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 […]
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 his property to the Honorary Advisor and the Supervisor of the Płock Prison, Szymon Dzierzgowski. In 1862, Jakub and Chawa nee Finkensztejn Grubman bought the property. In 1891, their children inherited the property, including daughter Rozalia Kapłan nee Grubman, who became its only owner in 1904. In 1920, the house was purchased by Mordka Bol.
The property housed the private 4-class female school of Gołda Tasiemka (Wolfsdorf), a graduate of the 7-class Jewish female school of Emilia Perkal in Warsaw. The school implemented a syllabus corresponding to the government’s female progymnasium (a type of middle school). The school was very popular in the Płock community, attended by about 60 girls.
The son of Ojzer and Dwojra Amalia nee Funkiensztajn was Gustaw (Gerszon) Lewita (1852-1889) – a composer and world-famous pianist. In the years 1872-1874 Gustaw Lewita was educated in playing the piano at the Conservatory of the Music Supporter Society in Vienna. He was a member of the Pas de Loup orchestra in Paris. In the years 1879-1880, Lewita was a piano teacher at the Apolinary Kątski Music Institute in Warsaw. In 1880 he went on a concert tour to France. He also made a concert tour of the United States and Latin America. In 1882 he settled in Paris. He gained fame as a performer of the works of Fryderyk Chopin and Robert Schumann.
On November 16, 1930, a branch of the “Frajhajt” Cultural and Educational Association in Poland was established in Płock. The founders of the branch were Mojżesz Zander (born 1905), Toba Nasielska (born 1908), Lejb Licht (born 1909), Symcha Guterman (born in 1903) and Szlama Lipner […]
Samuel Nadel was born in a large Jewish family as the son of the tailor Nuta Wolf Nadel (1815-1879) and Sura Tema nee Zylberman (born 1825). The Nadel family lived on Kolegialna 12 Street – in a tenement house, the owner of which in the […]
My great-great grandfather Beniamin Koryto (born in 1802 in Sochaczew) and my great-great grandmother Tyla (nee Sierota, born in 1804 in Służewo) were the first of the Koryto family to settle down in Płock. They had six children: Joel, Sura Łaja, Ryfka, Hersz, Ruchel and Israel.
Israel, my great grandfather (born in 1847) married Gitla Tauba (nee Szmiga, born in 1854) and they had eleven children: Jakub Józek, Moszek, Fajbusz, Duwet, Beniamin, Joel, Mortka Lejb, Etka, Ruchla, Liba Raca and Abram Chaim. Israel was a turner, the manager of a workshop and an artist. He used to carve all kind of things from wood. Most of Israel and Gitla Tauba’s children left Poland between the two Great Wars and immigrated to the U. S. A., Argentina and England. Israel passed away probably in the late 1920s and his wife Gitla Tauba immigrated to the U. S. A. and lived near her son Moszek (later – Morris). Only Mortka Lejb, Ruchla and their families remained in Płock.
My grandfather Mortka Lejb (born in 1879) married Perla (nee Dzwonek, born in 1880 in Dobrzyń nad Wisłą). They moved to Raciąż (a small town not far from Płock) and their seven children were born there: Ryfka and her twin brother Hersz Jankief, Ruchla (Rosa Fajga), Chaja Sura, Icek, Beniamin and Israel. In the 1920’s they moved back to Płock and lived on Szeroka Street (now Kwiatka Street). Mortka Lejb was a tailor and the manager of a workshop. Icek followed his father’s trade and was a tailor too.
At that time Płock was like a microcosmos of the Jewish world and almost every Jewish ideological group or youth movement was represented there. My mother Ryfka was an active member of the “Freiheit” (“Freedom”) movement. Hence, she came to Israel as a pioneer in 1933. Two of her cousins – the daughters of her aunt Ruchla named Nauma (Neomi) and Syma also came to Israel in the 1930s. The three cousins were the only survivors of their families. All the other members of the two families were killed in the Holocaust.
Now the descendants of the Koryto family are scattered all over the world.
Pnina Stern, Israel
Józef Rogozik was born in 1875 in Międzyrzecz, as son of Chaim and Ruchla. He was a co-founder (in 1914) of the Committee for Aid to Jews in Płock and the Society for Free Medical Assistance to Poor Jews. In 1916 he was elected to […]
Fabiusz Margulies (1892-1943) – entrepreneur, head of the Agricultural Equipment Factory in Płock. He was the son of Maurycy Margulies (1856-1933) who came from Łódź and Frajda nee Ejzenberg (born in 1861). The headquarters of the Margulies company was located at Tumska street. Its offer […]
Icek Nelkin (born 1886) together with his wife Małka nee Finkelsztejn (born 1877) and children: Dwojra (born 1911), Mordka (born 1915), Anna (born 1918), Maurycy (born 1921) and Leonard (born 1924) lived at 8 Grodzka St. in Płock before the war. Icek was a trader by profession. The great-grandfather of Anna, Dwojra, Mordka, Maurycy and Leonard – Icek Nelkin (ca. 1768-1838) together with his wife Sara (ca. 1778-1848) came from Płońsk. There also their great-grandfather was born – Joel Nelkin (born 1819), a merchant by trade. In 1842, Joel married Estera Brana née Łopatka, daughter of Mortka and Enta, of the same age. Joel and Estera Brana Nelkin had nine children: daughters Sura (born 1852), Hana (born 1854), Gitla (born 1858), Chaja Liba (born 1861), Gołda (born 1865), Enta (born 1866) and Ruchla (born 1871) and sons Mortka (born 1850) and Icek Szlama (born 1843). Mortka Nelkin, also professionally involved in trade, married Tauba Ruchla Wyrobek (born 1856), daughter of Szmul and Fajga nee Zając. Their children were Mindla (born 1878), Fradel (born 1879), Dyna (born 1881), Dwojra (born 1888), Abram Moszek (born 1892), Noma (born 1893), Zelman Boruch (born 1895) and Icek Nelkin mentioned above. Mortka and Tauba Ruchla and their children lived at Synagogalna St. in Płock.
The wife of Icek Nelkin – Małka Finkelsztejn was the daughter of Lajzer (1833-1877), son of Markus and Brana, and Hana (born 1836), daughter of Szlama and Sura Rafałowicz, who came from Kleczewo. Małka had several siblings: sister Ruchla (born 1862), Szaja Estera (born 1864), Rojza (born 1870), Fajga (born 1873) and brother Abram Moszek (born 1866).
During World War II, the Nelkin family was murdered in Treblinka. Only Anna Nelkin and her brother Mordka survived the war. The fate of Maurycy Nelkin remains unknown.
Photos from the family album of Miriam Gavish:
In the autumn of 2016, a characteristic tenement house at Kolegialna 28 street disappeared from the cityscape of Płock. Before the war it was known as the Jewish gymnasium (middle school). It is worth recalling the history of this place, which for two decades was […]
