Help Needed for Memorial Project in Częstochowa

May 3, 2019

Words and photographs: Alon Goldman

Mariusz Etryk inherited the building at Aleja Tadeusza Kościuszki 14 from his aunt Czesława Sędzielewska, who told him many stories regarding the Jewish tenants who lived in that building when the Nazis entered Częstochowa on 3rd September 1939, and who never returned. Mariusz has decided to initiate a unique project – to commemorate those Jewish occupants of that building.

Through Małgorzata Kaim, principal of the Słowcki High School in Częstochowa, he contacted Allon Goldman and, last month, they met in Tel Aviv.

At that meeting, he presented Alon with a list of names of the tenants at the outbreak of the War, 3rd September 1939 (see below). The list only contained surnames. From looking at other lists that were in his possession, they worked out which apartment each of the residents lived in and also some of their professions.

From inquiries, they conducted and with the help of some good people, they have found the first names of some of those residents and additional information about them and their ultimate fate. Some survived the Holocaust. Some perished in Częstochowa and in Treblinka. However, there are also those about whom they have not been able to find any information.

From information received, the list of tenants, as at the outbreak of World War II, includes:

- - - - Henryk (Chaim Mojzesz) & Fajga (Franka) Feiner (He was an engineer.)
      - Dr. Adam ( Hersz Abraham ) and Dr Gitla (nee Ajdelman) Konarski
      - Ludwik Tencer (an engineer)
      - Dr. Marek Mordka (?) & Natalia (nee Rotlevi) Librowicz
      - Dr. Maksymilian Berlin
      - Dr. Adam (?) Borkowski
      - Jerzy (Abram Izrael ) and Mala (nee Brandlowicz) Orenstein
      - Tadeusz (?) Koss
      - Dora Rotmil
      - Prof. Zyskind (?) Brandlewicz
      - Solomon Markowicz (an engineer)
      - Jakub (?) & Ita Ruchla Lewit
      - Dr. Moshe (Henryk) Halleman & Dr. Miriam (nee Feiner) Halleman

If anyone has ANY information about ANY of these former residents of Aleja Tadeusza Kościuszki 14, please contact Alon Goldman by clicking HERE.

The date of the future commemoration ceremony will be announced on this website.

Below, we supply some further information, which may help locate relatives of these people:

Henryk (Chaim Mojzesz) & Fajga (Franka) Feiner

Henryk, his wife Fajga (Franka) and their son Richard Feiner did not survive the Holocaust.

According to a 1956 Yad Vashem Testimony, written by a his friend Moshe Praport, engineer Henrik (Moshe Chaim) Feiner, son of Israel and Chana, was born in Częstochowa in 1904. He died in Częstochowa in 1943 He was married to Feiga (nee Rosenzweig) and had a seven-year-old boy named Ryszard who died in Treblinka.

Henryk Feiner was murdered on Purim, 20th March 1943, during an Aktion in which 127 members of the Jewish intelligentsia and their families were murdered at the Częstochowa Jewish Cemetery and were buried in a mass grave there.

According to Geni site his parents’ names are Shmuel and Leonora Leah. In another source, it is written that the name of Moshe Haim’s wife was Mirlla and they had a daughter named Fradla who was born on October 20, 1909.

Dr. Adam (Hersh Abraham) & Dr Gitla (nee Ajdelman) Konarski

Second Lieutenant Adam Hersz Abraham Konarski was born in 1892. He was an internist. Prior to WWII, he lived in Częstochowa. During the war he was in Starobelsk, Ukraine (USSR).

He was killed in military service. This information is based on a list of the names of Jewish officers and soldiers in the Polish army who were arrested at the POW camp Kozielsk in Starobelsk and executed by the NKVD in the Katyn Forest from April 3rd to May 12th 1940.

Lists of doctors in Częstochowa in 1939 include the names of Dr. Abraham Konarski and his wife (who was a dentist) Dr. Gitla Konarska as residents of the building in Kościuszki 14. According to what Czesława Sędzilewska told Mariusz, the Konarski family were well-known citizens of Czestochowa.

They had a son named Stanislaw. The year the war broke out, he could have been eight years old. The family lived in a most beautiful five-room apartment on the first floor. The family’s maid took Stanisław to the school every day. She always begged him to hurry up and he would answer with “Ty sobie idż … … You can go”. Stanislaw’s fate is unknown. Dr. Gitla Konarski probably survived the Holocaust.

Louis Tencer

According to what Czesława Sędzilewska told Mariusz, Ludwig Tencer was an engineer and the director of the Power Station in Częstochowa. He disappeared from his Częstochowa home as soon as the occupation began. In 1945, Louis Tencer appeared at the house at Aleja Tadeusza Kościuszki 14 and asked to see if anything remained of his apartment. As far as Mariusz knows, he took what books remained and disappeared again.

Dr. Marek Mordka (?) Librowicz

Only the last name “Librowicz” appears in the list. According to the historian Wiesław Paszkowski, this is apparently an eye doctor, Marek Mordechai Lebrowicz, who was born in 1897 and died in 1942.

His name was commemorated by his family in a symbolic grave that was erected in the Częstochowa Jewish Cemetery after the War by his wife Natalya (nee Rotlewi) and other family members.

Jerzy (Abram Izrael ) and Mala (nee Brandlowicz) Orenstein

Jerzy (Abraham Israel) Orenstein did not survive the Holocaust. In Yad Vashem, there were found two Pages of Testimony bearing his name. They were submitted by his brother Shimon Orski (Orenstein) and his sister Rina Paltau.

According to his sister’s witness page, submitted on 18th October 1977, her brother Israel, son of Wolf and Bina Ornstein, was born on 18th March 1902 in Częstochowa, where he lived permanently. He was married to Mala (nee Brendelowicz). He died in Częstochowa.

According to his brother’s witness page, sumitted on 19th May 1957. his brother Israel (Jurek) son of Wolf and Bina, who was born in Czestochowa in 1902 and was married to Mala nee Brendelowicz, died in Czestochowa in 1943. He was 41 years old.

The name of Israel is commemorated on the mass grave of the Ghetto and HASAG victims in the Częstochowa Jewish Cemetery. Mala Orenstein ran a fashion salon in this building.

Dora Rotmil

Dora Rotmil was about seventy years old and managed a delicatessen in Częstochowa at Aleja Najświętszej Maryi Panny 27.

From what was told to Mariusz, she was the mother of a famous Polish designer in the pre-War period named Jacek (Isaac) Rotmil, who perished in Warsaw in 1944.

Prof. Zyskind (?) Brandlewicz

Only the last name Brandlewicz appears in the list. According to the historian Wiesław Paszkowski, he is apparently Prof. Zyskind Brandlewicz of the Gymnasium of the Jewish High School Association in Częstochowa.

Jakub (?) & Ita Ruchla Lewit

Only Lewit name appears on the list. According to the historian Wiesław Paszkowski, it may have been Jakub Lewit who bought a Turkish visa and left Częstochowa, in 1940, for Palestine.

Another source shows that his wife’s name was Ita Ruchla.