| MIRIAM'S STORY
Before the Second World War broke out in September 1939
Miriam was born in 1937 in what was then the city of Lwow in Eastern Galicia in Poland (now Lviv, Ukraine)
to Bronislaw and Sonia GEFÄLL /GEFALL /GEFAELL.
Bronislaw GEFÄLL /GEFALL / GEFAELL was a Railroad Engineer.
We assume the parents had married around 1935 / 1936.
During the Soviet occupation between September 1939 - June 1941
When Miriam was about three years old, her parents divorced. In the beginning we did not know exactly when this happened, but taking into consideration the Germans occupied Lwow in the summer of 1941, we assumed it happened before the German occupation. We now know they divorced on June 19th 1940.
After the German occupation of Lwow in June 1941
After the Germans occupied Lwow and later made part of the city into a Jewish ghetto, Miriam's mother and Miriam had to survive under extremely difficult conditions. The fact that in addition to Miriam and her mother, the maternal grandmother and nine of her maternal aunts and their families were also in Ghetto Lwow , must have been of some practical importance.
The situation worsened and Miriam was hidden in the Blumenfeld paint factory where Miriam's mother was working in the ghetto.
Miriam smuggled out of the ghetto in Lwow in the autumn of 1942
The mother managed to smuggle Miriam out of the ghetto in the autumn of 1942, when Miriam was five and a half years old.
Miriam was brought with the help of a Christian friend named Wanda Jozefowicz to Miriam's paternal aunt Irena CZAJKOWSKA nee GEFÄLL /GEFALL in Krosno. Then the aunt brought her to a monastery in Ustrzyki Dolny, 45 km S of Przemysl in Poland. At the time the monastery had been destroyed, and Miriam remembers the nuns and the children living in a little wooden hut with two rooms. The children lived in one room, and the nuns in the second room. Here Miriam was called Maria GERDA.
Miriam after the war
Miriam survived, but her mother, grandmother, aunts and uncles must have been murdered, as they never contacted Miriam's only left aunt who had settled in Eretz Israel in 1935. What happened to her cousins, some of them born during the war, is not known.
Did the family manage to smuggle them out of the ghetto, like Miriam, but did they lose their original identity along the way?
Miriam's mother had written to her sister Lonia in Haifa and told her friends in Lwow during the war that if she herself would not survive, she wanted Miriam to live with Lonia in Haifa. A complicated search enabled Lonia to locate Miriam. Irena Bachinska, a friend of Lonia who at the time lived in Lwow, first brought Miriam from Ustrzyki Dolny to her apartment in Lwow. A month later, Irena brought the girl to Tereza Steinbach in Wroclaw.
Tereza brought Miriam through Europe to the aunt in Haifa. Just like Miriam's mother had wanted.
Miriam's father Bronislaw Gefäll / Gefaell and the Gefäll / Gefaell family
The biggest mystery is connected with Miriam's father.
Who were his parents? It is known that he had a sister, born as Irena GEFÄLL /GEFAELL.
Irena married a Christian man with the family name CZAJKOWSKI before the war, and converted to Christianity, so she became Irena CZAJKOWSKA. She survived the war, had no children and lived in 1946 in Pl 3 Maja 11/ 2 ,Krosno, Poland .
If Miriam's father had additional brothers and/or sisters, we do not know.
Where did he study to become a railroad engineer?
What happened to him after the divorce from Miriam's mother on June 19th 1940?
What happened to him after the summer of 1941?
There are three versions of what might have happened to him:
1) That he was killed under a bombing of Lwow
2) That he died in the Janowska Camp in Lwow
3) That he fled to the east, deeper into Soviet territory
List of Miriam's relatives, victims of the Holocaust
Even though it is clear that Miriam's grandmother and aunts and uncles are not alive, here is Miriam's list of relatives lost in the Holocaust:
Maternal grandmother
REICHSTEIN Reizel Reisel (Rosa) nee PERLMUTTER ; born 1878 (or 1876) Berezhany; Ghetto Lwow
Mother:
GEFÄLL / GEFALL / GEFAELL Sossie Breine Sonia nee REICHSTEIN; born Nov 17th 1904 Berezhany (or 1901); Ghetto Lwow
Maternal relatives (aunts, uncles, cousins):
APISDORF Cirl Cyla nee REICHSTEIN; born 1900 (or 1898) Berezhany ; Ghetto Lwow
APISDORF Mechel Michael; born 1892 Sokal ; Ghetto Lwow
APISDORF Rina ; born January 1st 1927 Lwow; Ghetto Lwow
KARTEN Perl Perla nee REICHSTEIN; born 1902 (or 1900) Berezhany; Ghetto Lwow
KARTEN Jechiel Chiel ; born 1902 Berezhany; Ghetto Lwow
KARTEN Bronek Bronislaw; born January 6th 1927; Ghetto Lwow
KARTEN Pola Pessia nee REICHSTEIN; born 1906 (or 1903) Berezhany; Ghetto Lwow
KARTEN Israel; born 1900 Berezhany; Ghetto Lwow
KARTEN Edek Edward; born February 9th 1936 Lwow; Ghetto Lwow
KARTEN Sabina Sime nee REICHSTEIN; born 1908 (or 1905) Berezhany; Ghetto Lwow
KARTEN Efraim-Arie; born 1941 Lwow; Ghetto Lwow
WINKLER Eva Chava nee REICHSTEIN, born 1910 (or 1909) Berezhany; Berezhany
WINKLER Don, born in Berezhany , probably around 1905 - 1910; Berezhany
WINKLER daughter; born 1941 Berezhany; Berezhany
TUCHMAN Sylvia nee REICHSTEIN; born 1914 Berezhany; Ghetto Lwow
TUCHMAN Henrik ; born 1910 Lwow; Ghetto Lwow
TUCHMAN daughter; born 1941 Lwow; Ghetto Lwow
EKSTEIN Kshisha nee REICHSTEIN; born 1916 Berezhany; Ghetto Lwow
EKSTEIN Aharon Aron; born 1914 Kolbuszowa; Ghetto Lwow
REICHSTEIN Mina; born 1919 Lwow; Ghetto Lwow
REICHSTEIN Regina; born 1922 Lwow ; Ghetto Lwow
Father:
GEFÄLL / GEFALL / GEFAELL Bronislaw; born 1902 Ternopol ; Not known
Photos of Miriam's parents Sonia and Bronislaw Gefäll/ Gefaell:
  
RESEARCH JOURNAL OCTOBER 2007
In Polish business directories for Lwow in the 1920's we found
Daw. Gefäll, a watchmaker in ul. Zybliewiecka 4, Lwow
We assume his given name must be Dawid.
Who was he? The father of the siblings Bronislaw and Irena Gefäll ? A brother?
We don't know at this point.
RESEARCH JOURNAL MARCH 2008
From the Address Book of residents in Malopolska for the year 1935, the following persons in Lwow named Gefaell are listed:
Adolf Gefäll, urz. bank (bank clerk), ul. Kulkowa 4
Benjamin Gefäll, urz. PKP (clerk), ul.Zyblikiewicza 4
Dawid Gefäll, zegarm. (watchmaker), ul. Zyblikiewicza 4
Etka Gefäll, urz. (clerk), ul. Zyblikiewicza 4
Fryderyk Gefäll, mechanik, ul. Zbozowy 3
Leon Gefäll, zegarm. (watchmaker), ul. Ruska 6
Slighly different spelling of the family name:
Benzion Gefel, naucz. pryw. (private teacher), ul Kochanowskiego
Are any of these relatives of Miriam?
By the way, none of these persons are listed in the telephone registers for Lwow for the years 1932, 1935 and 1938.
RESEARCH JOURNAL MAY 2008
DATE OF DIVORCE
In a letter written by her mother during the war, Miriam found that her parents divorced on June 19th 1940.
This was during the Soviet occupation of Lwow/Lviv.
POSSIBLE INTERESTING LEAD
We are now in contact with descendants of a GEFAELL family that used to live in Wien. There is a possibility that this family had roots in the part of Galicia that is now in the Ukraine. If this turns out to be true, the GEFAELL family from Wien settled there around 140 years ago.
RESEARCH JOURNAL MAY 2008
GEFAELL FAMILY FROM TARNOPOL ON JRI POLAND
At this point, we do not know who were the parents of Bronislaw Gefaell, but there is one Gefaell family from Tarnopol that we would like to know more about.
Dawid Gefaell and his wife Miriam nee Zwergel had the following children in Tarnopol:, according to JRI-Poland:
1.Julius Wilhelm Gefaell born 1889
2. Saul Gefaell born 1891
3. Moritz Gefaell born 1893
4. Etka Gefaell born 1895
5. Adolf Gefaell born 1897
Dawid Gefaell was the son of Joel Gefaell and Rossie Rosche Thyman and the brother of Josef Mechel Gefaell born 1867 and Chaje Ruchel Gefaell born 1872.
Possible problem:
Dawid Gefaell and Miriam Zwergel married in a civilian marriage in 1896 and were then listed as being 43 and 40 years old.
That would make Miriam Zwergel 33 years old giving birth to Julius Wilhelm and 41 years old when giving birth to Adolf.
In 1902 she would be 46 years old.
It would have been interesting to verify the years of birth for Dawid Gefaell and Miriam Zwergel.
RESEARCH JOURNAL MAY 2008
ULRICH GEFAELL 1800 - 1868
We have been contacted by two descendants of a watchmaker named Ulrich Gefaell born 1800 who settled in London and worked as a watchmaker.
This seems a little far back for making a direct connection to Miriam at this point, but as the family in England do not know where Ulrich Gefaell lived in Europe before coming to England (Freiburg, Germany is one possibility), we will keep this in our search.
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