Ewa Ewunia MARGULES / Sosnowiec, Dabrowa Gornicza /Zakopane Poland

ava eva2 eva3Surname: Margules
Name: Chava / Ewa
Birth Date: March 2, 1942
Birth Place: Sosnowiec,Poland
Father’s Name: Abram Margules (born 1904)
Mother’s Name: Laja Margules (born 1915)
Paternal Grandparents:
Mordka Josek Margules and Ester Rywka Dancygier (Danziger) of Bedzin and Niemce
Maternal Grandparents:
Jankiel Josek Guterman and Sura Dancygier of Dabrowa Gornicza
(Ester Ryfka Dancygier and Sura Dancygier were sisters, born in Szczekociny.)

EWA’S STORY
Chava / Ewa Margules was born in Sosnowiec, Poland in 1942. Chances are her family relocated to her mother Laja’s hometown of Dabrowa Gornicza some time after her birth. On July 22, 1943, during an aktzia taking place in the Dabrowa Gornicza ghetto, Laja ran out into the street pushing a baby carriage and pleaded with a passing girl, eighteen year old Genia Bartosz, to save her daughter. Her name is “Ewa Margules,” she managed to tell, before turning back towards the ghetto.
(The story of her mother’s sacrifice for the sake of saving her came to light only recently, when Chava / Ewa was introduced to a woman from Dabrowa Gornicza who had remained in touch with her pre-war neighbors, the Bartosz family.)
In December of 1945, Ewa’s rescuer gave her over to a Jewish children’s home in Sosnowiec.
Would you happen to know someone who had been at the Sosnowiec children’s home in 1946? Is the children’s home mentioned in a book or other publication? Do records of the home exist?
“Chava / Ewa were carried over the Poland-Czechoslovakia border by Agudath Israel Vaad Hatzalah activist, Leibl Zamosc, who was involved in returning her to the Jewish people. From here, she joined a group of refugee children and their guardians, on a bus, which brought her to the Maison de Fublaines children’s home in Fublaines, France. She arrived with the name “Ewa Margules” sewn into the shirt she was wearing, and was called Chavala.
By other accounts of child- refugee border crossings during this era, it would seem that Leibl Zamosc and Ewa / Chava were part of an organized group. She does not know which group she made her way across the border with, or the date of the crossing.
Chava / Ewa was adopted in 1947 by a wonderful American couple, Mr. and Mrs. Leo Gartenberg, who called her Evelyn. In her early adult years she started on a search for her true identity.
A CLUE IN NEW YORK
By way of records found in the Vaad Hatzala and Rescue Children, Inc. Collections at Yeshiva University in New York, she learned that her true name was indeed Ewa Margules. These records do not include any information on her origins.
A CLUE FROM POLAND
In the collection of the Children Care Department of the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation in Warsaw, there is a letter, dated June 7, 1947, from the Jewish Committee of Lodz addressed to the Central Jewish Committee in Poland. This correspondence refers to a letter received from Hersz Binder asking for the current address of a cousin, the child Ewa Margules, who was ransomed ten months earlier from a Polish family in Dabrowa Gornicza. Hersz Binder wrote the letter on behalf of his wife Sima, nee Wolberg.
Is there another organization the Wolbergs would have written to in search of Ewa? Perhaps they sent off another letter inquiring about her whereabouts–a letter which mentions her parents’ names.
LEARNING HER PARENTS’ NAMES
In 2005, Jeffery Cymbler, who has done much for the preservation of the history of the Jews of the Zaglebie region of Poland (which includes the town of Sosnowiec), sent Chava / Ewa a copy of her birth record and her parents’ marriage record. It is from these records that she first learned the names of her father and mother.
POSSIBLE SIBLINGS
Her parents, Abram Margules and Laja Guterman, were married in 1932, ten years before her birth, so it seems very likely the couple had other children.
Where did Abram and Laja Margules live from when they married in Niwka in 1932 until the birth of their daughter in Sosnowiec in 1942? Knowing where they lived during these ten years could guide Ewa / Chava to possible birth records for siblings.
What happened to her parents and possible siblings during the war? Did anyone survive? Perhaps someone reading this page would know her family.
Chava / Ewa and her husband are great grandparents today. They live in Jerusalem.
Credit goes to Jeffrey Cymbler, Stanley Diamond – Executive Director of JRI-Pl, and to researcher Patricia Wilson, for their immeasurable contributions to Chava’s successful search for her identity.

Previous Comments

written by sarah parker, May 10, 2009
i also have to do a project on the holocaust. i keep reading all these things on people loosing their families and not knowing who they are and i really do hope you find yours. good luck. god bless. and keep faith.

written by Jessica Switzer, March 22, 2007
I’m In 8th grade and we had to do a holocaust project about someone who was in the holocaust and i chose Ewa and i hope she has had a good life since the horible time took place i even wrote a poem for her 😀 😀 😀 😀

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