Nadzia GILER / Lodz, Poland

nadia-gSurname: GILER
Name: Nadzia
Birth Date: July 1938
Birth Place: Lodz, Poland
Father’s Name: Ajzik GILER (changed from GILARY
to GILER).Born 1901 in Czerwinsk nad Wisla,
Poland (50 km WNW of Warszawa).Murdered 1944 in Auschwitz.
Paternal grandfather: Jakow Lejb GILARY (born around 1867 in Czerwinsk nad Wisla)
Paternal grandmother: Cyrla GILARY nee NIEDZWIEDZ, born 1867 in Plonsk
Paternal grandparents married in Plonsk in 1886.
Mother’s Name: Chaja GILER nee ROZENGARTEN (or ROSENGARTEN) Born around 1906 in Klimontow, Poland ( 101 km SW of Lublin)
Maternal grandfather: Szaja ROZENGARTEN ( born 1858, died before WWII)
Maternal grandmother: Syma ROZENGARTEN nee WALDMAN or HOLMAN ( 1856 Iwaniska – 1940 Lodz)
Nadzia’s brother: Her brother Szaja, named after his maternal grandfather, died in 1940, aged 7 weeks.

A successful search
The information now posted on this profile is the result of the dedicated research of Nadzia’s family.

Nadzia’s story
Nadzia was born in Lodz, Poland in July 1938, though no birth certificate has been located there.
When the war broke out in September 1939, Chaja GILER, who was pregnant at the time, and Nadzia, around one year old, fled to the east with Michal GILARY, Jakow Lejb’s GILARY’s brother. Chaja, Nadzia and Michal fled into Soviet occupied territory and came to Bialystok. Michal GILARY was born in Czerwinsk Nad Wisla in 1886 and was already a widow when the war broke out. He stayed with Chaja and Nadzia in the USSR.

For some time Chaja, Nadzia and Michal lived in the Bialystok area. In 1940 the Soviets deported them to the Vologda area, around 500 km northeast of Moscow.
At this point the three of them (Chaja, Michal and Nadzia) were together and presented themselves as a family.
Nadzia, Michal and Chaja lived in Vologda till after August 1941, when Polish refugees, through what was called the Amnesty, were allowed to move to other places in the USSR. Many went southwards to Uzbekistan and to the surrounding Soviet republics.
At this point it seems that Michal GILGARY was no longer alive. Nadzia, around three years old, and her mother Chaja travelled more than 4000 km from Vologda to Jalal Abad, now in Kyrgyzstan, very close to the border to Uzbekistan. Nadzia herself has no clear memory of Michal.

Was this photo taken during the time they stayed in Jalal Abad?
Was this photo taken during the time they stayed in Jalal Abad?

They stayed in Jalal Abad, probably till the spring of 1946, when Polish refugees were allowed to return to Poland under the Repatriacja agreement. Nadzia was now nearly 8 years old. Nadzia and her mother were able to get to Szceczin/Stettin, where they were registered with the Jewish Committee in the beginning of July 1946. These records are today at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warszawa.

nadia-g-map

From Szceczin/ Stettin Nadzia and her mother managed to leave Poland and then lived in DP camps in Austria ( near Salzburg), in Neu Ulm in Germany and in Marseille, France, before leaving for Eretz Israel..

What happened to Nadzia’s maternal grandmother Syma Rozengarten?
When Chaja GILER fled to the east in the autumn of 1939, her mother Syma Rozengarten, was still alive. A few months later, on Jan 16th 1940, Syma Rozengarten died, 84 years old. She was buried at the Jewish Cemetery in Lodz at at Section Cz-II, Row 6, Grave 402. According to the information posted on Jewish Records Indexing –Poland , Syma’s father was Wolf.

What happened to Nadzia’s father back in Poland?

nadia-g4
Nadzia has a little photo of her father Ajzik GILER who was born in 1901.
nadia-g4a
Some years ago an attempt to restore this photo gave this result:

She cannot remember him as she was only around a year old when they were separated.
Sadly Nadzia’s mother died in 1956, so Nadzia did not have the opportunity to hear her mother tell about her father.
Now, through the intensive research of Nadzia’s family, they have discovered that Nadzia’s father was murdered in Auschwitz in 1944.

To remember

We will keep this profile to remember the story of how Nadzia, born in 1938 in Poland, survived the Holocaust in the USSR thanks to the efforts of her mother Chaja GILER and her granduncle Michal GILARY. We will keep this profile in memory of her father Ajzik GILER who was murdered in Auschwitz in 1944, 43 years old.
We will keep this profile in memory of Nadzia’s lost family.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply