Shtetl Reunion

            Danny Miller, Itshe Meyer Korolnek, Susan Miller

As the one-year anniversary of my blog approaches, I’ve been thinking of all the cool things that have happened as a result of writing in here. I met a bunch of great people—fellow bloggers as well as regular commenters (and the occasional sociopath).  One of the most exciting developments has been to find people who have connections to my family dating back to our ancestral town in Poland, the shtetl called Staszow. This is where my family lived for hundreds of years until my great-grandparents Itshe Meyer and Alta Toba Korolnek left in 1910 for a new life in Toronto, Canada. My grandfather Sam (Shmuel) was three when he left Poland but for some reason his adult passports always listed Canada as his birthplace.

For years I did research on Staszow (my family always used the Yiddish phonetic spelling of Stashev) but never met anyone else whose family came from there (except for the actress Judy Graubart from “The Electric Company” whose grandfather, Rabbi Judah Leib Graubart, was a good friend of my great-grandfather’s and later joined him in Toronto). Today Staszow's once-thriving Jewish community is a distant memory. Staszow was occupied by the Germans on September 7, 1939 and in 1942 all of the Jews (about 5,000, half the population of the town) were forced into a ghetto. They were then shipped off to the extermination camp of Belzec, near Lublin, where they were all murdered upon arrival. The only people to survive were those few who were young and brave enough to escape into the forests and find a hiding place. There is no longer a single Jewish person living in Staszow.

My great-grandparents died when I was 12. We used to visit them often in Toronto and they would frequently visit their three sons in Chicago (who had changed their name from Korolnek to Karoll when they moved to the U.S. in the 1920s). Visiting Itshe Meyer and Alta Toba was like paying respects to royalty. They were very kind, but it was clear we had to behave a certain way and treat them with great deference. I remember visiting Alta Toba when I was young enough to see her relaxing without her shaitel (the wig orthodox women always wear in public). Itshe Meyer used to look at the long hair on all the boys in my generation and say, in his heavily accented English, “Are you a boy or are you a girl?” I remember the twinkle in his eye and his ever-present smile, but little else. Oh, how I wish I could talk to him today (he’d be 121 years old) and ask him endless questions about his life in Staszow, his childhood, his various jobs as a child (grooming the Cossacks’ horses, dealing in feathers, and his ultimate livelihood in bottles), his arranged marriage to my great-grandmother (hey, don’t knock it—it worked better than most non-arranged marriages in my family!), his devotion to Jewish education, his singing, and his life in Canada. I think I’d need about a week to ask them all the questions that are swimming in my head about their lives.

Itshe Meyer and his father were full-fledged Gerer Hasids, a large Hasidic dynasty that was founded in the Polish town of Gur (Gora Kalwaria) hundreds of years ago by Rabbi Yitzchak Meyer Alter (whom my great-grandfather was named after). Almost all of the 200,000 Gerer Hasidism were wiped out during the Holocaust but their leader managed to escape to Palestine as the war broke out and a new Gerer community was set up there, one that Itshe Meyer was involved with. The Gerer Hasids still wear the dark Hasidic garb (which my great-grandfather stopped wearing after he emigrated to Canada) and on holidays the men wear high circular fur hats called spodiks (not to be confused with the flatter shtreimels worn by many other Hadisic groups). When I think about the fact that I am only three generations away from being a pious Hasid, it’s almost impossible to believe. While many of the descendents of Itshe Meyer and Alta Toba are orthodox Jews, we are all solar systems away from a Hasidic lifestyle. Look at my nephews, Spencer and Sam, two of Itshe Meyer’s great-great grandchildren following his direct bloodline. Instead of growing payess or studying Talmud in a cheder, these two are playing rock music and posing for pictures with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and the rest of the Rolling Stones. Oy.

Recently, after mentioning Staszow in a post about “The Wizard of Oz” as a Jewish story, I got an email from a writer in New York named Jack Goldfarb. It turns out Jack’s parents were from Staszow and he has not only visited the town every year on a pilgrimage for his lost family members, he has single-handedly recovered many of the discarded headstones from the old Jewish cemetery in the shtetl and has had it rebuilt. It is an amazing story full of roadblocks and intrigue and every descendent of Stashever Jews owes Jack a huge debt of gratitude. The Nazis tended to plunder the Jewish cemeteries and use the stones for construction projects or cobblestone. The fact that Jack was able to cut through so much Polish red tape and reconsecrate a Jewish presence in this town, even if it’s just through the cemetery, is incredible. Among the stones in this cemetery are those of many of my Korolnek ancestors.

Just a few weeks ago, on the 63rd anniversary of the liquidation of the ghetto in Staszow, students at the local high school prepared a multimedia presentation about the life of the former Jewish community there. They went to the Jewish Cemetery and, after a moment of silence, recited some ecumenical prayers. Professor Micha Czajkowski, a member of the Polish Catholic Bishops Council Committee for Dialogue with Judaism, said that “today’s memorial program in Staszow creates a new history on the ruins of the tragic and gruesome.” I had breakfast with Jack and his son yesterday. They were in town to help bury one of Jack’s old friends, a German actor who knew Gestapo leader Hermann Goering (but that's a whole other story!). Between his activities in Staszow, his yearly trips to Albania where he has been researching the incredible acts of bravery of the Albanian people during the war to protect “their Jews” from the Nazis, and his endless list of fascinating friends and acquaintances, I wanted to turn every anecdote Jack told me into a screenplay. There was something very moving about sitting with a man whose ancestors and mine were so connected. I also heard from a man in North Carolina whose family is from Staszow and just got back from spending three weeks there researching a book. Amazing.

Even more incredible was the email I got last weekend from a woman in Switzerland named Danya who had just discovered that Itshe Meyer Korolnek was the half-brother of her great-grandfather Hershl Korolnik. Who knew? Apparently Itshe Meyer had two half-brothers who emigrated to Switzerland about the time he went off to Canada. The spelling of their name is slightly different but I was thrilled to find out that I have a bunch of Korolnik and Korolnyk relatives in Zurich and other European towns. I can’t wait to learn more about this newly discovered branch of the family. Rumor has it that still other relatives were flung to faroff places such as Odessa and Australia.

This is a picture of Itshe Meyer and Alta Toba on their 50th wedding anniversary in 1952 with their children and some of their grandchildren. Those grandchildren had many children and those great-grandchildren (myself included) now have children of their own. Two people responsible for several hundred descendents, none of whom would have been born if Itshe Meyer hadn’t had the good sense to hightail it out of Staszow when he did. Here is an excerpt from a conversation between a cousin and my great-grandmother Alta Toba Korolnek recorded shortly before her death in 1972:

Zelig: When did you meet Itshe Meir for the first time?

Alta Toba: We were living in Staszow. My mother and I happened to be visiting Szydlow where an uncle of ours was living. Itshe Meir came to Szydlow for the Sabbath and with his father dropped in to my Uncle for Shalesh Seudos. That’s when I saw him and his father. I was four and Itshe Meir was five.

Zelig: Did you speak to each other then?

Alta Toba: We were only children. We laughed and quarreled as children do. Later when Itshe Meir’s father died I was five and a half, he was a year older. His mother remained in Szydlow with her three children. She was constantly in tears. Who will teach Mendel (her oldest son)? At that time Itshe Meir’s father came to her in a dream and said, “I will teach Mendel.” That week Mendel died. When her child died she left for Lodz.

Zelig: Your mother-in-law?

Alta Toba: Yes. She went with her two children, Itshe Meir and his younger brother Simcha. Her husband came to her again in a dream and said, “Itshe Meir will not be a workingman.” When this dream occurred on two more occasions she saw that this was somehow quite serious. She went back home and got married in Staszow. Itshe Meir was then nine years old.

Zelig: When did you get engaged?

Alta Toba: I was fifteen years old and he was sixteen. There was another candidate aside from me, quite a nice girl, her name was Tziril. Itshe Meir’s mother preferred the other girl, and she asked Itshe Meir which one he preferred, and he said “Alta Toba.” Two years later we got married on the nineteenth of Sivan—June 24, 1902.

Zelig: How long did you live with your parents?

Alta Toba: Until we left for America—that is, from 1902 to 1910. It’s true that I didn’t want to go to America. But Itshe Meir was stubborn and nobody could talk him out of it. His mother wept bitter tears—she didn’t want him to go to that godless country. He promised me that if he was convinced that he could not bring up children in the true Jewish path in America he would return. He said good-bye to everyone except his mother—she didn’t want to say good-bye to him.

Zelig: How many children did you have when Itshe Meir left?

Alta Toba: Four children—two later died, a young boy named Pinchas and a girl named Miriam Esther. There was an epidemic of scarlet fever; all the children got sick, two died, and two, with God’s grace, remained alive.

Zelig: When did Itshe Meir find out the sad news about the children?

Alta Toba: Several months later. He was surprised, for I would send greetings and regards from each child separately, and later I wrote merely, “the children send their love” without mentioning their names. He realized something was wrong. He kept asking me for more details about the children. I didn’t know what to do. Finally I went to the Rabbi to seek some advice. The Rabbi told me to write that for the money he sent I made suits for the two children and then he would understand that the other two were no longer alive. He received the letter and was very puzzled and in despair. At that time a woman from Staszow came and the woman told him the news and Itshe Meir sat shiva according to Jewish law.

I love the mystical elements of their lives which sound like an Isaac Bashevis Singer novel, and I was blown away by that last part—what a way to find out that two of your children have died with you so far away. And what twist of fate was it that my grandfather was one of the children who survived? Alta Toba then goes on to talk about their journey to America, their life in Canada, her seven children (she gave birth to five more in Toronto) and their families, and Itshe Meyer’s bottling ventures which led to the Consolidated Bottle Company, still a family business 95 years later.

I could go on for hours about my family history but I think I will go to bed and perhaps dream of life in pre-war Staszow. I am collecting information on my family and our past for my own daughter in the hopes that she will one day be interested in exploring her roots. I’m sorry she won’t ever have any firsthand experience with the people who once inhabited this vanished world and who for a time lived with those of us who were born in such wildly different circumstances. Today when I think of all the family gatherings in which the old generation from Poland reigned over the younger generations, it’s as if I’m visualizing a strip of film that has been double-exposed—one side in sepia-toned black and white, the other in blazing, saturated color.

Comments

[heather]

This is a really neat post, Danny. I enjoyed reading about your ancestors, and the photos are great.

[Melinama]

What a fascinating story. I love genealogy too and found myself confounded when I worked on a friend's family and realized that as they left Russian and Poland they tended to "shed" their former identities and cut loose from their ancestors. They didn't want to be connected to the Old Country. And so those connections are lost forever, what a sad thing. I'm happy for you that you have a rich connection to your past. Thanks for taking the time to share it with us.

[david]

Phew. What fragile twists of fate our lives rely on... and then, to see that picture with dozens of ancestors. I wonder: Could we survive what they survived?

Phenomenal post, Danny.

[Pearl]

Good stuff here, Danny. Especially with the accompanying family photos.
I've spent hours on www.jewishgen.org seeking out possible family links and family shtetl links. Genealogy can be a cesspool, taking you deep, deep down, but it also, as you see, offers great rewards.

[nappy40]

Great story.

[Neil]

Fascinating stuff, especially to see how different you are from someone in the not-so-distant past. But maybe you're not that different. Isn't working for a publisher of educational books in a way similar to Torah study?

[OldOldLady Of The Hills]

What a fabulos and incredible post, Danny...I love that you know as much as you do about your family history...Have you ever gone on to some of the Genological Websites? (I'm sure you have..) I know there are certain company's that specialize in taking trips (tours, if you will) to wherever...in Europe, to visit the places of one's ancestory...You probably are aware of this, too....I love that you have such strong ties to all your heritage...It's wonderful in so very many ways, dear Danny.....especially for Leah...LOVE that Family Photo!!! Magnificent!!

[Uncle Paul]

Danny:
The weirdest reference to a Stasow family I know about is in the great bluesman Jimmy Reed's song "I Ain't Got You" where he sings, "I got a charge account at Goldblatt's, but I ain't got you". This year I picked up a used CD of the greatest hits of the Yardbirds where they covered the song in the 60s. I doubt these young Limeys heard of either Goldblatt's or Stasow.
Count on your Uncle Paul to give you the adult ADD spin on the subject. Thanks for your usual focus, Danny.

[Uncle Paul]

Danny:
Now that I've had more time to digesr your last post I can tell you how truly incredible it is. The article about Mr. Goldfarb and the cemetary has been duly bookmarked and all the pictures saved to "My Pictures". That envelope from Stasow with the Nazi stamps and the "Judenrat" return address is more than chilling. What is it and how did you acquire it?
Paul

[Danya]

dear danny

I am very much impressed about the family story and how far back you could detect all those fantastic tales. I wish I could do only partly as good as you do.....!
wish you further succes in your research and am looking forward to reading more ! And hope of course, that one day I will meet the unknown part of my family personally.
your great-great-great cousin from Switzerland

[Danny]

Paul, are you saying that the Goldblatts of department store fame were also from Staszow? I had forgotten that although I remember something about Uncle Herb and Zaid working for them when they first came here.

And while we're on the subject of things you would know, I also remember some vague story about folksinger Phil Ochs having some kind of encounter and friendship with Itshe Meyer at one point. Does that ring a bell or am I having an acid flashback (not that I ever did acid!).

Danya, welcome to the family! We are as eager to learn more about the Swiss branch of our clan as you are to learn about us. Hope to meet you in person some day!

[Danny]

The miracle of the Internet! I just found a bio of Maurice Goldblatt that indeed confirms he was born in Staszow on December 17, 1893.

Regarding the photo of the correspondence from the Staszow Judenrat, I found that on a site that also includes a riveting first-person account of daily life in the Staszow during the war:

December 30, 1941: There are posters in the streets that from the first of January, no Jew may leave Staszow without the permission of the District Council at Opatow. Every Jew found outside the limits of the town after that date will be shot. This decree has gravely affected the Jewish population, which lives by trade with the surrounding villages. When this economic branch is cut off, many Jews will be left without the means for living.

January 6, 1942: In accordance with an order issued by Governor General Frank, every Jew had to hand over all his fur garments to the Germans, otherwise he was in danger of the death sentence. The collection point of the contributed furs was in the Jewish Community building, at the Judenrat offices. The order was carried out punctually, in spite of the bitter cold of winter all round. Several Jews in the neighbourhood who were found in possession of furs were shot.

January 15, 1942: From today no Jewish business may operate except under the supervision of a German, a Volksdeutsche or a Pole. The sources of livelihood of hundreds of Jewish families in town have again been cut off at a single stroke.

February 1942: This month the notorious Von Maloschki, that trained tyrant and sadist of the Hitler school, has begun to take charge in Staszow. Until now his place of residence was at Tarnow near Cracow. Von Maloschki arrived for the first time with his assistant, entered several Jewish shops and took whatever goods he felt like taking. Anybody who dared to ask anything was murderously beaten by him, and shot in many cases. Later, this person often appeared in Staszow and savagely terrorized the Jewish population, always taking valuable things.

March 17, 1942: Von Maloschki came back to town, became thoroughly drunk and began attacking passing Jews. First he caught hold of Leibush Blum, beat him thoroughly and wanted to shoot him. But Blum managed to run away. To make up for it the next man was a victim. The news of the murderous hooligan quickly spread through the town and Jews vanished from the streets. These first victims warned everybody that an extermination action was approaching in Staszow.

April 1942: Poverty in Staszow is growing from day to day. Anybody bringing a little food in from the villages is shot. The Poles are denouncing the Jews to the Germans when they catch them on the road. The first victim of such a denunciation was the 19-year-old daughter of Hershel Bezem of the Stodolna Street. The girl stole out of town and went to Dobre village near Staszow. Two Poles caught her, and she was handed over to the German gendarmerie. They shot her at once.

* * * * *

There is LOTS more and it gets much worse, including vivid accounts of the Staszow Ghetto (June 1942) and the terrifying reports of the transports out of Staszow that November. Click here to read the full transcripts and other articles about Staszow.

[Uncle Paul]

Danny:
I believe Alta Toba and Gildechana are from the Goldblatt clan and that is how Sam and Herb came to Chicago.

Paul

[Pearl]

My grandparents, great-grandparents and great-aunts and -uncles also left Poland for Switzerland after WWI. My mom was born there. So I, too, am a "Swiss Miss", by heritage...and achieved citizenship!

[Tammy]

Wow! I was a little blown away by the amount of family history in that post and I'm a sucker for old pictures of the Itshe Meir. Nice to see the plug for Consolidated too!

[justin kreutzmann]

that's wonderful family history.

[Natalie]

Fascinating and moving, Danny, thank you for this.
Like you, I wish I had asked more questions about their pasts to my grandparents, uncles & aunts before they passed away. When you're young you don't think these things matter and then it's too late. I did manage to record with my camcorder, my father in his 90's answering my questions about his childhood in Russia. But by that time he was rambling a bit and I wasn't a good interviewer so the result ain't great. If only we'd had all this technology much earlier, we could now have complete family histories on video etc.

[Green-Eyed Lady]

Hi Danny,
I'm here via OOL of the Hills' blog. This is a fascinating post. I will return to read it more fully when I'm not sleepy. Most of my ancestors perished in the camps, but I, too, have some whom I remember including great-grandparents! I'm sorry he died before your Bar Mitzvah.

I clicked on OOL's link because of the "Wizard of Oz" info. Ironically, I've had my blog over a year, am of Russian Jewish ancestry, (plus other areas) and I put my location in my profile as "Over the Rainbow" since it began. I bookmarked you and will be back to read.

[Wildcat]

Hello,
I live in Staszow - Poland.

[Lynda Kraar]

Hartzekeh Yasher Koyach!

I loved this entry. I came upon it as I'm researching for my late mother's memoirs, writing it up for -- of course -- an educational performance and companion book.

After 50 years of living in Toronto, my mother passed away last May and was buried on Mother's Day. Although she was from Lodz, she had been sent by her parents to Leninogorsk in Kazakhstan to sit out the war. Of course, she lost everything and everybody, and there was literally nothing to come back to afterward.

She left me her amazing memoir to carry forward. Mum's memoir is 100 pages and is written from the perspective of a 14-year-old who came of age while hiding out in Kazakhstan. Her story is quite uplifting. Just as you found everyone to be decent and nice in Russia, people were friendly and helpful to my mother, too. Despite all, Mum really believed that people were generally good.

As a speaker for the Holocaust Committee in Toronto, Mum brought this presentation to hundreds if not thousands of school kids, mostly not Jewish.

I am going to read and re-read your post. I've made it a favourite.

By the way, my friend was the professional director of the Landsmanschafts division of the Jewish Federation of Toronto when I was in the Marketing/Communications dept. there (I've lived in the metro NYC area for the past 21 years with a few stints in Toronto in between). I remember that the Stashowers were very active. I know a number of them.

I invite you to check out my blog sometime. The address is http://www.guitargirlsdigitaldiary.blogspot.com, and the answer is yes, I am a musician. :)

Keep up the good work and -- if I may quote Jack Black from this past week's Saturday Night Live -- Happy Chanuka.
Lynda

[David Zigelman]

Hi Danny:
I am your cousin from Toronto (Joy and Danny's son). We met on your last trip north of the border. I am not sure the family in Toronto is aware of the great research you have put together on Itshe Meyer and Alta Toba. I will be passing it along to some of the family in Toronto in hopes of spreading the story of our amazing history.
Cheers/Cousin David

[Sandy Karoll]

Hi Danny, we are hooked on your blog, amazing info you have collected and remembered! Yasher Koach!!

Some clarification on some details - while we just started reading tonight, and this may be elsewhere - here is some of what I know...

1) Goldblatts were simply landsman and friends from Stastow - not related as Paul suggests.

2) When Uncle Herb was struggling in Chicago, Alta Tobah contacted Goldblatt's mother and told her that Herb needed help. Herb was invited for Shabbos Dinner and mama Goldblatt told the boys they had to buy from Herb. He became #1 salesman overnight.

3) As to winding up in Toronto, (this may be elsewhere) Alta Toba's father Moshe was turned back at Ellis Island because he had a double hernia and was sent to England. He then heard that Canada allowed people with such conditions in to the country. He arrived in Toronto on the 3rd day of Chanukah in 1904. There were 100 Jews on the boat, with no means of support, the Canadian government dropped 50 in Montreal and 50 in Toronto.

Do you have a copy of the family book - Reb Itshe Meyer Korolnek in Memorium published in 1975?

[Ari Rosenzweig]

HI,

It is Ari Rosenzweig here. Marcee and Arthur (Rosy)'s Son. I am one of those people Dovid Zigelman forwarded the email to. I truly enjoyed reading it and hope that there is more information to follow. Please email me when more info is posted at arirosen@hotmail.com.

All the best to everyone,

Ari

[Judi Kaplan]

Dear Danny and Susan:

What a wonder is the internet. I just had googled my grandfather, Rabbi Judah Leib Graubart, when your web site came up.

Where do I begin? I knew of your great-grandparents because my father, Carl Gottfried, worked for the Karoll's for over 50 years. As a teen in the summers I also worked at the State Street office of Sam Karoll. All of the Karoll's attended my wedding in July, 1966.

I have a copy of the book of rembrances that was published about Itze Meyer and Alta Toba that was in my mother's possesion.

Since you are Millers I assume that Judy and Pete are your grandparents?

My mother, Deborah,was born in Stazsow in 1914, the last of a long line of siblings from the two marriages of my grandfather. Sadly, she passed away 2 years ago in Chicago at the age of 89.

Judy Graubart is my first cousin and resides in New York.

I could go on and on, but I would like to hear from you.

[Bernhard Korolnik]

Dear Danny

Great work.

I am one of the Swiss Korolnik's. My grandfather (Jehuda Jechiel) was a brother of Hersh) and was a Ben Bais of your great-uncle Harry when I learned in the Yeshiwa in Toronto (1976-78). I had a great time and enjoyed living with my Canadian Mishpacha.

Unfurtunately we lost contact after Harry and his wife Mary passed away. Let's renew it.

I am looking forward to hearing from you

Bernie and Family