A Search for Roots: The Klinger Family's Journey to Piotrkow

Maurice (Moshe Elie) Klinger is a native son of France, but his roots lie in the birthplace of his father Jacob, born in 1900 in Piotrkow Trybunalski. Jacob left Poland as a young man, traveling first to Germany, then France, where he married and had a family before World War II. Jacob became a French partisan during the war and survived with his family intact. He died in France in 1960.

Forty years later, in August 2000, Maurice set out on a journey to discover his Polish roots, with wife Alice and son Laurent. Earlier that year, Maurice had discovered two second cousins, one in the U.S. and the other living in Israel, who helped fill in some missing pieces of his family's history. The Klingers arrived in Piotrkow Trybunalski via Warsaw,

Right: The Klinger family at Rynek Trybunalski (old market square).

spending several days exploring both cities. The highlight of their journey was successfully locating the Klinger family's ancestral home, as well as the grave of Maurice's grandmother, Dwojra Landau Klinger (b. 1873) in the Piotrkow Trybunalski Jewish cemetery.

Photographs on this page were taken in Piotrkow Trybunalski during the Klinger family's visit. Click on any photo to see an enlargement.

Above: A memorial plaque on the outside wall of the synagogue reads as follows, below:

Above: The Great Synagogue, now a public library. The grassy field behind the synagogue is the site of the destroyed old Jewish cemetery, dating from 1677 to 1792.

This building, once "the Great Synagogue," and this plaque, sanctify the memory of Piotrkow Jews murdered by the Nazis during 1939 - 1945.
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REMEMBRANCE AND RESTORATION PROJECT
IN MEMORY OF THE HOLOCAUST MARTYRS AND THE DEPARTED OF OUR JEWISH COMMUNITY AND IN MEMORY OF THE GREAT TZADIK RABBI DR. HAYIM DAVID BERNARD
DEDICATED BY
SAUL AND ROBERT DESSAU, THE LATE HENRY ZVI DESSAU ZL, BEN GILADI AND THEIR FAMILIES

Above and left: A memorial plaque in Plac Stefana Czarnieckiego reads as follows:

THIS IS THE PLACE OF MARTYRDOM WHERE, IN OCTOBER 1942, PIOTRKOW JEWS WERE SHOT BY THE NAZIS DURING THE LIQUIDATION OF THE GHETTO IN PIOTRKOW TRYBUNALSKI.
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REMEMBRANCE AND RESTORATION PROJECT IN MEMORY OF THE HOLOCAUST MARTYRS AND THE DEPARTED OF OUR JEWISH COMMUNITY AND IN MEMORY OF THE GREAT TZADIK RABBI DR. HAYIM DAVID BERNARD
DEDICATED BY
SAUL AND ROBERT DESSAU, THE LATE HENRY ZVI DESSAU ZL, BEN GILADI AND THEIR FAMILIES