Hirsch Baumgarten (January 7, 1861 – January 1, 1938) was born in Łęki Dolne, he was the son of Laser and Dwojra Baumgarten. He most likely moved to Borzęcin after marrying Ryfka Sattler (1857 – June 4, 1932). Ryfka was the daughter of Wolf (Lewek) Sattler, born in Tymowa around 1809, and Borzęcin-born Estera Sattler (circa 1827 – March 13, 1886). The Sattlers had seven children born between 1849 and 1865; Ryfka was their fourth child.
The 1870 Status animarum (literally “state of souls,” a census conducted by the local parish) includes an entry for the Sattler family, who lived in Borzęcin in the house #566.
In the 1890s, Ryfka’s father, Wolf Sattler, ran a bakery, and his son-in-law soon joined him, although he also earned money repairing household appliances and watches. The Baumgartens lived with their in-laws at the time.
The Baumgarten family had six children born in Borzęcin between 1886 and 1898. One son died at the age of one; four of the remaining five children emigrated to the USA, thus avoiding the Holocaust.
Leiser (born on December 17, 1886) was the first of the family to arrive in New York in 1905, where he took the name Louis. He married his cousin Reizel Sattler from Szczepanowice. Their descendants now live in the USA.
Ester (born in 1888) married Majer Heller from Brzesko in 1909. The Hellers had three children born in Borzęcin: Perel (born on June 19, 1910), Wigdor (born on January 11, 1914), and Lena (born on December 1, 1919). Majer was the first to leave for the USA; Ester and the children joined him in 1927, but prior to that all the Heller children attended the primary school in Borzęcin Górny.
Israel, born in 1891, died on August 15, 1892, of pneumonia; buried in the Brzesko Jewish cemetery..
Debora (born on September 17, 1893) emigrated to the USA in 1913, where she married Harry Rothbart and gave birth to three children. Her descendants live in the USA, including 10 great-grandchildren. Two of Debora’s granddaughters, Ruth and Ellen Ball, visited Brzesko and Borzęcin in October 2025 and shared the unique photos we publish in this article.
Rachel (born on September 18, 1895) emigrated to the USA in 1921, married Max Ginsberg, had two children, lived to see many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Chana (born on April 10, 1898) married Josef Leibel from Borzęcin. This youngest daughter was the only one to remain in Poland. She witnessed the deaths of both her parents, Ryfka in 1932 and Hersch in 1938. Josef and Chana Leibel had four children: Hensche (1931), Majer (1933), Samuel Schaja (1937), and Abraham Hirsch (1940). They all perished in the Holocaust, and their names are inscribed on the monument in Borzęcin.
There are no longer any Jews in Borzęcin, but Debora Baumgarten’s memories have survived, giving us a glimpse of what life used to look like in Borzęcin in the early 20th century. Here’s a short excerpt from 1981 Debora’s conversation with her granddaughter Ruth:
– How far back do you remember? Do you remember your grandparents at all?
– I remember my grandfather. He was a baker. He was 95 years old when he died, I went to his funeral.
– What was his name?
– Wolf Sattler. He was a baker. He had a bakery. He used to bake bread and rolls and take them every week to the market to sell. He was a very wonderful person. I liked him very much. I don’t remember my grandmother. (Grandmother Ester Sattler died on March 13, 1886 – A.B.)
– Did he live in your house?
– Yes, he lived in our house. And my parents’ names were Hersch and Rifke. They were very devoted people. My mother used to go out buying up staff – butter, eggs and take them to the market with Mendel, her brother. (There were weekly Tuesday markets in Brzesko. – A.B.) And my father was a watchmaker, repaired umbrellas, watches. He was always busy. He was a very-very devoted father. I loved him very much.
– He used to play an instrument?
– He played a violin. My father used to play a violin. And Louis (Leser, Dwora’s elder brother – A.B.) used to play the second violin and they had a man, he played a bass. And they used to go out and play on goische weddings. They were paid well.
– Did you have a farm?
– We had a garden, just our own vegetables, stuff like that
– And how did you get your milk?
– We had a cow. We had a cow, her name was Genendeleh, she was such a nice cow, she lived better than some people had in our home. My mother fixed up a beautiful room for her, she was very clean..
– Tell about the school you went to in Poland
– It was a public school,. We had to go to school just like here. So, I had a teacher, she was very antisemitic. When they had religious lessons, all the Jewish people had to go out. They didn’t have to, but they didn’t want to stay in the classroom. They went out for an hour. Then one day she sounded like we didn’t go to school. And school was… that day. So, I didn’t have my homework. Monday I come in into class and the teacher wanted to see my homework. And I say, I’m sorry, I wasn’t there. So, she hit me with ruler on my hands. So, I came home and I was crying. Due to my mother, may she rest in peace, she went there and she gave it to her… Why she hit me. And she promised that she never do it again. And the teacher became the best friend of my mother and father.
– My father was an educated man. Louis (Debora’s elder brother Leiser, emigrated to the US in 1906) used to send him from America Forverts, the Jewish paper. (The most prominent Yiddish-language newspaper in the USA was The Forward (Forverts), which was founded in 1897 and was the most widely read Jewish newspaper in the world.) He used to read papers. All the men, goim, used to come in the evening to my father. He used to read the news and tell them in Polish what was it about. It was a good time.
In October 2025, Debora Baumgarten’s granddaughters, Ruth and Ellen Ball, flew to Poland from the USA to visit the places where their ancestors used to live. The gravestones of four members of this family, including Ruth and Ellen’s great-grandfather, Hirsch Baumgarten, have survived at the Jewish cemetery in Brzesko. For the first time since the war, prayers for the deceased were recited over these graves.
Here lies
Tzvi Hirsch Baumgarten
Son of Mr Eliezer
Deceased on Rosh Hodesh Shvat 5698 [January 3, 1938]
An old man who earned his living
By hard labour and effort
May his soul be bound in the bundle of life
In Borzęcin, Lucjan Kołodziejski showed the Ball sisters the school that their grandmother had attended and the site where the Baumgarten house once stood. And on the monument in the center of the village, Ruth and Ellen could see the names of their murdered relatives. Memory endures.
© Anna Brzyska, 2026