Chiel (Jechiel) Majer Bieżuński (born 1888 in Płock), teacher, son of Natan and Gitla nee Gombiner. He graduated from the provincial midle school in Płock, then continued private education in high school. He graduated from the Helena Kuczalska School of Swedish Gymnastics and Massage and […]
On October 15, 1821, Józef Jakub Kreyzler aka Josek Sokół and Gerszon Lewin Gradel aka Mintz concluded contracts for the perpetual lease of squares marked with numbers 68 (town square measuring 20 bars, with an annual rent of 1 złoty and 2 grosz) and 69 […]
I was interested in my family history only since a distant cousin from a different part of the family gave me a scruffy, rolled up paper family tree that was a bit out of date. I was a side entry on that tree. But there was so much information – and I took it upon myself to update and digitize it. As I was very much on the margins, on the edge from my mothers ancestors, there was literally no information on my father’s history.
My family surname is Hollenbery and I had pretty much no more information to go on – except that my dad said the family were from Plock or Plotsk, Russia or Poland, and that the historic surname sounded like Holsenbach or something like that. That was the start of my search. I took on the project as a bit of a game – most of the people in my family history are dead – so what was the point? Well, rather than playing a game shooting zombies on a computer, I played the game of tracing my family. And wow, its amazing what one can find with the aid of Mr Google. And then JRI Poland, which eventually led me to JewishPlock.eu .
The earliest reference to my family is Eliasz Hersz Holcenbecher my great, great, great, great grandfather. He was born around 1780 in Plock, Poland. With his wife Rela (nee Jakub), they had two sons. Nusen, born around 1813, and Joel. Nusen was 25 when in 1838 he married Ejdla Goldbard.
Nusen and Ejdla had three daughters and a son, Jakub Lejb Holcenbecher. He was born in 1841 and he was a peddlar. In 1865 he married Estera/Ejdla Dzalka. And my dad talks of the Dzalka name – closely connected in our family annuls. Ejdla Dzalka had a brother called Mosek, who married Laja Brana Rozental.
Jakub Lejb Hotzenbecher and Estera had 2 boys and a girl. One of the daughters, Chawa Laja, married David Zalka, son of Mosek and Laja Dzalka. A marriage of first cousins. I have been able to piece together quite a lot of the Dzalka family, but we are still in the dark about which one was ‘Charlie’ Dzalka, fondly remembered by my dad.
Jakub Lejb’s younger son Isaac/ Israel (nickname Fischel), was born in Plock in 1876. At some point, and in some place, he married, (or otherwise assembled with) my great grandmother Baila. The story is that Isaac was enlisted into the Polish cavalry, but absconded!
My uncle Bernie says they arrived by boat into Liverpool. But they came down to London in spring 1905, and with a babe in arms. Fischel gave a sworn statement at Old Street Police Court that my grandfather Harry was born in “Plotsk, Russia” and he signed his mark with an X on that document- with name Isaac Hollenberg. I’m not sure my grandpa ever knew his true birthday.
Through the virtues of fate, many records survive – I have the proof of marriage of Nusen Holzenbecher and Ejdla Goldbard in 1838, but there is no record of Fischel/Isaac marrying Beila/Polly, just as there is no record of Harry’s birth. But we do know that while in Plock they lived at Krolewiecka 33.
On the female side, Beila/Polly was born daughter of (we think Rabbi) Meir Rosenblatt and Miriam Rosenthal. His parents Michal and Pejreal Rojzenblatt and Her Parents Szmul and Fajga Burstyn also came from Plotsk. Most of the newer generations of the Holtzenbacher side are in London. But, of Polly Rosenblatts siblings, two brothers and two sisters went to America. Some descendants now live in New York and Atlanta.
During my research, deep in the middle of the COVID lockdowns, my son and I searched and found the graves of both sets of my great grandparents – in a cemetery in Edmonton – Miriam and Lewis Berginsky and Polly and Fishel Hollenberg. The cemetery was within 100 yards of places I had cycled by numerous times…
Isaac/Fischel made his life as a butcher in the traditional Jewish East End of London; in the Hessel Street area. They had a house at 14 Berners Street Commercial Road, now demolished. My dad has described this house in some detail in his autobiography which he is dictating to my daughter over many Sunday afternoons.
I suppose Isaac used the surnames Holcenbacher, Holtzenbacher, and after moving to London, Hollenberg or Hollingback.
In London, Harry left school aged 14 and worked for WH Smith, and was latterly an antique trader. He grew up with an amazing love of music: and somehow, by some means, afforded himself piano lessons and became an accomplished pianist. It took him at least three years to pay off the loan to buy his piano. His love of East European Romantic composers (especially Chopin) is deeply embedded within me. I fondly remember him playing Chopin.
Some years after Harry’s death the piano was in need of a new home. I am now in possession of the family heirloom. The instrument will celebrate its 100th birthday in my house in London in a few months.
Harry married Lilly Bierzunsky/Berginsky in 1934 and lived with his parents, and their three children in that house at 14 Berners Street. Lilly (Leah) was a strong wonderful woman, who lived to over 90. She was born in the Berginsky family house at 55 Varden Street, Stepney. Her parents, Miriam and Lewis /Schuchner are of unknown origin. Lilly had the most fabulous of quintessential ‘proper’ east end accents. She told me Harry was married to the Piano first; and to her second.
During World War two the Hollenberg family were evacuated to Llandudno Wales, and the piano went along too. Harry and Lilly had a third child, born in Wales. He was born on VE day and is named Bernie Victor.
My father Martin, the eldest of Harry’s three children was the first in his family to attend a college of Higher Education, making his life as an ophthalmic optician with a shop in Clerkenwell, and a house in the leafy suburbs of North London. He married my mum Susan in 1967. She was a Banes – a Baneshek from Krakov, Poland. Her mum, my grandma, Betty was a Pollard – Policovsky, from Ukraine or Belarus.
My father had the name Hollenberg until he got married. My mother wished to anglicize the name. Wanting the least possible alteration, my parents settled on the married surname Hollenbery.
My parents had four children. I am the only boy, Neal, Hebrew name Nuchum/Nusen. Same as my great, great, great grandfather. Named after him? How would anyone have known! My younger sister is Adele, Hebrew name Ejdla. Same as my great, great, great grandmother. Named after her? There would have been no way for my parents to have this information. I married my wife Ayr in Marylebone London in 2001, a month after the twin towers fell. I have two children.
Neal Hollenbery 2022 London.
Post scriptum: That’s more or less the end of the Holcenbacher story. But not quite. At the start of this piece I said that I was prompted to start my family tree search as a result of a rolled up family tree given to me by a distant relative on my mothers side. And so I initially researched my mother’s side of the family. And I stumbled across a distant relative of mine living in USA. He had done absolutely loads of research on his family tree. And he was happy to add me into his tree. And he had connected himself and everyone in his tree to the Queen of England. And so I too am connected as a relation to the Queen (see the appendix below). And so, by extension, every relative of mine is also a relation to the Queen of England. Somewhat remote, but more fun than a computer game!
Appendix: My relationship to the Queen of England. By extension therefore everyone else mentioned here is also a relation to the Queen… (Source: Donald Breiter via myheritage.com)
Relation of Elizabeth II Alexandra Mary Mountbatten (born Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg), Prince Consort of the United Kingdom, Duke of Edinburgh to Neal Hollenbery
Related by marriage: 35 steps
Here’s how:
1. Prince Phillip, Mountbatten (born Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg), Prince Consort of the United Kingdom, Duke of Edinburgh is the husband of Elizabeth II
2. Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark (born Schleswig-Holstein, Glücksburg) is the father of Prince Phillip, Mountbatten (born Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg), Prince Consort of the United Kingdom, Duke of Edinburgh
3. Olga Constantinovna Oldenburg is the mother of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark (born Schleswig-Holstein, Glücksburg)
4. Alexandra Iosifovna (Friedrika Henrietta Pauline Marianne Elizabeth) Romanov is the mother of Olga Constantinovna Oldenburg
5. Joseph Georg Friedrich Ernst Karl Von Sachsen-Altenburg is the father of Alexandra Iosifovna (Friedrika Henrietta Pauline Marianne Elizabeth) Romanov
6. Charlotte Katharina Von Wurttenberg is a sister of Joseph Georg Friedrich Ernst Karl Von Sachsen-Altenburg
7. Pauline Friedrike Marie Von Nassau is a daughter of Charlotte Katharina Von Wurttenberg
8. Sophia Wilhelmina Marianne Henriette Bernadotte is a daughter of Pauline Friedrike Marie Von Nassau
9. Oscar Carl August Bernadotte is a son of Sophia Wilhelmina Marianne Henriette Bernadotte
10. Folke Bernadotte Count of Wisborg is a son of Oscar Carl August Bernadotte
11. Jeanne Birgitta Sofia Kristina Granstrom is a daughter of Folke Bernadotte Count of Wisborg
12. Gosta Granström is the husband of Jeanne Birgitta Sofia Kristina Granstrom
13. Olof Herman Granström is the father of Gosta Granström
14. Margareta Elisabet Granström is the mother of Olof Herman Granström
15. Louisa Mariana Danielsson Lofgren is a sister of Margareta Elisabet Granström
16. Selma Bernadina Charlotta Johansson is a daughter of Louisa Mariana Danielsson Lofgren
17. Karl Arvid Skoggard (born Johansson) is a son of Selma Bernadina Charlotta Johansson
18. Bengt Bruno Skoggard (born Skoggård) is a son of Karl Arvid Skoggard (born Johansson)
19. Mary Jean McKay Skoggard is the wife of Bengt Bruno Skoggard (born Skoggård)
20. John Forrest MacKay Ross is a brother of Mary Jean McKay Skoggard
21. Miriam W Ross is the wife of John Forrest MacKay Ross
22. Hyman/Chaim Wolff is the father of Miriam W Ross
23. Dora Portugalo is a sister of Hyman/Chaim Wolff
24. Pauline P Breiter is a daughter of Dora Portugalo
25. Mark C Breiter is the husband of Pauline P Breiter
26. Nathan D Breiter is the father of Mark C Breiter
27. Moyzesz Breiter is the father of Nathan D Breiter
28. Hawe Weiskertz is a sister of Moyzesz Breiter
29. Abraham Moyzes Weiskertz is the husband of Hawe Weiskertz
30. Józef Weiskertz is a brother of Abraham Moyzes Weiskertz
31. Benjamin Weisgard (born Weiskertz) is a son of Józef Weiskertz
32. Esther Baneshik is a daughter of Benjamin Weisgard (born Weiskertz)
33. Stanley Benjamin Banes is a son of Esther Baneshik
34. Susan Banes is a daughter of Stanley Benjamin Banes
35. Neal is a son of susan Banes
Chaja Sura (Ilana) Szlachter was born on August 29, 1918. Polish and Yiddish were spoken in her family home. Her mother, Estera, came from a village located 20 kilometers from Płock. She was a beautiful woman with jet black hair and almond eyes – she […]
Hanka Borensztejn was born on May 11, 1920 in Płock. Her father – Kos Borensztejn, son of Chaim Mortka and Nechama nee Koral, came from Płońsk. Hanka’s mother’s name was Estera – she was the daughter of Dawid Tewel Cylich and his wife Sura. After […]
Jochewet (Jadwiga) Graubart was born in 1918, she was the daughter of Abram Nusen aka Natan and Chaja née Landau. Her family was one of the most respected and well-known Jewish families in Płock. Natan Graubart was a grain merchant, the owner of a seed store and a house at 42 Kwiatka Street. Jadwiga’s mother died giving birth to her sister, Zosia, when the girl was one and three months old. From then on, until the age of six, her grandmother took care of her upbringing. When she was seven, Natan Graubart married a teacher Czesława Bruzda. Jadwiga was a sickly child, therefore she did not go to school, but she studied at home. She took her exams externally. After receiving secondary education, she attended a one-year agricultural course. At 17, she became an avid Zionist and a member of the Akiba organization. Her later life was filled with work for the organization and the drive to emigrate to Palestine.
At the outbreak of the war, she was on a training farm (hakhshara) in Cracow. After a short period of stay under German occupation, Jochewet decided to flee from Cracow together with her friend and reach Palestine. She managed to sneak into the territories occupied by the Russians and tried to get to Romania. After the failure of this attempt, she went to Vilnius, where Zionist activists, who were to reach Palestine, were further directed by halutz organizations. Jochewet was among a group of activists for whom the halutz organization applied for certificates, and on this basis she escaped from Russia to Turkey, and then via Beirut to Palestine. She spent the first period in a kibbutz and on an agricultural course organized by Meszek Poalot Ajanot.
Jadwiga Graubart:
I stayed in this kibbutz for a year, but the news from the front did not leave me alone and in March 1943 I joined the ATS. I applied for hospital service and was first referred to a training point in Sarafanda, and after 3 months of training, I was sent to Lebanon to the 3rd British military hospital in Cidon. I worked there for a year, caring mostly for soldiers from the Army of Anders, and at the same time learning nursing.
In 1944 we were transferred to Italy. We landed in Taranto on the memorable day of the capture of Monte Casino by the Anders Army. In Italy, I was assigned to the 65th BGH (British military hospital) in Trani. There were mostly wounded Yugoslav partisans transported from Yugoslavia to Italy. There was a camp for convalescent soldiers in Trani, and our day-room was the center of their lives. We organized joint Friday evenings and various cultural events for them.
Then I was transferred to the 2nd BGH in Kaserta. A group of Jewish volunteer nurses from Palestine worked with me in this hospital. Most of us were girls from kibbutzim and moshavot.
Many Jewish volunteer units belonging to the British army were stationed in Italy at that time. They welcomed us very warmly and we kept in close contact with them. There were clubs of Jewish soldiers where Jews from all armies fighting in Italy in the Allied armies met.
When the Jewish Brigade entered the war and the first wounded Jewish soldiers appeared, on days off from work we went to neighboring hospitals looking for wounded compatriots. We brought them books and newspapers and comforted them in solitude. It aroused admiration and even envy of British soldiers who admired Palestinian solidarity.
In 1944, I went on my first vacation in Italy. I went to Rome, where I was probably the first Jewish soldier to come to the newly liberated city. On the first Saturday of my stay in Rome, I went to the great synagogue. When I entered the synagogue, the Italian Jews praying there were very moved by the sight of the blue Magen David on the shoulder of my uniform. I was also immensely touched by the cordiality shown to me, and especially by the fact that some people kissed my Magen David.
Our entire group of Jewish female soldiers helped Jewish refugees in special camps. We gave them rations of chocolate, cigarettes and other food products.
After the end of the war, Jadwiga remained in Italy in the ranks of the British army until September 1946. Then she returned to Palestine to the Beit Yechoshua kibbutz.
(based on the memoirs of Jadwiga Graubart from the Yad Vashem collection)
. . .
“Broken life. The fate of women of Płock during World War II and the Holocaust” is a series of texts on JewishPlock.eu, in which, between 22 February and 1 March 2022, we will recall the stories of Jewish women associated with Płock – those who were born in our city, but also those who lived or stayed here for a certain period of time. Courageous, persistent, wise, strong and caring. Women who fought for the survival of themselves and their families. They looked after children, orphans and the elderly, gained food, aided the wounded, and engaged in military struggle. They worked beyond their strength in Nazi forced labor camps. We will present the profiles and memories of women who survived the Holocaust. We will also commemorate the women of Płock who perished in extermination camps. Sometimes the only remaining trace of them today is a single entry in archival documents…
The project is implemented by the Nobiscum Foundation as part of the 81st anniversary of the liquidation of the ghetto in Płock.
Mira (Kazimiera) Mariensztras (Mariańska) was born in 1902 in Vilnius as the daughter of Matylda and Otton Butkiewicz. Her mother was a wealthy person, she had her own train station, and she exported timber from Lithuania. Mira was a pianist by education – she graduated […]
Ewa Guterman was born in 1908 to the family of Jakub Alterowicz and Necha née Tyszman. She had several siblings: brothers Pinkus, Icek Szlama, Mojżesz, Eliasz and sister Czarna. Ewa made a living by tailoring, which she learned at the “ORT” courses in Warsaw. In […]
Eda (Estera) Zylbersztajn was born in 1916 in Warsaw, as the daughter of Jakub and Frajda nee Najman. Her father came from Lublin, he was a carpenter. Frajda, the daughter of Abram and Pesia, was born in Śniatyń. Eda had four siblings: brothers Ajzyk (Adek) and Szlomo (Stefan) and sisters Tema and Fela.
The Zylbersztajn family came to Płock when Eda was 15-16 years old. In Płock, they lived at 27 Kolegialna Street. Jakub ran a carpentry workshop there. He was an excellent craftsman – in 1932 he presented his furniture at the exhibition “The Art of Płock”.
Eda attended the Jewish Coeducational Middle School of the Humanities. She became politically involved quite early and was the only one of all her siblings to belong to the communist party. In mid-1935 she met her husband – Mieczysław Tureniec, who then came to Płock, and at the end of that year she moved to Warsaw, where she studied at the “Wszechnica” university and worked. Their first daughter, Ingusia, was born on January 17, 1938.
Estera and her husband survived the war in the East. In September 1939, they fled to Równe, where Mieczysław got a job. In April 1940, Ingusia died of meningitis. At the beginning of June 1941, their second daughter, Larysa, was born. In the summer of 1941, they fled further east. In June 1943, Larysa died of croup. In January 1944, Eda and her husband went to Darnica on the Dnieper, near Kiev. They lived first in the wagons, then in a dugout, as the bombing continued, despite the fact that the front had already moved far to the west. Mieczysław worked as a supplier, then as an inspector in the Kiev branch of the Union of Polish Patriots. In December 1944 their son Henryk was born. In the summer of 1945, Mieczysław was called to return to Poland, and Eda and Henryk lived in the house of the Union of Polish Patriots in Krasków near Moscow, awaiting permission to return to the country. In the second half of November 1945 they were in Poland together.
After the war, Eda worked, among others, in “Książka i Wiedza” publishing house as an editor, then as a Russian translator.
In 1981, she emigrated with her husband to Sweden. She died in 2006.
(text based on the memoirs of Halina Hylander-Tureniec)
. . .
“Broken life. The fate of women of Płock during World War II and the Holocaust” is a series of texts on JewishPlock.eu, in which, between 22 February and 1 March 2022, we will recall the stories of Jewish women associated with Płock – those who were born in our city, but also those who lived or stayed here for a certain period of time. Courageous, persistent, wise, strong and caring. Women who fought for the survival of themselves and their families. They looked after children, orphans and the elderly, gained food, aided the wounded, and engaged in military struggle. They worked beyond their strength in Nazi forced labor camps. We will present the profiles and memories of women who survived the Holocaust. We will also commemorate the women of Płock who perished in extermination camps. Sometimes the only remaining trace of them today is a single entry in archival documents…
The project is implemented by the Nobiscum Foundation as part of the 81st anniversary of the liquidation of the ghetto in Płock.
Ilonka Rappel was born in 1919 in Warsaw. Her parents were Adolf – a glove maker and shop owner, and Gustawa née Sztechtman. Ilonka’s family came from Płock (her grandfather, Rachmil Szechtman, owned a soap manufacture on Zduńska Street), and she spent her childhood there. […]
