My Fingerhut Family from Lemberg, Austria-Hungary (updated 5/24/2023)

Bernard and Adela Fingerhut, seen here, were my grandfather's parents. They came to the United States in 1906 from Lemberg, Austria-Hungary (aka Lwow, Poland; Lvov, Russia; and now L'viv, Ukraine). The surname Fingerhut is German for "thimble," implying that ancestors were tailors. Other family last names forcibly adopted by my Galitzianer Jewish ancestors around 1787 are also humble German: Fischer (fisher), Tafel (table), Niedrig (lowly).

But the Fingerhut men said they were part of the Tribe of Kohen, the direct patrilineal descendants of Israel's high priest Aaron, the brother of Moses who delivered the Hebrews from Egypt. These brothers were in turn the great-grandsons of Levi (the son of Jacob, the grandson of Isaac, and the great-grandson of Abraham).

The Book of Numbers says that Aaron's grandson Phinehas, the third high priest of Israel, used violent means to stop the Israelites from marrying Canaanite women. Winning divine favor, Phinehas entered a covenant that has marked his male descendants as a priestly caste for over 3,000 years. Technically, my grandfather and his brother were our family's last surviving male links of this long chain of Biblical descent, but I don't believe they ever blessed congregations or performed other Kohen duties.

The biblical family tree of Aaron (unknown Internet source).

Some surviving gravestones of Fingerhut men in Brody, Ukraine (about 60 miles from Lemberg) include the symbol of the Kohen priestly blessing, so they may have been part of the same family.

Fingerhut & Fischer family tree. Click for larger view.

THE FINGERHUT FAMILY OF LEMBERG

The Golden Rose Synagogue in Lemberg, where several members of the Fingerhut family were married in the mid-1800s. This picture is from Lemberg's yizkor memorial book.

The Evidence Books of Lemberg

Most Ashkenazi Jewish family trees hit major "brick walls" at the turn of the 19th century, when Eastern Europe started to keep vital records of its Jews. Older Jewish community records like pinkes books are long lost, and only partially recovered in post-World War II yizkor books.

Lemberg's Jewish community is a rare exception, with extensive documentation of its late-18th century residents. I owe genealogist P.Y. Mund my deep gratitude for helping me better understand these records, and what follows largely derives from his insights.

In 1794-1795, Austrian officials began to keep Family Evidence Books (also called Family Evidence Files or the Book of Residents), and assigned Jewish households a "congregational family number" to show that they paid additional taxes into order to be considered legal residents of Lemberg. It's likely these additional taxes funded activities in the Jewish community, but again, Jews had to register and pay a tax specifically assigned to Jewish people in order to be deemed residents of their own city.

By 1795, 3,070 families were registered, and in 1805 the files stopped at a capped number of 3,764 families. A "household" in these files needed to be headed by a (usually married) man. Once the man's children married, the couples would be marked as separate households with their own numbers. Once the male head of a household died, his family number would be reassigned to another household. The man's widow and children who were still minors had to be listed under a different household headed by a man (who was sometimes a relative, and sometimes wasn't). Austrian officials tracked the deaths of Jewish men and the formation of new Jewish households through the 1840s, recycling the same 3,764 family numbers over and over and over. Use of the evidence files declined in the mid-1800s, but Jewish residents of Lemberg occasionally continued to be assigned to existing family numbers through the 1850s and 1860s. Only after the legal emancipation of Galicia's Jews in 1869 did the Family Evidence Files finally reach obsolescence.

Family Evidence Book entry for Family #2147: Isaac Bergtraum, his wife Perle, and his children.

Therefore, the Family Evidence Books allow genealogists to trace multiple generations of Lemberg's Jewish families. P.Y. Mund's genealogical research using these files can be sampled here and here. The evidence files contain fascinating details usually omitted from Lemberg's sparse vital records, such as occupations, and a clearer picture of family structure.   

A note on Jewish marriages in Galicia: 

The anti-Semitic Austrian officials in control of Galicia tried (and failed) to contain the growth of the Jewish population by not recognizing Jewish religious marriage ceremonies, and limiting the ability for Jews to get legally married. Until 1830, only one son from each Jewish family was allowed to officially marry. Until 1858, all Jewish couples in Lemberg had to pass a written test before their marriage. These discriminatory measures did not impact the size of the Jewish population, but as a result many Jewish birth records falsely list the children as “illegitimate,” with their mother's maiden names, and sometimes with no father listed. When Jewish couples did get married, it was often years or even decades after their first religious marriage, and it was often to legitimize children in the eyes of the anti-Semitic law. I list my ancestors below under their fathers' last names, even if their legal names may have been different.

The earliest-known generations on my family tree were born when the city of Lwow was still part of the Kingdom of Poland. Then in 1772, Poland was conquered and partitioned, the region of Galicia fell into Austrian hands, and Lwow was given a German name, "Lemberg." In 1787, Austrian officials forced their Jewish subjects to take last names instead of traditional patronyms. The "Family Evidence Books" that Lemberg officials started to keep in 1794-1795 are the primary source of information for this generation.

Interestingly, genealogist P.Y. Mund disagrees with the often-repeated story that Austrian officials forced the Jews of this generation to adapt insulting surnames. As he explained to me: "Having gone through every surname of 1790s Lemberg and most surnames of Brody of the same era, I am not convinced that 'bad surnames' were imposed as a general rule. Most surnames look arbitrary; many, I suspect, are disguised versions of the pre-surname epithets used by Jews for each other. (It is known to be the case with some rabbinic families, where surnames often hide old patronymics/matronymics: Bernstein/Bernfeld for Ber's son, Scheindlinger for Scheindel's son, etc.) There are often puns at play (Arch for a family whose earliest member with a surname is named Noah; Hirsch for a family whose first member is Naftali)... Appearance-based epithets were common in Yiddish as identifiers until the Holocaust: der nideriger Yossel, der shvartser Berl (short Yossel, black-haired Berl)."

The first generation

Ester Hopfen (born c.1720?; died 1796 in Lemberg) lived an incredibly long time ago — it's very rare to find documents for a non-rabbinical Ashkenazi Jewish ancestor who died in the 18th century. Ester was probably a little younger than the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa, born at a time when the Baal Shem Tov was still a little-known village rabbi, and the rabbis of Lemberg were excommunicating the followers of the late false messiah Shabbetai Zevi. Ester and her unknown husband had at least a son: 

1. Elias Hopfen (died 1804), whose family continues below. 

The second generation

Elias Hopfen / Elie Hoppen (died 1804 in Lemberg), a homeowner and a Schänker (tavern keeper), headed congregational family #830, and he and his wife Chana bat David (1745?-1815) had at least three children: 

1. Zwie Hersch Hopfen, whose family continues below. 

2. Dewora Gittel Hopfen (c.1793-1854), who married Israel Reiss (c.1797) in an 1840 civil ceremony, and their children included: 

2a. Leib Reiss (born 1818), who married Sime Jente Stark (1817) in 1844 and had a family.

        2b. Nachmen Dawid Reiss (born 1822), who married Dwore Gietel Herland and had a family.

2c. Chaim Reiss (born 1824)

2d. Soel Reiss (born 1829)

2e. Chana Reiss (1831-1831) 

2f. Jachwed Reiss (1833-1838)

3. Gerendl Hopfen (1795)

Baruch Schreiber (died 1830), a Thoraschreiber ("Torah scribe" or sofer) and the head of congregational family #2163, clearly took his profession as a surname. He married Rachael Kamaides [Chameides] (died 1844), whose maiden name pre-dates the mandatory surnames of 1787, and their children included:

1. Jermias Nochem Schreiber (born c.1772) and his wife Chaje Gittel had a family, including:

      1a. Esther Schreiber (1799-1803)

      1b. Israel Schreiber (1803-1826)

      1c. Rywka Schreiber (died 1806)

      1d. Wolf Schreiber (1807-1808)

      1e. Dawid Hersch Schreiber (born 1809)

      1f. Aaron Schreiber (born 1810)

      1g. Abraham Schreiber (born 1815)

      1h. Isaac Mendel Schreiber (born 1818)

2. Daniel Mayer Schreiber and his wife Chaje (c.1789-1819) had a family, including:
      2a. Moses Abraham Schreiber (1806-1807)

      2b. Chaim Michel Schreiber (1808-1810)

      2c. Jacob Schreiber (1813)
      2d. Ester Schreiber (born 1814)

      2e. Berl Schreiber (c.1817-1819)

      2f. Pesel Schreiber (born 1818)

      2g. unnamed daughter, who died 2 days after birth (1819-1819)

3. Gedalie Iser [Isarias] Schreiber (born c.1777; died 1831 in Lemberg), whose family continues below.
4. Ezechiel Schreiber
5. Haga Schreiber
6. Wolf Schreiber
7. Berl Schreiber (born 1804)

8. Aaron Schreiber (died 1806)

Joseph Silber was a Silberarbeiter (silversmith), and his surname reflected his career. He married Laja Hersch (born c.1758) and headed congregational family #1064. In 1796, Joseph was "removed" from the Family Evidence Books. The exact meaning of "removed" is unclear, but maybe he fled Lemberg? Laja and her children were then listed under congregational family #3081, and she was designated as verlassen (abandoned). The children of Joseph and Laja included:

1. Golde Silber, a daughter (born c.1777)
2. Lea Silber, a daughter (born c.1784), whose family continues below.
3. Hersch Silber, a son (born c.1787)

The third generation

My 5th-great-grandfather Fingerhut, who was probably a tailor, and his immediate family remain unknown, as their congregational family file (#722) is part of a lost volume that covered families #401-800. This unknown ancestor had at least one son: 

1. Naphtaly Fingerhut (c.1778-1818), whose family continues below.  

Isaac Bergtraum, a fleischhandler (meat merchant), took a surname that means "Mountain-dream" in German. Many Jews at the time took nature-based German surnames, possibly to fit in with the romantic German culture. A lot of relatives in our Fingerhut family love the mountains, so maybe it's genetic! By the 1790s, Isaac headed congregational family #2147 and was married to Perle David (born c.1756; died 1816 in Lemberg), and his children included:
1. Asriel Bergtraum (born c.1764; died 1852 in Lemberg), a son, whose family continues below.
2. Jütte Bergtraum, a daughter, who first married Saloman Hering (c.1779-1815), and their children incuded:
      2a. Joseph Hering (born 1810)
      2b. Rischel Hering (1814-1814)
Jütte then married Hersch Fiedler [or Fidler] (c.1792-1831) in 1816 in Lemberg, and their children included:
      2c. Malie Fiedler (born 1816)
      2d. Feibusch Fiedler (1818-1851)
      2e. Perel Fiedler (born 1821, twin)
      2f. Chaje Fiedler (born 1821, twin)
      2g. Schneyer Fiedler (1822-1825)
      2h. Leibisch Fiedler (born 1825)
Isaac also had a stepson, Sauel Wolf (c.1778-1845), presumably the son of Perle.

Mayer Tafel (born c.1747; died 1819 in Lemberg) was a widower by the 1790s. He headed congregational family #1349, and his children included:
1. Raphael Tafel (c.1780-1846), a son, who married Ester Turk (c.1791-1837) and their children included:
      1a. Hersch Tafel (1807-1811)
      1b. Freude Tafel (born 1822), who married her first cousin Joel Tafel, seen below.

      1c. Sara Tafel (c.1823-1888), who married Isak Kehl.

      1d. Mayer Tafel (1824-1882)
      1e. Chaje Tafel (c.1827-1828)

      1f. Gitla Tafel (c.1828-1883) 
      1g. Salomon Tafel (1829-1829)

      1h. Mischke Tafel (c.1833-1898)
2. Serke Tafel, a daughter.
3. Berl Tafel (c.1792-1854), a son, who married Rachel Basche Hobel (born c.1795) in 1810 in Lemberg and their children included:
      3a. Leib Tafel (c.1815-1821)

      3b. Gitla Tafel (c.1819-1883)
      3c. Meyer Tafel (born 1822)
      3d. Joel Tafel (born 1824), who married his first cousin Freude Tafel (born 1822), seen above. They were parents by 1851 but were legally married in 1871 in Lemberg.
      3e. Sara Chane Tafel (1827-1827)
4. Mendel Tafel (died 1795), a son.
Mayer Tafel had a nephew, Gimpel Tafel, whose family continues below.

Samuel Fischer (born c.1730; died 1810 in Lemberg) married Gittel (probably c.1775-1827), and their family evidence file (#659) is part of the lost volume. Their children included:

1. Michel Fischer (born c.1799; died 1850 in Lemberg), a grain dealer, who first married Malke Beile Krochmal (c.1800-1846) in 1841 in Lemberg and their children included: 

      1a. stillborn son (died 1823)

      1b. Salomon Fischer (born c.1826 in Lemberg)

      1c. Aron Hersch / Jone Fischer (1826-1826), a son who died at 14 days old. 

      1d. Moses Schie Fischer (born 1827 in Lemberg), who married Zirel Bahr (c.1829) in 1849 in Lemberg. 

      1e. Esther Chaje Fischer (born 1829 in Lemberg; died 1858 in Lemberg), probably a twin, who married Abraham Hahn (c.1825-1860) in 1848 in Lemberg. 

      1f. Sara Fischer (born 1829 in Lemberg), probably a twin. 

      1g. Ciwie / Zipe Fischer (born 1831 in Lemberg; died 1862 in Lemberg)

      1g. Chana Fischer (1832-1832)

      1h. Dwora Pessel Fischer (born 1834 in Lemberg)

      1i. miscarried son (died 1839)

Michel then married Golde Ron (c.1827) in 1848 in Lemberg and their children included: 

      1j. Salomon Fischer (1848-1848)

      1k. Meyer Fischer (born 1850 in Lemberg)
2. Sosche Liebe Fischer (born c.1806 in Lemberg; died 1879 in Lemberg), married Moses Mayer Löchel (c.1805-1859) in 1833 in Lemberg and their children included:
      2a. Salomon Löchel (died 1831)
      2b. Mathus Löchel (1832-1833)
      2c. Chaim Löchel (c.1833-1859)
      2d. Gittel Löchel (born 1834), who first married Tobias Heu (c.1828-1866) in 1856 in Lemberg, and then married Psache Einschlag.
      2e. Sime Pessel Löchel (1836-1837)
      2f. Aron Löchel (c.1838-1839)
      2g. Sara Löchel (c.1840-1863)
      2h. Samuel Löchel (c.1843-1863)
3. a nameless daughter (died 1807 in Lemberg)
4. Mendel Hersh Fischer (born 1808 in Lemberg; died 1864 in Lemberg), a son, whose family continues below.

Zwie Hersch Hopfen, a wood merchant and head of congregational family #3574, and Feige Schönhaus (c.1779/1784 - 1831) had at least a daughter:

1. Zluwe Hopfen (born c.1803; died 1863 in Lemberg), whose family continues below.

Feige Schönhaus (1779/1784 – May 29, 1831) was born in Jaroslaw or Jaryczow. She separated from Zwie Hersch Hopfen around 1803 and served as a maid to Joseph Mehl, a "Mehlverkaufer" (flour seller). Interestingly, Feige's last name literally means "beautiful house" in German. Feige then married Joseph Gorne / Jossel Gorne (1783/1787 – May 23, 1831) in 1803, and most of their children died young. Joseph and Feige Gorne then endured one more tragedy, both dying of cholera at the start of Lemberg's cholera outbreak. A global cholera pandemic that lasted from 1826-1837 reached Russia by 1829, and Russian soldiers combatting Poland's November Uprising spread pestilience to Eastern Europe in early 1831. Lemberg first recorded cholera deaths, including Joseph Gorne, on May 23, 1831, and cholera deaths continued in the city through August 16, 1831. The children of Joseph and Feige Gorne included: 

1. Chaje Sora Gorne (1808)

2. Mordche Mayer Gorne (1811)

3. infant daughter (1814-1814)

4. Abraham Gorne (1815-1815)

5. Isaac Gorne (1816)
6. Abraham Gorne (1819-1855)

7. Sobel Gorne (1825-1825)

8. Jacob Gorne (1828-1829)

Gedalie Iser Schreiber (born c.1777; died 1831 in Lemberg) married his first wife Dwora (died 1806 in Lemberg) probably in 1799 in Lemberg, and their children included:
1. Pessel Schreiber (born 1804 in Lemberg; died 1806 in Lemberg), a daughter.
In 1806, Gedalie, as the head of congregational family #2026, married a second wife named Czeitel, and their children included:

2. Moses Hersch Schreiber (born in 1807 in Lemberg), whose family continues below.
3. Rifke Rochel Scheriber (born 1809 in Lemberg; died 1810 in Lemberg), a daughter.
4. Michel Nochem Schreiber (born 1811 in Lemberg; died 1813 in Lemberg), a son.
5. Chaim Aron Schreiber (born 1813 in Lemberg), a son, who married Rose Bierer (born c.1821). They were parents by 1841 and had a legal marriage in 1850 in Lemberg. They had at least 16 children(!):
      5a. Gedalie Isser Schreiber (1841), who married Rischel Kornhaber and had a family.
      5b. Chane Beile Scheriber (1842), who married Isak Munisch Schonfeld and had a family.
      5c. Emanuel [Kessiel Mendel] Schreiber (1844), who married Gietel Kornhaber and had a family.
      5d. Samuel Jozef Schreiber (1845), who married Rachel Kornhaber and had a family.
      5e. Dresel Schreiber (c.1849-1850)
      5f. Israel Schreiber (1850)
      5g. Feige Nesche Schreiber (1852-1853)
      5h. David Isaac Schreiber (1853)
      5i. Menachem Jehoschia Schreiber (1854)
      5j. Juda Schreiber (c.1855-1860)
      5k. Pincas Schreiber (1857-1857)
      5l. Cyla [Czeitel] Schreiber (1858-1914), who married Izachar Pfau and had a family.
      5m. Elias Schreiber (1860)
      5n. Ernestyna [Ester] Schreiber (1861), who married Jozef Braun and had a family.
      5o. Abraham Schreiber (1863-1863)
      5p. Perl Schreiber (1866), who married Chajim Jakob Pineles and had a family.
6. Sara Rifke Schreiber (born 1817 in Lemberg), a daughter, who married Chaim Urech/Uhrech and their children included:
      6a. Gedalie Isser Urech (1846-1847)
      6b. Pessel Urech (1848-1849)
      6c. Hersch Urech (1849)
      6d. Efrojim Urech (1854)
7. Isaac Leib Schreiber (born 1823 in Lemberg; died 1823 in Lemberg), a son.
8. Lazer Leib Schreiber (born 1825 in Lemberg), a son.

Lea Silber (born c.1784) and possibly Chaskel Katz had at least a daughter: 

1. Nissel Katz (born c.1813), whose family continues below

2. possibly Salman Wolf Katz (born 1831) 

The fourth generation lived through the turmoil of the Napoleonic Wars, when Lemberg was briefly part of a French satellite state, the "Duchy of Warsaw," before returning to Austrian rule. Vital records of Lemberg's Jews were first kept around that time, and as I stated above, many children were falsely listed as "illegitimate" because the anti-Semitic Austrian officials did not recognize Jewish religious marriages. 

Naphtaly Fingerhut (c.1778-1818) and his wife Ester Unterberg (c.1782-1842) are the earliest-known Fingerhuts. In 1798, 20-year-old Naphtaly was listed as a lehrjung (probably apprentice, or maybe student) of Marcus Sus, a Schneidergesell (journeyman tailor) in congregational family #2995. Then in 1801, 23-year-old Naphtaly headed congregation family #88 and was listed as a Schneidergesell (journeyman tailor). That meant he did freelance tailoring but could not afford his own shop and apprentices. Naphtaly and Ester's children included:

1. Jakob Fingerhut (c.1803-1848), whose family continues below.
2. Cirl Fingerhut, a daughter (died 1806 in Lemberg)
3. Patiel Moses Fingerhut, a son (born 1807 in Lemberg; died 1808 in Lemberg)
4. Jüte Fingerhut, a daughter (born 1811; died 1812 in Lemberg)
5. Peisach Fingerhut, a son (born 1815 in Lemberg; died 1815 in Lemberg)
6. an infant son (born and died 1816 in Lemberg)
7. Rachel Fingerhut, a daughter (born c.1817; probably died 1879 in Lemberg), first married Leib Ax (c.1809-1842), and their children included:
      7a. Basche Jente Ax (1840-1845)
      7b. Leib Ax (1842-1842), who was named for his dead father and lived to only 10 days old.
Rachel's second marriage in 1849, to Berl Blind (c.1791-1856), was officiated by Rabbi Moritz Lowenthal, who succeeded the murdered Abraham Kohn as the chief rabbi of Lemberg. They had no children.
Rachel's third marriage was to Nathan Mimeles (c.1813-1871) in 1857 in Lemberg, and they had no children.
8. Dresel Fingerhut (born c.1819) and her husband Leib Mises / Mieses (born c.1819) were officially married in the eyes of the anti-Semitic law in 1859 in Lemberg. Their children included:

      8a. Tewel Mises (born 1846)
      8b. Marjem Ester Mises (1849-1849)
      8c. Lea Mises (born 1851)
      8d. Jacob Mises (born 1853), whose son Rudolf Mises (1896-1941) perished in the Holocaust.

      8e. Naftali Mises (born 1858)

Note: Rachel Fingerhut's 1857 marriage and Dresel Fingerhut's 1859 marriage took place in the Golden Rose Synagogue, which was built in 1582 and destroyed by the Nazis in 1941.

Asriel Bergtraum (born 1764; died 1852 in Lemberg), a fleischer (butcher) and the head of congregational family #3681, lived from the reign of Austria's Empress Maria Theresa until the reign of her great-great-grandson, Emperor Franz Joseph I. The children of Asriel and his first wife Beile (c.1780-1823) included:
1. Sora Bergtraum, a daughter (born 1805 in Lemberg) 
2. Schaja Bergtraum, a son (born 1806 in Lemberg)
3. Schöndel [Scheindel Chaje] Bergtraum, a daughter (born 1808 in Lemberg), who married Jakob Fingerhut and whose family continues below.
4. Meyer Hersch Bergtraum born 1810 in Lemberg; died 1834 in Lemberg), who married Malke Mensch and whose children included:
      4a. Bunem [Benjamen] Bergtraum (1831-1833)
      4b. Chaim Bergtraum (1833-1833)
      4c. Moses Leib Bergtraum (1834-1892), whose wife was Taube Landwer (1834-1899). They were parents by 1861 but were legally married in 1887 in Lemberg.
5. Peretz Bergtraum (born 1812 in Lemberg, died 1813 in Lemberg)
6. Juda Bergtraum (born 1813 in Lemberg, died 1814 in Lemberg)
7. Jacob Bergtraum (born 1815 in Lemberg, died 1815 in Lemberg)
8. Moses Bergtraum (born 1816 in Lemberg, died 1832 in Lemberg)
9. Perl Feige Bergtraum (born 1819 in Lemberg)
10. Schiea Bergtraum (born 1820 in Lemberg, died 1827 in Lemberg)
After the death of Beile, old Asriel had a second wife, Jütte Bergtraum (c.1782-1842).

Mendel Hersch Fischer (1808-1864) and Zluwe Hopfen (c.1803-1863) married in 1828 in Lemberg, and their children included:
1. Moses Elieser Fischer (born 1831 in Lemberg), whose family continues below.

Moses Hersch Schreiber (born 1807 in Lemberg) and Nissel Katz (born c.1813) were parents by 1834 but their marriage was not recognized until an 1850 ceremony. They joined congregation family #3758 and their children included two sets of twins:
1. Pacze Rifke Schreiber (born 1834 in Lemberg; died 1914 in Lemberg), whose family continues below.
2. Rachel Lea Schreiber (born 1836 in Lemberg), who married Samuel Moses Spät and whose children included:
      2a. an unnamed daughter (1856-1856)
      2b. Chane Spät (c.1863), whose family continues below.
      2c. Leon Spät (1864-1936), who married Regina [Gittel Rechel] Menkes (1867-1942). Regina, most of her children including Edmund Spät (1894-1943) and Lazar Hersch Spät (1896), and most of her grandchildren died in the Holocaust.  
      2d. Simon Spät (1865)
      2e. Czeitel Spät (1869, a twin), who married Leib Reisner (1867) and had a family.
      2f. Sara Spät (1869, a twin)
      2g. Dawid Ber Spät (1870, a twin), who married Salcia [Sara] Grüner in 1896 and had a family.
      2h. Jakob Meschilem Spät (1870, a twin)
3. Jacob Meschilem Schreiber (born 1840 in Lemberg; died 1862 in Lemberg)
4. Henne Sara Schreiber (born 1842 in Lemberg), probably a twin.
5. unnamed son (born and died 1842 in Lemberg), probably a twin.
6. Gietel Schreiber (born 1843 in Lemberg; died 1848 in Lemberg)
7. Ester Golde Schreiber (born 1845 in Lemberg), probably a twin.
8. Scheindel Feige Schreiber (born 1845 in Lemberg), probably a twin.
9. Marjem Schreiber (born 1849 in Lemberg; died 1853 in Lemberg)
10. Meyer Schreiber (born 1851 in Lemberg; died 1852 in Lemberg)
11. Gedalje Schreiber (born 1852 in Lemberg; died 1853 in Lemberg)
12. unnamed son (born and died 1854 in Lemberg)
13. unnamed daughter (born and died 1855 in Lemberg)
14. Czeitel Schreiber (born 1856 in Lemberg; died 1862 in Lemberg)
15. Beile Schreiber (born 1858 in Lemberg; died 1862 in Lemberg)

Eisig Niedrig (born c.1806; died 1862 in Rawa Ruska) and his wife Malka Spatzner (born c.1790?; died 1865 in Rawa Ruska) lived in Rawa Ruska, a small town to the northwest of Lemberg. Their children included: 

1. Perl Niedrig (born c.1828 in Mosty Male; died 1882 in Uhnow), whose family continues below. 

2. Psachie Niedrig (born c.1829; died 1882 in Rawa Ruska), who married Ester (c.1828-1883) and their children included: 

      2a. Jacob Hersch Niedrig (born 1849 in Rawa Ruska; died 1850 in Rawa Ruska)

      2b. Jütte Niedrig (born 1856 in Rawa Ruska), who probably married Moses Kermer and had a family.

      2c. Reize Niedrig (born 1858 in Rawa Ruska)


The fifth generation saw Lemberg become a center for Reform Judaism in the 1840s, when Chief Rabbi Abraham Kohn constructed the Greek-inspired Tempel Synagogue. The culture clash between the Orthodox Jews and the supporters of Haskalah (the Jewish Enlightenment) led to the murder of Kohn in 1848. It's interesting to note that two of Jakob Fingerhut's sisters and two of his daughters were married in the older Golden Rose Synagogue, while the marriages of his son Majer Izak Fingerhut and Majer Izak's children were performed by Reform rabbis (Rabbis Jecheskiel Caro, Samuel Guttman, and Levi Freund). Perhaps the Fingerhut family shifted from Orthodox Judaism to Reform Judaism over time.

Interior of the Golden Rose Synagogue, 1898.

Jakob Fingerhut (c.1803-1848) was a private clerk who married Scheindel Chaje Bergtraum (born in 1808 in Lemberg). In 1840, Jakob was listed on his son's birth record as being "in the service," which may mean that he served in the Austrian army. The Lemberger Zeitung newspaper ran a brief death notice for Jakob Fingerhut, calling him a machlerz (commercial broker) who died of "paralyzed lungs." The children of Jakob and Scheindel included:
1. Naphtaly Fingerhut (born 1835 in Lemberg), named after his paternal grandfather.
2. Beile Jütte Fingerhut (born 1837 in Lemberg; died 1901 in Lemberg), whose first name came from her maternal grandmother and whose middle name came from her paternal aunt, married Nissan Adam (born 1834) in 1861 in the Golden Rose Synagogue of Lemberg. Their children included:
      2a. Jacob Ber Adam (1857-1858)
      2b. Marjem Ester [Marie] Adam (1858-1859)
      2c. Malke Adam (1860-1936?), who married Chaim Mensch and had a family.
      2d. Feige Adam (1861), who married Abraham Jung (c.1872) and had a family.
      2e. Sara Adam (1863)
      2f. Zirl Adam (1864-1866)
      2g. Rifke Adam (1869)
3. Aron Josef Fingerhut (born 1840 in Lemberg)
4. Mordche Fingerhut (born 1841 in Lemberg)
5. Ester Fingerhut (born 1843 in Lemberg), named after her paternal grandmother, married Benjamen Kahane (1833-1878) in 1861 in the Golden Rose Synagogue of Lemberg. Their children included:
      5a. Izak Kahane (1862-1863)
      5b. Perl Kahane (1864), who in 1914 married her elderly widowed uncle, Nissen Adam (1834), becoming her sister Toni's aunt-in-law.
      5c. Toni [Taube] Kahane (1866), who married her first cousin Leizer Adam (1869) in 1897 in Lemberg and had a family. Leizer was the nephew of Toni's uncle Nissan Adam.
      5d. Reisel Kahane (1869)
      5e. Golde Kahane (1875, twin), who married Mechel Hersh Berger and had a family.
      5f. Fani Kahane (1875, twin)

      5g. Bina Kahane (1879), who was born after the death of her father. 

6. Majer Itzig Fingerhut (born 1846 in Lemberg; died 1921 in Lemberg), whose family continues below.
7. Jakob Fingerhut (born 1848 in Lemberg), who was named after his father, who died before he was born.

Jakob Fingerhut's death notice in the Lemberger Zeitung (1848)

Gimpel Tafel, who was listed in various Lemberg records as a gravedigger, a goods dealer, and a beggar, married Ettel Marjem Schmer / Schmier (born c.1802; died 1877 in Lemberg) and their children included:
1. Meyer Baruch Tafel (born 1829 in Lemberg; died 1866 in Lemberg), whose family continues below.
2. Neche Malke Tafel (born 1834 in Lemberg)
3. Marcus Wolf Tafel (born 1836 in Lemberg; died 1848 in Lemberg)
4. Scheindel Tafel (born 1839 in Lemberg)
5. Fani [Fajga] Tafel (born 1848 in Lemberg; died 1930 in Lemberg), whose family continues immediately below.

Moses Elieser Fischer (born 1831 in Lemberg), a "wierzyciela prywatnego" (private creditor), and Rifke Patsche Schreiber (born 1834 in Lemberg; died 1914 in Lemberg) married and their children included:
1. Samuel Sholom Fischer (born 1853 in Lemberg; died 1918 in Lemberg), a Talmudist, whose family continues below.
2. Malke Beile Fischer (born 1854 in Lemberg; died 1855 in Lemberg)
3. Chane Fischer (born 1856 in Lemberg; died 1857 in Lemberg)
4. Taube Fischer (born 1858 in Lemberg), who married Hersz Geier and their children included: 

      4a. Abraham Izak Geier (1879)
      4b. stillborn daughter (1882)
5. Abraham Dawid Fischer (born 1860 in Lemberg), who married his first cousin Chane Spät (born c.1863) in 1890 in Lemberg and their children included: 

      5a. Georg/Gedalje Fischer (1889-1892)

      5b. Klara Leontyna/Chaje Lea Fischer (1891)

6. Pinkas Fischer (born c.1869; died 1869 in Lemberg)

7. Jechiel Fischer (born c.1870; died 1919 in Lemberg), also a Talmudist, who married Marjem Badner (1887) and whose children included: 

      6a. Antonina Rachela [Taube Rachel] Fischer (1899-1900)

      6b. infant son (1902) 

      6c. Marek Natan Fischer (1904)

      6d. Salomea Roza Fischer (1905)

      6e. Netty Fischer (1907)

      6f. Aron Samuel Fischer (1910)

      6g. Brandel Jitta Fischer (1912)

Aron Mojzesz Niedrig [Ornstein?], a grain dealer, and his wife Perl Niedrig (born c.1828 in Mosty Male; died 1882 in Uhnow) lived together in Rawa Ruska and then Uhnow. At the time of her death, Perl Niedrig lived in the small village of Dyniska, a couple miles northwest of Uhnow. Their children included:
1. Oser Niedrig (born 1847 in Rawa Ruska; died 1849 in Rawa Ruska)

2. Sara Reisel Niedrig (born c.1849; died 1892 in Lemberg), whose family continues below.
3. Abraham Niedrig (born c.1852; died 1859 in Rawa Ruska)
4. Salomon Niedrig (born 1858 in Rawa Ruska; died 1859 in Rawa Ruska)
5. Eisig Niedrig (born 1862 in Rawa Ruska; probably died 1864 in Zolkiew), named after his maternal grandfather.

6. Cluwe Niedrig, who married Jacob Noech Markdorf and had at least a daughter, Perel Markdorf (born 1891 in Uhnow)

7. Malke Niedrig (born 1871 in Zolkiew), who married Izak Schlattiner (1867) in 1916 in Rawa Ruska.

8. Ruchel Niedrig (born 1877 in Uhnow), whose family continues below.


The sixth generation saw the legal emancipation of Galicia's Jews in 1869, but there were still many waves of anti-Semitism during the reign of Emperor Franz Joseph I, including an economic crisis in 1898 that led to "The Plunder," a series of attacks on Jewish businesses. Zionist groups were first formed in Lemberg in the 1880s and the Gimpel Yiddish Theater was founded in 1889.  

Majer Izak Fingerhut (born 1846 in Lemberg; died 1921 in Lemberg) ran a tavern at ul. Zamarstynowska 7 (c.1901-1904) and then ul. Zrodlana 8 (c.1909-1914). Family lore says that at one point Majer Itzig ran the restaurant at Lemberg's royal armory, and there was familiarity between the tavern-keeper and the imperial household.
Majer Izak and his wife, Fani [Fajga] Tafel (born 1848 in Lemberg; died 1930 in Lemberg), did not have an "official" marriage until 1911, when they were married in Zniesienie (a section of Lemberg) by Dr. Jecheskel Caro (1844-1915), one of Europe's leading Reform Jewish rabbis. Majer Izak and Fani lived the rest of their lives at ul. Zrodlana 8. Their children included:
1. Gietel Fingerhut (born and died 1869 in Lemberg, age 3 weeks)
2. Friedrika [Fryderyka, Freide] Fingerhut (born 1870 in Lemberg; died 1937 in Bobrka), whose family continues below.

3. Ruchel Fingerhut (born 1873 in Lemberg), who married the merchant Mendel Weinreb (born 1876 in Vynnky [Winniki], Ukraine, near L'viv; died 1942 in Lwow) on July 19, 1910 in Lemberg. 
4. Jakob Fingerhut (born 1875 in Lemberg; died 1894 in Lemberg), who died of scurvy.
5. Baruch Fingerhut (born 1877 in Lemberg; died 1952 in Brooklyn, NY), whose family continues below.

6. Benjamin Mojzesz Fingerhut (born 1878 in Lemberg; died 1881 in Lemberg), who died of scrofula. 
7. Herman Fingerhut (born 1879 in Lemberg; died 1885 in Lemberg), who died of tuberculosis.
8. Eljukim Gecel Fingerhut (born 1882 in Lemberg)
9. Marjem Fingerhut (born 1883 in Lemberg), who was named after her paternal grandmother, married a much younger man, Idel Hammerstein (born 1894), in 1924 in Lwow.

Friedrika Fingerhut in Lemberg, 1893. The photo was taken the year before her marriage to Izak Kikenis.

Meyer Baruch Tafel (born 1829 in Lemberg; died 1866 in Lemberg), married Rose Wischek (born c.1838), the daughter of Elias Wischek and Perl Spruch. In 1859, Mayer Baruch registered in congregation family #1349, the family of his great-uncle Mayer Tafel. Then he and Rose had a civil marriage ceremony in 1864, probably long after their religious marriage, to legitimize their children in the eyes of the oppressive law. The officiant, Rabbi Bernhard Löwenstein (1821-1889), was the leader of Lemberg's Reform Jewish congregation.
The children of Meyer Baruch and Rose Tafel included:
1. Gietel Tafel (born 1855 in Lemberg), who married Leon Bogner. Their children included: 

      1a. Mojzesz Bogner (1876-1936), whose wife Helene Bogner (1885) and son Artur Bogner are listed as Lwow Ghetto residents. 

      1b. Mayer Baruch Bogner (1877)

      1c. Joseph Bogner (1879-1943), who immigrated to New York City, where he married Frieda Steinberg (1887-1962) in 1910. They had a family and settled in New Jersey.
2. Elias Tafel (born and died 1856 in Lemberg)
3. Samuel Zallel Tafel (born 1857 in Lemberg; died 1858 in Lemberg)

4. Fajga Breindel Tafel (born 1858 in Lemberg), who married Michel Hass (1860) and their children included: 

      4a. Gitel Hass (1886)

      4b. Sara Mindel / Sabina Mina Hass (1888)

      4c. Adolf Bernard / Abraham Baruch Hass (1890)

      4d. Marya Hass (1892)

      4e. Ignacy Maks / Izrael Meier Hass (1894-1899)

      4f. Pepi Hass (1896)

      4g. Wilhelm Hass (1898)

      4h. Laura Hass (1900)
5. Chane Tafel (born 1861 in Lemberg), who married Jakob Fajwel Hauzig and their children included: 

      5a. Majer Hauzig (1882)

      5b. Jozed Hauzig (1884)

      5c. Fani Ernestina Hauzig (1897)

      5d. Paula Hauzig (1899)
6. Perl Tafel (born 1862 in Lemberg; died 1895 in Lemberg), who married Mechla Bressler.
7. Markus Gimpel Tafel (born 1863 in Lemberg; died April 8, 1941 in Lwow, buried the following day), who married Nesche Bratter (born c.1877) in 1905 in Lemberg. Listed as "Markus Mayerovich Tafel" on his death record, Markus died in the waning days of the Soviet occupation of Lemberg, two months before the Nazi invasion.  
8. Osias Getzel Tafel (born 1866 in Lemberg, twin)
9. Samuel Tafel (born 1866 in Lemberg, twin)

Samuel [Shmuel Sholom] Fischer, (born 1853 in Lemberg; died 1918 in Lemberg), a Talmudist, first married Sara Reisel Niedrig (born c.1849; died 1892 in Lemberg), and among their children were:

1. Sluwe Fischer (born 1871 in Zolkiew), whose family continues below.

2. Adela Fischer (born 1877 in Lemberg; died 1927 in Brooklyn), whose family continues below.
3. Ester Rachel Fischer (born 1879 in Lemberg; died in Brooklyn), whose family continues below.
4. Lajb Fischer (born 1882 in Lemberg)
5. Hirsz Fischer (born 1884 in Lemberg, a twin)
6. Perl Fischer (born 1884 in Lemberg; died 1884 in Lemberg, a twin)
7. Mojzesz Szulim Fischer (born 1886 in Lemberg; died 1887 in Lemberg), who died of diphtheria. 
8. Eliasz Dawid Fischer (born 1888 in Lemberg; died 1890 in Lemberg), who died of pneumonia after measles.
9. Adolf [Dawid] Fischer (born 1891 in Lemberg; died 1894 in Lemberg), who died of pneumonia.

Shortly after Sara Reisel died of consumption, Samuel Fischer married Hene Plager (born c.1866 in Bobrka; died 1906 in Lemberg) and their children included:
1. Izydor [Israel] Fischer (born 1894 in Lemberg)
2. Maurycy Zygmunt [Moses Salomon] Fischer (born 1895 in Lemberg)
3. Ida Fischer (born 1900 in Lemberg; died 1919 in Lemberg)

4. Abraham Fischer (born 1905 in Lemberg, died 1907 in Lemberg), who died of pneumonia.

Ruchel Niedrig (born 1877 in Uhnow) and Mojsesz Hecht (1870) had a civil marriage in 1915 in Lwow, long after their religious marriage. Their children included:
1. Schmiel Hecht (born and died 1895 in Lemberg)
2. Pepi [Perl] Hecht (born 1896 in Lemberg; died 1901 in Lemberg)
3. Jozef Baruch Hecht (born 1898 in Lemberg), who married Debora Perts (1901) in 1925 in Lwow.
4. Salomea Rozalia Hecht (born 1902 in Lemberg)

5. Klara Dyana Hecht (born 1905 in Lemberg), who married Aron Leib Bartel (1908) in 1935 in Lwow, and their children included: 

      5a. Marian Bartel (born 1935 in Lemberg), who was probably killed in the Holocaust.

      5b. Emilia Bartel (born 1940 in Lemberg), who was probably killed in the Holocaust. 

6. Arnold Hecht (born 1906 in Lemberg)

The seventh generation contributed to a major Jewish migration, as 170,000 Jews (including my great-grandparents) fled Austria-Hungary between 1900 and 1910. The Jews who stayed behind in Galicia were on the eastern front of World War I, and then suffered the horrors of World War II and the Holocaust.

Baruch Fingerhut (1877-1952) and Adela Fischer (1877-1927) married in 1902 in Lemberg but lived most of their married life in the United States. Their story continues below.

At least four of Baruch's eight siblings and six of Adela's 12 siblings and half-siblings died in their childhood or teen years. So far, I know of one sister of Baruch, Friedrika, and two sisters of Adela, Ester and Sluwe, who had families: 

Friedrika [aka Fryderyka, Freide] Fingerhut (born 1870 in Lemberg; died April 7, 1937 in Bobrka) married Ignacy Kikiniss [or Izak Kikenis] (born 1868 in Lemberg, son of Meier Kikenis and Hene Wurm) in 1894 in Lemberg, and their marriage was officiated by Dr. Jecheskel Caro, the leading Reform rabbi. By the 1920s the family lived in Bobrka, Poland (now Bibrka, Ukraine), and Freide suffered from diabetes in her later years. Their children included:

1. Monia [Malwina] Kikenis (born 1896 in Lemberg; died 1942 in the Lwow Ghetto), who never married, lived in Bobrka, and died during the Holocaust.

2. Klara Kikenis (born 1897 in Lemberg; died c.1942), who never married, lived in Bobrka, and died during the Holocaust. The family story is that Monia and Klara died "in the gas chambers."

3. Charlotte Kikenis (born 1898 in Pljevlja, Montenegro, which at that point was a garrison town on Austria-Hungary's border with the Ottoman Empire; died 1946 in Brooklyn, NY), who married Joseph Mayer Treibitsch (1896-1974). Joseph immigrated to the USA in 1922 and Charlotte, aka "Lottie," followed in 1929. They had three children: Edwina, Otto, and Marvin.

4. Ludwik Kikinis (born 1900 in Lemberg; died 1950 in Zagreb, Yugoslavia [Croatia]). The incredible Croatian website Jewish Biographical Lexicon (Zidovski biografski leksikon) helped me learn about Ludvig Kikinis and his Yugoslavian relatives. Ludvig first came to Zagreb "with the army" in 1917 and became a Yugoslavian citizen in 1929. Ludvig's uncle Jakob Kikinis (1871-1942) had come to Zagreb from Vienna in 1892, and opened in 1896 a "trade in military hats and supplies." Ludvig helped his uncle Jakob and cousins Oskar and Rikard Kikinis with their military supplies company. When the Nazis created the puppet state of Croatia in 1941, Jakob Kikinis had his business seized by Fascist authorities and then he was extorted for larger and larger payments to stave off relocation to a concentration camp. Sadly, Jakob Kikinis and his wife were deported anyway, and likely killed in Auschwitz in August 1942. Ludvig Kikinis and his cousin Oskar converted to Catholicism in 1941 and married gentile women. Family lore says Ludvig survived the war with the help of his Christian wife, while the fates of Oskar and Rikard Kikinis remain unknown. Ludvig contracted tuberculosis after the war and died, leaving behind his widow and children. 

Gravestones of Lottie Treibitz and Joseph Treibitz in Mount Hebron Cemetery, Queens, NY.

Ester Rachel Fischer (born 1879 in Lemberg; died in Brooklyn) immigrated in June 1905, sailing on the ship Ottawa from Liverpool to Quebec City. She settled in Toronto, Canada, where she married in 1906 the tailor Isaac Goldberg (born c.1878 in Russia; died 1940 in Brooklyn). She took a train with her infant son Harry to New York in 1907, and the family finally settled in Brooklyn. Isaac and Esther Goldberg had five children:

1. Harry Goldberg (born 1907 in Toronto, Canada; died 1981 in Sun City Center, Florida) was a telegraph man with Western Union, who married Martha Levy in 1932 and had one daughter.

2. Henry Goldberg (born 1910 in New York; died 1995 in Sun City Center, Florida) was a claims specialist with the Social Security Administration, and he and his wife Sadie Armel (1914-2007) had one daughter. 

3. Sarah Goldberg (born 1914 in New York; died 1933 in Brooklyn)

4. Helen Goldberg (born 1916 in New York), who married Abraham Louis Cohen (1909) in 1939 in Brooklyn and had one daughter.

5. Edward Grey, originally named "Irving Goldberg" (born 1918 in New York; died 2003 in New York), who changed his name to sound less Jewish and began his advertising career in 1936. He became an executive in media advertising, including a senior vice president at Ted Bates Co. (a company that loosely inspired "Mad Men") and McCann-Erickson. 

Edward Grey, in a 1964 issue of Broadcasting magazine.

Sluwe Fischer (born 1871 in Zolkiew) and her husband, the merchant Abraham Luft (born 1871 in Lemberg), stayed behind in Poland and had a civil marriage in 1916 in Lwow. As Abraham's parents probably did not have a civil marriage, Abraham and his children are listed with his mother's maiden name — "Schweizer"  — but Lwow directories list him as "Abraham Luft." The children of Sluwe and Abraham included: 

1. Markus Maurycy [Mordche Mozes] Luft (born 1894 in Lemberg)

2. Emanuel Herman [Mendel Hersch] Luft (born 1895 in Lemberg), and his children with wife Sime included: 

      2a. Klara Regina Schweizer / Luft (born 1924 in Lemberg)

      2b. Zygmunt Schweizer / Luft (born 1931 in Lemberg)

3. Arnold Luft (born 1897 in Lemberg)

4. Sali Rozalia Luft (born 1899; died 1900 in Lemberg)

5. Salomon Luft (born 1902 in Lemberg)

6. Szymon Luft (born 1903; died 1904 in Lemberg)

7. Amalia Luft (born 1905 in Lemberg)

Lembergers in Vienna and Berlin

A generation before the mass Galitzianer emigration to the United States, Galitzianer Jews took part in a wave of migration to Vienna and other parts of Western Europe, like Berlin, Germany. In the latter 19th century, around 20,000 to 30,000 Galician Jews migrated to Vienna each decade. The most famous example is Jakob Freud, a Galitzianer who brought his family, including the future Dr. Sigmund Freud, to Vienna in 1859. Sigmund Freud lived in Vienna for most of his life, and he and many other cultured Jews helped Vienna make manifold contributions to Modernism. 

My distant relatives lived more humble lives. At least one branch of the Schreiber family emigrated to Vienna and Berlin. Samuel Jozef Schreiber (born 1845), a grandson of my 4th-great-grandparents Gedalie Iser and Czeitel Schreiber, married Regina [Rachel] Kornhaber (1851-1926) and had a civil ceremony in 1893, long after their religious ceremony. While their children were born in Lemberg, they lived in Vienna by 1916. Both Samuel and Regina Schreiber died in Berlin, and Regina's last address was Neue Königstraße 67, a few houses away from her son Adolf. The children of Samuel and Regina included: 

1. Anna [Chane] Schreiber (1870)

2. Markus Schreiber (1873)

3. Karl Adolf [Chajem Aron] Schreiber (1875-1942), who is described below. 

4. Perla Paulina Schreiber (1879-1939), who is described below. 

5. Maurycy Schreiber (1880)

6. Szymon Schreiber (1883)

Neue Königstraße in Mitte, c.1890s (source)

Karl Adolf Schreiber (1875-1942) was born Chaim Aron Schreiber in Lemberg, with the same name as his late paternal grandfather. Adolf was listed in Berlin directories as a "Kaufmann" (merchant) who settled in the Mitte section of Berlin, the city's Jewish neighborhood through the 1930s. His address was Neue Königstraße 58 (now Otto-Braun-Straße) from at least 1916 to 1927. (I still need to study Berlin directories more closely.)

In 1916, Adolf married Gertrud Baumann (1874-1927), a Jewish woman who worked as an employment agent. It seems they did not have children. After his wife's death, Adolf moved by 1931 to Holsteinische Straße 33 in the Wilmersdorf neighborhood, and then he endured the hell of the Nazi regime. Adolf used his Hebrew birth name "Aron" and suffered under the Nuremberg Laws (1935), witnessed Kristallnacht (1938), and was forced to wear a yellow Star of David in public (September 1941). He was finally deported from Berlin in April 1942, and likely died in Poland shortly afterwards. Aron Schreiber is among the Holocaust victims listed in Berlin's Gedenkbuch (memorial book).

 

Perla Paulina Schreiber (1879-1939) also settled in Berlin, first lived with her brother Adolf, and then in 1929 married a much younger gentile man, Willy Jordan (1898-1949), who was born in Estrup, Germany, near the Danish border. Willy ran a "büro für schriftlichen arbeiten" (office for written work) and he and Perla lived at Alte Jakobstraße 64a, just south of Mitte, by 1935 and then Junkerstraße 14 by 1939. I can only imagine the "written work" that Willy dealt with under the Nazi regime. The Nuremberg Laws outlawed intermarriage, but Perla and Willy stayed married. Perla also witnessed Kristallnacht and barely lived to see the start of World War II, dying of stomach cancer on December 28, 1939 in the "hospital of the Jewish community." Her death certificate lists her middle name as "Sara," a chilling result of the 1938 law which forced all of Nazi Germany's Jews with non-Hebrew first names to use the middle name "Israel" or "Sara." Willy's office is listed in Berlin directories through at least 1941. Willy survived the war, married a woman named Charlotte Basset, and died at age 50 of "suspected carbon monoxide poisoning." Willy's death certificate does not indicate the circumstances of his death, but it is ironic that many victims of Nazi persecution died the exact same way.

The Fingerhut family left behind in Poland

Lottie Treibitz's son, Marvin Treibitz, and grandson, Leroy Natale, kindly shared with me scans of the 1893 photo of Friedrika Kikenis, seen above, and the photos below showing unknown European relatives, maybe in Galicia? Maybe even in Bobrka? The first couple photos were taken before Lottie Treibitz immigrated in 1929. These photos are haunting, especially when I wonder what became of these children, who were probably teenagers at the start of World War II. 

Lottie Treibitz and her daughter Edwina are on the left. The man, woman, and child on the right are unknown.

Lottie Treibitz is on the right, with daughter Edwina in front in the light coat. The other three are unknown.

Three women and a young boy, all unknown.

Two unknown women (could they be Lottie's sisters?). The photo has the date July 1930 on the back, written in Polish.

Remembering the Holocaust victims in our family

The Golden Rose Synagogue after Nazi looting, 1941.

I only know of five people in our family (Baruch and Adela Fingerhut, Esther Fischer, and Joseph and Charlotte Treibitsch) who immigrated to the United States. The other siblings and their families probably endured the Holocaust, which reduced the Jewish population of Lemberg (Lwow, Poland) from 110,000 in 1939 to fewer than 300 in 1944.
Soviets controlled Lwow in September 1939, but Nazis occupied the city in June 1941 and incited pogroms that summer. The Germans set up the Janowska concentration camp in the northwestern suburbs of Lwow in September 1941, and then closed off the Jews in the Lwow ghetto in November 1941.
Between March to August 1942, the Nazis sent more than 65,000 Lwow Jews through Janowska to die in the Belzec death camp, while a smaller number stayed in Janowska for slave labor. The Lwow ghetto was destroyed in June 1943, and Janowska had processed at least 100,000 prisoners when it was liquidated in November 1943. 
Belzec kept notoriously sparse records, but historians estimate that between 434,000 to 600,000 people were gassed with carbon monoxide and buried there between March to December 1942. In one example preserved in a letter in the Vatican archives, 6,000 of Rawa Ruska's Jews and Poles were killed in one day, and between 5,000 to 8,000 of the town's Jews died in Belzec.

Bernard Fingerhut's relatives: 

Malvina Kikenis, listed as age 60, lived in the Kulparkow district of Lwow, died on March 1, 1942 and was buried on March 4, 1942. Our Malwina (Bernard Fingerhut's niece) would have only been in her mid-40s but could possibly have seemed older.

Mendel Weinreb (born c.1876 in Winniki), Bernard Fingerhut's brother-in-law, was probably the 67-year-old man who lived at ul. Zamarstynowska 22 in the Lemberg Ghetto, died on August 9, 1942, and was buried three days later. 

Markus Gimpel Tafel (1863-1941), Bernard Fingerhut's first cousin, died on April 8, 1941 and was buried on April 9, 1941, while Soviets still controlled Lwow and a couple months before the Nazi occupation. 

Rudolf Mises (born 1896 in Lemberg; died 1941 in Lwow) was the son of Jacob Mises (born 1853 in Lemberg) and Fani Pinson, the grandson of Leib Mises and Dresel Fingerhut, and the great-grandson of Naphtaly and Ester Fingerhut. That makes Rudolf Mises and Bernard Fingerhut second cousins. Rudolf was a merchant in Lwow with a wife named Mina, according to a Page of Testimony submitted to Yad Vashem in 1955 by his friend, Shmuel Hüttel. Rudolf was probably murdered in the Janowska concentration camp.

Benedikt Adam (born Dec. 2, 1901 in Lemberg) was a Lwow Ghetto resident, whose occupation was listed on his Lwow Ghetto Work Identification Card as "Riemermeister" (strap master). . He was the son of Leizer Adam and Toni Kahane, grandson of Benjamen Kahane and Ester Marjem Fingerhut, and great-grandson of Jakob and Scheindel Fingerhut. That makes him the first cousin once removed of Bernard Fingerhut. He married Debora Landesman (1900) in 1924 in Lwow. 

Adela Fingerhut's relatives:

Jozef Hecht was a Lwow Ghetto resident born in 1898, who lived in Weyzenhoff and was forced to work for the Luftwaffe (the Nazi airforce). Our family's Jozef Baruch Hecht (Adela Fingerhut's first cousin) was the same age.

Klara Bartel (1905), Jozef Hecht's sister and Adela Fingerhut's first cousin, was a Lwow Ghetto resident who is listed as living with two daughters: Marjan Bartel (1935) and Emilia Bartel (1940). 

Regina Spät, née Gittel Rechel Menkes (1867-1942), the widow of Leon/Leib Spät (1864-1936), first cousin of Samuel Sholom Fischer and first cousin once removed of Adela Fingerhut, died on January 20, 1942 in the Lwow Ghetto and was buried three days later. 

Emil Edmund/Elias Mendel Spät (1894), son of Leon Spät and second cousin of Adela Fingerhut.
His wife Bertha née Petersil (c.1895)
Their children Israel Spät (c.1920), Leah Spät (c.1924), and Minda Spät (c.1929)

All were murdered, possibly in the Lwow Ghetto.

Lazar Hersh Spät (1896-c.1942), another son of Leon Spät and second cousin of Adela Fingerhut, and his wife, Klara Meisner (1896-c.1942), married in 1924 in Jaryczow Nowy [Novyi Yarychiv], a suburb of Lwow.

They, along with their daughter Mindel Spät (1928-c.1942), died in the Lwow Ghetto. 

Their other daughter, Laura Spät Kimmel (1918-2007), and her husband, Dr. Alfred Kimmel (1913-1972), went into hiding, survived, and immigrated to the United States in 1949. Alfred became a general practitioner and Laura did graduate studies in psychology. Alfred Kimmel's photos of the Schlachtensee DP camp in Berlin, Germany during the late 1940s are now part of the collection of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. 

Aron Schreiber (1875-1942), second cousin of Samuel Sholom Fischer and second cousin once removed of Adela Fingerhut, was a grandson of his namesake, Chaim Aron Schreiber. As mentioend above, Aron was born in Lemberg but settled in Berlin, Germany, and unfortunately endured nearly a decade of Nazi anti-Semitism, including the Nuremberg Laws (1935), Kristallnacht (1938), and the mandatory wearing of a yellow Star of David in public (September 1941). He was finally deported from Berlin to Poland on April 4, 1942, either went to Trawniki Camp or the Warsaw Ghetto, and likely died soon after.  

Ernestyna Pineles (1903), second cousin of Samuel Sholom Fischer and second cousin once removed of Adela Fingerhut, was a granddaughter of Chaim Aron Schreiber. She appeared in a Soviet record about Lwow and probably died during the Nazi occupation. 

Ernestyna Hahn Holzer (1872-1941?), third cousin of Adela Fingerhut on the Fischer side, was probably the 72-year-old woman of the same name who died in the Lemberg Ghetto on November 20, 1941 and was buried three days later.

Maurycy Holzer (1896), Ernestyna's son and Adela Fingerhut's third cousin once removed, as well as his wife, Nonia Holzer, and their child, [unknown] Holzer, were all killed, possibly in the Lwow Ghetto. Their cousin, Shtefania Dikman, submitted Pages of Testimony to Yad Vashem on their behalf. 

Adolf Hahn (1879-1942?), Ernestyna's younger brother and third cousin of Adela Fingerhut, was probably the man of the same name who died in the Lemberg Ghetto on April 12, 1942 and was buried two days later.

Dr. Alfred Abraham Hahn (1878-1942), third cousin of Adela Fingerhut on the Fischer side, was a lawyer in Drohobicz, Poland [now Drohobych, Ukraine] who was shot and killed. His wife, Perl/Dora née Mendelsohn (1887-1942), was also murdered, but their daughter, Yanina Visman, survived the Shoah and settled in Israel. 

The "only survivor": 

The family story is that only one male relative in Europe survived the war. This was probably Ludwik Kikenis (1900-1950), Bernard Fingerhut's nephew, who died from tuberculosis in Zagreb, Yugoslavia. The Fingerhut family talked little about Europe before World War II, and after the war all connections with Europe were severed.

It took many hours of research to find a few names of distant relatives who died in the Holocaust. I have so much gratitude for the generous volunteers who created digital indexes and scanned records for Gesher Galicia, JRI-Poland, Yad Vashem, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the Arolsen Archives. Their immense labor made this daunting research amazingly accessible. Hundreds more of my relations must have died in the Shoah, and perhaps a handful survived. Maybe one day I will find more records that shed light on their fates.   

MY AMERICAN FINGERHUT FAMILY

The S.S. Pennsylvania, which brought over Bernard Fingerhut and his family from Hamburg, Germany to Ellis Island in 1906.

Bernard [Baruch] Fingerhut (born 1877 in Lemberg; died 1952 in Brooklyn), and Adela Fischer (born 1877 in Lemberg; died 1927 in Brooklyn) married in 1902 in Lemberg. Their pictures are seen at the top of this post. The rabbi who married them, Dr. Jecheskel Caro of Lemberg, was one of Europe's leading Reform Jewish rabbis, who that same year of 1902 had conducted a controversial bat mitzvah for a young girl.

The children of Bernard and Adela were:
1. Charlotte Fingerhut (born 1903 in Lemberg; died 1967 in Manhasset, NY)
2. Sally [Sarah] Fingerhut (born 1905 in Lemberg; died 1984 in Miami, FL)
3. Alfred Fingerhut (born 1912 in Brooklyn; died 1998 in Miami, FL)

4. Rudolph Fingerhut (born 1915 in Brooklyn; died 2001 in Phoenix, AZ)

The family story is Adela was a businesswoman in Lemberg, who ran a tobacco factory. A 1903 business directory for the Galicia region may clarify this story: Bernard is listed as "Boruch Tafel," who sold "Zigarettenhülsen und Rauchrequisiten" (Cigarettes and Smoking props) at Lemberg's Pasaz Hausmana, an outdoor corridor between a hotel and a government building with many fashionable shops, and where Lemberg's first movie screening took place in 1896, at the Rembrandt photography studio. Adela is listed as "Udel Niedrig," selling "Galanterie" (Habadashery) at ulica Sykstuska 12, a couple buildings away from ul. Sykstuska 6, one of the entrances to Pasaz Hausmana. 

Pasaz Hausmana in L'viv, today called the Pasazh Kryva Lipa (Crooked Linden Passage)

When the eldest daughter Charlotte was born in 1903, the family lived at ul. Zamarstynowska 12 (close to Majer Izak Fingerhut's tavern), and when Sally / Salomea was born in 1905, the family lived at ul. Sykstuska 31, near Pasaz Hausmana. Ulica Sykstuska, now called Doroshenka Street, is today still noteworthy for its "outstanding examples of architecture, especially in the styles of Neoclassicism, Historicism, Secession, and Functionalism."

Vintage postcard of Sykstuska Street

Bernard and Adela Fingerhut apparently only spoke Polish in Lemberg, and had to learn Yiddish before coming to America, according to their granddaughter, Leila White. Polish very well could have been their primary language, since they lived and worked in a fashionable part of town, but I find it hard to believe they didn't know Yiddish.

Baruch, Adela, Charlotte, and Salomea Fingerhut immigrated aboard the S.S. Pennsylvania, leaving Hamburg, Germany on February 16, 1906, and arriving at Ellis Island on March 2, 1906. Originally, they went to Toronto, Canada, where Adela's sister Esther was already living. But on September 1, 1906, the Fingerhut family reentered the United States aboard the Michigan Central Railroad to head back to New York City.

Baruch initially worked as a tailor, but by 1910 he went by Bernard and started a 30-year career as a waiter that included a stint at Feltman's near Coney Island, and his customers included the famous glutton Diamond Jim Brady and his actress girlfriend Lillian Russell.

A newspaper clipping preserved at Newspapers.com provides a delightfully vivid window into the Fingerhut family's early days in America. On May 14, 1909, a news item ran in both the Salina Jounral (Kansas) and the Detroit Times (Michigan) about a tiny woman in New York City named Adela Fingerhut who defended her children by beating up a burglar! Read the full article below: 

*     *     *     *

TINY WOMAN PUT BIG BURGLAR TO FLIGHT

Mrs. Fingerhut Feared for Her Children and Attacked Burly Intruder

NEW YORK, May 14 – Mrs. Adela Fingerhut, who lives with her husband and two little children on the fourth floor of No. 331 East Fourteenth street, is a mite of a woman, but early yesterday morning she showed that her one hundred pounds of avoirdupois is mainly true grit, for she tackled a big burglar and sent him hurrying through a window and down a fire-escape. 

Mrs. Fingerhut was asleep when at 3:30 o’clock she was awakened by a pet kitten jumping on the bed and mewing. Mrs. Fingerhut lifted the kitten down to the floor and closed her eyes, but again the kitten jumped up and mewed. 

“Now, I wonder if anything is wrong,” thought Mrs. Fingerhut, as she sat up and looked over to where her children were sleeping. Noiselessly she stole out of bed and started to go through the flat. All was quiet in the kitchen and the dining-room, and she was about to go back to bed when she heard a slight noise in the sitting-room. 

She went into the room and there, close to her, stood a “great big burglar,” as she described him later. Mrs. Fingerhut was terribly frightened, but her first thought was for her children, and she sprang at the robber and let out a scream which aroused every one in the house. 

The burglar was almost knocked down by the suddenness of Mrs. Fingerhut’s attack, but he recovered and threw her across the room against the wall. Then, as she sprang for him again, the burglar went through the window and down the fire-escape as fast as he knew how. 

Mrs. Fingerhut went through the window after him and was about to follow him down the fire-escape when her husband arrived and pulled her back. He left her at the window while he rushed down four flights of stairs in his nightshirt to try to head the burglar off before he should reach the ground. But he was just a second too late and the burglar got away. 

“He only got one or two little ornaments, worth about $5,” said Mrs. Fingerhut, in telling her experience later, “but I was not afraid of his stealing anything; I was only afraid he would harm my children. The moment I thought of that, I didn’t care how big he was, and I wasn’t the least bit afraid of him.” 

*     *     *     *

That final paragraph quoting Great-Grandma Adela is one of the most beautiful things I've found in my family history research! She had real fighting spirit!

By 1912, Bernard's family had left Manhattan and lived by Luna Park in Coney Island. They lost a home in one of Coney Island's many fires and Bernard wouldn't leave until he had shaven and put on a tie. Bernard always appeared well-dressed and as a younger man resembled George Fenneman, according to his daughter Charlotte (as related by her daughter, Leila White).

Bernard became an American citizen in 1924, and the following year the family moved into a brand-new house at 1016 Lancaster Avenue, which was the family residence for nearly 20 years.

Adela died in 1927 and is buried in Mt. Zion Cemetery in Queens, NY. Bernard died in 1952 and is buried in Montefiore Cemetery in Queens, NY. Both are buried in the "Lemberger Kranken Unt. Verein" section of the cemteries, reserved for people from Lemberg. 

The graves of Adela and Bernard Fingerhut, both located in Queens, NY. Adela is buried in Mt. Zion Cemetery and Bernard is buried in Montefiore Cemetery. 

Now for details on Bernard and Adela's children: 

Charlotte Fingerhut (born 1903 in Lemberg; died 1967 in Manhasset, NY) married in 1931 Leo C. Siegel (born 1896 in New York City; died 1990 in Great Neck, NY; son of Abraham Siegel and Anne Rudin), and they had two sons and one daughter. Leo graduated from college towards the end of World War I and became a lieutenant in the U.S. cavalry. He was willing to fight overseas but the war ended before he had the chance. Between the wars he was a mechanic engineer and then he re-enlisted during World War II. Leo trained in Ft. Sill in Oklahoma and then was sent to Ft. Bragg in North Carolina, where he was an officer in an Army artillerty unit. Charlotte and the children moved from Brooklyn to Southern Pines, NC, and then followed Leo a couple years later to Fort Knox, KY, where Leo became a major in the 4th Armored Division. There, Leo was appointed the head of the Officers Candidate School, a major distinction at the time for a Jewish soldier. After the war, Leo and his family moved back to Brooklyn, where they lived in veterans' quarters in Manhattan Beach. By the 1950s, they lived in Kings Point, NY. Charlotte and Leo are buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Leo and Charlotte Siegel's passport photos, 1962

Sally Fingerhut (born 1905 in Lemberg; died 1984 in Miami, FL) married in 1923 the storekeeper Irving Haspel (born 1897 in Radautz, Austria-Hungary; died 1987 in Utica, NY; son of Chaim Haspel and Frima Goldschlager). They had two daughters, Theresa (1927) and Francine (1930).

Alfred Fingerhut (born 1912 in Brooklyn; died 1998 in Miami), known as "Al" to his coworkers and “Eddie” to his friends, started work as a greengrocer after his mother's premature death, then worked for New York Life Insurance from 1928 to 1942. He attended night high school and got an undergraduate degree and law degree from St. John's University. Alfred was admitted to the New York Bar in 1936, but instead of becoming a lawyer he became a New York City policeman in 1942. He became a detective in 1948, a sergeant in 1953, lieutenant in 1957, and then squad commander in 1961. His most famous case involved the theft of bonsai trees from the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, so he was called by his colleagues "The Bonsai." After retiring and moving to Miami, he worked as a special agent for American Express.
Alfred's great passions were comedy (from vaudeville he saw as a child) and sailing. He won the 1939 President's Cup Regatta aboard his sloop "The Aloha," with President Franklin D. Roosevelt cheering him on from the banks of the Potomac.
Alfred married in 1941 Frances Karasov and they had one daughter.

Grandpa Alfred aboard his boat, the Chiquita, 1949. (Photo from his nephew, Ronnie Siegel)

Rudy Fingerhut (born 1915 in Brooklyn; died 2001 in Phoenix, AZ) was a New York City fireman who married in 1940 Adelle Sigel (born 1918 in Worcester, MA; died 2007 in Phoenix, AZ; daughter of Nathan Sigelovitch and Minnie Rabunsky) and had one daughter. The family moved to Phoenix in 1958, and Rudy became a property management supervisor. In their later years, Rudy and Adelle traveled worldwide.

Rudy and Adele Fingerhut with Frances and Alfred Fingerhut, c.1985

THE FINGERHUT FAMILY OF RADZIECHOW

Map of Radziechow, Galicia (now Radekhiv, Ukraine), from Radziechow's yizkor book. 

To my joyful surprise, genetic testing linked me to another large Galitzianer Fingerhut family in September 2019. Through GEDmatch I learned that I share a portion of my Chromosome 22 with three first cousins who are all grandchildren of the Galitzianer immigrants Harry [Hersch] Barach (1878-1950) and Tillie [Tuma] Fingerhut (1880-1975). While I can't be completely certain, the DNA evidence suggests a distant ancestral link between my ancestor Baruch Fingerhut and Tuma Fingerhut. 

I rely on multiple sources for the history of this particular Fingerhut family from Radziechow, Austria-Hungary (now Radekhiv, Ukraine). Jeffrey Rosenthal generously shared his genetic and archival research, and Emil Lewenger carefully studied the branch of the family that settled in Yugoslavia. 

This family history also owes a lot to Mordekhai Fingerhut, who in 1956 took on the unimaginable duty of recording the deaths of 15 immediate family members who perished during the Holocaust at Israel's Yad Vashem memorial. Hopefully this brief account can help honor the legacy of these Shoah victims and their extended family. 

Our common ancestor may have been the father of Napthaly Fingerhut, a man born in the mid-1700s who was probably forced by Austrian officials to adopt the Fingerhut surname around 1787. The earliest-known Fingerhuts in Radziechow lived about three generations later: Chaim David Fingerhut and his wife Leice (or Tauba). 

Three Sons of Chaim David Fingerhut

Chaim David Fingerhut (maybe born in the 1830s) and his wife Leice or Tauba had at least three sons: 

I. Hirsch Tzvi Fingerhut (born 1860 in Radziechow; died 1942 in Lwow, Galicia)

II. Shaje Fingerhut

III. Moses Jakob Fingerhut (born c.1866; died 1930 in Sokal, Galicia)

The three sons' families include: 

I. Hirsch Tzvi Fingerhut (born 1860 in Radziechow; died 1942? in Lwow), his Yad Vashem page of testimony. He was a merchant who married Henia Schvam (born 1860 in Radziechow; died 1942 in Lwow), her Yad Vashem page of testimony. After a half-century of marriage, they likely died in the Lwow ghetto. Their children included: 

1. Rabbi Avram Sabetai Fingerhut (born 1890 in Radziechow; died 1940s in Yugoslavia), his Yad Vashem page of testimony. He and his wife Zahava Fingerhut lived in Tuzla, Yugoslavia (now Bosnia) and had at least two children: 

1a. Henrik-Haim Fingerhut (born 1910 in Vrsac, Yugoslavia [Serbia] or Lucenec, Slovakia; died 1941 in Debar, Yugoslavia [North Macedonia]), his Yad Vashem page of testimony. He was an announcer for Radio Belgrade, then became a Yugoslavian reserve officer during World War II and died while battling the Italians. Anti-Semitic officials denied him a posthumous medal of the Order of Karadorde's Star. Henrik-Haim's wife, Judita Bergman (1910-1942), died in Banjica concentration camp in Belgrade, Yugoslavia [Serbia]. 

Henrik-Haim Fingerhut (1910-1941)

1b. Clara Haia Fingerhut (born 1914 in Yugoslavia; died 1940s in Belgrade, Yugoslavia [Serbia]), her Yad Vashem page of testimony. She was married and probably died in Banjica concentration camp. 

2. Scheindl Fingerhut (born 1890 in Radziechow; died 1940s in Lwow), her Yad Vashem page of testimony. She married Julius [Gyula] Müller (born 1898; died 1940s in Lwow), a Hungarian-born feather dealer, in 1923 in Lwow. His Yad Vashem page of testimony gives his name as "Jehezchiel Miller." Their children included:  

2a. Nesha Müller, a daughter (1932?-1942?), who died age 10. 

2b. another child (1934?-1942?), who died age 8. 

3. Berta [Bracha] Fingerhut (born 1891 in Radziechow; died August 1942 in Banjica concentration camp, Yugoslavia [Serbia]), who married a shochet (ritual slaughterer) named Rabbi Moshe Bulz (born 1891? in Magerow, Poland or Rawa Ruska, Galicia; died August 1942 in Banjica concentration camp, Yugoslavia [Serbia]). Moshe served as the rabbi of Belgrade, Yugoslavia [Serbia], and a famous photo from World War II shows Moshe arrested and harassed by Serbian Chetniks (royalist nationalists). Bracha and Moshe were detained in Belgrade's concentration camp, Banjica, where they were eventually shot and killed. They have two sets of Yad Vashem pages of testimony, by their son Emmanuel Bulz (Moshe's page; Bracha's page) and by Mordechai Fingerhut (Moshe's page; Bracha's page). Their children included: 

3a. Fanny Bulz Cahanowitz (born 1914 in Innsbruck, Austria; died 1975 in Israel), a survivor of Auschwitz concentration camp. 

3b. Rabbi Emmanuel Bulz (born 1917 in Vienna, Austria; died 1998 in Luxembourg), the Grand Rabbi of Luxembourg from 1958-1990 and whose story is in the next section. 

3c. Lea Bulz Fleishman (born 1921 in Poland; died 1989 in Israel), a survivor of Auschwitz concentration camp. 

4. Rabbi Salomon [Schlmo] Fingerhut (born 1894 in Lubeszka, Bobrka, Galicia; died October 13?, 1941 in Zasavica, Yugoslavia [Serbia]), whose Yad Vashem page of testimony gives his birth year as 1904. He was a cantor who lived in Ruma, Yugoslavia [Serbia]. He married in 1923 in Lwow to Mina Grünwald (born 1892 in Lemberg; died 1941? in Sabac, Yugoslavia [Serbia]), who also has a Yad Vashem page of testimony that gives her birth year as 1906. Salomon joined an unfortunate group of 2,100 male Jews, Roma, and Serbs who were shot and buried in a mass grave in Zasavica (near Sabac, Yugoslavia) on October 12-13, 1941. Here is more on the Zasavica massacre. Salomon's wife may have died in Sava concentration camp in Sabac. The children of Salomon and Mina included:

4a. Natalia Fingerhut, a daughter (born 1925 in Lwow)

4b. Berl Szaja Fingerhut, a son (born 1929 in Lwow)

4b. Nesha Fingerhut, a daughter (1929?-1942?) who died age 13.

4c. Abraham Fingerhut, a son (1932?-1942?) who died age 10. 

5. Mordechai Fingerhut (1901-1964), served in the army in World War I and then taught in Jewish schools in Belgrade and Germany. He immigrated to Palestine around 1935, married Zelma Wilcocz, and had a son. As mentioned above, Mordechai memorialized 15 family members who died in the Shoah on July 19, 1956 through Yad Vashem pages of testimony. 

II. Schaje Fingerhut (born c.1856; died 1934 in Lwow) and Rifke Ruchel Leimsieder (born c.1856; died 1921 in Lwow) had a civil marriage in 1902 in Stojanow, Galicia [now Stoyaniv, Ukraine], long after their religious marriage. Their children included: 

1. Abraham Izak Fingerhut, who married Chaje Hinde Popowitzer in 1901 in Stojanow. Their children included: 

1a. Minna Debora Fingerhut (born 1917 in Vienna, Austria), a twin. 

1b. Lea Fingerhut (born 1917 in Vienna, Austria), a twin. 

2. Bruche Fingerhut, who married Chaim Goldstein in 1905 in Stojanow. 

3. Tillie [Tuma] Fingerhut (born 1880 in Radziechow; died 1975 in New York, NY), who married Rabbi Hersch Barasch (1878-1950) in 1906 in Stojanow. Hersch immigrated to the United States in 1914 and Tuma and her four children followed in 1920. Hersch became known as Harry and worked as a candy maker, and later the family ran a hotel in Saratoga Springs, NY. Their children included: 

3a. Anna Barasch Rubenfield (1907-1991), the grandmother of Jeffrey Rosenthal, the family chronicler. 

3b. Irving Barasch (1909-1958)

3c. Lillian Barasch Weingarten (1912-2002)

3d. Philip Barasch (1914-2006)

4. Etie Fingerhut, who married Jankey Izak Kutscher in 1910 in Stojanow. 

5. Sadie [Sura Gittel] Fingerhut (born 1897 in Stojanow; died 1987 in New York, NY), who immigrated to the United States in 1928 and never married.  

III. Moses Jakob Fingerhut (born c.1866; died 1930 in Sokal) was a farmer whose civil marriage to Ester Unger took place in 1901 in Stojanow, long after their religious marriage. Their children included: 

1. Taube Fingerhut (1889-1958), who married Nathan Yusem (1887-1979). They immigrated to the United States and had two daughters. 

2. Abraham Schabsa Fingerhut (1892-1942?), who married Sara Rechmi Zugman (1896) in 1920 in Sokal. In 1942, Abraham lived at Gostynska 4 in the Lwow Ghetto, and his ghetto work card shows he labored as a glaser (window repairer) in a Nazi army maintenance shop (Heeresunterkunftsverwaltung, or H.U.V.). Their children included: 

2a. Salomea Fingerhut (born 1923 in Lwow)

2b. Henoch Fingerhut (born 1929 in Lwow)

3. Herman Fingerhut (1895-1942?) lived at Gostynska 3 in the Lwow Ghetto in 1942. His ghetto work card says he was a sammler (collector) of "Rohstoff" (raw materials).

4. Samuel Zeinwel Fingerhut (1898) who married Eidel Ruchel Hefter (1899) in 1924 in Sokal. 

5. Lifsze Serl Fingerhut (1900), who married Abraham Scheindlinger (1900) in 1932 in Lwow. Their children included: 

5a. Marjem Scheindlinger (born 1932 in Lemberg)

6. Sara Fingerhut (1905), who married Isaac Hersch Strücker (1907) in 1934 in Lwow. 

7. David Fingerhut (1906-1969), who married Helene Erlbaum (1915-2003). In 1942, David lived at Gostynska 4 in the Lwow ghetto, and his ghetto work card shows he labored as a glaser (window repairer) in a Nazi army maintenance shop (Heeresunterkunftsverwaltung, or H.U.V.). A German officer who had helped Helene a few times told her to leave the ghetto for the countryside. Somehow Helene fled with her infant son for the village of Bialy Dunajec, Poland, over 200 miles away! David also managed to follow them some time later, and the family of three survived the war in hiding. After the war, David and Helene also had a daughter and immigrated to Germany and then the United States. 

The family story is that Moses Jakob and Ester Fingerhut had six sons and two daughters [sic, the above records show at least three daughters], and one of the unknown Fingerhut siblings immigrated to Argentina.

Rabbi Emmanuel Bulz: Resist and Persist

Rabbi Emmanuel Bulz praying in tallit. (Source)

The most prominent descendant of the Radziechow Fingerhuts is Rabbi Emmanuel Bulz (1917-1998), who not only served as the Grand Rabbi of Luxembourg from 1958 to 1990, but lived a life full of bravery as well as erudition. For this summary of his life I rely heavily on a biographical sketch by Luxembourger journalist Bodo Bost (seen here in French and here in German).  

Emmanuel was born on March 6, 1917 in Vienna, Austria to Galician parents, Rabbi Moses Bulz and Bracha (Fingerhut) Bulz. The family lived in Austria and Poland before settling in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia). Emmanuel followed his father and at least two maternal uncles in becoming a rabbi, and received a world-class education in the process. Moving to Paris in 1937, he simultaneously studied in the Rabbinical School of France, the Faculty of Arts in the Sorbonne, and the School of Oriental Languages, learning ancient Semitic languages and "literary Arabic" as well as Judaic studies.

After World War II broke out, it's unclear what Emmanuel knew about his family back in Yugoslavia. By 1942, most of his extended maternal family had been killed or imprisoned in ghettos or concentration camps. Emmanuel fled to Vichy France and enrolled in the University of Clermont-Ferrand under the pseudonym "Eugene Bernard." However, Emmanuel did not just hide but decided to fight back, joining the French resistance in 1942. Back in Vienna, Emmanuel had first joined Zionist groups and met Ze'ev Jabotinsky, the founder of several Jewish self-defense groups. Now Emmanuel took part in the latest wave of Jewish defense, officially joining in July 1943 the branch of the Jewish Combat Organization that answered to the French Forces of the Interior. (Here is another article on Jews in the French Resistance.)  

At first, Emmanuel worked closely with Ernest Lambert (1918-1944) to create forged documents to allow Jews to escape. Then in April 1944, Emmanuel joined a maquis (French guerrilla band) and helped liberate Lyon, France from Nazi control that September, contributing to "Operation Dragoon," the larger Allied liberation of southern France. For his part in the French Resistance, Emmanuel received a Legion d'honneur medal in 1974. 

In postwar times Emmanuel first served as an auxiliary rabbi in Lyon, then became as the rabbi of La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland in 1949, and also completed a doctorate in law in 1954. He became the Grand Rabbi of Luxembourg in 1958, a position he would keep for 32 years. 

As Grand Rabbi, Emmanuel promoted Christian-Jewish dialogue, creating Luxembourg's "Interfaith Association" and hosting Pope John Paul II in 1985. He accompanied Luxembourg's Grand Duke Jean and his wife on a state visit to Israel in 1987, which included seeing the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial and dedicating a forest in Kibbutz Kfar HaHoresh, near Nazareth. Upon retiring in 1990, the Luxembourg government gave Emmanuel the unprecedented title of "Honorary Grand Rabbi," by which he was known until his death on November 4, 1998.     

The journalist Bodo Bost notes that while Emmanuel's sisters both immigrated to Israel, Emmanuel wanted to remain in Europe, and helped Jewish and Christian communities grapple with the aftermath of the Holocaust. On November 9, 1958, Emmanuel made one of his first public appearances as Grand Rabbi of Luxembourg to dedicate a plaque in memory of 12 Jewish families of Medernach, Luxembourg who perished in the Holocaust. In his remarks, Emmanuel noted that it was the 20th anniversary of Kristallnacht, and that all victims of the Shoah needed to be remembered (here is an online translation of part of his speech):

"On November 9, 1938, hundreds of synagogues were cremated under the eyes of an indifferent people. First, we burned books, then synagogues, then people. In Medernach, twelve families were exterminated. It is, however, a small part of the immeasurable number of 6 million men and women sacrificed for pagan civilization ... We will not forget them. This forgetfulness must not occur in a spirit of revenge. The Bible reminds us that evil lives in man, so we must always be aware of this evil." — Grand Rabbi Emmanuel Bulz

Questions? Comments? Please email me at ruedafingerhut [at] gmail.com