Jewish families

Efroim Jakob Beidner was born in Brzesko on January 28, 1867. He became a "private Hebrew teacher" (as his occupation was described in his children's birth records). The Beidners had lived in Brzesko for many generations; the gravestones of Efroim...

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...

Born in 1872, Wolf Munz was the eldest child of Berisch Munz and Reisel Nestelgrun, who had lived in Jadowniki. Wolf became a butcher and married Chana Hoffer. They had five children born in 1901-1911. Wolf Munz didn’t live to...

Born in Łukanowice on May 14, 1885, Schaje Nisan Berkelhamer was the son of Aron Eilband and Gale Sussel Berkelhamer. Since the parents had only a religious marriage, which was not recognized by the state, their children were considered illegitimate...

Nisen Leser, one of the last Brzesko-born Holocaust survivors, passed away on January 31, 2022. Nisen Leser, photo from an interview for BoroPark24 Nisen Leser was born in Brzesko on November 6, 1923. He was the oldest of five children...

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...

Aron Bukspan was born in Staszów on June 19, 1850; he was the son of the tailor Herszl Bukspan and Ruchla née Weintraub. Birth record of Aron Bukspan; photo from the website www.szukawarchiwach.gov.pl Aron married Brzesko-born Scheindel Laje Matzner (1855),...

I would like to start this article about the Brzesko Laub family with the history of the tenement house, the current address of which is Legionów Piłsudskiego 1, and the pre-war address - Słotwińska st., 41. In the mid-19th century,...

On June 20, 2023, Hasidim from all over the world came to Krakow  for the bicentenary yahrzait of Rabbi Kalman Kalonimos Epstein, Maor VaShemesh. Krakow rabbi Kalman Kalonimos Epstein (1754-1823), called Maor VaShemesh (From the Light and Sun) after the...

By Dina Feldman My father’s side – the starting point of falling in love with Poland More than a decade ago I have started to search my roots in Poland. Then I focused mainly on my family from Piotrków Trybunalski,...

The patriarch of the Kapel/Kapler family (this surname was first written as Kapel, but later changed to Kapler) Menasche was born in Brzesko on June 3, 1866, as the son of Hersch and Perel Kapel. Birth crecord of Menasche Kapel,...

In 2023, we hosted an exceptionally large group of descendants of Brzesko Jews in Brzesko. Among them there were descendants of the Fischman-Hammer family, Mrs. Yona Kohen and her son Uri. Yona Kohen. Brzesko, February 1, 2023. Photo by Anna...

Some time ago, I came across a card on one of the auction sites. It was written by Blume Rosa Kohs from Brzesko on January 16, 1893. This minimal information helped to recreate the history of another Jewish family from...

by Allan Westreich Book excerpt from The Westreich Family Tree: Putting the Puzzle Pieces Together Using Traditional and Genetic Genealogy.  Edited by Allan H. Westreich, Ph.D.  Published by JewishGen Press, 2023. Brzesko branch of the Westreich family tree. Brzesko is...

By Henry Benjamin Winkler The English writer, L.P. Hartley, begins his novel, The Go-Between, with the oft-quoted sentence:           The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there. For many Jews of my family and my generation, our...

Some time ago, Mrs Marilyn Fish contacted our Association. Her great-grandparents, Jonas and Chawa Bluma Vogelhut, lived in Brzesko, but several of their children emigrated to the USA in the 1920s avoiding death in the Shoah. Several days of intensive...

There are only several post-war tombstones at the Brzesko Jewish cemetery. Most of them stand on symbolic graves of people murdered during the war – it often happened that surviving Jews wanted to honour the memory of their murdered relatives...

In the beginning of January 2022, Noa Shashar - descendant of Brzesko Schiff family - told me about an article she found in the Yiddish newspaper "Der Moment" from November 21, 1930. Reporter N. Kleinberger from Brzesko wrote about the...

This article is mainly based on the book "Two who survived. Rose and Max Schindler's story" by M.Lee Connolly, which is dedicated to the story of Holocaust survivors Max Schindler and his wife Rose Schwartz. Since Max's parents, Benjamin Schindler...

Mala Zimetbaum was born in Brzesko on January 20, 1918 as the youngest, sixth child in the family of the merchant Pinkas Zimetbaum/Hartman and Chaje Feigel nee Schmalzer. Mala Zimetbaum Mala's paternal grandparents, Berl Hartman from Brzesko and Marjem Jochwet...

Although Brzesko was a very small town before the war, there used to be four stone synagogues and a wooden one, and Brzesko rabbis belonged to famous rabbinical families - Lipschitz, Templer and Teitelbaum. The oldest ancestor of this last...

Since 2016 our Association, municipal culture center and the mayor of Brzesko have been organizing the annual project "We know your names" dedicated to commemoration of the pre-war Jewish community of Brzesko and vicinity. During the last edition of this...

The Ghetto Fighters House Archive in Israel https://www.gfh.org.il/eng/Archive has got 4 photos of Lea Kling, a Holocaust survivor from Brzesko, who was in a DP camp in Italy after the war. Lea (Lieba) Kling (on the left) together with the...

At the Ghetto fighters house archive website https://www.gfh.org.il/eng/Archive there is a photo signed as "Szymon Kleinberger and his sister working in the family's bakery in Brzesko before the war". Data from Yad Vashem, Arolsen archives and Brzesko vital records allowed...

This is the second part of the testimony of Joseph Polaniecki recorded in march 2021. - Was your family chasidic? -  We were orthodox Jews, we were not hasidic. My grandfather had a beard, but my father was emancipated because...

In February and March 2021, I participated in several on-line meetings with Joseph Polaniecki.  Father of Mr Polaniecki, Abraham Alter Polaniecki, born in Tarnów in 1892, was the son of Jonas Polaniecki and Chaja nee Luftig. He married Freidel (Frieda)...

Mordechaj (Markus) Dawid Brandstatter was born in a tenement house in the Brzesko Market Square  in 1842. He was the son of a wealthy merchant, Chaskel Brandstatter. He attended rabbi Landau's cheder, and later studied with the rabbi in Limanowa....

I would like to share today the story of Henoch Klapholz, who was one of the most outstanding persons in Brzesko history. In December 2020, great-grandson of Henoch, prof. Henry Klapholz, found several old photos, one of which most likely...

It will be a long and very touching story about the Berl-Weiss-Gutfreund family of Brzesko and their extraordinary descendant,  Lucia Weitzman. Chaim Berl/Gutfreund was born in Brzesko on June 17, 1879 as the second child of Jeruchem Gutfreund and Chaja...

Here is  another story of a large Jewish family who used to live in various cities of Brzesko and Bochnia poviats. Nowy Wiśnicz - now a small town in Bochnia area - has existed since at least the 13th century,...

Not so long ago, Arolsen Archive has made some of its collections available on-line, and today I will share information which made it possible to recreate the history of the Templers, who lived in Brzesko at least from the end...

It will be a unique story which became possible due to Mr. Marek Sukiennik who shared a photo that he had bought at an auction a few years ago. The photo shows an elderly Jew; it was taken in April...

Do you know that one of Krakow's prominent architects was a Jew born in Bresko area, in Borzęcin?Nachman Jakob Kopald, son of Mosze, was born in Borzęcin on April 15, 1834. At the end of the 1850s, he married Leja...

Here is the story of another family of Bresko Jews. It will be a long, but important text. A few weeks ago I came across some information in the book "The Children of Zion" by Henryk Grynberg. A single line:...

Noach Schiff (1844 – 1925) was born in Tarnów as the 8th (out of 10) child of Joseph and Cipre Schiff. His father was the deputy rabbi and merchant of iron goods in Tarnów.  Noach moved to Brzesko and got...

Juda Kaufman (1839-1923), son of Samuel Leib and Gittla from Zborowa, was one of the most respected Bresko Jews. He was a shochet (ritual slaughterer) and a mochel - he circumcised all Jewish boys born in Brzesko during several decades....

Juda Kaufman (1839-1923) was one of the most respected Brzesko Jews. He was a shochet (ritual slaughterer) and a mohel - it was him who circumcised all Jewish boys born in Brzesko for good couple of decades. Juda Kaufman was...

Markus (Mordechai) Hirsch Eichenholz, son of Chaskel Feniger and Gitel Eichenholz, was born in Brzesko on March 13, 1889. His father came from Nowy Wisnicz, and  his mother’s family lived in Brzesko at least for 3 generations. Chaskel Feniger (1864-1910)...

Joel Schmukler and Chawa Leser got married in Żabno on February 4, 1901. Their eldest son Markel was born in 1901 in Wietrzychowice, Żabno district, and after that the family moved to Dąbrówki Breński (Dąbrowa Tarnowska area). After their first...

Dov Landau (born on August 6, 1928) is at this point the only living Holocaust survivor from Brzesko. But here I would like to share few words about his family, which lived in Brzesko for about 200 years. Jewish families...

Yitzhak Teichtal was born in Brzesko Okocim in 1879 to Samuel Teichtal and Ryfke nee Stern. Yitzhak got married to Chaja nee Mendelbaum, they had at least 4 children: Gittel Towa (1905), Jozef (1908), Roza (about 1910) and Leibisz Arie...

Abraham Chaim Litwin was born in Hornistopol, Ukraine, in 1885 to Zvi Benjamin and Braina. He moved to Poland and got married to Ruchla Roselpacht, daughter of Jakob Majer and Marjem Roselpacht from Brzesko. Abraham Chaim was a shoemaker. They...

Jone Waldman, baker, was born in 1893, lived at Mickewicza street in Brzesko. Jone got married on June 27, 1922, to Chane Nachman, born in 1896, daughter of Szymon and Hinda Nachman from Izdebnik. They had 4 children: Szymon (1923),...