Erela's Search
Part One
My friend Erela, born in 1942, has tried all her life to discover the names of her parents, her own birthdate and birthplace and her original first name and family name.
She did survive Holocaust, but for many years she did not even know who saved her.
Back in 1993 I became part of Erela's search for her identity.
In 1994/1995, through Polish and Israeli TV documentaries, Erela discovered that her mother was born Necha Nella Weinrath.
Necha Nella Weinrath
This is Necha Nelly Nella Weinrath. She was born in 1919 in Rava Ruska, then Poland, now Ukraine.
Her parents were Samuel and Reisel Weinrath.
She was probably an only child.
She lived in Lubaczow, but studied at the Polish Gymnasium in Yavorov.
In June 1937 she was issued a Polish ID card at the Urzad Stanu Cywilniego in Lubaczow.
During the Soviet occupation of Lwow (today Lviv), sometimes between 1939 - 1941, she met and married Joseph Norbert Hilferding. He was born in 1910 in Lwow - the son of David and Salomea Hilferding.
In 1941 or 1942 the couple had a baby girl named Marysia.
Joseph Norbert Hilferding was probably killed in Lwow in 1942.
Nelly and Marysia managed to escape to Zakopane where the Roman family helped them.
Nelly had, at some point, taken her original ID card from Lubaczow and gotten forgers to write down a Polish identity. She was now Janina Dombrowska, born 1917 in Drohobyc, the daughter of Bronislaw and Stefanja Dombrowski. Her baby daughter became Irena Dombrowska.
So from the time the two of them arrived in Zakopane, little Marysia was always called Irena.
Within a year the Germans arrested Nelly, somewhere in Poland.
This probably happened in September/October 1943. Nella was never seen again.
After this, little "Irena" was transferred to the family of Apolonia Trybus who then took care of her till March 1947.
In March 1948 "Irena Dombrowska" arrived in Israel.
She grew up in Israel under the name of Erela.
Erela's Search
Part Two
It was only in 1994 that Erela discovered the Trybus family in Zakopane and through them received the forged ID card of her mother.
After the publishing of the photo of her mother both on Israeli and Polish TV, two former classmates of her mother, now living in Warsaw, contacted "Irena" and told her that her mother's name was Necha Nella Weinrath and that she was from Lubaczow. Later she received an identical photo of her mother from another classmate living in Wroclaw.
Finally, in 1999, after more years of intensive search Erela found out her original name had been Marysia Hilferding. Her father, Joseph Norbert Hilferding, had a younger sister named Gina. Gina had survived Holocaust and in 1946 settled in Brasil.
This final connection was made through the Jewish Family Finder of the JewishGen.
The aunt and her two sons arrived in Israel within three weeks of this amazing discovery.
Perhaps through this web site Erela will find living relatives on her mother's side, too.
Even finding persons who can tell more about the Weinrath family will be a great accomplishment.
With our web site we honor the memory of Necha Nella Hilferding née Weinrath and all the other Jews from Lubaczów who were murdered in the Holocaust.
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