The entire family survived the war in the Soviet Union; after several years in refugee camps in Germany, they emigrated to Canada. Estera died in 1987.
© Anna Brzyska, 2026