Fania DUBINSTEIN / Romania / Zabrze, Poland

Her own original identity:

Her name was registered as Fania Dubinstein. Correct?
Identity of biological parents: Did not know.

Identity of other relatives: Did not know.
Identity of rescuers: Did not know
Notes: In 1946 she was in a Jewish children’s home in Zabrze, Poland and brought through Europe to Eretz Israel on what was called The Rabbi Herzog train. In Eretz Israel she was placed to live on a kibbutz. It was assumed she was born around 1936/1937.

THE SEARCH
Zabrze is a town in Silesia in Southern Poland, near the city of Katowice. From 1915 to 1945 it was called Hindenburg. It belonged to Germany, but became part of Poland after WWII and most of the German inhabitants were expelled.
On JewishGen there is an article about those who returned from the USSR after the war and settled in Zabrze, and also a photo of the Jewish orphanage there.
https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/Zabrze/zab024.html
On a list of children at the Zabrze children’s home, dated Sept 23rd 1948, Fania is not listed. From that list we see that some of the children entered the Zabrze orphanage in March 1946, so the institution was active before the summer of 1946.
On a list of children on the Rabbi Herzog train that left Poland in August 1946 with assumable 750 children, going through Czeckoslovakia and then to France:
Fania Dubinstein born 1937.
Fublaines is located around 60 km east of Paris, near the city of Meaux and has a little more than 1200 inhabitants. On USHHM website there is a photo of a group of girls in Fublaines in 1946. Will anybody be able to see if Fania is one of these girls?
http://digitalassets.ushmm.org/photoarchives/detail.aspx?id=1095658&search=&index=4
Is Fania on a second photo from Fublaines, taken in 1947?
http://digitalassets.ushmm.org/photoarchives/detail.aspx?id=1096274&search=&index=5
On a list of children leaving Marseille for Eretz Israel in November 1947:
Fania Dubinsztein born 1936, had stayed in Fublaines in France.
On a list of children who once stayed in the Zabrze orphanage after the war, with their names and addresses in Israel , probably made for a reunion: Fania Dubinsztajn.
One thought: Should Dubinstein be Rubinstein? Despite the fact we had never heard the family name Dubinstein it turns out there is such a name.
There were none with that family name on Pages of Testimony or on JRI Poland, but one listing for Dubinstein, Belarus on JGFF.
Possible clue: On a business directory from Romania, Logan Kleinwaks found that in Ciuciulina, now in Moldova, around 60 km west of Chisenau (Kishinev), before WWII, there was a merchant named Sruli Dubinstein. Sruli is probably the kinnui for Israel.
Possible clue: Dvora Dubinstein born ca. 1873, was the daughter of Mordechai Dubinstein, married Mr. Koifman, lived in Ciulciuleni. Jossi Dubinstein born ca 1907, lived in Ciuciuleni.
Possible clue: Khayka Dubinstein born ca 1890, was the mother of Perla Dubinstein born 1914. Perla Dubinstein was a lawyer. They lived Chișinău ( Kishinev), now Moldova, and were deported to Zolskoye, Russia. Did they survive?
Possible clue: In Calarasi ( Kalarash) around 40 km north of Ciuciuleni, lived shifra Dubinstein born 1908. She was deported to Kamenka in Kazachstan. Did she survive?
Main question: How would a little girl from Romania, end up in Zabrze, Poland at the end of the war?
Possible documentation about Fania Dubinstein in Poland:
Was she listed under that name when she – most likely – crossed the border from the Ukraine into Poland after the war? That information can probably be found at the Institute of National Remembrance in Warszawa https://ipn.gov.pl/en
Will there be any documentation at the Jewish historical Institute in Warszawa? http://www.jhi.pl/en

2018
Her own original identity She said her name was Fania Dubinstein, that she was from Romania and that she and her mother had fled to the Ukraine. She told that when they were later deported, her mother threw her off the train and that she had a bundle with documents on her.
We have not found any documentation from before or during the war testifying to her own original name, age and place of birth.
Identity of biological parents Still unknown
Identity of other relatives Still unknown
Identity of rescuers Still unknown.
According to Fania, she was thrown off a train by her mother with a bundle of documents. Who took care of her there and then and till the war ended? Who brought her to Zabrze?
Could it have been a Polish family living in what had been Poland, but later became the Ukraine? Could such a Polish family have brought her with them when they left their home after the war to move into what had become the new borders of Poland? Many of these repatriants settled in Southern Poland, and in particular in the Silesia area where Zabrze is situated. Could it be that the Polish family in such a situation thought it better to give Fania to a Jewish orphanage? Or had Fania been located by Jewish activists and brought to Zabrze?
Notes In Israel Fania lived on a kibbutz. She married another Holocaust survivor. They had three children. Fania died in 2016. Her husband had died earlier.

Previous Comments
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written by Logan, April 22, 2006
Using the search engine at www.kalter.org/search.php, I found in the 1924/1925 Romania Business and Organizational Directory, Vol II.: Dubinstein Sruli, Ciuciuleni (Plasa Vorniceni. Locuitori 7280. 20 km. g. Bacovat), businesses: Bacani, Manafactura (magazine) There are many Rubinsteins (and Daitch-Mokotoff Soundex equivalents).
Best wishes and good luck, Logan
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written by Logan, April 22, 2006
I believe this is the Ciuciuleni (there are two) now in Moldova at coordinates 4701′ 28?25′, 20.5 miles almost directly west of Chisinau (Kishinev). -Logan