Volume 19, Number 3 September 2012 GG Matters Feature Articles 2 Research Corner 7 The Holocaust in Stanisławów Pamela Weisberger William Tannenzapf 24 Gesher Galicia Board of Directors 10 The Krosno Airfield William Leibner 24 Key Staff Volunteers 14 Jewish Community Life in Brody Edward Gelles Town Research 20 Hunting a Dead Nazi 13 Jodłowa Susan J. Gordon Russ Maurer 21 A Teacher Returning: Bronia Horn 13 Rohatyn Marla Raucher Osborn 13 Żurów Hazel Sandow Boon Close-up of the passport application of Martha Itte Berner (see page 2) Research Corner Pamela Weisberger Researching Galician Records at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum In early September I spent several days conducting research at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. My focus was microfilmed and digital records from towns that were once part of Galicia. My guide was the indefatigable Peter Landé, a retired Foreign Service officer who works at the museum as a volunteer in the Survivors’ Registry. (Peter, for those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of meeting him in person or hearing him speak at an IAJGS conference, was also instrumental in helping re- searchers gain access to Interna- tional Tracing Service [ITS] Ar- chives in Bad Arolsen, Germany, and getting the digital files trans- ferred to the USHMM, where they can now be searched on site or by written request.) I was joined by Gesher Galicia founder Suzan Wynne, who assisted me in analyzing the documents and determining the value of indexing these images and having the data eventually appear in the All Galicia Database. We found a treasure trove of records from the state archives of the Ivano-Frankivsk (formerly Stanisławów) region, covering the years 1872–1953 and charting a van- ished population of Galician Jews. In this record group (RG-31.110M) the records are in German, Hungar- 1928 passport application of Martha Itte Berner of Bohorodczany, ian, Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian. from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum According to the USHMM find- ing aid: ganizations; (4) Information docu- records of Jews and Jewish families; Scope and Content: local Ivano- menting violence against Jews car- (9) Birth, death, and marriage rec- Frankivsk (formerly, Stanislav) rec- ried out by Ukrainian nationalists in ords of the main Synagogue in ords pertaining to the following: (1) Stanislav; (5) Various Pre-1917 Stanislav. (Most of these records are Jewish private school records in the Revolution records; (6) Emigration from the 1920s and 1930s.) There city of Stanislav; (2) Government records of Jews throughout the are also birth records from 1937 for surveillance information on Jewish 1920s and 1930s; (7) Jewish philan- the towns of Snyatin and Zabolotov. political parties and organizations; thropic association organizational Many other towns were repre- (3) Information regarding the arrest records regarding a variety of social sented in these records, including of Jews associated with Zionist or- issues; (8) Local court inheritance community documents for Kolomea The Galitzianer 2 September 2012 and Gvozdets; a charter and minutes political currents in Jewish life were The transcription work will take for charitable, Masonic, and Zionist evident in Stanisławow, one of the a while, but if you are curious you institutions; and one from 1898 for larger towns in Galicia, where 55 can look at these records at the mu- the establishment of the Jewish reli- synagogues and prayer houses, in- seum 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. Monday gious community in Bolekhov. cluding one of Sadigura Hasidism, through Friday in the archives on the (Note: Spellings used for place existed between the two world wars. 5th floor. names are the ones that appear in the The census is on 15 rolls of mi- USHMM records.) crofilm in the Museum. The project Voter and Tax Records The most touching (and de- will create a computerized index of Available for Transcribing: tailed) documents were the all the residents of Stanisławow Volunteers Needed! “Applications of Individual Jews for from this 1939 census, which will Gesher Galicia has acquired digital Passports to Travel Abroad” from become a searchable database. Key images of records for various Gali- the 1920’s and 1930’s. These appear Audiences: Jewish genealogists, cian towns from both the Ternopil to cover a range of towns in the seeking to trace their roots in this Archives in Ukraine and the Central Stanisławów district, with a separate part of the world (Galicia, Poland, Archives for the History of the Jew- fond for applications for Jews in the Ukraine), constitute the primary au- ish People in Jerusalem. Most of Bohorodczany district for 1920– dience for the material. However, these are voter and tax records, 1929. Often ten pages of supporting the material has the potential to be highly readable (with a few excep- documentation were found in these of broader interest to scholars spe- tions), because the majority of them files that link several family mem- cializing in Jewish history and the are typewritten! bers, and the applications include Holocaust. Tax and land records place a family photographs. The USHMM also has on micro- person in a town in a specific year. Separately from these USHMM film a 1941 House Registry Book, Voter records provide a birthdate or records, Gesher Galicia has obtained which functions as a census or book age, a profession, and sometimes the digital images of similar (or in some of residents. The streets were re- town of birth—useful in solving a cases identical) records including named, e.g., Radayanska Boulevard mystery of why a family seems to Śniatyn births and various tax rec- became Adolf Gitlera Street. These disappear from a town where you ords from the 1930’s. records are in Cyrillic; the spelling expected to find them. One of the most important rec- used is how it appears in the mu- Insight into what these records ord sets on microfilm at the seum’s finding aid (see below). offer could be gleaned from Alex USHMM is the 1939 Stanisławów Dunai’s lecture, presented at the census. Gesher Galicia, in partner- Page from the finding aid binder at the USHMM showing ship with other interested parties, is Radayanska Boulevard renamed as Adolf Giterla seeking to resurrect what was origi- nally a JewishGen project which was halted many years ago due to usage restrictions by the archives. Here is the synopsis as it was de- scribed on the JewishGenerosity site: In August 1939, approximately a month before the Nazi invasion of Poland and the Soviet occupation of Stanisławow, a census was taken of the entire city. The census encom- passed approximately 14,400 house- holds, averaging 4–5 individuals per household. Since religion was re- corded, Jewish households/indivi- duals can be readily identified. This census is the last pre–World War II list of residents of this very impor- tant city in what was once eastern Galicia. All the religious, social, and The Galitzianer 3 September 2012 IAJGS International Conference on male family members could be regis- Grzymałów: John Diener is Jewish Genealogy in Paris last July, tered as voters. handling the Grzymałów/Hrymayliv “Sources of Jewish Genealogy for transcription project. John has just the 18th–20th Centuries in the Fonds These same 20th-century rec- completed work on an unusual chil- of the State Central Historical Ar- ords exist for the smaller towns and dren’s census, a listing of children chive of Ukraine in Lviv.” In this shtetlach dotting the Galician coun- born in the town between the years excerpt, he used Lwow records as tryside and are often the last records 1913–1925, along with one parent or the focal point: of a vanished population. GG has guardian’s name and the language records for these towns: Bialy- spoken in the home. This is an im- The next kind of records avail- kamień, Borszosow, Brezany, Grzy- portant set of records, as no 20th- able in Lwow (after vital and census małów, Kamionka Strumiłowa, century birth records for this town records) are the Jewish community Ladonka, Mielnica, Olesko, Podha- have survived. We also have several tax records for various years start- jce, Podkamień, Przemyślany, sets of voter and tax records for ing from the 1860’s through till Sassów, Skała, Skałat, Sodobonka, Grzymałów from the 1920’s and 1936. Besides the given name, fam- Sokołówce, Sokroska, Tarnopol, 1930’s. If you are interested in help- ily name, and amount of tax paid, Tłuste, Trembowla, Uścieczko, ing, please contact John at johndiener@ one can usually find the occupation Założce, Zbaraż, Zborów, Złoczów. ymail.com. and address of the taxpayer. What we need now are volun- Skala: Racheli Kreisberg- The tax documents are supple- teers willing to transcribe these lists Greenblatt is overseeing the Skala mented by applications to decrease and contributions to cover the cost records indexing project, and her the community tax. A large number of the acquisitions. What’s required wonderful work on the Skala House of these applications were submitted to help transcribe? You need to be Numbers Project will be uploaded to in 1936–1937 as a result of the eco- familiar with Excel, which is quite the All Galicia Database soon. We nomic crisis. They give an idea of easy to learn, and Gesher Galicia have many Skala voter and tax lists how people lived in the interwar will provide you with the template. from the interwar period. If you period, their economic situations You don’t need to understand have an interest in Skala records, and attendant problems. Polish. You can work at your own please contact Racheli at genealogy@ They did not necessarily work pace under our direction or, if you ibexperts.com.