Text in polish:
https://maynshtetelemielec.blogspot.com/search?q=mord+chrz%C4%85stowski
1573 - First Jewish married couple, Barbara,”Bilha” and Israel (last name unknown) settle down in Mielec, Poland (source: National Museum Archives Database in Cracow)
1939 - Just before the outbreak of WWII more than 5000 Jews, accounting for half of the Mielec population, reside in town.
September 13, 1939 - The Mielec synagogue is lit on fire by Nazi invaders with worshippers locked inside and burnt alive.
March 9, 1942 - First Operation Reinhard in the General Government district of German occupied Poland. Early in the morning, Jews are forced to leave their homes. A couple of hundred of them are killed, some are sent to labor camps, the remaining others are force-marched and relocated to the local airfield, placed in hangars, from where they are sent to ghettos in the eastern parts of Poland and then directly to extermination camps.
March 9, 1942 - Mielec becomes the first Judenfrei town in the General Government district which is under Nazi German occupied Poland
1945 - Approximately 100 Jewish survivors reside in Mielec
January 2020
We hold the keys and are ready to open the gate of the Jewish cemetery located at Traugutta Street in Mielec. However, the gate remains perpetually locked. We are not able to open it today. The outdated keys, which have not been used for a while, cannot open the gate. That means that the abandoned cemetery has not been visited for a long time. The unkept conditions of the cemetery is easily noticed. You can see it at a first glance. The cemetery has been left in disarray and no maintenance has been performed. There are locations of overgrown vegetation and weeds and soil flooding the cemetery. It looks like a jungle.
My friend Anna and I jump over the fence. Finally, we approach the central part of the cemetery with a monument commemorating 300 Mielec Jews. Also, that part of the cemetery is home to a few existing headstones. Originally, there were 4 headstones, the story of which has been passed down by word of mouth. We are able to locate the two that remain. They have not been maintained. They are covered with moss and vegetation. What happened to the remaining two?
March 2020
In a text message, Anna informs me that the two other headstones have been located by Michal and Franek. The message has an attached picture of the headstones. We immediately return to the cemetery. We are totally elated by this.
May 2020
A group of local residents, including myself, enters the cemetery. We mow the lawn, remove the overgrown vegetation and weeds, and clean the headstones. At the present time, we do not know who is buried at this location.
We are able to read the clear engraving on one of the headstones. It says: “Matylda Braun, daughter of Blima and Samuel, died tragically on August 1, 1942 at the age of 27.” Another headstone honors the memory of Sara Horn, her son David, and her daughter Rachel who were all murdered in 1942-43. The two remaining headstones are still a mystery to us since we cannot read the inscriptions.
(However, we do suspect that we know who is buried there.)
June 2020
I post the pictures of the headstones on Mayn Shtetele Mielec, the Facebook group I created some time ago. We all try to read the engraving on one of the headstones (“Rachel Buchen is buried here”). It is not possible to read the fourth headstone’s inscriptions because the engraved letters are covered with dark brown paint. It is very challenging.
The concrete headstones are very modest with uneven and crooked engravings. According to Krzysztof Bielawski, a Jewish cemetery expert, this is a typical post-war engraving style used to commemorate Jewish people. During that time, they had limited opportunities.
One of our group members is able to read the name Kleinman. He shares this information with Krzysztof Bielawski. According to him, the name is written in Polish with the Hebrew annotation, which says that “the Kleinman Family Rests Here In Peace”. On the headstone, there is another last name (most likely Sara Brenner), much clearer to read. In front of the last name, there is a word “Sister”.
Another group member says that the first name is Perla or Perła.
Possibly…..
Still unknown.
Having difficulty, I am finally able to read the inscription, which says “Died as Martyrs in 1944”.
“Died as Martyrs” is very meaningful. It should give me some ideas. Andrzej Krempa, the author of “Extermination of Mielec Jews” informs me that the date of death is significant. Maybe they were not murdered by the Nazi.
June 2020 through July 2020
Bartek, a resident of Mielec is also involved in restoring the memory of the Mielec Jews, and is assisting me to collect as much information as possible.
Andrzej Krempa gives me a list of the 1940 Mielec Judenrat list. This is a turning point. I'm checking the list to find Mrs Kleinman. I find her name on the list. I take the picture of it and send it to Bartek asking him if it is "Perla or Cerla? Which name is written here?"
"Cerla" - he replies.
Cerla - a rare name in Mielec. According to the Census data, there were only two females named Cerla in the town of Mielec.
Short time later, Bartek sends me a link to the Geni portal……. The link includes the names of Cerla Kleinman nee Brenner as well as the first and last names of her parents, sisters and brothers.
There is also Sara’s name.
We now have some clues. What's next? They are just names, what about their lives? What about their deaths?
I check the index of the last names in all the books where the Mielec Jews are described. I check the book titled “Extermination of Mielec Jews” by Andrzej Krempa and I find the names of Mrs. Kleinman and her son David!
After viewing the inscriptions on the tombstones, I come to the following conclusions: not only Cerla her sisters are mentioned on the tombstones, but also someone else’s name. Son David?
Since I am in Tarnow, I cannot visit the Mielec cemetery. I ask Bartek to go there and try reading the headstone inscriptions using all the familiar techniques. Krzysztof Bielawski recommends injecting a little bit of shaving cream into each letter. Darek Popiela suggests visiting the cemetery before it gets dark. He says that the visibility is much better in the daylight. Bartek sends me a text message: “Are you crazy? Do you really want me to go to the cemetery just before sundown?”
Even though it is getting dark, Bartek goes to the cemetery anyway. We are almost one hundred percent sure that the inscription says: ”Cerla Kleinman and her son David and sister Sara Brenner rest here in peace. They all died tragically as martyrs in 1944”.
Scanning the segments of a book by Andrzej Krempa gives me some basic knowledge about Cerla. According to Andrzej Krempa, Cerla found a shelter but she was killed by partisans. Her death occurred two months before the Red Army entered the Polish territory. Andrzej Krempa used to say that the date of her death is significant.
Bartek and Anna are at the cemetery.
Browsing the Geni portal, I discover the Brenner family tree. However, I am not able to see the name of the person who created it. It could be the grandson of one of the Brenner brothers (there were three of them, all of them left for the United States before the war, escaping the Holocaust). After registering with the Geni portal, I find information posted by Shlomie. I log into my Facebook account and I find Shlomi, the only person with the same first and last name. Judging by the photo, he is a religious Jew. I contact him to find out if he is related to the Brenner family from Mielec. He is surprised and he responds to me immediately. He is a grandson of one of the brothers. I email him the picture of the tombstones, which shocks him.
(At the same time, Bartek and Ania put a stone on the tombstone where Cerla, David and Sara are buried.)
There are many unanswered questions: Where did this tombstone come from? Who funded it? This must be someone who survived the war.
I inform Shlomie about his grandfather's sisters and his nephew’s death. According to Shlomi, Cerla had another child. What happened to the child? Did he/she die at the beginning of the war? On March 9, 1942? Or maybe he died while hiding? Or maybe Cerla gave him up to be raised by a Polish family? Maybe he survived without even knowing about his Jewish identity. Maybe he survived like Lea Haar's child, Lana, whose name was changed into Marta by her “Polish mother". In the memoirs of Mark Verstandig, a Mielec resident, he mentions that Marian Walas, a Pole, placed several Jewish children with Polish families.
Who was Lea Haar? Lea, born in Mielec on October 11, 1910, resided on Waska Street. While searching for other people's information, I come across Lea’s name……
July / August 2020
Like most other Jewish lives during the war, the story of Cerla is sad. Most lives ended tragically. Many family members were lost and those that survived continue to mourn the loss of their loved ones.
Not much is known about the lives of Cerla, her son, and her sister Sara. However, the tombstone in the Mielec cemetery on Traugutta Street helps gain some information. Based on the tombstone, Dawid, Cerla’s son, died at the age of 12. He was from Mielec.
(The boys, Michał (12) and Franek (7), find the tombstone years later.)
We slowly gather information about the lives of Cerla, Dawid and Sara. We get information from books, archives, census data, and tombstones in the cemetery.
Many unanswered questions may be resolved over time.
Mielec in 1939
Cerla Kleinman, married to Dov Kleinman, was born on July 25, 1905 and worked as a merchant. She was 35 years old and lived on Szeroka Street in Mielec.
Her husband is not listed in the 1940 Judenrat Census. Was he already deceased then? Or was he in a labor camp? Maybe he was sent to a labor camp like Lea Haar's husband.
According to the census, Shaya Dawid Kleinman, his wife Ryfka and their daughter Chaja Rachela live on Szeroka Street, same as Cerla. Maybe they are related to each other. The listing states that they are displaced people.
According to the Census, Cerla nee Brenner, was the daughter of Gitel (born on August 1, 1873) and Lieber - farmer (born on July 11, 1871). Lieber’s father, Feivish, owned a brickyard. In 1940, Gitla and Lieber lived at Kościuszko Street in Mielec. They live with: Rachel, Sara and Małka. The information provided by Shlomi proves that Gitla and Lieber had more children: Nissen, Chaim, Hana (wife of Lieb Storch, born on March 20, 1901), Morris, and Nuta.
Nissen, Morris and Chaim leave for the United States before the war. Their ID cards applications have been preserved.
In 1926, Leopold Kotnowski, President of the American-Polish Chamber of Commerce, formed ”the 4th of July Committee” and presented the White House with a greeting card for the United States’ 150th birthday with 5.5 million Polish citizens’ signatures. One of the signatures is Malka Brenner’s.
We know nothing about Nuta.
Brenner - a quite popular last name in Mielec.
According to the JRI (Jewish Records Indexing-Poland) and information from Polish State Archives Database, Gitla died a natural death in 1941.
What about the rest of the family?
The father is killed in 1942, according to the Geni portal.
Hana is murdered in 1942. It is verified by the Geni portal.
1942 – 1944, Połaniec/Chrząstów
Originally, Cerla finds a shelter in Polaniec (personal memoirs by Mark Verstandig). Did she avoid deportation on March 9, 1942? We have no record of this. Maybe she had left Mielec much earlier accompanied by her son Dawid, 12.
Together with Mark Verstandig, she finds a shelter. However, Mark leaves Mielec on March 7, 1942. He arrives in Polaniec on March 8, 1942, the day before the deportation of the Mielec Jews.
Is it very likely that Cerla leaves the Lublin ghetto and returns to Mielec vicinity like Mark’s wife?
Their last place they were dwelling is a small village of Chrzastow near Mielec. The Korczak’s family offered them shelter.
. According to Mark Versting’s memoirs, Mark himself, his wife Frieda, aunt Debora Ostro and her daughters Lea Haar and Mindla Leiman, Mrs. Kleinman and her son Dawid found shelter in Chrzastow.
Where is Sara? That Sara whose name is engraved on one of the headstones. What happened to her?
A few words about Debora Ostro.
Debora Ostro was an elderly woman. In 1940, she lived on Wąska Street. Abraham, her husband, was a local merchant. Mark Verstandig talks about her very warmly. Debora used to be in charge of charity events. Debora died at the age of 74 (natural cause). She was buried in her garden after her daughters performed a cleansing ritual.
Debora’s daughter Lea
Lea Haar, born in 11.10.1910, ran a small shop together with her mom during the war. She commuted to Tarnow to buy men’s clothing, which they sold at the store. Her mother, Dworcia, ran a charity. On the side, she prepared bodies of the dead Jewish females for ceremonial burial. However, they are not able to say the Kaddish prayer, Mark recalls. Judaism does not allow that prayer to be said if 10 religious male Jews (minyan) are not present during the ceremony.
Lea becomes pregnant in 1940. Two years later, Marian Walas helps Lena to find shelter. He places her with a family of Polish partisans from Poznan, who are residing in Mielec at that time.
Debora’s daughter is Mindla
Mark calls Mindla “Mindel”. However, in the Judenrat database she is listed as Mindla Leiman (née Ostro), born on February 17, 1904. In 1940 she lived on Waska Street in Mielec. Her husband’s name, a merchant, is recorded in the Judenrat registry with a notation– “left for America”.
Mark and Frieda Verstandig
Markus Verstandig, born in 1912, was a Jagiellonian University Law School graduate. His mom’s dream was for Mark to become a rabbi. Many years later, he wrote a memoir (“I rest my case”), a full description of prewar Mielec and his own wartime and post war life. It is written in Yiddish. Both Perec and Singer used the same writing style.
Frieda Reich (maiden name), born in 1914 (in Judenrat database listed as Fryda), was the daughter of a local merchant residing at Pilsudski Street.
She gets married to Mark Verstandig in 1940.
Mark’s initial impression of Frieda is that she was a very intelligent woman, which he reveals is his memoir. She is also described as a short, dark haired girl, who is fluent in Polish without a Yiddish accent.
He adds that she was also very courageous, which was revealed through the years.
“Markus, Frieda, Lea, Mindel, Dworcia, Cerla, Dawid”, all these names are mentioned in Mark’s memoir. All of them find shelter at the Korczak’s. There is still no additional information about Sara Brenner. The shelter was situated in a long concrete building once used for housing horses and cows. Where the cows were once housed, there was a wooden pigsty attached to the brick wall. Korczak created a hiding place by cutting off an area of about 75 cm from the end of the building. The cow trough was dismantled and reattached to the newly created wall. Straw and manure camouflaged the entrance and a loose stone covered the trough. Korczak placed two rows of bunk beds at either end of this narrow corridor. There was a bench and a bucket between the wall which served as a toilet.
However, there was a shortage of food. They were all starving.
Debora dies.
The Eastern front is approaching Mielec. There was a chance that they all would be rescued.
”The Korczak’s isolated farm located near the woods allowed them to take walks at night”, recalls Mark.
May 31, 1944, Chrzastow
Around 10 pm Korczak enters the shelter and he orders the Jews to go outside as the Polish partisans want to inspect them. Once they are searched by the partisans, who were looking for valuables, they go back into hiding. However, the partisans return to the village. One of the partisans seems to be nervous as he is afraid he might have been recognized by one of the Jews. The partisans take the Jews to the nearby woods. Mark Verstanding shows a Polish Army soldier ID issued by Wladyslaw Jasinski-Jedrus, a prewar friend of Mark. But this is not sufficient.
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rys. Stah Baumer
Cerla, her 12 year old son Dawid and Lea all die. The partisans consider Mindel to be dead. Wounded, she gets up and walks towards Chorzelow. She gets shot by a SS guard once she arrives at the labor camp gate.
Mark communicates with his wife in Yiddish. He plans to bribe one of the partisans. Mark and his wife both jump into the nearby canal. When the partisan takes his finger off the trigger, Mark pushes him into the ditch. The loud shots are coming from the stream. The partisans shoot at the women and David.
After a while, Mark leaves the canal and starts looking for his wife. She is nowhere to be found. He is certain that his wife is dead. Upon arrival at the Korczak’s, he finds out that Frieda is wounded but alive.
He discovers that Frieda attacked one of the partinas to disarm him. In return, he hit her on the head with the barrel and when she fell on the ground, he shot her.
Shot and injured, she arrives at the Korczak’s.
rys. Stah Baumer
The attackers were local Polish Army partisans from Tuszow Narodowy. After WWII Mark accused 11 people of murder, including Antoni Mason under the order of Jozef Lacz.
At the trial in 1949 Jan Winiarz (son of Wojciech) was sentenced to death. Later on the court verdict was changed to a 12-year imprisonment and then in 1953 the court further reduced the imprisonment to 1 1/2 years.
Michal Makson’s initial sentence was the death penalty but after further review by the courts, the sentence was reduced to 12 years.
Antoni Makson was shot during his arrest by Security Office agents (Polish KGB) in April 1946.
Where is Sara? We still have no record about her whereabouts.
August 1944
The Red Army enters Mielec. Unfortunately, Cerla, Dawid, Lea and Mindel all died two months before the liberation by the Red Army. What happened to Sara?
Mark and Frieda leave for Lublin to get Lea’s daughter, Lana (Marta), who is placed with a family from Poznan. The family does not want to return the girl to the actual family members. However, the court orders the child to be returned to Mark and Frieda.
They all return to Mielec to punish the murderers.
One day (circa May 1945) an emaciated man wearing concentration camp clothes (striped pajamas) shows up at the door. He introduces himself to Lana (Marta) as her father and she is surprised. He is a Schindler’s List survivor. They both leave for Brazil.
After the pogroms in Poland, Mark and Frieda leave for Munich from where they head to Paris and finally settle down in Australia.
October 2020
I am a frequent visitor to the cemetery at Traugutta Street. I keep staring at the engraved names of Cerla, Dawid and Sara on one of the tombstones. I still have no knowledge about Sara’s death. I keep searching. I use all the available resources. I post on our Facebook group. I cannot get it out of my head.
I ask the regional historians to investigate the case. They respond immediately. Stanislaw Wanatowicz is the first respondent. He provides me with the copy of Michal Makson’s death sentence, which also says that Mrs. Brenner was viscously attacked. Finally, there is a bit of information.
On the same day, Andrzej Krempa hands me the protocol of Markus’ interrogation. What a relief. Finally, the story has its end.
November 7th, 1950, Paris
Markus states during the interrogation:
“All the people who were with us were killed”. By saying that, he means: Lea Haar, Mrs. Mindla Lejman, Mrs. Brenner, Mrs. Zerla Leiman and her son Dawid. Sara’s name is mentioned here as well.
There is a high probability that Cerla’s last name “Leiman'' is misspelled. In his memoir, Mark describes Cerla as “Mrs. Kleinman, daughter of Leizer Brenner” (most likely Mark mistakenly changed Brenner’s name as the book is written a few years after WW2).
According to Mark, the villains were wearing uniforms similar to Wehrmacht officers' clothing.
Additionally, Mark states that one of the attackers told him that he has the full right to kill him because he is accused of being a communist.
Mark says: ”I consider Makson to be a villain, who pretended to be working for either a political organization or a resistance group. The truth being, he intentionally robbed and killed innocent people. The locals knew about the internal fights within the partisan group.”
Mindla Leiman died at the age of 43.
Cerla died at 39 years old. David died at the age of 12. Sara was 36 and Lea Haar was 34 at the time of their death.
They all remained hidden until 1942.
Mark died at the age of 90 in 2002.
Finally, I know all the details of this inhumane tragedy. Cerla and Sara, daughters of Leiber and Gitla Brenner as well as Dawid, son of Cerla and Dov are buried at Traugutta Cemetery. They all died on May 31, 1944. They all lost their lives two months before the liberation……..two months only……..
Are Mindel and Lea buried here as well? Possibly.
May they never be forgotten and their souls blessed.
Zachor
I used:
- the book entitled ”Mielec Jews Extermination”, by Andrzej Krempa published by the Mielec Regional Museum in 2013,
- Marek Verstandig's memoirs “I rest my case”, third edition, published by Northwestern University Press in 2002,
- Mielec Judenrat List of 1940, in the State Archives in Rzeszów and the protocol of Marek Verstandig’s interrogation by Tomasz Frydel,
AIPN w Rzeszowie, Sąd Wojewódzki w Rzeszowie, sygn. IPN Raz 358/137, Sentencja wyroku Sądu Wojewódzkiego w Rzeszowie z dnia 8 maja 1953 roku, k. 153-155.
Krempa A., Zagłada Żydów mieleckich, Mielec 2013, s. 92-95, 208-210.
My thanks to everybody who contributed the information I provided here.
Special thanks to Anna and her sons for discovering the two headstones. I express my gratitude to the members of the Mayn Shtetele Mielec group for encrypting the headstone inscriptions, in particular to those who cleaned the cemetery and the headstones. I want to thank Bartek Kowalski for sharing (remotely) archival searches and for providing the beautiful stones with the names of the victims, which were placed on the headstones at the cemetery. Many thanks to Stanisław Wanatowicz, Andrzej Krempa, Tomasz Frydel and Scott Genzer for sharing knowledge and materials which helped solve some of these mysteries.
Tarnów, October 30, 2020
2021
Izabela Sekulska
Translation: DF
text in polish:
https://maynshtetelemielec.blogspot.com/search?q=mord+chrz%C4%85stowski
Chaim (Chejem ) Brenner
Niessen Brenner
