Friday, April 25, 2014


Survivor Code: RelatioNetTZGE24LOPO

Family Name: Grinberg

Previous Family Name: Gersht

First Name: Tzipora

Father's Name: Shmuel

Mother's Name: Bronia

Brothers' Names: Hillel and Lutek

Year of birth: 1924

Country of Birth: Poland
City of Birth: Lodz

Before The War-Lodz

Lodz Before World War II

The city of Lodz is located in the central part of Poland, 130 kilometer from the capital city of Warsaw and less than 300 kilometers away from other major metropolitan centers.

The community grew steadily until the 1860's when there were about 30,000 people.  More than 1/3 of the manufacturing plants were in the hands of Jewish industrialists.  Fortunes were established.  By the 1880's , following the pogroms in the Moscow District, a big wave of Russian Jews fled to Lodz.  At the end of the century, the number of Jewish residents of the city approached 100,000.  At that time, Lodz was referred to as the Promised Land attracting many businessmen, tradesmen, bankers and workers who flocked into the city from all corners of Europe.  Poles, Jews, Germans and Russians, found their new home in Lodz. 

One of the most prominent architectural examples of these times is the Poznanski Palace, built by a wealthy Jewish industrialist.  The Poznanski family owned the largest cotton industry plants and facilities in Europe at the time. 

The years 1900-1930's saw a rise in Jewish activity in the social, political and cultural arenas.  In 1924, the first democratic elections for the Jewish Community Council of Lodz were held.  The Jewish community was responsible for maintaining a kosher slaughterhouse, mikva and providing education.  Zionism spread and Zionists were involved in the revival of the Hebrew language and culture. The literary-music company "Hazomir" maintained a chorus, drama circle and library.  The symphonic orchestra was established.  There were also some sport associations.  A number of famous Jewish artists and writers were born or lived in Lodz like Arthur Rubinstein the world-renowned pianist as well as the famous composer Alexander Tansman and the poet Julian Tuwim.  Poets Itzak Katzenelson, David Frischman and Jacob Cohen lived and worked in Lodz. 

Lodz remained a major center for the textile industry in Europe until the end of the 20th century and is often compared to Manchester, the largest textile producing city in England.

Lodz During World War II

The German army entered Lodz on September 8, 1939. The Germans forced many Jews to leave Lodz and deported them to cities in the General Government. Between September 30 and May 1, 1940, 70,000 Jews left Lodz.

The Lodz ghetto was established in February 1940. About 200,000 Jews were forced to live in the ghetto. The ghetto was officially sealed in May 1940. A network of 70 factories was built in the ghetto to produce goods for the Wehrmacht. It is estimated that the Lodz ghetto factories generated $14 million in profit for the Germans.

A Judenrat was established, with Mordechai Haim Rumkowsky as its head. It had many departments, such as the health department, which organized public kitchens in the factories and schools to feed the workers and students and the agriculture department. It also had an archives department, which kept official documents and chronicles of the daily life of the ghetto. There was also an education department, which ran 45 primary religious and secular schools, as well as two high schools and a vocational school. Secret yeshivas were also organized, along with an orphanage and a children's summer camp. The ghetto also maintained its own court and prison system. Political and social groups met secretly and taught members about their ideology and organized demonstrations and strikes against the factories.

Life seemed to continue as normal, despite German deportations of more than 15,000 Jews from the ghetto to labor camps. The period of autonomy ended in September 1942, with a set of mass deportations to the death camp at Chelmno. 16,000 Lodz Jews were murdered, including children, elderly and the sick. A mass liquidation campaign was started and the Lodz ghetto became a labor camp. The Jewish administrative departments ceased to function. The number of factories increased to 119 and the Germans took control of all internal matters.

Approximately 45,000 Jews died in the ghetto of starvation and disease, including epidemics of typhoid fever, dysentery, typhus and tuberculosis. On September 1, 1944, the whole ghetto population (more than 76,000) was deported to Auschwitz. The Lodz ghetto was the last ghetto to be liquidated in Poland.

 
Lodz After World War II

Within two years after the end of German occupation of Lodz, the Jewish community was rebuilt. It was the second largest in Poland. More than 50,000 Jews had settled in Lodz by the end of 1946. Jewish institutions were rebuilt and operated until 1950, when Poland fell under complete Soviet control. Half of Lodz's Jewish population had left for Israel by 1950. A second wave of immigration to Israel took place in 1956-57. Only a few thousand Jews remained, however, most of them left after an escalation in anti-Semitism following Israel's Six-Day War in 1967. Today only a few hundred Jews live in Lodz.



During And After The War- Częstochowa

 Częstochowa is a city in southern Poland on the Warta River. It is known for the famous Pauline Monastery of Jasna Góra, which is the home of the Black Madonna painting, a shrine to the Virgin Mary.
The city hosts metal textile and paper industries

Czestochowa Before World War II

In 1793 Częstochowa was seized by the Kingdom of Prussia. In 1815,it was part of Russian-controlled Congress Poland, until World War One.

Up to the Second World War, like many other cities in Europe, Częstochowa had a significant Jewish population. According to the Russian census of 1897, there were 12,000 Jews and a total population of 45,130 (so around 26% percent).

Częstochowa entered the 20th century as one of leading industrial centers of Russian Poland. The city was conveniently located on the Warta and other smaller rivers (Kucelinka, Stradomka, Konopka). Real estate and land prices were low, compared to Lodz, and the existence of the monastery brought numerous pilgrims, who were also customers of local businesses. In 1904, Częstochowa had 678 smaller workshops, which employed 2,000 workers. The Revolution in the Kingdom of Poland (1905–1907) began in Częstochowa as early as May 1904.

In early August 1914, Częstochowa was abandoned by the Imperial Russian Army, and first units of the German Army entered the city on August 3. During German occupation (1914 - 1918), Częstochowa was cut off from its traditional Russian markets, which resulted in widespread poverty and unemployment. Furthermore, German authorities closed down several plants, urging unemployed workers to immigrate to Upper Silesia, where they replaced men drafted into the army. Altogether, some 20,000 left for Upper Silesia and other provinces of the German Empire. Unlike the city of Częstochowa, the Jasna Góra Monastery had been under control of Austria-Hungarian empire, since April 26, 1915, after personal intervention of Emperor Franz Joseph I, who was a pious Roman Catholic. Polish authorities took control over the whole city on November 11, 1918.

In the Second Polish Republic, Częstochowa belonged to the Kielce Voivodeship. Since 1928 it constituted City County of Częstochowa. In the 1920s, local industry still suffered from World War One losses, and being off from Russian markets. Unemployment remained high, and thousands of workers left for France in search of jobs. The Great Depression was particularly difficult, with strikes and street clashes with the police. The city grew in size, between 1928 and 1934, when several local settlements and villages were annexed. In 1939, the population of Częstochowa was 138,000, which made it the 8th largest city in Poland.

In the years between the First and Second World Wars, there were many Jewish owned stores in Czestochowa employing a large number of Jewish male and female clerks.there were both large and small factories that made men's clothing employing a large number of Jewish workers

Czestochowa During World War II

After the Battle of Mokra and other battles, Polish forces withdrew and the Wehrmacht entered the city on Sunday, September 3, 1939.

 Częstochowa was incorporated into the General Government. Monday, September 4, 1939, became known as Bloody Monday when 227 people (205 Poles and 22 Jews) were killed by the Germans. On September 16 a JUDENRAT (Jewish Council) was formed, headed by Leon Kopinski. In August 1940, 1000 young Jews were rounded up and sent to the Ciecznow forced-labor camp. very few survived.

 German occupiers initiated a plan of cultural and physical extermination of the Polish nation from the very beginning. Częstochowa was a city county, part of Radom District of the General Government. After the collapse of the Warsaw Uprising, Częstochowa briefly was the capital of the Polish Underground State. On April 9, 1941, a ghetto for Jews was created. It was sealed off on August 23, 1941.
The ghetto population suffered from overcrowding, hunger and epidemics.
 

On September 23, 1942 a large scale deportation began. By October 5, 1942, about 39,000 people had been deported to the Treblinka extermination camp, while 2,000 had been executed on the spot.
After the deportation, the northeastern part of the ghetto was called the "small ghetto".

A Jewish Fighting Organization was set up in the ghetto in December 1942. On January 4, 1943 it rose in armed resistance against the Nazis. The next day the Nazis shot 250 children and old people.
On June 26, 1943, the Germans began liquidating the "small ghetto." The remaining 4,000 Jews were transferred to two slave labor camps organized at the city's HASAG factories.

In the autumn of 1944, Germans fortified the city, preparing for a lengthy defense from the Soviet army. On January 16, 1945, however, the Wehrmacht retreated after one day of fighting.
Before leaving the city, the Germans managed to deport almost 6,000 inmates from the HASAG factories to concentration camps inside Germany. The 5,200 inmates who succeeded in hiding were liberated by the Soviet army.

 During World War II approximately 45,000 of Czestochowa's Jews, almost the entire Jewish community living here, were killed by the Germans.
Before the Holocaust, Częstochowa was considered a great Jewish center in Poland. By the end of World War II, the town was essentially Judenrein.

Częstochowa after World War II

In the immediate post-war period, Częstochowa belonged to Kielce Voivodeship (1945 - 1950), and then the city was transferred to Katowice Voivodeship. In the People's Republic of Poland, Częstochowa emerged not only as an industrial, but also academic center of the region. The city expanded, with first tram lines opened in 1959. Due to the communist idea of fast industrialisation, the inefficient steel mill was significantly expanded and named after Bolesław Bierut. This, combined with the growing tourist movement, led to yet another period of fast city growth, concluding in 1975 with the creation of a separate Częstochowa Voivodeship. On January 1, 1977, several villages and settlements were annexed by Częstochowa. As a result, the area of the city expanded from 90 km2 to 160 km2.

 


The ghetto in Czestochowa

Tzipora's Story


Before The War

Tzipora And Her Family

Tzipora Grinberg was born in Lodz in 1924. It is 130 kilometer from the capital city of Warsaw. When she was a child, she and her family lived at Narutowitz number 18, which was a main street in Lodz.
Her mother was Bronia Zalzberg and her father was Shmuel Gersht.
Tzipora had two brothers. The elder, who was 4 her senior was called Hillel (nicknamed Harry) the second brother, 2 years her senior was called Lutek.
Bronia had three sisters- Dvora (her husband Shmuel Hershzon), Rosa (her husband Herman Herzberg) and Hela. Bronia had three brothers- Gustav (Gershon) (his wife was Edza), Leon (his wife Eva) and Bernard.
Shmuel had four sisters- Frenia (her husband Hersh Rocowitz), Itka (her husband Moris Hiller), Lola (her husband Arye Dinckelman) and Idzia.

Tzipora's family wasn't very religious, but they were traditional. Her family wasn't Zionistic. Tzipora's mother tongue was Polish, but her parents spoke Yiddish too.

Tzipora's parents worked with Shmuel Hershzon in a leather products shop, making wallets and bags. The shop was located on Piotikowski street number 115, which was a main Street.

There was a lot of anti-Semitism in Lodz, and sometimes strangers would harass Jews in the streets. For instance, a Polish friend of hers told her that she liked her because she wasn't like an ordinary Jew.

Tzipora's Education

In 1931, when Tzipora was 7 years old, she began to go to elementary school at 90 Gdanska street Lodz. She attended first grade for only two weeks after which she skipped to second grade. She attended that school until 1936 when she went to Diamentowski high school 94 Keilinskiego street Lodz. The economic situation was bad, therefore she attended high school for only two years until 1938. Both the schools were only for girls, and most of the girls in high school were Polish. Tzipora practiced sewing until the war started. After she left high school she began to learn sewing in a dress workshop although she would have liked stay in high school.

Tzipora's Friends And Spare Time Activities

Tzipora's good friends from the elementary school and high school were Stula, Brunka Nomberg, Marisia, Regina and Irka. They lived close to each other and they walked to school together.
Tzipora and a group of friends went ice-skating and visited each other.

Tzipora's family hadn't tried to immigrate because of the bad economic situation, and when the war had started it was already too late.


Girls ice-skating in Lodz before the war 

During The War

Life In Lodz at the Beginning of World War Two
World War 2 began On September 1st 1939. Tzipora and her family were in Lodz until December 1939, when restrictions were placed on Jews. They weren't allowed to go to school so the Jewish schools were closed. Jews had a curfew. Jewish men were captured in the streets and brought to unknown places. Most of them never came back.

Częstochowa
In December 1939 Tzipora and her family moved to a city named Częstochowa, in Southern Poland, because there were rumors that the conditions there were better for Jews. For example, instead of wearing the yellow star, Jews in Częstochowa wore a white ribbon with a blue Magen David on it.

The Ghetto In Częstochowa
A ghetto was created in Częstochowa called "the big ghetto" in April 1941. The ghetto included a few streets in the poor and old part of the city.
Tzipora and her family lived outside of those streets, therefore they had to move in to the ghetto where they lived in an apartment with another family.
The ghetto was surrounded by a wire fence, and anyone trying to get out was shot by the Polish and German guards surrounding the ghetto. This also made
it hard to get food in the ghetto.

A Judenrat was established in the ghetto who informed the Jews that whoever worked wouldn't be hurt. During the selection worker's certificates were ignored and they treated the workers just like other Jews who did not have a worker's permit. Tzipora worked as a seamstress which was her profession. In the sewing workshop they sewed clothes for a German girl's orphanage.
Tzipora's elder brother was sent to a work camp outside the ghetto (in Częstochowa).

The Selection And The Destruction Of The Ghetto
On Erev Yom Kippur September 21st 1942, German soldiers and Ukrainian guards surrounded the ghetto, The next day the destruction of the ghetto had begun. The soldiers and the guards entered the ghetto carried out selections and deportations to the death camp "Treblinka" had started. Some of the people, mostly youngsters, were sent to work, although most were loaded on trains to Treblinka. In the first selection they had't yet gotten to the street where Tzipora and her family were living. Later in the day Tzipora and her family were taken to a selection. The Nazis took all the old and sick people and shot them. After that the rest of the people were sent home because there wasn't enough room in the trains. The next three days were tense and on September 25th 1942 the Nazis took Tzipora and her family to a selection. One Nazi asked Tzipora what her profession was, she was frightened and her father answered that she was a seamstress, then a Polish man told her to go right (life) and her parents and middle brother were sent to the left (death in Treblinka) . In the ghetto she had a few good friends, who were Brunka Nomberg, Tusia Frumer and Hela and Gota Minifeska.

The Cinema
After the destruction of the big ghetto (September 1942), Tzipora and a few others were sent to an old cinema located in the third boulevard, close to the "Black Madonna". The chairs were taken out and they slept on straw. They lived there for a few weeks- every morning they went out to work in a vegetable garden and every night they went to sleep wet or dirty.

The Small Ghetto In Częstochowa
After these few weeks the Nazis created a small ghetto in Częstochowa which included four streets. The ghetto was divided into two areas of old apartments- one for men and one for women. Tzipora lived in a one room apartment with eleven other girls.  Tzipora met her elder brother Harry In the small ghetto. Every day the Jews in the ghetto were sent to work from 7 am to 5 pm.

 
    Map of the small ghetto in Czestochowa

The Underground And The Destruction Of The Small Ghetto
At that time a secret underground was established only accepting trustworthy people. Tzipora's brother was supposed to join the underground, so he told her not to cry if he disappeared so no one would suspect. But the underground was discovered and the Nazis decided to dismantle the small ghetto in June 1943. There was a selection and Tzipora was present. One of the Jews from the underground shot a Nazi's hand, the punishment was that 25 young men were killed by the Nazis.

The Work Camp
Afterwards Tzipora was sent to a work camp which was an ammunition factory in Czestochowa where she met her brother. Life in the work camp was tough. The Jews lived in long barracks and slept on bunks. There were three levels of bunks on which 15 girls slept. They wore the same clothes from 1943 to 1945. The Jews got pieces of soap with the initials RIVW which meant clean fat of Jews. They got very little food: soup made of bad vegetables and water twice a day, a piece of bread once a day and half a glass of sugar or jam once a week. Many people died of hunger and diseases like typhus. It was very cold (-25 degrees) and there wasn't proper clothing.

The Liberation
On January 15th, when the Germans felt that the Russians were close, they sent most of the young men, including Tzipora's brother, to Buchenwald. The camp was liberated by the Russians on January 16th 1945. Tzipora's brother died in a death march from Buchenwald.

After The War

The Return To Lodz
A few weeks after her liberation, Tzipora returned to Lodz by herself. None of her extended family had survived. The Jewish community in Lodz helped the survivors find jobs and apartments.

The Group "Kibutz Baderech"
On "Rosh Hashanah" 1945 Tzipora joined "Kibutz Baderech", a group preparing Jews to immigrate to Israel illegally. Tzipora met her husband in that group. "The Joint" -an American Jewish charitable organization that helps Jews, helped them to immigrate to Israel.


             A march of the members of "Kibutz Baderech"           

The Way To Israel
Tzipora and the people from the group "Kibutz Baderech" left Poland on December 1945, went to Prague in the Czech Republic, where they stayed for about two weeks at the beginning of 1946. Afterwards they moved to a refugee camp in Germany called "Unra" in a place called Laiphaim, an international institution that took care of the refugees. They stayed there till November 1946. Then they started to walk to Italy in the Alps, which took five days. They got to Milano and then to a beautiful place-"Castel Gondolfo", 30 kilometers from Rome. They got to a beach where a Turkish ship called "Farida" was waiting (later on its name was changed to "Af al-pi chen"). They boarded the ship and made their way to Israel, which took eleven days.

The Ship "Farida"

The conditions on the ship were bad, there were about four hundred people on it.
When the ship came close to Israel, four British destroyer ships has arrived and circled the ship "Farida". A battle began, the British used their weapons and the people on "Farida" used cans. As a result of the fight, 1 man was killed and 3 people were injured on "Farida". After that, the British destroyers took "Farida" to Haifa, Israel, where the British transferred those on the ship to blockade ships, which brought them to Cyprus in September 1947

The immigrant ship "Af Al Pi Hen"

On February 2nd 1949, 16 months later, Tzipora and her husband arrived in Israel.

Tzipora's Family Today
Tzipora has a daughter, and a son who died few years ago. She has six grandchildren- three are her daughter's children and three are her son's children. She also has nine great grandchildren.
Tzipora worked as a nurse in a private clinic for fifteen years until she retired. 

Tzipora's Feelings about The Holocaust
Tzipora feels as if she has a heavy hump on her back. It is always with her, although she doesn't think of it all the time. She is trying to have a normal life and enjoy her loving family, but the hump is always with her and will always stay with her.

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