‘Tracing the Footsteps of the Jewish Families in Galicia The Roth FamilyIntroduction ‘This article is being written during summer of 2013 as part of our upcoming visit of the Roth family to historical places and roots. For us, the descendants of the Roth family, collecting the photos, documents and living memories from family members has been an exciting experience, which we hope will be reflected in this memorial tribute. The last descendants of the Roth family left Ukraine after WW I, leaving behind many family members who had perished in the Holocaust, and the memories of hundreds years of Jewish past in Gali ‘This story is about one family of the many Jewish families in the area, and is therefore only a single example of the rich life of tens of thousands of Jewish families who lived in the region. In this coming visit we will mention the restoration of the Jewish cemetery’s fence, and the memorial monuments for the Roth family members. This article was written as a private memorial by Meirav Sagi. All the family pictures and documents are in private collections of the family, and any commercial or publication use is strictly forbidden. © all rights reservedThe Arrival of The Roth Family The first traces of the Roth family in Galicia can be found at the end of the 18 century, when Mr. Leib Roth (b. 1786) settled in Galicia with his wife, Mala Ita Safirin, During the 19" century, the family expanded and settled in Stryj (Crpuii) (Aporo6u4) and in the surrounding towns: Bolechow (Bostexis), Drohol Male. and the nearby villages of Dzieduszyce Wielke and Dzieduszy The Austrian census of 1900 and the Polish census of 1921 both mention the Jewish settlement in Dzieduszyce Mate, which will be extensively described in the following pages. Orin) ire soto DrieduszyceJewish Population in the Stryj District in the Early 20" Century The Austrian census of 1900 supplied us a broad view of the composition of population in the Stryj and Dolina districts. In that year, 8,647 Jews from a total population of 22,2 and in the nearby town of Bolechow there were 1,237 residents, more than 809 of the population. esidents lived 3,323 Jews from try}: Sty. mL GALA. i t wi The number of Jews in the Suyj district was 15,859 from a total population of 116,508: 10% of the population.Jewish Population (cont'd) Afier WW I ended, Galicia became part of Poland. The new Polish census taken in 1921 indicates that the Jewish population had grown, in spite of the lost population during and after WWI, and the massive migration that took place in Eastern Europe alier the war. ‘The Polish census mentioned that in the district of Stryj, 10,988 Jews were d, from a total number of 27,358 residents: icc. more than 30%. cour or = = ae | Ce fon| isl mn lis) Id onl ll oy Pel bales es ee i pn 8:18 gl 2 age al é 4% @) J S)2|| skorowioz mieuscowosci SIE) @) 8) 3.841) rzeczvpospouires pouswies B= ||) Se) pict acd i deaictab elses) Blea Se] ee) Sal] weurvcorvo stmsumowsce age a das Bis] 8 8 8 ela 5 [| ml ae] se] tl nol Pasa sn f[om) oy a wa ae as aa al a al‘This picture was taken in 1934, on the special occasion of the 50" wedding anniversary of Leib and Faiga (nee Pickholtz) Roth. In the picture are (middle row) the two brothers, Leib and Moshe Roth, with several of their children. Both families had a big farm house in Dzieduszyce Male, and as far as we know, Moshe and his family lived there during the whole year, while Leib used to split his time between the farm house and his house in Stryj. Top row (from left to right) Rachel, Tauba, Malka, and Israel Middle row : Leib, Faiga, Moshe Bottom row: Genia, Albert and wile Adi.Moshe Itchak Roth 1874-1941 Faiga (Picholtz) Roth 1864-1941 Moshe Itchak (b. 1874) and Leib (b. 1864) were two of seven children of Chaim Shlomo (b. 1838) and Rivka (Lanch) Roth. Both brothers were religious Jews who worked as merchants in the village of Dzieduszyce Male and the nearby towns of Stryj and Bolechow. One of their many businesses was selling hay to the Polish army in the 1930s. Leib and _ his wile, Faiga, front of — their stacks of hay. Leib, who was a heavy smoker, holds one of his cigarettes. Leib Roth 1864-1941‘This is the birth certificate of the baby, Yehuda Hirsh Roth, who was born on 28.3.1887 in Dzieduszyce Male, to his parents Leib and Faiga Roth. ‘The parents” names ae His sister, Gittle (Genya) Roth, was born in the village of Dzieduszyce Male on 10.4.1889, and her birth certificate reveals that the Roth family lived in house no. 4. We learn that her father, Leib, was a merchant, and that her mother was originally from the nearby town of Stynawa Nizna. The midwife who took care of the birth was Jawdocha, a woman from the village whose name appears on many of the family’s birth certificates.Both the Austrian census of 1900 and the Polish census of 1921 confirmed that the family lived in a farm house in Dzieduszyce Male village, and according to the historical archives in Lvov, (Fond 186, opys) the lands were bought from Mr. Diamandstein Mozes, who originally bought them from Mr. Ladomirski Konstanty. Pate Ne eet Gemeinde Daiedusnyce- mate IHerman Roth’s Business Herman Roth was Leib Roth’s son, and was a well-respected merchant in the Stryj and Bolechow areas. This ui-party agreement from 1934 was settled between Herman and two of his Jewish partn Bolechow and Yosef Kass from Stryj. e ( a y Protodt pansy tC wiryin BO acetate, The agreement mentioned their | Sertoli y sirrii.r tateeTorjT enjej jars tg .tlerean fot, pie sr Sts tr ol oceneg Gheg Dyer St7 a, cooperation in the transportation sitiietiess Cease $878P)an.» solephovTe poowen stzaar cararty Shmuel Yeger from pm i ots g smetapuinee) TUE TS OLOVE rher, business on the Lvoy-Stryj-Bolechov line. 21s) 0 strrjortero srigets stzeteck fo prasvotel — ia tovande dvopa autent cletaroneat 2 & sreteet ete prano cziertany i ‘an Both fama Staelort Jigerov na trecopert tovarde auton clata- ‘oven tarejeetrovans oa nateloko Signy Straslockiego w Str7}u ta Linji Stuy) ~ Lede.Cnas’trvante possatertary uadeity atroey #04: In this protocol, Mr. Herman Roth clarified that he joined the Polish Shutter union in 1930, and that the union had sold him the license to trade in the Salt, fee) which was government popedie set Snape, SStoetion fadanel ahs eh etn a monopoly. Roth also mentioned that he supervised the regional trading station and that his salary was based on percentage.At the end of 1933, the Union sold Herman a license to operate the transportation line taking produce from Bolechow and Stryj to Lvov. Herman then bought 2 Chevrolet trucks in cooperation with the Yeger and Kass families The documents below are the drawings describing the schedules and the roads between the cities. | Sxhic Fraty amechodous/ —Shryj- Mikefefou Luce, 3 dla wo2u ST. 60487 Fotye, Sryp Hac fomech i I | Szkic ‘8 trasy samochodowe) Stryj-Mi kolajow-Lwow dla waru St, 60487, | Steyj 2" iss 225, = Mikotajo ‘. Posto} Stryjs plac samochadeiy Mikotajow! rynek at: 400000 Lwow: postdy samachyTime Schedules of the Transportation Line feed 20 Strye Fragjest to Yibodasemn 94" 4 jase jon 9,20," oxide feIn September 1939, Stryj was occupied by the Soviets The Germans occupied Stryj on July 2, 1941, and hundreds of Jews were immediately killed. In December of the same year, the "Jewish quarter” was established; it crowded and had poor sanitation and housing, with unusable conditions for all the Jews in town, along with thousands of refugees from nearby towns. In November 1941, 1,200 Jews were shot in the Holobotow forest. Deportations began in May 1942, when several hundred Jews were Al hundred others were sent to the Bel murdered in the streets, and seve extermination camp. Herman Roth succeeded in running away and hid in the nearby forest for many months. After the liberation he found his daughter, Balka, who was hiding in the house of Jan and Janina Maksymowicz, his neighbors from Stryj, who risked their lives to rescue her and the parents of her future husband, Sofia and Itzchak Eisenscher, Herman Roth and his grandchildren jan and Janina Maksimowich When the Soviet army liberated Stryj in August, 1944 there were only a few Jewish survivors. The Jewish community was not re-established. Herman immigrated to Argentina, and_ later settled in Israel with his daughter and her family.Hana Roth-Kluge Hana was the oldest daughter of Moshe and Rivka Roth, and was known as a very clever young woman. Hana was privileged to study Talmud with her father, spoke several languages and served as a role model for the family. During the war she proved her courage by taking wo of her sons, Shlomo and Joseph, and escaping from the country. When taking the children out of school, against their father’s decision, she could not find the third son, Imanuel, and had to leave him behind in order to save the other two sons. They managed to escape by train and alier a long journey arrived in Morocco and eventually came to Israel, where she and her children settled and built their families. Shlomo, Josef and ImanuelRachel, Lea & Tauba Roth Lea ‘Tauba Rachel (Ruchcia) Moshe’s first wife, Rivka, died in childbirth of her youngest son, Zvi. Moshe then married his niece, Gittle (his sister, Hana Sara Roth’s daughter). Rachel, born in 1913, was the first daughter from the marriage, and then came Lea (born in 1915) and finally Tauba (born in 1917). The three sisters lived together with Moshe’s children from his first wife, Rivka, in the family farm house in Dzieduszyce Mate. In 1922 Gittle died in an accident after falling into the well while pumping water, leaving behind her husband and children. Rachel, her eldest daughter, missed her mother all her life, and named her daughter after her dead mother.Rachel (first left) , and Lea (with husband Shimon Spiegler) and family members walking in the city Cousin Esther, Lea (with husband) and Tauba in Sty)Lea Roth Lea, the second daughter of Moshe and Gittle Roth, was born in 1915. She was married to Shimon Spiegler, and to the best of our knowledge the couple lived in Bolechow. They both perished in the Holocaust.Sheindel-Yafa (Roth) Shnoor Sheindel-Yala was the 4" child of Moshe and Rivka Roth. In 1934, she married Chaim Shnoor, and their wedding took place, in Dzieduszyce Mate. The letter below is a legal document that was signed by her father, Moshe Roth, for their upcoming immigration to the Land of Israel. In the letter, Moshe Roth undertook the commitment to sell some of his lands in the village to give financial support to his daughter and her husband. The agreement was made in Stryj, in the local Rabbinical Court. hye vo scaieleate nn tiny 3p ~Dlips YOO 69 vipoley” EEGs oct ac $90 [ay Ne te Poti pue Ld Peters mo ao GY Gf Vl PI Hd TIS sme See, Me eo ds Ml 95.0 re be ile Lip eat al oS 1g oA oD PUL Po Ge oe so. eee | ROG Veg re Gon ego lh he nest Wail’ labyo “9° ah np (a At the bottom of the page is : pn PTD Bo Moshe’s signature, attested to and. = rk eho wine —. An geba witnessed by the Rabbi of Stryj. tap on ig wast ov iat file be Ch a a a bay 9 IO? Bo) oe Gi ape! 20 Lib 2g oe Gy ONY oO sal He 280 te fn alee i eae A PST ap hs of a ond fj é pore pe jee Mele are 22 os a? wu | GEES reer, HES eta (00 407 aT — | aifty afra) ven Whee nye, ne Gy Sars fe abl: 4Invitation to the Wedding The wedding of Sheindel Roth and Chaim Shnoor took pl: on 09.11.1934, in Dzieduszy Mate near Stryj peroenpne ee tao The invitation was written in Hebrew, giving the telegraph details to confirm attendance.Genia-Gittle (nee Roth) and Mendel Landau Rabbi of Bolechow Genia-Gittle Roth, daughter of Leib and Figa Roth, was born on 10.4.1889. She married Rabbi Mendel Landau from Bolechow. Mendel Landau was one of the Rabbis of Bolechow, and was mentioned in his: book The Lost - A S Million, Daniel Mendelsohn mentions the rabbi and descibed his death in the first Akéon in October 1941. rch for Six of $i These testimonial pages below were submitted by Genia’s niece, Ball Kisenscher (nee Roth) in memory of Genia, Mendel and their son, Ephraim, who perished in Bolechow during WW IL. a, ‘The pages are now in Yad Vashem as part of The Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Name: Apart from Spanish the language of the pages is also in Yiddish, a common language spoken by many Jews in Eastern Galicia Genia Roth with cousin Rachel Roth and family membersThe Jews of Bolechow in WW II Between the two world wars there were about 3,000 Jews in Bolechow = about 75 percent of its population. ‘They made their living primarily from industry, crafis and trade. On July 6, 1941 Bolechow y Germans, and in August L941, the town came under direct German rule. Jews had to wear a white armband with a Star of David; they were forbidden to walk on the sidewalk, night curfew was imposed on them and they were forbidden to leave the town. Hundreds of Jews were recruited every day for forced labor. s captured by the Hungarians, allies of the On October 28 and 29, 1941, the first Akon took place. About a thousand Jews including the two Rabbis were taken from their homes and imprisoned in the Dom Katolicki, a Catholic community center on the northern border of the town. The Jews were tortured for two days in various ways, left without food, and finally taken to. Taniava called Forest and shot to death in what the Germans euphemistic: an Aktion. DKA (Dom Katolicki), a few miles out of town, murdered and buried in a pit dug in the ground. The second Aktion took place a r after the fi Akvion, between September 3 and 5, 1942. In this Aktion 1,500 Jews were murdered, and additional 2,000 were sent to the gas chambers at Belzec extermination camp. Most of the Jews remaining afier the second Aktion were murdered in December 1942. By 1943, only about a thousand Jews remained in the city. ‘They were concentrated in the labor camps and in the ghetto. niava Forest mass grave site Most of them were eventually killed; only a few escaped to the forests, trying to survive by hiding. Others joined the partisans. On June 8, 1948, the ghetto was liquidated by a German police force.Jewish Cemetery in Bolechow ‘The wall surrounding the cemetery was completed in 2009 as a project of the BJHS (Bolechow Jewish Heritage Society)Jewish Synagogue in Bolechow The impressive building of the Bolechow synagogue is a living testimony of the old and important Jewish community who lived in Bolechow for hundreds of years. ‘The synagogue is now undergoing restoration and will hopefully be converted into a Galician Shtet! Museum. This is the most challenging undertaking by the BJHS (Bolechow Jewish Heritage Society).Donation for Kolel Galicia Jews in Galicia regularly donated money to support those who lived and studied in the Land of Israel through an organization callled Kollel Chibas Yerushalayim - Kuppat Rabbi Meir Baal HaNess’, (established 1830) The records of these donations have been ved in the Kolel (Beit Midrash) in Moshe Roth The documents show Moshe’s donations to the Kolel in the 1930s,Letter from a Friend in Tel Aviv 1924 This letter was sent by Yosef Tene from Tel Aviv , the new city which was established only in 1911, to Chaim Shnoor (Sheindel Roth’s husband) in Galicia. The author was a young man from Galicia who had immigrated to the land of Israel on his own a few years earlier. He described his experiences and difficulty adjusting to life in the new country, along with his great satisfaction with settlement in Israel and his belief that this is the only place for the Jews."My dear friend, You have not yet attempted to leave your father’s house and stand on your own feet. I, who have, can tell you that life is hard in general, and it is seven times harder for Jews abroad, and seventy ~ seven times harder for Jews here in the Land of Israel. But do not think that there has not been hope. God forbid ! There is! What is hope to a young man in Israel? Faith is the important ideal. Work not for work itself, to fill the stomach, but work for an uplifting ideal. I came down with malaria four times, and the last time almost took me from this earth. Yet J am happy that I am in the Land of Israel and I am a believer in the future of Israel and its Eternity." 1924Rachel Roth’s Certificate for Immigration to land of Israel (what was then Palestine) In 1988, the British allowed only a limited number of Jews to immigrate to Mandatory Palestine. Rachel’s sisters and brother, who had already immigrated to the Land of Israel, helped her to receive the approval and the certificate for her afva (immigration) to BRITISH VICE-CONSULATE, LWOW, — UL KORALNICKA 1. 4. 12 sterpnia 1938 r. Wiolmotna Pani Rachela Brzezina & Lietani p.Mosesa Rothe Dztequszice Mare. koton k/Stzy je~ styfekt Ho.S8380. a5 tu preesylam Pani pasaport Pi ay [do 11.maron 1043, celem wyjazdu do Palestyny. Przed wyjazdem e2y paszport praeddodyé w Sterostwie dla calatwienia ewentualnyd Inogci, orex uzyekeé wiay rumuriskiej. j miteten vise the igh.70 years later...The Journey Back In 2011, we, the descendants, made our way back to our family’s historical roots in Ukraine. This road leads to the village of Dziedusyce Male and woke a great deal of nostalgia for the places we had heard about from our family.The neighbors reminisce...Tracing the Footsteps of the Local Jewish Cemetery The cemetery — was hidden under natural wild vegetation which completely covered the graves. When we visited the place, local inhabitants told us that during WW Il, the Jews had been taken to the cemetery, murdered, and buried in a mass grave there.‘Tombstones in the cemeteryAfter the visit in town we were determined to restore the cemetery and meme jalize the lives of our family in Gaicia. With the significant help of Rabbi Israel Meir Gabay, the head of the Oholei Tzadikim association, and with the cooperation of the town leaders, we were able to build a fence and put up monuments for our family.The Monuments does! eis hip eee Sea erat poe cep ee eteett og ea cee teed Monument of the mass grave Monument of the Roth family’s gravesStone memorials Testimonial pages for the Jewish communities of written by the descendants of Stryj and Bolechow the Roth familyAfter WW IT - The Roth Family AbroadThe Emigration of the Roth Family In the beginning of the 20" century, with the escalation of anti- Semitism and in the chaos of WWI, many members of the family chose to emigrate from Europe. Afier Hitler’s rise to power, they continued to seek ways out. Roth family memb« emigrated to the USARoth Family Members in Buenos Aires, Argentina Herman Roth and his grandchildrenRoth Family in Israel Esther Lusthaus (nee. Roth) and her familyMoshe Roth’s children Rachel, Hana, Sheindel-Yafa and Zvi Roth All of them emigrated to Israel as a result of their Zionist belief a0 ieEpilogue This memorial tribute wouldn't have been written without the outstanding and generous assistance I was given by the descendants of the Roth family all over the world, Their support gave me the strength to organize the project of restoration ance to carry out historical research on of the cemetery, and the perseve: the family in preparation for our visit to Ukraine. My special thanks go to my beloved husband Amir, to Dr. Shuki Ecker and Dr. Natalia Aleksiun - without their help this work would have been impossible; my mother Tova and uncle Israel, my cousins Michal and Aviad and family members Ines Eisenscher, Moucky and Daniel Naor; the Shnoor and Shapira families, whose support strengthened me at all stages of this enterprise. Special thanks to Rabbi Israel Meir Gabay from Ohaley Zadikim, whose humility and devotion to the cause of the cemetery will not be forgotten, my friends Israel Kass who stood by me from the beginning and Shlomo Adler, one of the last holocaust survivors of Bolechow, who shared with me his knowledge and experience. Meirav Sagi, Israel, 2013