Saturday, July 16, 2016

What to do when circumstances change?

One of the couples who lived in Lubaczow before World War One, was Baruch  / Boruch Uszer BACH and his wife Chaja BACH. Baruch was born around 1860 and Chaja around 1866.

Baruch BACH was the son of Moses and Laja BACH.

We know of at least four children:
1. The son Josef BACH was born around 1883.
2. The son Max Moses BACH born in 1890 in Lubaczow
3. The  daughter Frieda BACH born ca 1895 in Lubaczow.
4. The  daughter Rachel BACH, born around 1904 in Lubaczow. 

In 1899 there was a big fire in Lubaczow, destroying much of the center of the town. After this, emigration increased, mostly to the United States.


In 1910 Moses BACH traveled from Berlin to Hamburg and then to New York. He was 20 years old, and according to the records he had already been in the States a few years earlier.  Though he came from Berlin, he lists his father Baruch BACH in Lubaczow as the person he has left behind. For some reason, his name has a line over it in the manifest. Did he have problems getting into the States? 


In the States Moses BACH became  Max BACH.


In 1913 Frieda BACH traveled from Lubaczow to New York, listing that she has left her father Baruch BACH in Lubaczow and that she is going to her brother Max BACH in New York. She  was 18 years old at the time.


On August 13th 1915 Boruch Uszer BACH died in Lubaczow. He was 55 years old.  
Later that month, his son Josef BACH, 32, died.
So far we have not located these two graves.


Left in Lubaczow were Chaja the widow,  51 years old, and the youngest daughter Rachel, only 11 years old.
The two children  who had emigrated before the war to the States, Max and Frieda, were now 25 and 20.


During World War One  immigration to the States more or less stopped.


In 1921, six years after the death of Baruch BACH, his widow Chaja and his daughter Rachel traveled from Lubaczow to New York to join Max and Frieda BACH, leaving behind the family graves of Baruch and Leib BACH.