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A Genealogical Journey to 9 Brzozowa Street, Krakow, Poland

3/9/2016

20 Comments

 
PictureFront doors of the Dinter family residence at Brzozowa 9, Krakow, Poland. (Photograph taken by Rivka Schiller, September 2014.)
Two years ago I met several descendants of Rabbi Simcha Dinter (1867-1929), an active member of the Belzer Hasidic dynasty and a right-hand man to the then third and fourth Belzer Rebbes, respectively, Rabbis Yissachar Dov Rokeach (1851-1926) and his son, Aharon Rokeach (1880-1957).
 
When the family learned that I was traveling to Poland last fall, they asked me if I would take photographs of the Dinter family property in Krakow, located at 9 Brzozowa Street in the once heavily Jewish neighborhood of Kazimierz.
 
When I reached 9 Brzozowa Street, I expected to find a small house.  However, much to my pleasant surprise, I found myself gazing up at an impressive stone building, several stories high. Fortunately, one of the tenants of this apartment building was leaving and allowed me to enter and take photographs of the building’s interior.  ​Unlike what I witnessed in Warsaw, my grandmother’s city of origin, in which the vast majority of buildings did not survive the bombings of World War II, this building is quite intact.  Moreover, it has been extremely well maintained.  It still bears the original, huge, and intricately hand-carved wooden front doors.  


​​From the interior staircase landing, I peeked out the window overlooking the sizable backyard, where, according to Dinter family members, two wooden frame houses formerly stood.  I began to picture the celebration of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, the large, extended Dinter family, along with the building’s other Jewish tenants seated in the Sukkah, eating their meals, and singing festive holiday songs.

PictureView of the Dinter family’s expansive former backyard from the building’s interior. (Photograph taken by Rivka Schiller, September 2014.)

After I returned to New York, the Dinter family asked me to assist them with additional genealogical research about their family, particularly about their progenitor, Rabbi Simcha.  Following is the story of the Dinter family and the biography of Rabbi Simcha, as it was related to me by one of his grandsons.

Rabbi Simcha was one of the 
Gabbais (or Gabbaim; trusted aides) to the aforementioned Belzer Rebbes.  Upon his marriage to Bina Dreier, Rabbi Simcha moved from the town of Belz to the city of Krakow, the hometown of his new bride and the Dreier family’s site of residence.  

PictureView of Brzozowa 9, Krakow, Poland, from a distance. (Photograph taken by Rivka Schiller, September 2014.)
In Krakow, Rabbi Simcha purchased a large apartment building in the historically centrally-located neighborhood of Kazimierz, the city’s predominantly Jewish quarter.  The Dinters had eight children and owned a family business that made medical uniforms.
 

Rabbi Simcha was a major financial supporter of the Belzer Hasidim.  Not only did he give generous donations from his own funds, but he also raised money both in Galicia and in America.  Beginning in 1908, Rabbi Simcha made more than a dozen trips between Krakow and America, speaking to Belzer Hasidim about the importance of sending money to the Belzer community in Europe.

On his 1914 visit to America, Rabbi Simcha arrived with his wife and five of his children. When shortly thereafter, World War I broke out, the family spent the remainder of the war and beyond on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.  Rabbi Simcha started a business producing wigs for dolls.  In those day, dolls were made of porcelain and wigs were glued-on.  Before the war, most of the toys and dolls sold in America were manufactured in Germany, and the war curtailed this production.  As this created a newly-found opportunity, some Jews from Galicia (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire) went into this business.

PictureSimcha Dinter’s American passport application (including a photograph of the applicant), c. 1920. (Thanks to Gideon Goldstein for providing this image.)
When the war ended in late 1918, the Belzer community was in dire need of financial assistance.  Rabbi Simcha expended his time and energy in raising money for the Belzer community in Europe.  Rabbi Simcha's letters-to-the-editor were published in Yiddish newspapers and advertised that he would be speaking on the Lower East Side as part of this fundraising campaign.
 
In 1920, Rabbi Simcha, who had become an American citizen, applied for a U. S. passport to return to Europe. Interestingly, his passport photo showed him appearing as a typical Hasidic Rabbi.  Perhaps today it is not unusual to see somebody who looked like Rabbi Simcha on the streets of New York City, but in 1920, it was quite unusual.  
 
The first thing almost all religious male Jews did upon arrival in America was to shave or trim their beards, cut off their sidelocks (Peyes), get rid of their black hat, and to dress like average American males of that day.  But such was not the case with Rabbi Simcha.  His passport application describes him as having a “long beard (grey), large moustach[e], [and] a curl at [the] side of each ear.”  In his passport photo, Rabbi Simcha is wearing his rabbinical black hat – clearly, he refused to remove it for this photo.

Picture
Simcha Dinter (far right, clutching a religious text) in the company of the Belzer Rebbe and his aides. (Marienbad, Czechoslovakia, 7 August 1923.)
Picture Simcha Dinter posing in traditional Hasidic garb for his American passport application, c. 1920. (Thanks to Dinter family members for providing this photograph.)
​​In 1923, Rabbi Simcha can be found in a photograph with the Belzer Rebbe and his aides, which was taken in Marienbad, Czechoslovakia (today, the Czech Republic), a well-known resort where many Hasidim vacationed prior to World War II.  During this visit to Marienbad, Rabbi Simcha and his wife Bina
were photographed strolling in the town square. 


Rabbi Simcha's four daughters and one son remained in New York, while he and his wife returned to Krakow. Afterward, Rabbi Simcha made yearly trips to New York, raising funds for the Belzer community. Rabbi Simcha died in 1929; his wife Bina, in 1936.  They are both buried in the new Jewish cemetery in Krakow on Miodowa Street.

Sadly, the Dinter family met the same fate as most of Poland’s Jews.  The three children of Rabbi Simcha who still resided in Poland, not being American citizens, found themselves trapped there when World War II broke out on September 1, 1939.

In the summer of 1940, the Germans ordered the majority of Krakow’s Jews to relocate to other ghettos.  The Dinter family chose to go to the Bochnia ghetto, where some relatives owned property.  Along with their children and spouses, Rabbi Simcha’s three children managed to survive until the first 
Aktion [i.e., the assembly and deportation of Jews to concentration or death camps] of the Bochnia ghetto in the summer of 1942.  Most of the Dinter family perished during this Aktion, others during the Aktion in the summer of 1943.  During these Aktions [Yiddish: Aktsyes], those who were not killed in Bochnia were deported to death camps, where the overwhelming majority were murdered upon arrival.

Picture
Simcha Dinter and his wife, Bina (née Dreier) Dinter, strolling in the town square of Marienbad, Czechoslovakia, c. 1923. (Thanks to Dinter family members for providing this photograph.)
​At the war’s end, of the entire Dinter family that had been caught up in Hitler’s murderous web, only one of Rabbi Simcha’s grandsons had managed to survive.

Fortunately, research discovered a rare, well-preserved document issued by the Krakow Jewish community on August 9, 1940, just prior to the Dinter family’s relocation to the Bochnia ghetto.  This document, which bears a distinct photo, is the registration form of Abraham Dinter, a teenage grandson of Rabbi Simcha.  Tragically, Abraham Dinter would be murdered only two years later, in August of 1942, in the Belzec death camp. 

​
Picture
Abraham Dinter (b. December 29, 1923 - d. 1942), one of the many Dinter family members who perished in the Holocaust. Note the address of residence indicated on this form, issued by the Jewish community of Krakow and dated August 9, 1940: Brzozowa 9, Krakau (Krakow). (Thanks to the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, Poland for uncovering this document, and to the Dinter family, for allowing me the use of it here.)
Recently, an article was published in an Ultra-Orthodox journal printed in Israel, detailing the relationship between Rabbi Simcha and the Belzer Rebbe.  Dinter family members asked me to translate this article.  The article, which was written in Hebrew, contained undated newspaper clippings pertaining to Rabbi Simcha and his fundraising on behalf of the Belzer Hasidim.  The Belzer Rebbe is often referred to as the “Tzaddik” [i.e., a frequently used title for a Hasidic leader or rabbi]. 
 
I was glad to assist the family with this translation as well as to visit their former homestead at 9 Brzozowa Street in Krakow.  In some sense, this is both where the saga surrounding the Dinter family begins as well as ends.  At this late date (2016), there are no known Dinter family members residing in Krakow or in Poland, for that matter.  The family’s scattered remnants now reside in Israel, the United States, and in Canada, where they have sowed new roots and sprouted new branches.   

 
Following are some of the aforementioned newspaper clippings, originally in Yiddish and Hebrew, along with my accompanying translations:​
Picture

Der Tog-Morgen Zshurnal/The Day-Jewish Journal [?]

Chevra Kadisha Talmud Torah of Krakow Requests Help

[Author not indicated, undated; Yiddish]

Mr. Simcha Dinter of 119 Ridge Street [i.e., the Lower East Side, Manhattan, New York] received a heart-wrenching appeal from the Gabbais of the Chevra Kadisha Talmud Torah of Krakow, for the institute, which maintains approximately one thousand students, and which finds itself in terrible need.
​
All the kinsmen from Krakow and the surrounding towns in which the influence of the great Talmud Torah was always well-recognized, are asked to come help the institute, and everyone should send as much [money] as he can.



Picture
Der Tog-Morgen Zshurnal/The Day-Jewish Journal [?]

Announcement to All the Belzer Hasidim


[Author not indicated, undated; Yiddish]

We greatly implore all the Belzer Hasidim, as well as all the good friends of Our Master, Our Teacher, and Our Rabbi – may he live for many good days, amen – from Belz, that they gather together at the religious study house known as the “99er,” 372 Houston Street [i.e., the Lower East Side of Manhattan], if God wills it, this coming Saturday night at 8 o’clock.  For a letter just arrived from Krakow; it is very urgent to do good on behalf of the Rabbi, the Tzaddik – may he live for many good days, amen – and it will certainly be for our own good, as well.
​
From those who are anticipating your arrival,
Simcha Dinter, 119 Ridge Street
Nechemia Beck, 14 Clinton Street [i.e., the Lower East Side of Manhattan].

20 Comments
Ronald Green link
3/14/2016 10:58:32 am

My grandmother was Sarah Altkorn born in Grodeck, Poland. My grandfather, Riven Gruenspan was was born in Tarnpol, Poland. They were killed in the Holocaust.

Reply
Rivka Schiller link
3/17/2016 02:58:28 pm

Hi Ronald,

Thank you for sharing your remarks. I'm very sorry for your loss. I, too, lost many relatives in the Holocaust and consider myself most fortunate that my grandparents and great aunt managed to survive against great odds. Each survivor is a genuine miracle.

I hope this article resonated with you and will perhaps inspire you to look further into your own family history. I think it would be a befitting way of remembering and honoring the memory of your grandparents.

Kind regards,
Rivka Schiller

Reply
Lauren Belfer link
3/14/2016 05:55:23 pm

Hi, Rivka. This is a fascinating story, beautifully told -- as always.

My new novel, AND AFTER THE FIRE, will be published in May, and I'll be doing an event at the Center for Jewish History on Thursday, June 2, at 6:30. I would be very pleased if you could attend!

I hope all is well,
Warm regards,
Lauren

Reply
Nancy Thaler
3/14/2016 08:28:55 pm

Hi Rivka,

Thank you for this. It was so interesting. I'm hoping to sometime in the near future go to Poland to sight see and do a bit of detective work.

Yesterday was a lecture from the librarian at Dorot in the public library, the one who shared you name with me. Every talk is worth it. If you only learn one thing it will be worth the time.

Be Well,
Nancy Thaler

Reply
Rivka Schiller link
3/15/2016 03:28:59 pm

Dear Nancy,

I greatly appreciate your taking the time to read and comment on my blog. Along with the genealogical research you yourself have undertaken about your family, I hope that my blog helps inspire you to continue exploring new avenues into your family's history.

Indeed, I agree with you that this involves a fair amount of detective work and "connecting the dots," as I call it. That is both the challenge and the excitement that I find in connection with genealogy.

I'm glad that you were able to attend this recent lecture at Dorot (the NY Public Library's Jewish Division) and agree with you that if you learn even one new thing at such an event -- or, from reading an article -- it is certainly worth the time and effort.

Good luck in further tracing your family's roots!
Rivka

Reply
Arthur (Avrom) Miller
3/15/2016 06:17:45 am

Rivka,

What a delightful unexpected surprise to find your blog posted to this group. I’m not Chassidic, but attended a Chassidish Yeshiva (Ch’asan Sofer) on the Lower East Side during the early 50s. I’m familiar with all the streets mentioned. There seems to be a renewal of material claims in Poland to help Jews reclaim lost, confiscated or misappropriated (stolen) property. I’m wondering if the descendants of the Belze Rebbe will attempt to regain ownership of the property discussed in your blog.

b’Vracha,

avrom miller

Reply
Rivka Schiller link
3/15/2016 03:47:40 pm

Avrom,

Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts regarding my current blog.

I'm very glad if I was able to conjure up pleasant memories for you connected with your former yeshiva days on the Lower East Side of NYC.

Please feel free to share this article with your Belzer friends/acquaintances. I am curious to know if any of them has heard about Rabbi Simcha Dinter. Given everything that he did for the Belzer Hasidim, I think that the Belzer community should be immensely grateful to him.

As for the question of reclaiming family property in Poland, that is a subject for a lengthier discussion at some later time.

B'hatzlacha raba,
Rivka Schiller
PS--Thank you, also, for subscribing to my blog!

Reply
Rivka Schiller link
3/15/2016 03:20:09 pm

Hi, Lauren.

Thank you very much for your thoughtful remarks! Congratulations on your forthcoming book publication! I just read about it on Amazon:

http://goo.gl/l7KsZc

and it sounds totally spellbinding! I definitely plan to make it to your book reading and hope that some of my local (NYC) readers will also be able to attend.

Thanks again and wishing you much continued success!
Rivka

Reply
Peter
3/16/2016 01:22:37 pm

Just amazing that Rabbi Simcha Dinter kept his black hat on for his American passport photo. In 1920, that took a great deal of courage. You did fantastic research in tracing the family history from Belz to Krakow to America and back to Krakow along with the accompanying photographs. I am particularly impressed that you were able to uncover Abraham Dinter's documentation with his photo. Keep up the good work.

Reply
Rivka Schiller link
3/17/2016 03:13:52 pm

Dear Peter,

Thank you very much for your complimentary words and remarks, especially about Rabbi Simcha Dinter. Indeed, from everything that I have heard and read about the rabbi, he must have been a very important -- as well as humble -- figure. I sincerely hope that he has received recognition within the Belzer community for all that he gave of himself on their behalf.

As for the documentation, I don't usually work within a vacuum. I also have to extend my gratitude to Dinter family members who assisted me with my article and who were invested in learning more about their exemplary ancestor.

When I was first shown the document + photo of Abraham Dinter, I was exceptionally moved, given that I so seldom see photos -- and vivid ones, at that -- of individuals who perished in the Holocaust. I realized then, that that document, along with the various photos of Rabbi Simcha, would make for an interesting article.

Thanks again for sharing your thoughts.

With all good wishes,
Rivka Schiller

Reply
ND Weiss
3/20/2016 01:28:03 pm

Dear Rivka,
I was forwarded this link by my mother who is named after Bina.
R' Simcha And Bina Dinter are my great-great-grandparents.
We were always told by my grandmother all about her grandparents and their close connections to the Belzer Rebbe.

Thank you for the research!

Reply
Adrienne Dinter
3/21/2016 09:31:35 am

Rivka, Thank you sooooo much for this awesome article about the Dinter's. We loved it!!!!! You are amazing!!!!! My whole family loved it!!!! We appreciate it sooooo much. Be well, and thank you again. Adrienne.

Reply
Rivka Schiller link
3/21/2016 09:55:04 am

Adrienne,

Thank you very much for your very positive and receptive message! I am genuinely glad that you and your family enjoyed my article. I sincerely hope that I did R' Simcha and Bina Dreier Dinter -- and their family -- justice, in the manner in which I wrote about them.

Best wishes and a very Happy Purim,
Rivka

Reply
Rivka Schiller link
3/21/2016 09:51:14 am

Dear N. Dina,

Thank you for your lovely reply! I am glad to hear that somebody in your immediate family is named for Bina Dreier Dinter. Although my article focused mainly on your great great grandfather, R' Simcha Dinter, I understand that Bina Dinter was also a very fine woman in her own right. She also deserves to be remembered.

When I was in Krakow in September 2014, one of the sites I visited was the new Jewish cemetery on Miodowa Street, where R. Simcha and Bina Dinter are supposedly buried. Unfortunately, though, I was unable to locate their graves at the time. It is a fairly large cemetery, and it helps to know where one is going when making a visit there.

Thanks again for your interest and I greatly appreciate hearing from you!

Best wishes,
Rivka Schiller

Reply
Jay Ipson
3/21/2016 10:43:31 am

Brings back memories of pr-WWII Europe

Reply
Rivka Schiller link
3/21/2016 11:01:42 am

Thank you, Jay, for your vote of authenticity -- spoken as a true pre-WWII native of (Eastern) Europe! I am sure that you and some of my other readers can find material here to which to relate.

Kind regards,
Rivka Schiller

Reply
Xavier Vanvaerenbergh
6/6/2016 12:22:43 am

Hello,
I am carrying out research about a family that lived at this exact address from 1932 to 1941. They were close to the Belzer rebbes, which explains why they lived at the same address.
If this bears any interest at all for you, you can contact me via e-mail, I will gladly share what I know (which isn't a lot, but still).
Best regards.

Reply
Rivka Schiller link
6/7/2016 07:21:40 am

Dear Xavier,

Thank you so much for contacting me with this interesting and exciting information!

I would love to learn more about the family you are researching, as I imagine that they and the Dinters must have known each other in pre-WWII Krakow.

Please, let's stay in touch, and I hope we can share research information in the future.

Kind regards,
Rivka Schiller

Reply
Rosalie Halstuch(Glait)-Kupfer
1/15/2017 08:04:16 am

Enjoyed reading your article.I am a cousin of Ruthie Glait which also makes a Chmelnicker landsman(on my mother's) side.
My father inherited a property on Josefa street in the jewish part of Krakow..With the help of a polish real estate agent Ithe property in now mine .Should anyone you know need help to have family property returned please contact me.

Reply
Rivka Schiller link
1/15/2017 08:39:15 am

Hi Rosalie,

Thank you for your informative remarks. I believe we may have been in touch before. I definitely recall seeing ul. Josefa (Josef St.) when walking around the Jewish quarter of Krakow.

I am actually quite amazed to hear that your father was able to inherit property in Krakow. This is something that may be of interest to other readers here, as well.

If you would please email me privately at: rivka@rivkasyiddish.com to share your contact details with me, I would appreciate that.

As for Chmielnik, indeed, I also have roots there and wrote about that connection in a few of my "Forays into Yiddish" blogs. I am familiar with the Glajt family. One specific name that comes to mind is "Melech Glajt."

Thanks again for writing and I hope to hear from you privately.

Best wishes,
Rivka

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