Story of the Kleinzahler family

The Kleinzahler family settled in Czarny Dunajec in the mid-19th century. Family recollections indicate that Arie Lejb Kleinzahler was born around 1826 in Wisnicz, and was married to Rachel Weil from Nowy Sacz (born 1853). Arie Lejb likely studied to be a rabbi in Nowy Sacz, as the family recalls that his mentor was the famous Tzaddik of Nowy Sacz, Chaim Halberstam (1793-1876), who insisted that his student become a rabbi. After moving to Czarny Dunajec around 1850, Arie Lejb declined the challenge and worked there as a teacher, a mohel (he circumcised boys), and a shohet (ritual slaughterer). The Jewish community's civil records mention Arie Leib Kleinzahler working as a mohel and Segensprecher (literally, "blesser") at the time. According to family memories, her grandfather served 13 towns - from Czarny Dunajec to Podwilk, but as he got older, he gave up some of them until, at the end of his life, he worked only in Czarny Dunajec.

Arie Leib and Rachel had at least five children: Pinkus Aron (1885), Sara (ca. 1886), Chaim, Gila, and Beila.

According to data from the Austrian military archives Pinkus Aron Kleinzahler was wounded during World War I, a fact confirmed by the recollections of his nephew, Leib Sprei.

Sara Kleinzahler married Chaim Sprei, a merchant from Czarny Dunajec, and they lived near the Market Square. Their eldest child, daughter Gila, was born in 1904, followed by Izrael, then Szymon (born 1908), Lea, Aron, Zlate (born 1912), Pinkus (born 1913), Rachela, Samuel Baruch (born 1919), Lejb (born March 25, 1921), Salomon (born 1923), and daughter Feigel (born 1926). Only three of them survived the Holocaust: Gila, who had emigrated to Palestine before the war; Pinkus, who fled eastward; and Lejb, who survived labor camps (including the one in Czarny Dunajec), concentration camps, and death marches. 

Gila Kleinzahler married Chanine Kornkraut. They lived in Nowy Sącz. She ran a shop, and her husband was a student of the famous Rabbi Shlomo Halberstam (grandson of the aforementioned Chaim Halberstam), founder of the Bobov yeshiva and the Bobov Hasidic dynasty.

Chaim Kleinzahler (Yehuda Chaim, also known as Judel) was a tailor by trade and also served as a deputy city councilor (from 1920). He lived with his wife Freidel (also known as Fradla, née Teitelbaum, from Gorlice) near the synagogue, later near the Market Square. However, in the house on Sienkiewicz street, he ran not a tailor's workshop, but a dairy, assisted by his sons. In 1910, Chaim obtained a license to run a tavern in Czarny Dunajec. He leased buildings on the market square on the road to Ciche from the community. A bowling alley was set up in the former pigsty, and next door was an inn. Across the road was the house where the Kleinzahler family lived (the house was demolished in 2021, but we'll return to it later). Residents of Czarny Dunajec recalled that Chaim's nickname was "Chamidlo," and to this day, this part of the town near the old market square is called "Chamidlo."

Chaim and Rosa had at least seven children. From the residents' recollections, we know that "they had three sons: Pinkus, Mendel, and Szymon, and two daughters, graceful and tall. One of the sons was mute. The sons were also handsome."

In the archives, we found Menachem Mendel (born 1901), Pinkus Aron (born 1902), Rywka Laja (born 1909), and Szymon (born 1912). Descendants of the family confirmed that Chaim and Rosa had daughters, Gila and Beila, and a son, Yehuda Chaim Leib, and likely the youngest sibling, Mejloch (Meilech), born around 1920/21.

Reisel and Mendel Kleinzahler, photo from Kleinzahler family archive

We know the most about Menachem's family, Mendel Kleinzahler, because his children survived the Holocaust. Mendel married Reisel (Rozalia) Korngut, daughter of Moses and Leah, merchants from Czarny Dunajec. A marriage register entry from August 26, 1926, is preserved in the archives. Rabbi Isaac Lipschütz of Czarny Dunajec officiated the wedding.

Mendel ran a dairy in the family home, then his father's inn. In 1927, their first child was born, a son, Issachar Ber, also known as Berek (or Dov), and then three more each year: Leib, Josef, and Lola (Leah). When the war broke out, the entire six-member family, along with Mendel's brother, Szymon, fled east. Their parents and uncle died en route in the USSR, but four children survived and were evacuated to Palestine in 1943 as the so-called "Children of Tehran." The full story of the Kleinzahler family's escape, their stay in the east, and the children's rescue can be read in the article "Children of Tehran" from Czarny Dunajec. We don't know whether the rest of the family stayed or fled, but according to the family's recollections, no one else survived the Holocaust. Arie Leib died in 1916 at the age of 90, and information in the death register indicates that his wife, Rachela, died a year later at the age of 64.

Photo of the four siblings after their arrival in Israel and before the war in 1948, photo from the Kleinzahler family archive

As a postscript to this family story, will be the story of Mejloch Kleinzahler's letter. Mejloch was probably the youngest of Mendel's siblings and his brothers and sisters, and the uncle of Berek, Lejb, Josef, and Lea. When the house where the Kleinzahler family lived before the war was demolished in 2021, a letter was found in it in the attic. The priceless document is 16 pages long, written by Mejloch Kleinzahler, probably 18 at the time, to his cousin. It is dated August 17, 1939, and was never sent. You can read the full story of the letter and its contents here.