Marysia HILFERDING / Lviv, Ukraine / Zakopane, Poland KOORDYNACJA

nechaerelaSurname: HILFERDING
Later also DOMBROWSKA , DABROWSKA and WEINRATH
Name: MARYSIA
Later also IRENA/ IRKA
Birth Date: 1942
Birth Place: Lviv, Ukraine then Lwow,Poland
Father’s Name: JOSEPH NORBERT HILFERDING born Oct 15th.1910 in Lviv
Mother’s Name: NECHA NELKA NELLY HILFERDING nee WEINRATH born June 23rd 1919 in Rava Ruska, Ukraine.
Paternal grandmother: DAWID ABRAHAM HILFERDING born either in 1879 or perhaps before 1877
Paternal grandmother: SURE MALKE SALOMEA HILFERDING nee ZOLLER born 1879 in Belyy Kamen, Ukraine.
Maternal grandfather: SAMUEL SZMUEL WEINRATH , lived in Lubaczow
Maternal grandmother: Reisel WEINRATH nee Gottlieb born 1889 Rava Ruska, died 1924 LubaczowMARYSIA
Marysia died of cancer in November 2001, though her search will go on, for at least three reasons:
for the sake of her children and grandchildren
because she would have wanted it.
but first of all, because she was the inspiration for this project.
Marysia lived for most of her life not knowing her own name nor the name of her parents, only that she had been brought from Poland to Israel in 1948.

Through a lifelong research that became very intensive from the year 1993, she managed to reconstruct her own past and that of her family.

MARYSIA’S STORY
Necha Nelly Weinrath and Joseph Norbert Hilferding met and married in Lviv.
Their daughter Marysia was probably born in the summer of 1942.
Probably in August 1942 Norbert and other family members were murdered in an AKTZIA in Lviv.

Necha Nelly managed to escape with her baby daughter Marysia from Lviv to Zakopane. They used forged papers under the names Janina Dombrowska born 1917 and daughter Irena Dombrowska. In Zakopane they first stayed with the Roman family. After a while Necha Nelly started to work on the black market with a man named Edward, traveling by train to different parts of Poland. Her daughter was left in the care of Mrs.Elzbieta Roman.

Probably in September 1943, she was arrested. Where and what happened to her is not known. Mrs. Roman, fearing the Gestapo, then brought Marysia / Irena to Apolonia Trybus and her family who also lived in Zakopane. She stayed with the Trybus family until March 1947, including a year and a half after the war in Bielsko Biala.

She was brought by the Koordynacja organization from Bielsko Biala to their children’s house in Lodz in March 1947. In March 1948, she arrived in Israel.

PICTURES OF HER MOTHER AND FATHER
In 1994/1995 Marysia found the maiden name and a picture of her mother (see above). Later she found additional photos. In April 1999 she found the name and pictures of her father after locating her paternal aunt in Brasil.

MEETING HER AUNT AND COUSINS IN ISRAEL IN MAY 1999
Joseph Norbert Hilferding’s youngest sister Regina “Gina” had survived the war and settled in Brasil in 1946. Shortly after locating this aunt through the Internet and JewishGen, the aunt and her two sons came for a visit to Israel.

Imagine living under many different names for so many years, and then finally be able to know your private name, your family name and the names of your parents. As a real bonus – finding wonderful living relatives!

This was without doubt one of the highlights in Marysia’s life. Through the aunt, a cousin of her father was located in the States. The American relatives had received the family photos from Lviv n the 1920’s and 1930’s – the only surviving family photos.

GRANDMOTHER REISEL WEINRATH nee GOTTLIEB
In May 2002 and in May 2003 Eva Floersheim did an inventory of the Jewish cemetery in Lubaczow. Among the ca 1600 gravestones registered, it turned out that Reisel Weinrath’s gravestone was there too. Reisel was born in 1889 in Rava Ruska, the daughter of Pinchas and Alte Gottlieb. When Reisel died in 1924 – 35 years old – her daughter Necha Nella was only five years old.

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE GOTTLIEB FAMILY FROM RAVA RUSKA
Reisel Rosalia Gottlieb was born in Rawa Ruska to Pinkas Gottlieb and his wife Alte around 1889. In 1924 when Reisel died in Lubaczow, her father Pinkas Gottlieb was no longer alive, according to the gravestone.
Using the JRI-Poland index lists http://www.jewishgen.org/jri-pl/ , here are possible pieces in this family tree – pieces that will have to be checked against the original documents.
In the Rawa Ruska lists the following was noted:
In 1896 Pinkas Gottlieb, born ca 1837, died in Rawa Ruska. He was the son of Chaim Leib Gottlieb and Lea Rose Gottlieb. The original death register may give more information, including where Pinkas was born. ( Interestingly enough, on Reisel’s gravestone from 1924, it is written that her father Pinkas is no longer alive. This would also mean that Reisel lost her father when she was only 7 years old )
Looking for Reisel Rosalia’s birth register around 1889 in Rawa Ruska, I could not find her name, but looking for other children of Pinkas and Alte Gottlieb, I found: Jakob Gottlieb born 1883 in Rawa Ruska. So where did Pinkas and Alte live outside Rawa Ruska? Where was actually Reisel Rosalia born? What happened to Jakob Gottlieb born 1883? What other children did Pinkas and Alte have? They probably also had a son named Chaim Leib, born before 1883 ( see text further down).
Are there any other Gottlieb relatives descending from Chaim Leib and Lea Rose Gottlieb and from their son Pinkas Gottlieb and Pinka’s wife Alte?
Chaim Leib Gottlieb must have been born back around 1810, in my estimate. Did he also live in Rawa Ruska? Interestingly enough two Chaim Leib were born in Rawa Ruska in 1882 and in 1883. One was the son of Moses Jakob Gottlieb and his wife Serel Lieberman. The other one was the son of Moses Gottlieb and his wife Ruchel Lea Landesman. ( Was the first Chaim Leib Gottlieb born around 1810 the son of Moses, and were these two fathers cousins, named after their greatgrandfather?)
The fact that Pinkas Gottlieb named his son Jakob in 1883, points to the possibility that Pinkas already had a son named Chaim Leib who was born before 1883.

QUESTIONS:
1) When exactly was Marysia born?

2) Was she born under the identity of Irena Dombrovska, a Polish Christian child, in Lviv? Are there any registers of Polish Christian children who were born in Lviv in 1942?

3) Where did Necha Nelly, and later Marysia, live in Lviv or elsewhere, from the autumn of 1941 onwards? We assume her mother lived on her false identity papers under the name of Janina Dombrowska.

4) Necha Nella finished high school in Yavorov in June 1937. Can it be that Joseph Norbert Hilferding was the boyfriend who would fetch her for the weekends in that last school year of 1936/1937?

5) If so, may it be that Necha Nella Weinrath and Joseph Norbert Hilferding married sometimes between July 1937 and September 1939?

6) We now know that Necha Nella’s mother Reisel Weinrath had died in 1924 in Lubaczow. Necha’s father Samuel Weinrath was alive in 1937. Did he die before the Holocaust? Did he die during Holocaust?

7) Among the few survivors of Lubaczow, where Necha/Nelly lived with her parents Samuel and Reisel Weinrath, we have not found anybody who remembers them. Where can we find information about this Weinrath family?

8) Do you have any information that can help us to continue to build the Hilferding family tree ?
9) Could there be relatives of Marysia’s aunt Ida HILFERDING nee BELL who may have photos and letters that were sent from Lviv in the 1930’s?

RESEARCH JOURNAL JULY 2005

In the new catalog of books published by Yad Vashem on page six Marysia looked at me!

Our friend Emuna Nachmani Gafni wrote her doctorate about how Jewish children were taken out from Christian homes in Poland after the war. Now this doctorate has been published as a book by Yad Vashem and Emuna insisted that Marysia’s photo should be on the cover.
The book has around 300 pages, soft cover and costs 79 Israeli shekel. In Hebrew the name is Levavot Chatzuim.
RESEARCH JOURNAL AUGUST 2005

THE FAMILY OF DAWID AND SALOMEA HILFERDING FROM LVIV
The birth registers for Lviv 1877 – 1899 are now online on JRI-Poland .
If Marysia’s children would like to obtain the birth certificates for the three sisters of their greatgrandfather Dawid Hilferding’s sisters –
1. Blima HILFERDING born in 1882,
2. Otylia HILFERDING born in 1884
3. Klara HI:FERDING born in 1886
they can do this through the Polish state archives.
Dawid’ Hilferding’s own birth registration is still not online ( if he was born in 1879 he was born elsewhere, or perhaps he was born before 1877) in Lviv?) but the indexing has already be founded for the births from 1862 – 1876. Check the lists on http://www.jewishgen.org/jri-pl/town/lwow.htm to see if you would be interested to contribute money to index additional material from Lwow/Lviv.
For general contributions to JRI-Poland check out http://www.jewishgen.org/jri-pl/visa.htm

THE FAMILY OF JOSEF AND BETTI HILFERDING
In 1900 in Grodek ( now Gorodok, 26 km WSW of Lviv) Josef Hilferding and his wife Betti nee Muenzer had a baby son they named Moses Samuel Hilferding. Later Josef and Betti moved to Lviv and had at least one more son and three daughters.
Around ten years ago Samuel Moses’ wife (now z”l) told us that her husband was a cousin of Marysia’s Hilferding family. At this point it seems likely that Josef Hilferding was a first cousin of Dawid Hilferding and Samuel Moses a second cousin of Marysia’s father Norbert Hilferding. This would mean that Josef Hilferding’s father ( name unknown so far) was the brother of Hersch Hilferding.
This Hilferding family in general had its roots in Brody.
Will we be able to prove the connection between these two Hilferding families?
If Josef Hilferding’s grandson would like a copy of his grandfather’s birthcertificate, he can again get such a copy through the Polish State Archives.

OTHER HILFERDING FAMILIES FROM LVIV
Marysia’s aunt Gina in Brasil told us that there were very few Hilferding families in Lviv when she grew up between the two world wars.
Using JRI-Poland we learn about at least three Hilferding families.
DAWID HILFERDING and SZAJNDEL JITTA nee MIMELES / ROSENBERG
This couple had at least two children:
1. Lea HILFERDING born 1879
2. Leib (Arie?) HILFERDING born 1884.

LIEPE HILFERDING and REBEKA nee SEGEL
This couple had at least two sons, probably twins:
Jakob and Mojzesz HILFERDING, both born in 1885

ABRAHAM HILFERDING and MARJEM nee LAPAJOWER
The registry says Abraham came from Zloczow originally.
The couple had at least two daughters:
1. Rebeka HILFERDING born 1884
2. Ernestyna Rachel HILFERDING born 1886

Are there any connections between these three Hilferding families and the Hilferding family of Marysia?

In addition , on the JOWBR registry on JewishGen http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/cemetery/ , based on cemetery records from Lviv 1941 – 1942, there is one Adolf HILFERDING, born ca 1906, who died July 29th 1942 in Lviv. His last address was ul. Kuszewicza in Lviv.
Who were his parents? Was he married? Did he have children?

TELEPHONE REGISTERS FOR LVIV FOR THE 1930’S
1932/1933
HILFERDING D. , przeds. mod., ul. Rutowskiego 23
HILFERDING LEON, m. (=residence) , ul. Sykstuska 1

1935
HILFERDING D., krawcowa, m., ul Rutowskiego 23

1938
HILFERDING D., krawcowa, m., ul. Rutowskiego 23

D. Hilferding is Marysia’s grandfather Dawid Hilferding. His business (hats and fashion ) was in ul. Rutowskiego 23, but he and his family actually lived elsewhere in Lviv.
Leon Hilferding is Marysia’s uncle, who first had a telephone in 1932, but later seems to have given it up.

Other Hilferding persons are not listed in these telephone registers.

RESEARCH JOURNAL DECEMBER 2007
A friend sent the URL to a website called My Heritage and to check out how this genealogy search engine works, we wrote “Hilferding”.
To use MyHeritage Research, click
http://www.myheritage.com/FP/Company/myheritage-research.php
From this we learnt that at the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC www.ushmm.org/namesearch in a collection called Lviv Cards there are three cards for Marysia’s close relatives:
1. Her uncle Izak HILFERDING, born March 23rd 1907 in Lviv,
2. Her aunt Ida HILFERDING nee Bell born Sept 10th 1907 in Wien, Austria (as far as we know)
3. Her cousin Ryszard HILFERDING born June 29th 1933 in Lviv.
Their address in Lviv is Sommersteinstrasse 23, probably a ghetto address.
Izak is listed as a Zuschneider (dress cutter) at the W.B.U. and Ida as a Schneiderin (seamstress) at the 1 Konfektion Fabrik.
Izak Hilferding managed to flee to Romania where he met another Jewish family from Lviv.
He told them that his wife and son had been murdered when they fled. (1943 or first half year of 1944?)
Izak had bought a ticket to go by ship to Eretz Israel from Constante, and the plan was that he would bring with him the son from that second family, pretending he was his son Ryszard.
At the very last moment, the second family decided to keep their son with them, and Izak boarded the ship Mafkura alone. It was Aug 3rd 1944.
Sadly the ship was torpedoed in the Black Sea and of the around 350 passengers, only five survived.
Izak Hilferding was not one of those five survivors.
Before he left Romania he had taken a passport photo of himself and given one copy to the second family with his personal data.
Around 1995 the son in that second family found Marysia following one of the TV programms in Israel.
He gave her that photo of her uncle that his family had kept for more than 50 years.
Marysia could then make a copy and give to her newfound aunt Gina in Brasil – the last photo taken of Gina’s brother Izak Hilferding.
SOMMERSTEINSTRASSE IN LEMBERG (LWOW, LVIV)
In a historical German announcement declaring the borders of the Jewish Ghetto in Lemberg/ Lwow/ Lviv, Sommersteinstrasse is mentioned as the street being the border to the east. What is this street called today?
BELL FAMILY FROM WIEN
According to what Aunt Gina has told us, her sister-in-law Ida HILFERDING nee BELL was originally from Wien. We now know that Ida was born Sept 10th 1907, but who were her parents? Did she have any siblings?
The only possible clue is one BELLl person listed in Wien on the “A Letter to the Stars” website
http://www.lettertothestars.at
Vilma BELLl was born October 21st 1882 in Nagy Surany in Hungary. Her last address in Wien was Pasteurgasse 6/12 when she was deported to her death on April 9th 1942.
Could she have been Ida’s mother – giving birth to Ida at the age of 25?
If so, will there be a grave in Wien of Ida’s father, given name unknown?

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