Rachel Kalfus / Niepolomice / Kolbuszowa, Poland KOORDYNACJA

rachel kalfusFAMILY NAME: KALFUS
During the war: SKRZYDLEWSKA
GIVEN NAME: Rachel
During the war: Maria Anna “Marysia”
BIRTHDATE: Possibly September 18th 1941
BIRTH PLACE: Niepolomice, Poland
FATHER: Jakub Kalfus (1906 – 1942 Holocaust )
MOTHER: Cipora Czesia Kalfus nee Fertig (murdered in Holocaust)
PATERNAL GRANDFATHER: Izak Kalfus (it seems he died before the war)
PATERNAL GRANDMOTHER: Gitla Estera Kalfus nee Mueckenbruenn (1879 – 1942 Holocaust)
MATERNAL GRANDFATHER: Unknown
MATERNAL GRANDMOTHER: Unknown
Rachel’s story:
I was told I was born in Niepolomice, the hometown of my parents Jakub and Cipora (Czesia) Kalfus, in 1941. Niepolomice had, according to “Where Once We Walked”, 484 Jewish citizens before the war.
Does anybody remember my father and mother?
Does anybody know the Fertig family of my mother? Will I be able to learn the names of my maternal grandparents and my uncles and aunts?
My father was, according to written sources, sent to his death in Belzec in Aug 1942 with several other Kalfus family members. My mother’s name has not been found on that list.. Could it be they were not together at that time?
At some point during the war I was given to Helena Czartoryska in Kolbuszowa. There my name became Maria Anna Skrzydlewska. My nickname was Marysia.
Who was the person who brought me to Kolbuszowa to Helena Czartoryska?
Did this happen after my parents were murdered, or did my parents (mother?) arrange this?
I seem to have stayed with Helena Czartoryska till Sept 1946.
In Sept 1946 I was placed in one the Koordynacja children’s homes in Lodz, Poland.

This is a photo of me from that time:

rachel kalfus
From Lodz I was transferred to Montintin in France.
In 1947 I was brought to Eretz Israel.
RESOURCES FOR KNOWING MORE ABOUT RACHEL’S FAMILY.
Rachel was born in 1941, so the knowledge she has about her family is very minimal.
Here the Internet has proved to be a good start.
JRI-Poland
The initial search at JRI-Poland have given several names in Rachel’s family tree that Rachel now can start finding information about in Polish archives..
There is Jakub Kalfus born Aug 3rd 1906 in Niepolomice who on Aug 22nd 1942 was murdered in Belzec. Jakub was the son of Izaak Kalfus and his wife Gitla Estera Kalfus nee Mueckenbruenn.
Gitla Estera Kalfus nee Mueckenbruenn was born May 5th 1879 in Niepolomice and was murdered in Belzec the same day as her son Jakub Kalfus – Aug 22nd 1942.
Jakub’s older sister Franciska Grinbaum nee Kalfus born May 8th 1903 in Niepolomice and Jakub’s brother Abraham Kalfus born May 30th 1911 were also murdered in Belcez that same day.
Franciska’s son Henryk Gruenbaum born Jan 24th 1935, according to this, died in ghetto Bochnia on Sept 16th 1943.
From these Monitor Polski Announcements one may work on the theory that Franciszka’s husband Mojzesz Gruenbaum possibly survived in Ghetto Bochnia. Could it be that the Kalfus family was also in ghetto Bochnia before being sent to their death in Belzec? This will have to be checked further on in this search.
The next step therefore would be the ITS records at Yad Vashem for all Kalfus and for Mojzesz Gruenbaum.
This is only the beginning of the search.
RESEARCH JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2006
HELP FROM NIEPOLOMICE
This profile has just been published and already three Niepolomice residents are helping Rachel:
* Ms. Anna Boczula, a senior citizen, who remembers the Kalfus family
* Ms. Agnieszka Szczepaniak from the Niepolomice Museum
* Mr. Janusz Jag?a, active in several organizations in Niepolomice and a local historian
Ms. Boczula told that the Kalfus family had a shop for herbs and spices and that they occassionally also traded in coal.
Mr. Jag?a has graciously let us see some of the old postcards from Niepolomice in his extensive postcard collection.
We hope to add some of these postcards to Rachel’s profil in the future.
1929 BUSINESS DIRECTORY FOR NIEPOLOMICE
On JRI-Poland http://www.jewishgen.org/jri-pl/bizdir/bd1929.htm you can get the pdf images for the Polish business directory 1929. Doing a search for Niepolomice, two Kalfus names came up:
I. Kalfus trading in Different Articles (Perhaps there is a better translation for “Rozne towary” in Polish?). This would probably be Isak Kalfus, Rachel’s grandfather.
H. Kalfus trading in coal (“Wegiel”) in Polish. Who was this? A brother of Isak Kalfus?
BELZEC MEMORIAL
Rachel’s father Jakub Kalfus (born 1906) and her paternal grandmother Gitla Estera Kalfus ( born 1879) were among those of Rachel’s relatives sent to their deaths in Belzec. In 2004 a new memorial was opened at this site to commemorate more than 434 000 persons murdered there. A website, so far in Polish, has been set up for the Museum http://www.belzec.org.pl/ It is worth checking the different sections of the website to see the photographs. There is a questionnaire, with an English version, on the website for those relatives who want to commemorate their relatives who died in Belzec. http://www.belzec.org.pl/wirtualny/questionnaire_eng.doc
POSSIBLE BIRTH DATE SEPTEMBER 18th 1941
After the war, when Rachel was taken to the Koordynacja children’s home, the office there wrote that she was born Sept 18th 1941 in Niepolomice near Krakow. Is this true? We will try to find that out. From Niepolomice we are told such records would be in the USC in nearby Bochnia.
JEWISH CEMETERY IN BOCHNIA
A few years ago ( through the search of Maria Grajower on our website) we visited Bochnia . Maria Grajower’s father and other relatives had lived there during the war. In the local museum we bought a little pamphlet in Polish about the local Jewish cemetery. Iwona Zawidzka: Miejsce Swieta Dla Wszystkich Zyjacych. Czyli Rzecz o Cmentarz Zydowskim w Bochnia. Published by the Museum in Bochnia in 1992. Now, knowing that the Urzad Stany Cywilnego in Bochnia may have records about Rachel, we checked this little pamphlet and found:
Liba Mirel KALFUS, daughter of Icchak lewi, married to Israel, died in 1912.
If this woman is connected to Rachel’s Kalfus family, we of course do not know at this point.PAGES OF TESTIMONY: KALFUS FROM NIEPOLOMICE
In addition to the Pages submitted by Rachel for her own parents, three more Pages of Testimony tells us about another Kalfus family living in Niepolomice. They may or may not be relatives. If they are relatives, it may mean Rachel’s Kalfus family came from or had family connections in nearby Wisnicz.
Mendel KALFUS was born around 1885 in Wisnicz and lived in Niepolomice. He was a tailor. He was married to Rajsl KALFUS , born around 1890 in Niepolomice. The couple had two children. One of these two children was Cheml ( Chaim?) KALFUS born 1913 in Niepolomice. Mendel, Rajsl and Cheml were, according to the Pages of Testimony, murdered in Belzec.
RIGHTEOUS GENTILE HELENA CZARTORYSKA FROM KOLBUSZOWA
Around 1991 Rachel went to Kolbuszowa to ulica Pilsudskiego 30 where she remembered she had lived during the war. She met the children of Helena Czartoryska. They told her that Ms. Czartoryska had died a few months earlier, but they had heard the story of the rescue. Rachel went back to Israel and submitted a request to Yad Vashem that Helena Czartoryska would be recognized as a Righteous Gentile for saving her life . In October 1993 Yad Vashem recognized Helena Czartoryska as Righteous Among the Nations.
Lately we have found that another name is listed after the war on this address, namely Cel. Dudzinska. Rachel remembers a grandmother, the mother of Helena Czartoryska. Could this be Ms. Dudzinska?

MORE HELP FROM NIEPOLOMICE
We are very moved by the fact that a local website has translated our text into Polish and published the profile on their website. Thank you, Szymek Urban ! http://www.niepolomice.com/pl/news.php?readmore=512
This is the first time we have a text in Polish. We really should try to get more texts translated into Polish ! Some of the solutions to the riddles in these profiles may be found in Poland with Polish Christian families .The Polish texts would make it easier for them to read the stories.

Do Muzeum Niepołomickiego zgłosiła się Pani Rachel Kalfus…Pani Rachela jest Żydówką urodzoną w czasie wojny w Niepołomicach. Zgodnie z jej informacjami przez wojną w naszym mieście żyło 484 osób pochodzenia żydowskiego. Osoby prowadzące stronę Missing Identity zgłosiły się do Muzeum Niepołomickiego z prośbą o pomoc w odszukaniu jakichkolwiek informacji o korzeniach Pani Racheli. A my z tą sprawą zwracamy się do Was szanowni Internauci – jeśli ktokolwiek zna, lub wie kto może znać odpowiedzi na poniższe pytania, prosimy o kontakt mailowy.

rachel kalfusRachel kalfus
Nazwisko rodzinne: Kalfus
Nazwisko w czasie wojny: Skrzydlewska
Nadane imię: Rachel
Imię w czasie wojny: Maria Anna “Marysia”
Data urodzenia: prawdopodobnie 18 września 1941
Miejsce urodzenia : Niepołomice, Polska
Ojciec: Jakub Kalfus (1906 – 1942 ofiara Holokaustu)
Matka: Czesia Cipora Kalfus nee Fertig (ofiara Holokaustu)
Dziadek od strony ojca: Izak Kalfus (prawdopodobnie umarł przed wojną)
Babcia od strony ojca: Gitla Estera Kalfus nee Mueckenbruenn (1879 – 1942 ofiara Holokaustu)
Dziadek od strony mamy: brak danych
Babcia od strony mamy: brak danych

Pytania, na które staramy się znaleźć odpowiedź są następujące :
Czy ktokolwiek znał rodziców Rachel (państwa Kalfus) ?
Czy ktokolwiek znał rodzinę matki Racheli, Państwa Fertigów ?
Ojciec Pani Racheli podobno zginął w hitlerowskim obozie śmierci, funkcjonującym od marca do grudnia 1942, położonym na obrzeżach wsi Bełżec, wzdłuż linii kolejowej Lublin-Lwów razem z innymi członkami swojej rodziny. Matka Pani Racheli nie była na liście osób, które straciły tam życie. Czy jest możliwe, że nie byli tam razem ?
W pewnym momencie Pani Rachela została oddana pod opiekę rodzinie Skrzydlewskich mieszkających w Kolbuszowej. Czy ktoś pamięta kto przekazał Panią Rachelę Państwu Skrzydlewskim ? A jeśli tak, to czy zdarzyło się to po śmierci rodziców, czy to oni zaaranżowali przekazanie córki rodzinie z Kolbuszowej ?
Pani Rachela była u Państwa Skrzydlewskich do roku 1946. Czy ktokolwiek potrafi powiedzieć coś na temat tej rodziny ?

Jeśli ktokolwiek zna odpowiedź na któreś z powyższych pytań, proszę o napisanie maila na szymek@niepolomice.com This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots Więcej informacji o poszukiwaniach (po angielsku) znajduje się tutaj

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