Memories from A Visit to Jasienica

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A Journey to find my roots in Galicia, Poland

On May 1, 2004, I left Los Angeles, for a trip that began in Poland, and continued to other parts of Eastern Europe over the course of a month. It began in Warsaw, paying homage to the Holocaust victims with visits to the site of the former ghetto, the Jewish cemetery, Pawaik Prison, and other important memorials, most notably Treblinka.

I then set off for Krakow and from there hired an excellent guide, Artur Davidson, based in Krakow, who agreed to help me over the course of two days, to find the birth records of my grand parents. Both were born in 1873, Ray Weiser Feit, in Tarnow and Benjamin Feit, either in Tarnow or Jasienica-Rosielna. Both great-grandparents, Leibish Feit and Ester Eiss Feit, were born in Jasienica-Rosielna and I very much wanted to go there. Our first stop was the Tarnow Archives where I found the birth records of my paternal grandmother, and her parents, which was thrilling. In Tarnow, they actually let me go through the original records from 1873 and that was like going back in time, seeing the beautiful manuscript of the rabbis and their different writing styles.

We then went to the State Archives in Rzeszow, the Research Centre for History of the Jews from Galicia, (www.rzeszow.ap.gov.pl) and met with Dr. Grzegorz Zamoyski who was extremely kind and helpful; however, he doesn't speak English so a translator (Artur) was definitely necessary. He said the records for my great grandparents, born in Jasienica-Rosielna, in were in that town so off we went, only to be told by the head of the Records Office that they were not there.

Artur wasn't giving up easily and went to see the Mayor down the hall, Marek Cwiakala Wojt, who was extremely welcoming and anxious to help us in any way he could. He thought the records might be in the Lvov Archives. He then escorted us to the Memorial erected in 1967 to the Jews of Jasienica Rosielna who died in the Holocaust between 1939 and 1942. The Memorial was built at the initiation of the Town Council at the time and was re-furbished just a few years ago.

In the left hand corner of the memorial photograph above, is the Mayor of Jasienica, Marek Cwiakala Wojt and our guide Artur Davidson from Crakow; if you'd like more information on our guide, you can email Phyllis Kramer.

The memorial, a simple plaque that lies flat on the ground, is at the site of what was the Jewish
cemetery where, in August, 1942, all the Jewish women, children and old people were rounded up, taken to the cemetery site, summarily shot in a mass grave. The area where they stood is cordoned off to convey the size of site and is considered hallowed ground. The cemetery is beyond it, only a green field with no stones, no indication that it had been a cemetery.

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Prior to the war's outbreak, there were two major property owners in Jasienica Rosielna, the Catholic Church and Count Visotsky. The Count's son is still alive, living in Crakow and wrote a book about his family and the town. Jews also owned land and today there are some descendants who are trying to re-claim their property, making for some anxious feelings in this peaceful town.

Visually, Jasienica-Rosielna is a pastoral town, with lush farmland and broad vistas of green. It was a grey day when we were there but the beauty of the area was hard to camouflage. There are about 1100 people living in the town.

The Mayor telephoned several old people in town, trying to get them to talk with us. I was hoping that someone might remember my great-grandparents who were killed by the Nazis, most likely at the site of the memorial. He took us to the home of Mr. Kazimierz Walczak, an 81 year old Pole with a very lucid memory and, inviting us into his home for coffee and cookies, more than willing to talk to us. He had no recollection of my family name but he had a lot to say and we sat there riveted for almost three hours. He recalled his childhood, having Jewish friends he played with and who taught him some Yiddish. He was sometimes invited for their holidays and his family sometimes helped them in their preparations. He recalled being given matzah to eat and remembered many names of the Jewish holidays. He recalled the weekly market where Jews sold their wares.

His father was head of the local post office before World War I, knew Morse Code, and was educated compared to most in the town. His father was in the uprising, fighting with Pilduski, a great Polish hero and after the war, couldn't get his former job back. So he became a delivery man and worked for Jews, transporting their products by carriage-shoes, hats-all over the region, Sanok, Krosno. When he was very young, his father sometimes took him along. He would watch his father bartering with Jewish business associates and they always smacked their hands together when they made a deal. He recalled that all different types of Jews lived in Jasienica-Rosielna, Orthodox, those who "ate sausage" and also Communists. (The photograph on the left is a former Jewish Inn in Yashnitza).

Kazimierz Walczak was16 years old when the Nazis invaded on September 9th, 1939, with armies coming from Slovakia. They took people from the synagogues into forced labor. They were forced to make boats for the invasion of the Soviet Union. There was a Nazi School for officers in the town.

His father was fearful of being taken away since he had worked with and had a good relationship with the Jews. A man who ran Count Visotsky's business had a German wife and they were sent by the Nazis to spy on the townspeople. This man, Maternoffsky, began to rule the local population for the Nazis.

Jewish families were hidden in cellars, and some survived the war. Some escaped into the woods and some were massacred in the cemetery. A Ukrainian division of soldiers shot them. Some people paid the Nazis to prolong their lives but they didn't always live up to their bargain. The Nazis took everything from the Polish farmers without giving them monetary payment, milk, wheat, meat and they had monthly quotas to meet. Their payment was only 1 liter of vodka. They were given soap by the Nazis and they found human hairs in the soap. He learned from those who escaped about what was going on in Auschwitz and how they made the soap. He told the story of a man who knew his sister had been taken to Auschwitz and he went there looking for her. He was shown all the women and he recognized her. He asked to take her place in the camp and they released her. He lived through the war but while in the camp had the horrible job of working in the gas chambers.

In 1941, our host, Kazimierz, was sent to a labor camp, Visnowa, near Rzeszow, along with all the locals, including Jews, who could work. They were building a tunnel for a train, the Cieszyna Tunnel, designed by an Italian. A Jewish physician working in the labor camp, told them that the meat in the soup was human meat and they believed it because of the taste and that the vegetables contained were ones the Poles would only feed to animals. My guide said that he had heard that before, Nazis using human meat in food for prisoners. Kazimierz was there for three months but then escaped with four other men, one of whom was shot. He spent the rest of the war hiding in a small village near Krakow. Because of his escape, his father was imprisoned.

Upon finishing his story, he put on his "Sunday best" and took us on a tour of the town. He first pointed out where the Jewish bakery used to be on the main street of town (photograph right), then the tailor (photograph below), next door, then several homes owned by Jews, and as we walked along the main street, came to the site of what used to be a large matzah factory, now a parking lot. According to Kazimierz, they even exported to the United States.
There used to be two synagogues in town, one made of wood, the other concrete, and showed us the site of one.

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