The Zylber family came from the village of Turza Wielka (Płock poviat, Brudzeń Duży commune). Probably the lack of perspectives prompted the father of the family – Chaim Zylber (born 1871), who worked in the village as a worker, to move in the early 20s […]
The owner of the building in the historicizing style from 1873 was a grain and wool trader Markus Frenkiel Wolffsohn (1830-1910), later his son Izydor (Icek) inherited it. The next owner was the merchant Moszek Firstenberg (born 1852), son of Izrael and Fajga née Szlam, […]
Roza Holcman (born in 1910), daughter of Lejb (1886-1930) and Liza Lea nee Rozenberg (1888-1975), was the first female lawyer in Płock. In 1934, she graduated from the University of Warsaw. She was trained as a legal practitioner by Kazimierz Mayzner (1883-1951) – a well-known Płock lawyer as well as a social and cultural activist.
Roza had two younger brothers – Mosiek (Mieczysław) (born 1913) and Aleksander (born 1918). Her mother – Liza, was the owner of a tailor’s workshop at the 22 Old Market Square. At the outbreak of World War II, the Holcman family lived on 9 Grodzka Street.
In September 1939, Roza and her mother escaped from Płock and headed east. Roza worked in the delegation of the Polish government in exile, based in London. In 1942, she was arrested and sentenced to fifteen years in a Soviet labor camp, initially in Samarka in Kazakhstan, for recruiting soldiers to the Home Army in the east. In 1943, she met Philip Rosenblit, an American dentist who served as a doctor. In 1944, their daughter was born in the camp. Liza Holcman managed to obtain the NKVD’s permission to take a child from the camp when the girl was 11 months old. They left for Moscow, and in 1946 returned to Poland, to Warsaw. Roza was released from the camp in 1955. She joined her mother and daughter in Warsaw. She was re-entered on the list of attorneys. She practiced until the age of 70 in the Attorney Department No. 9 in Warsaw. After returning from the camp, Roza maintained friendly contacts with people from Płock – judge Kenigsberg and prof. Alfred Jesion, who was a pre-war friend of her brother Mieczysław.
Text based on family memories.
Synagogalna Street is one of the streets forming the former Jewish district in Płock. Its name comes from the now-defunct building of the main synagogue located on the square between Synagogalna and Tylna Streets, marked with mortgage number 32 (you can read more about the […]
The defensive tower at 13a Zduńska Street is one of the remains of the medieval fortifications of the city. In the 18th century it was rebuilt into a residential house. The property has changed owners many times over the course of the 19th century. In […]
In the beginning of the 1930s, the Holcman family lived at 4 Kolegialna Street in the house of Rafał Płońskier. Moszek Holcman (born 1890), son of Josek and Fajga née Zelkman, came from Czerwińsk. He was a trader by profession. His wife was Marjem née Szeraszew (born 1892). In 1930 their daughter Gabrysia was born, in 1936 – their son Evez.
Moszek Holcman had an older sister, Bella, who emigrated to the United States. She lived in Albany (New York).
The Holcman family in 1936 made memorial photos in the photographic studio of Abram Watman in Płock, which they sent Bella on the occasion of the upcoming New Year. These are the only family memorabilia that remained after Gabrysia, Evez, Moszek and Marjem.
Photographs from private collection of Kristi and Stewart Davis. Thank you!
The property with the mortgage number 75 and 76, on which the present tenement house is standing, was leased by the Municipal Office of the Town of Płock to Józef Markus Pozner on October 15, 1821. Józef Markus Pozner (circa 1763-1844) was a merchant in […]
Aniela Oberfeld was born in 1900 as a daughter of Rudolf (1859-1933) and Franciszka nee Bersztajn (born 1875). Her father was a well-known lawyer and educational activist in Płock, her mother a pedagogue and a social activist. The Oberfeld family lived in a tenement house […]
At Niepodległości Street in Wyszogród, there is a Jewish cemetery founded in the first half of the 19th century. During World War II, it was completely devastated by the Germans, who used tombstones to build roads and pavements. After the war, a monument commemorating the victims of the Holocaust was erected here. The inscription on it was engraved: “Even the dead did not rest in peace, this cemetery was desecrated by Nazi barbarians in 1939-1945.” In the surroundings of the monument some matzevot can be found.
On May 24 a ceremony was held of unveiling a plaque commemorating Jews and Poles, who at the beginning of 1941 were deported from Wyszogród and Bodzanów. On March 6, 1941, 2357 Jews were taken from the market square in Wyszogród. Ca. 1300 Jews were deported from Bodzanów. For them, it was the beginning of the road leading to extermination in the German death camps.
The commemorative plaque was placed on the facade of the Museum of the Central Vistula and Wyszogród Land, headed by the historian Zdzisław Leszczyński, in 2005 awarded with the “Preserving Memory” medal, which is awarded as part of the program to honor Poles for their effort to preserve Jewish heritage. Part of the museum’s exhibition was devoted to the Jewish community in Wyszogród. Among the exhibits there are padlocks excavated during archaeological research at the Jewish cemetery at Kilińskiego St., fragments of matzevot and banjo with a membrane made of a fragment of Torah. The real gem is the model of the synagogue in Wyszogród, created by Zdzisław Leszczyński.
The baroque tenement house, in the type associated with the northern circle, was erected in the third quarter of the 17th century. Since 1850, the owner of the property was a grain merchant, Ojzer Lewita. In the years 1852-1855 and 1857-1862 he tried to sell […]
