Horowitz family killed in Przemyślany

Another new document from the archive, this time concerning the Horowitz family from Czarny Dunajec and Chocholow. It's a notice published in the Polish Monitor in 1947 by the Court in Czarny Dunajec about "ordering proceedings to declare them dead." At issue here are 8 members of the Horowitz family, who resided during the war in Przemyślany, where they were to be killed in an execution in 1942. You can read more about the ghetto in Przemyślany, the executions and the transports to the death camp on the Belzec museum website.

The four people mentioned are the children of Wiktor (Avigdor) Horowitz, a baker from Czarny Dunajec (the Horowitz family had a bakery on Sienkiewicza Street) and Schifra Apolonia, née Spingar: Estera (born 1900), Hela (1907), Cila (1913) and son Kiwa, who was also a baker (1916). Only Estera was married, she married Beldegrün.

The other four were Jozef Horowitz, a merchant from Chocholow, born there in 1860, son of Kiwa and Rozalia, his wife Rela (Rosa) née Stieglitz (1869), and their two children, Bertha (1902) and Hersh (1904), both unmarried.

It is likely that the two families were closely related, and it is possible that Jozef Horowitz was Wiktor's brother, so he traveled to Przemyślany with his children, nieces and a nephew. It is not known whether the group of Jews from Podhale who stayed in Przemyślany during the war was larger, perhaps the announcement refers only to the Horowitz family, and in addition to them their other relatives stayed there.

Information from the Monitor Polski indicates that the court initiated the proceedings at the request of Mendel Horowitz (then residing in Klodzko) and Marian Horowitz (residing in Nowy Targ). The latter probably refers to Marian Horowitz, a baker who converted, and his grave (and that of his wife Karolina) is in the Catholic cemetery in Czarny Dunajec.

The grave of Marian and Karolina Horowitz at the Catholic cemetery in Czarny Dunajec, Photo: Michal Szaflarski

I will continue to describe the story of this Horowitz family, as it featured a very interesting thread of a well-known rabbi in Cracow, who was born in Chocholow in the second half of the 19th century.