Kasten Family

Dina Eta Kasten Dor has written a brief history of her family in Bukachevtsy.

 

The Kasten family lived in Bukachevtsy at least since the beginning of the 19th century as shown in documents from the Central State Historical Archives of Ukraine in Lviv and the records in the archives in Warsaw found via the JRI-Poland - Polish State Archives Project.  According to the information in these documents, Israel (Srool) Kasten was the owner of House # 123 in Bukachevtsy.  They also document that Mayer Hirsh Kasten, Dina's grandfather, was born in 1867 to Itzhak Leib and Chana Kasten in Bukachevtsy,  married Etel-Dina Scheer in 1889 and had four children: Arye-Leib Kasten, who was missing in World War I; David (Doodje) Kasten, who along with his family were murdered in the liquidation of the Rohatyn ghetto; Rivka Kasten (Waisman), who was murdered in the Holocaust with her family; and Joseph Kasten (Dina's father, born in Bukachevtsy in 1906).

 

Joseph married Lina-Liba Fuchs and with Dina-Eta (1 year and 3 months old) and her brother Samuel (2 years and 4 months old) were deported from Bukachevtsy to the Rohatyn ghetto. In March 1942 they escaped from the ghetto, returned to Bukachevtsy and hid in a self-made bunker in the Vitan forest together with the Blitz & Drach families. While living in hiding, Lina gave birth to Tonia in May, 1944.  In August 1944 they were liberated by the Russian Army and in 1948 made Aliyah to Israel.