The Broniatowski Family Legacy

... and has filled him with a divine spirit of wisdom, insight and knowledge in all craftsmanship. -- (Exodus 35:30-31)

A spellbinding, captivating saga of a bold fearless family, the Broniatowski family from Czestochowa, who emerge from innkeepers, weavers, and soap makers to global titans of medical research, science and the arts.

The individual stories will bring to life a family legacy that embodies unflinching daring, courage, intrigue and triumph, epitomizing indomitable spirit and awe-inspiring vision.

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1. Abram Broniatowski was a carpenter, living at Zydowska st. 12 in Lodz, Poland.
2. Ajzyk Broniatowski was a prominent cardiologist in Czestochowa, Poland. He, and his wife and son, were murdered on Purim Eve 1943 when over 100 Jewish doctors and their families were shot by the Nazis in Częstochowa.
3. André Chaim Broniatowski was born in Czestochowa on January 5, 1911. When he was 16, he went to Włodzimierz Wolinski military academy where he enrolled as a military officer cadet in the Polish army. While in the military, he got in a fight with another cadet who was a member of Endecja -- a Polish nationalist party -- who wanted to start a pogrom. In the process, both were injured. Both cadets were discharged but André received an honorable discharge because the other cadet spat on his uniform -- he was therefore defending the honor of the Polish army. The attacker was dishonorably discharged. André made his way to France where he enrolled in medical school but was unable to finish before the war broke out. He ultimately joined the Polish battalion in the French army and was taken prisoner of war by the Germany army and interned in Altona. He ultimately escaped during an allied bombing raid and, by holding onto the wheels while hiding under a train, returned to France via Belgium. Upon his return to France, he rescued his brother, Albert from a French POW camp by stealing a German officer's uniform and walking out the door (he spoke German fluently). Together, they joined the French resistance. André masqueraded as a French farmer with the pseudonym André Caron. He blew up train tracks and airports (as a result, the commander of the German garrison in the region committed suicide). Ultimately, he decided to leave France and crossed the Pyrenees between France and Spain on foot. Upon reaching Spain, he was imprisoned by Franco's army in Madrid and remained there until he was traded back to the Allies in return for a few bags of Canadian wheat. From Madrid he made his way to Portugal and then Gibraltar. He enlisted with the British army as an artilleryman (this is what he had trained in the Polish army) and taught courses in trigonometry, and would also interrogate German POWs. While in London, he encountered Irmgard Fruchtzweig (they had met seven years earlier in France, but were separated by the war and had lost contact). They got married three days later. Soon after, André's unit was assigned to fight in Burma against the Japanese, but he was allowed to stay in the UK because of an old injury. Most of his unit was lost in battle. Soon after, the war ended and he returned to Paris with his wife and son. In Paris, he started a successful furniture business.
4. Arnold Broniatowski studied chemical engineering at the Deutsche Polytechnikum Berlin Charlottenburg Filiale in Brno, Czechoslowakia (“Dr Ingenieur” in 1926). He was wounded during the "battle of Western Ukraine" and captured by the Soviets. Based on the condition of his hands, he was put in charge of a paper mill plant in Balachna, on the Volga river in the USSR during WWII. During this time, he made major contributions to the chemistry of cellulose. After the war, her returned to Lodz, Poland, and later left for Sweden to work in Stockholm's National Paper Institute and the Karolinska Institute until his death. He and his wife, Anna, co-founded the Anna and Arnold Broniatowski research fund at the Hebrew University.
5. Aron Bronatowski is the earliest recorded member of the Broniatowski family. He was a teacher and merchant in the Czestochowa area, living primarily in the village of Dzbow.
6. Arthur (Arturo) Broniatowski immigrated to Argentina from Naklo in 1939. He married Ilse Weiss from Beuthen (Bytom). He is buried in La Tablada cemetery in Buenos Aires.
7. Artur Broniatowski was a prominent dentist in Czestochowa, Poland.
8. Berysz Broniatowski was born in Lodz, Poland in 1889 and worked in the textile industry. In 1930, he immigrated to Argentina, but may have ultimately returned home to Lodz where he perished in the Holocaust.
9. Cudyk Broniatowski was an electrician, who worked at Łagiewnicka 12 in Lodz, Poland. He was murdered by the Nazis when he and his family were deported to the Chelmno concentration camp.
10. David Broniatowski owned a restaurant called Feldschlössen in Gleiwitz. He was the owner from 1899 to 1928,
11. Georg Broniatowski owned a hotel in Gleiwitz.
12. Harry Broniatowski was a student at Jagiellonian University with a concentration in the humanities. Harry was born in Dimobice, Bulgaria. He was murdered by the Nazis in Treblinka.
13. Haskiel Broniatowski was the owner of the Fishel soap factory in Czestochowa at 5 Fabryczna Street. He was an observant Jew who woke up every morning at 5:30 to study gemara. He nevertheless valued secular education and paid for most of his children to attend universities throughout Europe. Haskiel is presumed murdered along with his wife Gitta, his son Ajzyk, his daugther-in-law, Mania, and his grandson, Broneczek, on Purim eve in 1943, when over 100 Jewish doctors and their families were shot by the Nazis in Częstochowa.
14. Henryk Chaskiel Broniatowski was a law candidate in Czestochowa. He died tragically at the age of 25.
15. Hersz Broniatowski was born in Lodz, Poland, in 1921. As a young man, he briefly worked as a shoemaker. As the Nazi armies advanced in 1939, he escaped to the Soviet-controlled city of Bialystock where he was conscripted into the Soviet Red Army. He was relocated to Barnaul, and then Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, and eventually imprisoned by the Soviet NKVD, who forced him into a labor camp in Ukraine. At the end of the war, he returned to Lodz, and from there made his way to Israel, and eventually, the USA, where he settled in New England.
16. Icchok Broniatowski was born in Lodz, Poland ca. 1915. In 1930, he immigrated to Argentina, but may have ultimately returned home to Lodz where he perished in the Holocaust.
17. Irena Broniatowska was an author and translator, who documented Polish expatriate communities living in England post WW2.
18. Izrael Broniatowski was a carpenter who worked at Brzezińska 48 in Lodz, Poland. He died of Arteriosclerosis in 1941 at a hospital in the Lodz ghetto.
19. Izrael Mojsze Broniatowski Izrael Mojsze Broniatowski was born in Lodz, Poland. He fought the Nazis as a partisan during the Second World War, during which time he used the pseudonym Jozef. He ultimately joined the 16th Kolobrzeg Infantry Regiment of the 6th Infantry Division of the 1st Polish Army. This is the army which fought with Soviets to liberate Poland in 1944-45 where he fought as a private. He was honored with a Bronze Medal of Glory at Battlefield. Although he survived the Holocaust, his wife and three daughters all perished at the hands of the Nazis. Izrael ultimately made his way to Israel where he is buried in the Segula cemetery in Petach Tikva.
20. Jakób Broniatowski was a prominent lawyer in Warsaw, member of the intelligentsia, and member of the Warsaw Judenrat. He died in the Warsaw ghetto.
21. Jakub Broniatowski was a "felczer" in Czestochowa, Poland. He served as the head of medical services in Częstochowa/Kielce area during the failed "January Uprising" against the Russians in 1863. He provided a university education to at least five of his eight children.
22. Josef ben Haskiel Broniatowski was a chemist who lived in Plauen, Germany, before the Second World War. He was forcibly deported from Germany to Czestochowa, Poland, by the Nazis. His experiences during this deportation are recorded in a series of letters to his sons, which are on file at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.
23. Joseph ben Mendel Broniatowski was a soldier in the German army. He perished during the First World War.
24. Leizer Broniatowski was a physician from Czestochowa, Poland. He completed his doctorate in Zurich with a dissertation on pigmentation in the brain. Alexander later practiced medicine in Bulgaria where he died at a young age.
25. Lewik Broniatowski was a merchant who owned a haberdashery, bead, and toy shop in Czestochowa, Poland.
26. Ludwik Broniatowski was a prominent Polish expert in finance. In 1955, he was awarded the Gold Cross of Merit by the Polish government. He ultimately became the Director of the Warsaw Office of Finance.
27. Max Broniatowski was a confectioner and baker who lived in Magdeburg Germany. During the war, he sought to leave Germany for Shanghai and the United States, although his repeated immigration requests were denied. He ultimately perished in Magdeburg in 1943.
28. Menachem (Mendel) ben Aharon Bronatowski was an innkeeper and grain dealer in Czestochowa in the early 1800s.
29. Menachem Yehuda (Mendel) ben David Broniatowski was a merchant from Czestochowa, Poland. He married his wife, Henriette (Jettel) Schnitzer, in Bytom (Beuthen) and settled in Semianowice. He is the progenitor of the Laurahutte/Gliwice branch of the Broniatowski family.
30. Mieczyslaw Broniatowski was a Polish artist, actor, director, and radio announcer post WWII. Prior to this, he served as an official in the Ministry of Treasury for the Polish government.
31. Mosiek Broniatowski was born in 1817 in Czestochowa Poland. He and his children moved to Lodz, Poland, founding the Lodz branch of the Broniatowski family.
32. Nachman Broniatowski owned a tailor shop on Zawadzka street in Lodz.
33. Natan ben Eliahu Broniatowski was a prominent architect in Berlin in the late 1800s.
34. Natan ben Yechezkiel Broniatowski worked as an accountant/bookkeeper in Czestochowa, and later at Zawadzka 9 in Lodz, Poland.
35. Pinkus Szulem Broniatowski was a physician in Czestochowa. Paweł Broniatowski became a dermatologist because he got deaf and couldn't use a stethoscope. Before becoming a dermatologist, he had a very prestigious position of the main doctor of the Czestochowa firemen brigade.
36. Salomea Broniatowska worked with Janusz Korczak and was one of the four nurses forced to lead a column of children out of the Warsaw Ghetto to the train to Treblinka.
37. Szymon Broniatowski lived in Zawiercie, Poland, where he was a prominent member of the assimilationist movement.
38. Michael Biron-Cegla endowed a scholarship at Hebrew University in memory of his late wife, Amalia Peretz.
39. Albert Brown was the first member of the Broniatowski family to be born in the USA.
40. Lillian Brown was born Halina Broniatowska in Czestochowa, Poland. She immigrated with her family to California at age 4. Several years later, she married Adolf (Arthur) Schuman, and co-founded Lilli Ann Couture. The two were quite philanthropic and were close friends with the Kennedy family during JFK's presidency. The company had a large role in rebuilding Europe's textile industries after WW2.
41. Nathan Brown and his wife Bluma arrived in Paterson, New Jersey from Lodz, Poland around 1895. Nathan was approximately 42 years old. They were part of a large contingent of people, many in the textile business in Lodz, who came to Paterson seeking freedom from Czarist Russia.
42. Shirle Horowitz
43. Barbara Wiczyk (Broniatowski) was born in Czestochowa, Poland to a large family of doctors and scientists, most of whom, because of their religion, never saw the end of World War II. Always a serious student, she finished her medical studies in 1940 in Soviet-occupied Poland, an impressive achievement for a woman of her generation. During the Holocaust that accompanied the War, she and her husband, Stanislaw Wiczyk, M.D. (1912-2010) were saved by a courageous group of Poles to whom she remained devoted for the remainder of her life. By 1958, she and her family, which now included two daughters, Janine and Halina, emigrated to Israel and, then, in 1960, to the United States to begin life anew. Here, after much hard work and re-training, resumed her medical practice of obstetrics and gynecology in Riverhead, Long Island, N.Y. The Wiczyks moved to Erie in 1979 where Dr. Barbara served as an employee health physician at St. Vincent Health Center until 1985. Music was always an integral part of her life. She loved playing Chopin on the piano or organ and continued to take music lessons until the end of her life. She was a devout American, loving her adopted country that gave her family so much freedom. Dr. Barbara Wiczyk was born September 26, 1914, and died in the comfort of her home in Erie, Pa. on September 14, 2011, 12 days short of her 97th birthday. She was a truly remarkable woman who was loved and respected by all, who had the honor of knowing her.