Majer and Rachel Lea WALZER - greatgrandparents of Alejandra WALZER MOSKOVIC

Alejandra WALZER MOSKOVIC, now working in Spain, has roots in Lubaczow. She visited Lubaczow some years ago with her father Isidore WALZER z"l. Her father died this year.

Alejandra's grandfather Rafal Rafael WALZER  emigrated from Lubaczow to Argentina back in 1925. Rafal's parents were Majer WALZER and Rachel Lea WALZER nee WALZER.

Majer and Rachel Lea were first cousins.

Majer was the son of  Izrael Israel WALZER and Rachel Lea the daughter of Izrael's brother Bernard Dov WALZER.

Majer and Rachel Lea were both murdered in the Holocaust. 

Alejandra is writing a book about her search for her family history, a search she has no idea what the end result will be.

Perhaps you have any information that will help her?

Kolel Galicja in Jerusalem and their connection to Lubaczow

Imagine living in Lubaczow from the year 1830 forward, and though you and your family could not, for so many reasons, go to Jerusalem to be a Thora scholar,  you wanted to support those from Galicja who had gone there. 

                      The Charities of Rabbi Meir Baal Haness - Kolel

”Chibas Yerusholayim” (Jerusalem) of Galicia

“Founded in the year 5590(1830) by the Gaonim & the Tzadikim of Galicia to

 support & strengthen the Yishuv in our Holy Land”

Despite the harsh conditions in the Holy Land,  those Galicjan scholars stayed there with their families, dedicating their lives to studying the Holy Scriptures.

So back in Lubaczow and in other places in Galicja, families kept small boxes - pushke - in their homes, adding money that would be sent to Kolel Galicja in Jerusalem to support those who lived there . Money needed to support families, widows, orphans, supporting young women to get married. A few times a year, a trusted local person would walk to the different Jewish families and collect the money in those metal boxes, and then send the money to Jerusalem.

Each donation noted with the name of the donor and the money donated.

Once I met Shlomo Helsinger, originally from Lubaczow, in Kfar Saba. Through his amazing memory, he looked at the list and described how the collector had walked from one home to the other, first floor, second floor, crossing the street, sometimes noting that so and so family was poor and could not give any more. He had the map of Jewish Lubaczow in his head - after close to 60 years since he left Lubaczow.

Kolel Galicja, still exists on Mea Shearim Street 120 in Jerusalem. I have been fortunate to visit a few times. It is like walking back in time, sensing history.          

In their archives they have some of the donor lists from the 1920's and 1930's. For Lubaczow the lists were from 1930's.

If your family came from Lubaczow, lived there in the 1930's and would be likely to support the religious students living in Jerusalem, and you are visiting Jerusalem, it may be worth making an appointment for a visit to Kolel Galicja. Dress appropriately!

In this donors' lists from Lubaczow,  I decided to add the given names of the female donors:

ALTMAN

BELZ

BOGNER

FISCHLER  Kreinze   

FRAENKEL

GOTLIEB  Rachel

GROSS

HALPER  Ester

HERZBERG  Ester  

HOFFMAN

KNOPF

KONIG  Lea

KREMERMAN

MUELLER

REINFELD Hendel  

RETTIG

ROST

SCHMIDT Scheindel

TEMPELMAN

WEINROTH/WEINRATH

Three of these women appear on the Yizkor list for Lubaczow, so it is most likely they were murdered during the Holocaust:

FISCHLER  Kreinze   

HERZBERG  Ester  

REINFELD Hendel   

Kolel Galicja's website in Hebrew  https://www.hibat.org/

An example of donors' lists from Bukowsko:

https://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/Bukowsko/charity.htm

Alejandra Walzer Moskovic pays respect to Bogdan's grave in Oleczyce

 

Rivka GETZ and her family members visited Lubaczow back in 2014

 

 

January 2014

Rivka Getz:

How sad and what a loss for humanity.  

When our family came for a brief visit to Lubaczow to visit our grandfathers' graves,  Bogdan was right there, helping out in his kind manner.  He actually volunteered to drive us to  Oleszyce to that cemetery, which he had also cared for.  

He was a really good person and will be missed.  Our condolences to his family.

Rivka, her sister Miriam and many family members came to Lubaczow in January 2014 as you can read about in this post.

https://jewishcemeterylubaczow2015.blogspot.com/2015/02/row-1-grave-17-moshe-koenig.html

Our dear friend Bogdan Lisze z"l has died

 With sadness we announce that our dear friend

      Bogdan Lisze

suddenly died in Stuttgart, Germany on July 27th 2024.

He was buried in Oleszyce , Poland on August 12th 2024.

Bogdan has been such a crucial person for making us all remember the Jews who once lived in Lubaczow and for initiating the transformation  of the Jewish cemetery in Lubaczow  into what it is today.

Simon Lavee and Bogdan z"l in Lubaczow in 2016

 

This photo was taken by Sam and Tamar Halpern during the International Holocaust events in Lubaczow in 2016.

The man to the left is the author of the book Jewish Hit Squad, Mr. Simon Lavee.

Here is the author's description of his book. The book was published by Gefen Publishing House in 2013.

Jewish Hit Squad is about the Armja Krajowa Jewish Raid Unit. This group of partisans operated in the vicinity of Lubaczow - Zamosc June 22, 1941 - July 21, 1944.

My parents were partisans who survived the Holocaust hiding in the woods of southern Galicia. But this is not just another story about Jewish partisans during WWII! The crux of the book focuses on a unique situation – a small band of fighters who not only tried to survive German brutality, but actively fought the Nazis during WWII.

The book first outlines how my parents were involved with an underground Polish movement – the Armia Krajowa (AK). The irony was that this umbrella group did not particularly like Jews, yet operated a Jewish partisan group led by Mundek Lukawiecki (my father) in the forests of southern Galicia. My father’s Jewish partisan group was actually an AK Hit Squad that took out German soldiers, as well as Polish and Ukrainian Nazi collaborators. Most of their missions were carried out wearing German Wehrmacht uniforms, as members of the group (especially my father) were able to speak German. In addition to these planned “hits”, the group also attacked strategic German targets such as fuel trains, military installations, and general sabotaged Nazi operations.

The Hit Squad also undermined the Ost Plan, which was the German/Ukrainian plan to resettle Germans in Zamosc (which became known as Himmlerstadt). The book explains that attempting to stop this plan was in fact the main goal of the AK Partisan movement, led by the local commander, Marian Warda.

At the end of WW II, the book examines how Mundek Lukawiecki enlisted in the Polish Communist Secret Police (UB). He essentially crossed the line to the other side and continued to exact revenge on Nazi collaborators. After the UB discovered that he is simultaneously supporting the Israeli underground Etzel in Palestine by sending them Jewish fighters in 1946, he is forced to flee Poland. The book concludes with my parents’ arrival in Israel in 1948.

In addition to this unique and remarkable story, we have about 50 pictures of the partisan group/hit squad that were taken during WWII and will be an integral part of the book.

Worth reading this article

https://www.jns.org/the-partisans-camera/

One of the members of Mundek's partisans was young Moshe Hoffman.

 He was born in 1929 in Lubaczow. Moshe, who later became  Maurie Hoffman in Australia, wrote a book he called "Keep Yelling!"

https://www.monash.edu/arts/acjc/research-and-projects/online-resources-and-mini-sites/holocaust-memoirs/maurie-hoffman

Tamar and Sam Halpern from Israel were back in Lubaczow in January 2016 for the International Holocaust Day

 Here are some of their photos from that visit.

Simon Lavee , the book he wrote, and Bogdan z"l

Sam Halpern and Bogdan z"l

 Bogdan z"l and Tamar Halpern