Remembering the Jews of Lubaczow

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Lubaczów, Poland
50° 10' N/ 23° 08' E

A Visit to the Jewish Cemetery in Lubaczów, May 2002

Eva Floersheim
Shadmot Dvorah, Israel
July 14th 2002

Last Burials

Many of the gravestones I registered were from the 1930's. Three of the gravestones found so far were even from the time of the Soviet occupation of Lubaczow (1940). The graves of these three women are located just to the west of the Catholic chapel (Footnote #11) on Row 15. Perhaps there will be graves from an even later date in the part of the cemetery still not documented. Only the future will show this.

Row 15, Grave 27:
Rachel Storch, daughter of Zvi, died July 20th or 21st 1940

The Gravestone Still to be Erected

The end of the Jewish community was cruel and definite. From the time the Germans occupied Lubaczow for the second time in June 1941, terror ruled for everyone, though the Germans had singled out the Jews to be exterminated, using any possible method invented by evil minds. Jews from Lubaczow and surrounding villages were rounded up in the crowded ghetto in Lubaczow. Many were then sent to Belzec and murdered there.
The end of the ghetto was in January 1943 when a large number of Jews were brought to the Jewish cemetery, shot and buried in a mass grave in the cemetery. The artist Marian Kopf has depicted this massacre as part of the painting that can be seen at the local museum in Lubaczow.
Painting made by Marian Kopf with massacre of Jews at cemetery on January 8th 1943 in upper right corner.

Holocaust survivor Maurie Hoffman born 1929 in Lubaczow, was a witness to the massacre at the Jewish cemetery, as one can read in his book "Keep Yelling".
(Footnote # 12)

My deepest wish is to make a memorial for those unfortunate victims who were massacred and never had a proper Jewish burial and no stone to commemorate them.
Perhaps together we can make this a reality.

A Little Summary

My registration ended with Row 20, just at the left corner of the original entrance to the cemetery. Now, after Bogdan and his friends have cleaned perhaps 2/3 (if not more!) of the cemetery, Bogdan estimates there are not only one thousand gravestones, but probably 1600!

I also walked around the more than thousand remaining gravestones. Some of them were nearly inaccessible because of the dense vegetation and made me marvel over the hard work and endless hours needed to clean such a jungle.

As a goodbye I suggest you walk up to the big tree that grows just to the west of the main entrance. Around twenty years ago the local museum in Lubaczow took a photograph of this tree and it can be seen on a postcard published by the museum. On the postcard you very clearly see how the tree is "eating" three gravestones - two from the sides and one from the back.

Now in 2002 the three gravestones have disappeared even more into the tree. The one in the middle will probably totally disappear within a few years. These gravestones are not all that old. From what I was able to read, the one to the left is that of a woman who died around 1914 and the one to the right is that of 'A young mother of eight children".

The tree and those three gravestones became for me a symbol of how urgent it is to register and document the Jewish cemetery in Lubaczow. The Jews no longer live in Lubaczow, but if we don't hurry up, the remains of what can still be found of Jewish life in your town, will soon be destroyed by time and nature.

There are relatives of those buried who now live all over the world - and they have followed my work with great interest. Some hoped that their family graves could be located, but with so few family names, this is impossible in most cases.
Even so, I think many of them now feel the time has come to visit Lubaczow, the place their families came from. They will then walk around the Jewish cemetery and find the way to pay their respects to their forefathers and the other Jews who once lived in Lubaczow.

I started by thanking Bogdan Lisze and his friends for cleaning so much of the cemetery. Even though I unfortunately have nothing to give them for their efforts, I hope they will continue with the last part too. Without their dedication, my registration could not have been carried out, and you - the citizens of Lubaczow - would not have had the opportunity to learn a little about these neighbors who were once such an integral part of life in Lubaczow.

Footnote #1
Bogdan Lisze told me the following worked with him on this project:
Through the request of Marcin Jawny and Bogdan Lisze, the principal of the neighboring high school (Liceum) Mr. Hypiak gave a group of students the permission to spend two days cleaning up the cemetery. This was done under the supervision of Mrs. Mulak. Others who helped were Janusz Mazur, Janusz Burek and Wieslaw Huk.

Footnote #2
The newest estimate talks about 1600 gravestones.

Footnote #3
Other Levites buried in Lubaczow whose graves have been registered:
Row 1 Grave 5: Eliezer Ha-Levi son of Szmuel Ha-Levi died in 1936
Row 2 Grave 5: Mordechai Ha-Levi son of Berisch Ha-Levi died in 1938. Their family name was
Potasznik.
Row 8 Grave 1: Scheindel daughter of Neta Jakob Ha-Levi died in 1902
Row 17 Grave 25: Zeev Ha-Levi son of Josef Ha-Levi died in 1924
Row 17 Grave 33: Zeev Ha-Levi son of Chaim Szmuel Ha-Levi died in 1922
Row 17 Grave 7: Sima daughter of Szmuel Ha-Levi died in 1936. Her family name was Herzberg
Row 18 Grave 17: Malka daughter of Abraham Ha-Levi died in 1919
Row 18 Grave 5: Shabtai David Ha-Levi son of Menachem Mendel Ha-Levi died in 1939
Row 18 Grave 19: Feiga daughter of Jehuda Arie Ha-Levi died in 1919
Row 19 Grave 11: Moshe Dov Ha-Levi son of Jehuda Ha-Levi died in 1920
Row 19 Grave 14: Jehuda Leibusz Ha-Levi son of Chaim Szmuel Ha-Levi died in 1919

Footnote #4:
Several graves of descendants of Aron Ha-Kohen were also registered:
Row 2 Grave 4: Elijahu Ha-Kohen the son of Shama Ha-Kohen died in 1938.
Row 5 Grave 6: Hinda Mindal the daughter of Ben Zion Ha-Kohen died in 1936
Row 5 Grave 7: Abraham Dov Ha-Kohen son of Moshe Mendel Ha-Kohen died in 1919
Row 8 Grave 11: Abraham Jehuda Ha-Kohen the son of Aron David Ha-Kohen died in 1862. His family name was Katz/Kac.
Row 12 Grave 5: Abraham Ha-Kohen the son of Ben Shalom Ha-Kohen died in 1866
Row 15 Grave 21: Juta Miriam the daughter of Zvi Jehuda Ha-Kohen died in 1938
Row 16 Grave 24: Hinda Lea the daughter of Eliezer Szlomo Ha-Kohen died in 1930
Row 17 Grave 22: Jakob Ha-Kohen the son of Lipa Ha-Kohen died in 1926.
Row 17 Grave 36: Juta the daughter of Zeev Ha-Kohen died in 1921.
Row 18 Grave 15: Szmuel Ha-Kohen the son of Lipe Ha-Kohen died in 1919.

Footnote #5
Additional crowns can be seen
Row 2, Grave 7: Shimshon, son of Jechiel Michel, died in 1936
Row 17, Grave 27: Israel Menachem, son of Moshe Dawid, died in 1922
Row 18, Grave 9: Moshe Gershon, son of Zeev, died in 1931
Row 19, Grave 5: Shmuel Nachim, son of Eli Dawid, died in 1930

Footnote # 6
Three Shabat candles can be found
Row 7, Grave 22: Feige, possibly died in 1866
Row 8, Grave 1: Scheindel, daughter of Neta Jakob Ha-Levi, died in 1902

Five shabat candles can be found
Row 2, Grave 2: Rachel, daughter of Godel, died 1939
Row 4, Grave 2: Frieda Hoffman, daughter of Moshe, died in 1937
Row 4, Row 3: Sima, daughter of Liber, died in 1935

Footnote #7
When Erela's mother Necha Hilferding nee Weinrath came to Zakopane with her baby daughter Marysia (Erela) in the end of 1942, they first stayed with the Roman family. Later, after Necha was arrested and disappeared, Marysia/Erela was brought to Apolonia Trybus who also lived in Zakopane.

Footnote #8
Vered Berman, a documentary filmmaker working for Channel One on Israeli TV, made two films called The Wanda Lists in 1994 and 1995. Both programs were broadcast in Israel. The first program was also broadcast in Poland. When it was broadcast in Poland, two of Necha Weinrath's schoolfriends from Jaworow recognized her.
Polish filmmaker Darius Bartoszewski made a TV program around twenty years ago where he presented the search of Apolonia Trybus who at the time hoped to find the little girl she had saved during Holocaust.
After Vered Berman's team located the son of Apolonia Trybus in Zakopane, another son of Apolonia Trybus contacted Dariusz Bartoszewski who then did two more TV programs about Erela and how she was saved. It was Mr. Bartoszewski who interviewed Mrs. Roman (now Mrs Elzbieta Miszczyk).

Footnote #9
The text on Erela's gravestone, a triumph to her persistent search:

Here rests our beloved mother and grandmother
Erela (Marysia) Goldschmidt
Daughter of Joseph Norbert Hilferding and Necha Nella nee Weinrath

Born during the war in Lwow
Fought all her life to find her identity
till she died on Nov. 19th 2001

On the flat stone:
"Every person has a name his father and mother gave him"
In memory of her grandparents
Samuel and Reisel Weinrath from Lubaczow

In memory of her parents and relatives who were murdered in Holocaust:
Her grandparents:
Dawid Abraham Hilferding
Salomea Hilferding nee Zoller

Her uncles and aunts:
Serafina Geisler, her husband Edmund, her son Ryszard and her daughter Bianca
Leon Hilferding, his wife Ida and their son Ryszard
Janek Landau and his daughter Lena

Footnote # 10:
Could it be that the grave of Samuel, son of Abraham, who died in 1939 and is buried on Row 4, Grave 5 is Samuel Weinrath?
Or could his grave be somewhere in the part still not registered, IF he died before the Holocaust?

Footnote #11:
Row 15, Grave 26: Alta Gedel, daughter of Jecheskel, died in April /May 1940.
Row 15, Grave 28: Sprinze, daughter of Moshe Arie, died in Dec 1940.

Footnote # 12:
Maurie Hoffman: Keep Yelling! A Survivor's Testimony.
Published in Australia in 1995 by Spectrum Publications Pty Ltd
Chapter 11, pages 103 - 106, tells about the massacre at the cemetery.

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