The ancestors of Jakob Baruch Vogelhut (born 1889) lived in Brzesko for many generations; the gravestones of his grandmother, Beila Malka Grun née Tellerman (1825-1909), grandfather, Zachariasz Vogelhut (1828-1913), and great-grandfather, Mojżesz Dawid Vogelhut, who died in 1873, can still be seen at the Brzesko Jewish cemetery.
Her soul passed away on Adar 25 (5)669 [March 17, 1909]. May her soul be bound in the bundle of life
Here is buried
A virtuous woman, who died in her old age
At the age of 84 she returned to her land
Mrs. Beila Malka, daughter of Mr. Avraham the Levite
Wife of Mr. Jechezkiel Grin (Grun) of blessed memory.
(Deciphering the Hebrew inscription by Jolanta Kruszniewska).
Here lies
A man died… Mr and master Zacharia
Son of Mr and master Moshe David Vogelhut
Returned to his land at the age of 85 years on
21 of Cheshvan year (5)674 [November 21, 1913]
May his soul be bound in the bundle of life
(Deciphering the Hebrew inscription by Jolanta Kruszniewska).
Here is buried
A righteous man
Moshe David
Vogelhut
Son of Mr Zacharia
Died on 22 of Av (5)633 [August 15, 1873]
May his soul be bound in the bundle of life
(Deciphering
the Hebrew inscription by Anna Brzyska)
Jakob Baruch Vogelhut came from a very large family: he had 13 siblings. He married Alta Gitel Heller (born 1892), whose ancestors also lived in Brzesko and the surrounding area as late as the 18th century. The couple had eight children, the seven older ones attended primary school in Brzesko. Grade sheets for all seven siblings have survived: Estera (born 1908), Wigdor (1912), Zachariasz (1914), Pessla (1916), Beila Malka (1918), Syma (1919), and Chaskel (1923). Wigdor and Zachariasz, like all Jewish boys, also attended cheder until the age of 13.
The father of the family, Jakob Baruch Vogelhut, was a merchant who ran a dairy, egg, and poultry store in Brzesko; in 1922-1930 he paid taxes on this business. In 1922, he obtained a certificate of affiliation with the Brzesko municipal commune, which served as the basis for determining Polish citizenship.
In the early 1930s, the family moved to Krakow, and the parents and children settled in a small house at Wodna Street, 9.
The older son, Wigdor Vogelhut, married Marjem Brandys and ran a shop with his father. His brother, Zachariasz, was a tailor, and his three sisters worked in a chocolate factory.
In August 1939, Wigdor was drafted into the army; he was a cavalryman. When he managed to return to Krakow in November, none of his family remained at home. A neighbor said they had all gone to Lviv or Stryj. Wigdor decided to search for his loved ones. An acquaintance gave him civilian clothes and 25 złoty, and Wigdor left Kraków by train. He got off in Sanok and walked from there. On November 24, 1939, he crossed the border near Lesko and found himself in Soviet-occupied territory. When he asked for accommodation, he was told that he couldn’t be in Soviet territory without permission and that he could obtain such a permit at the NKVD office. So he reported to the NKVD and was arrested for illegally crossing the border. He was detained in Lesko for eight days, from where he was transferred to the town of Sambor. On July 2, 1940, he was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment and sent to a labor camp in the Komi Republic.
At that time, his entire family – parents, siblings, and wife – were in Stanisławów. On July 5, 1940, Wigdor’s wife, Marjem Vogelhut, née Brandys, wrote a letter to the NKVD branch in Kiev, hoping to get some information aboutb her husband. Most likely, someone helped her, as the letter is written in Ukrainian.
“To the NKVD office in Kyiv.
Having received information that my husband, Vigdor Vogelhut, son of Jakob, born in 1912, is imprisoned in Poltava, I, his wife, Marjem Brandys Vogelhut, am writing to you with a great request to ghet some information on where my husband currently is and whether his health is okay. Here is what I know about his case. When the war broke out, my husband was drafted into the army and captured by the Germans. After a short time, he was released and returned to the family in Sosnowiec. However, no one was at home, as all his relatives had already left for Stanisławów in Ukraine. He learned of this, though not from a family member. While at the border, he was arrested and imprisoned in Sambor. He was there from December 1, 1939, to March 26, 1940; he was later transferred to Poltava. Since crossing the border, I have been very weak because I developed severe breasts inflammation. And I have not heard from him since his departure. I am addressing you with a great request to check this case, to help me, mlonely and unhappy wife. I am deeply grateful for your work.
Marjem Vogelhut
Stanisławów, Graniczna Street 16
She never received a reply. Wigdor was in a labor camp at the time. In September 1941, he was granted amnesty; according to the labor camp administration, he was sent to the city of Andijan in Uzbekistan, where he was supposed to live. He most likely later escaped from the Soviet Union with Anders’ Army and ended up in Palestine.
Most of the above information comes from Wigdor Vogelhut’s file in the NKVD archives, which was recently made available by the website geshergalicia. It contains over 70 pages of various materials concerning Wigdor Vogelhut and his relatives.
I spent several days searching for traces of this family.
Wigdor’s wife most likely came from Sosnowiec – that’s why the name of that city appears in her letter to the NKVD. If this was indeed the case, then Marjem Vogelhut was born on January 2, 1918, in Sosnowiec, the daughter of Hendel Brandys and Chaja (née Frajman). She had four siblings; her parents, brother, and sister were murdered in the Holocaust. Her surviving brother, Jakob, submitted a testimony on Marjem’s death to Yad Vashem in 1955, he listed his sister under her maiden name.
Two of the Vogelhut siblings, Syma and brother Zachariasz, along with his three children, were murdered in the Stanisławów ghetto. The parents and three sisters managed to survive the war. In September 1946, they were living on Przemyska Street in Krakow. One of the sisters wrote on her after-war registration card that brother Wigdor was living in Palestine.
Brother Chaskel also survived and lived in Łódź after the war. He emigrated to Israel in 1956, had 3 sons.
Over time, all surviving members of the Vogelhut family emigrated to Palestine. Unfortunately, the parents passed away after several years. Alta Gitel Vogelhut died in January 1950, her husband Jakob Baruch died in December 1959, they are buried next to each other in the cemetery in Haifa.
In Israel, Wigdor changed his surname, or rather translated it: it was Vogelhut and became צפורי, both words meaning “bird”. He remarried, had children and grandchildren. He died in 1978 and was buried in Hadera next to his second wife, Cyla, who was much younger than him.
At least 20 members of the Vogelhut family were murdered in the Shoah. We will probably never know about the fate of many others.
© Anna Brzyska, 2026