Jewish Families of Belzyce

Jewish Families of Bełżyce.

Bełżyce (Belzhitse) [Polish], בעלדזיץ Belzhitza [Yiddish], Белжыце Belzhytze [Russian], בלז'יצה [Hebrew] Located in Lublin Gubernia at Latitude: 51°11′N Longitude:

General Bełżyce Sztetl Information, History and Bełżyce Jewish Family Research:

• JRI-Poland.org (Jewish Records Indexing - Poland) an independent membership research association led by volunteers who aggregate sources known to exist to research our jewish ancestry - the town of Belzyce: [https://www.jri-poland.org/town/belzyce/] sources between the years 1810-1936 with links to online access to the Polish State Archives digital records
• Belzyce a Jewish history in English [http://teatrnn.pl/lexicon/articles/belzyce-the-shtetl/]
• JewishGen Locality Page: A map, spelling history and a link to Jewish families researchers - you need to log in: https://www.jewishgen.org/Communities/community.php?usbgn=-493153
• Virtual Shtetl, a website of the Polin museum: https://sztetl.org.pl/en/towns/b/270-belzyce
• Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be%C5%82%C5%BCyce
• B&F:Jewish Genealogy and More Blog / Bełżyce [https://bloodandfrogs.com/compendium/poland/lublin/belzyce]
• JewishGen - Jewish Family Finder, search town Belzyce (free registration to add your family names to the list) [https://www.jewishgen.org/jgff/] Researchers are seeking connections and family information about these family names (as of April 5, 2019): Akierman, Arbus, Blank, Brafman, Brawer, Dyament, Dornstreich, Erlichman, Federbush, Feld, Fershtman, Flaumenbaum, Friedman, Geister, Goldberger, Goldiner, Goldsztajn, Hebenstreit, Korn, Lajwand, Landesberg, Lerner, Lorberbaum, Matiuk, Melman, Persiko, Pintelle, Pres, Rajsfeld, Reisfield, Reitzfeld, Rupp, Schwartz, Szeffer, Szulmajster, Trope, Viner, Weller, Zelazo, Zygielwax
• NOTE: As of April 2024 - a cyber attack on the Israel State Archive website changed how searches are conducted, this link is currently not available - search for Belzyce, the results will bring up natives who emigrated to Palestine [https://www.archives.gov.il/en/]
• A dozen family trees with Belzyce connections on JewishGen - Family Tree of the Jewish People [https://www.jewishgen.org/]
• Polish State Archives - Jewish volumes of Birth Death and Marriage records [https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/zespol/-/zespol/4112 - see also the direct links for Belzyce records on JRI-Poland.org (Jewish Records Indexing - Poland - an independent membership association)
• Belzyce Jewish families descendants and researchers are members of the facebook group - Jews from Izbica, Krasnystaw, Belzyce, Bychawa, Zolkiewka, Piaski & Turobin - ask to join, it is a private membership group [https://www.facebook.com/groups/471050326395860/]
• Free and for a fee research at [http://www.jewsfrompoland.com/] and the 1926 list of recorded marriages in Belzyce [http://www.jewsfrompoland.com/2019/05/18/now-you-can-find-out-more-...]
• Annual commemorations at the Belzyce Jewish cemetery led by the Ariav family: [https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=belzyce+ariav] (in English, Polish and Hebrew)
• Belzyce telephone book 1939 [http://genealogyindexer.org/frame/d283/24]
• Belzyce 1929 Polish Business Directory [http://data.jewishgen.org/jri-pl/1929/loadtop.htm?0497]
• Arolsen Archives online, search Belzyce [https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search/?s=Belzyce], also search individual family names because other spellings do not come up in the Belzyce search such as Belcice, Belsice, Belcize or Belschitze, and search camps, see Traunstein below.
• Emigration to the United States, see Steve Morse's [https://www.stevemorse.org/], for Ellis Island searches, you should know that spellings are a challenge, for example Belzyce is also spelled variously as Belsetz, Belezyeze, Belzicz, Beldziczy, Belczaz, or Belzac and more. So be creative when searching for family names if you can't find someone at first.
• Rivington Street in lower Manhattan was a popular destination for newly arrived Belzycers in NYC, if you know an address, see if you can find the building in the NYC Tax photos of 1940, here is the link to 250 photos of Rivington street complete with synagogues [http://nycma.lunaimaging.com/luna/servlet/view/all/where/Rivington+...]
• FamilySearch.org - look for individuals (immigration, census, and other records worldwide) and family trees at [https://www.familysearch.org/en/], it is free, Belzyce family researchers have added individuals in the family tree section.
• The 1st Belgiser Benevolent Association in the US manages plot number 40 in section A at the Riverside Cemetery in Saddle Brook, New Jersey. The cemetery website with an available map is [https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/100185/riverside-cemetery] and some research of names can be done at [https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/100185/riverside-cemetery], and there is another 1st Belgiser cemetery plot at Mount Moriah cemetery in Fairview New Jersey, name search can be done at [https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/100116/mount-moriah-cemetery]. In addition Belzyce natives are buried at several other cemeteries across the New Jersey and New York area.
• Belzyce natives living in France who volunteered to join the French Foreign Legion in 1939-1940 [https://www.memoiredeshommes.sga.defense.gouv.fr/fr/arkotheque/clie...]
• Belzyce natives who lived in France and died in France, these are INSEE data of deceased persons since 1970 [https://deces.matchid.io/search?advanced=true&bc=Belzyce&size=n_60_n]

In Polish

• Bełżyce history [https://teatrnn.pl/leksykon/artykuly/belzyce-historia-miasta/]
• Dzieje Żydów Bełżyckich by Adam Kopciowski, 2006 [http://biblioteka.teatrnn.pl/dlibra/dlibra/doccontent?id=9523]
• Bełżyce architecture [http://teatrnn.pl/leksykon/artykuly/belzyce-architektura-drewniana/]
• Bełżyce monograph history [http://biblioteka.teatrnn.pl/dlibra/Content/9366/Belzyce_Jadczak.pdf]
• Creation of Belzyce, Kings visited, fire of 1913 [https://www.wilanow-palac.pl/austeria_w_belzycach.html]
• Oral Testimonies [http://teatrnn.pl/historiamowiona/indeks/miejscowosc/26%2523target_...]
• World War I - 1915 in Bełżyce [https://lubelskie1914-15.blogspot.com/2015/12/dziaania-wojenne-w-ro...]
• Jakob Nachman of Belzyce [http://www.jhi.pl/psj/Jakub_Nachmanowicz_z_Belzyc], religious discourse in the mid 1500, Belzyce was an important protestant town hosting regular synods.
• Book: Śladami Żydów. Lubelszczyzna (In the footsteps of Jews of the Lublin region), author: Marta Kubiszyn, Belzyce pages 41 - 46, published in Lublin 2011. Names mentioned: Rabbi Ytzhak Mojzesz Azriel LICHT, Moszek GOLDSZTAJN, Jakub KIRSZT, Rabbi Gedali JAKUBSON.

Shoah

• Belzyce massacre of May 3rd 1943 - information about the murder: Rabbinical Commission for Cemeteries [https://zapomniane.org/en/miejsce/belzyce-2/]
• French high school students took a seven day trip in Poland. One of the stops was in Belzyce where they placed a bouquet in memory of the May 8, 1943 massacre on the spot of the mass grave as indicated by a village resident and witness, 8 years old a the time: [https://voyageauschwitz2017.wordpress.com/]
• History of Bełżyce 1939-1944 and the destruction of the Jewish community is described in the Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghetto 1933-1945, Volume II: Ghettos in German-occupied Eastern Europe, page 612. It can be downloaded at this link: [https://www.ushmm.org/research/publications/encyclopedia-camps-ghettos] Jewish family names of Belzyce mentioned in the article are ARBUZ, FERSZTMAN, GOLDSZTEJN, GRABEL, REIS, RYCER, WIENER, ZYLBERNADEL
• Yizkhor Book of Krasnik - description of May 8 1943 murders in Bełżyce and Budzyn labor camp [https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/krasnik/kra225.html]
• Forced relocation of Jews from Lublin to Belzyce mainly in April / May 1941, 319 database entries [https://teatrnn.pl/places/place/belzyce/]
• Gates of Tears: The Holocaust in the Lublin District by David Silberklang, published in 2013 by Yad Vashem
• [https://www.yahadinunum.org/] organization map of witness interviews of the Holocaust by Bullets, Bełżyce interview to come soon: [https://www.yahadmap.org/#map/q_pays.4/]
• Testimony of Mirka Winer [https://early-testimony.ehri-project.eu/document/EHRI-ET-ZIH3011169
• Testimony of Marta Weissbrod Rubinsztein [https://early-testimony.ehri-project.eu/document/EHRI-ET-YV3540315
• Testimony of Wolf Gaister [https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn551136]
• Testimony of Paul Blank [https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn503213]
• Testimony of Luba Laks Elbaum [http://holocaust.umd.umich.edu/elbaum/]
• Righteous Among The Nations in Belzyce: Stanisław and Helena Wiślińscy, in the years 1943 - 1945, took under their roof and looked after a Jewish child - Rywka Goldiner, granddaughter of Szmul Fersztman - (in Polish), Rywka survived the war and emigrated to Israel with her parents: [http://teatrnn.pl/sprawiedliwi-lubelszczyzna/historia-rodziny-wisli...] and for hiding the Fersztman family, the Ostrowskis received the distinction as well [http://teatrnn.pl/sprawiedliwi-lubelszczyzna/ostrowski-stanislaw/]
• Testimonies of Belzyce natives who survived the Shoah in the Archives of the USC Shoah Foundation - Registration is required:[http://vhaonline.usc.edu/login]
• At Yad Vashem, letter extracts of life in the Belzyce ghetto in 1941-1942, the Bruckmann family was deported from Leipzig to Belzyce [https://www.yadvashem.org/artifacts/museum/bruckmann-diaries.html]
• Yad Vashem Pages of Testimony: 967 pages of testimonies written for persons born in Belzyce [https://yvng.yadvashem.org/index.html?language=en&advancedSearch=tr...]
• Yad Vashem photos [https://photos.yadvashem.org/index.html?language=en&displayType=ima...]
• Klajnminc and Reiss family [https://www.facebook.com/doug.reiss1/posts/10213970752203037] and their photo [https://www.facebook.com/elijah.reiss/posts/10157103921003960]
• Memorial for Vanished Communities: Belzyce [http://www.isragen.org.il/siteFiles/1/473/5871.asp?mvid=705]
• Memoir of Nina Weinstock, wherein she describes the arrival of the german train station master in Niedzrwica, hamlet where Jews from Belzyce were deported from to Sobibor and Majdanek. [https://documents.yadvashem.org/index.html?language=en&search=globa...]
• Names of 1,304 individuals deported from Stettin (February 12, 1940) or Weimar-Leipzig (May 10, 1942) to Belzyce [https://www.bundesarchiv.de/gedenkbuch/directory.html.en?result#frm...]
• Majdanek killing center - outside of Lublin, go to [http://www.majdanek.eu/en/prisoners] and in the birthplace box start typing "belz" and choices will come up such as Belzice, or Gbelzyce, or Belzyce for example, just click on one to get the results of names.
• Majdanek killing center - And search by Surname as well, for example, Noach GOLDSZLAGIER, his birthplace is listed as B...so his name would never come up in a Belzyce birth place search.

Family History

• Belzyce school diplomas 1934-1937in Yad Vashem's collections, students are: Ita ROLNIK, Estera BERGMAN, Frimeta CUKIER, Lejbus KIERSZENBAUM, Estera and Rjza MANDEL (live in Wierzchowiska, 5 miles south of Belzyce), Abram GRYNBAUM, Sara LIBERMAN, Chaim SZWERDSZARF, Icek FAJGENBAUM, Szmul ARBUZ. [https://documents.yadvashem.org/index.html?language=en&search=globa...]
• Arolsen Archives online, the Traunstein displaced persons camp as of April 14, 1947, includes many women and men from Belzyce, start with scan number 0098 and it ends at scan 0103 [https://digitalcollections.its-arolsen.org/03010102/place/view/3085...] Family names are ERLICHMAN, GAISTER, LAJWAND, GOLDINER, FRIEDMAN, FERSZTMAN, ROSENELL, CICHOWICZ.
• ZYLBERNADEL Family [http://zylbernadel.goaheadspace.com/]
• Nimrod Ariav - WAJSBRODT - [https://beit-olam.weebly.com/]
• PRES, FRIEDMAN, FEDERBUSH, FLAMENBAUM - [http://www.shtetldreams.com/]
• SZABMACHER: Jakub's world : a boy's story of loss and survival in the Holocaust by Jack Terry [https://www.worldcat.org/title/jakubs-world-a-boys-story-of-loss-an...] ,and German Television 45mn report and interview with Jack (Szabmacher)Terry, it includes scenes in Belzyce [https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=224&v=NEWHso76lLg], and a lecture about his life in 2006 at Oregon State University [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGV_ZaEupbE] and profile on the Brama Grodzka website, in Polish, from February 2019 [https://blog.teatrnn.pl/brama-edukacja-i-animacja/jack-terry/]
• Testimony of Wolf GAISTER, brother of Chaja Frajhof [https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn551136]
• Testimony of Chaja GAISTER Frajhof, sister of Wolf Gaister [https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn507540]
• Testimony of Paul BLANK [https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn503213]
• Testimony of Miriam KIERSZENBAUM Eizenshtat [https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn503165]
• Sala TROPER, born 15 July 1928 in Belzyce, is listed as a student taking classes at Bergen - Belsen Displaced Persons camp in November 1945[http://www.infocenters.co.il/gfh/notebook.asp?lang=ENG&dlang=ENG&mo...]
• Basia Barbara Lesowska ROCHMAN [http://moirodzice.org.pl/barbara_lesowska.php]
• Moszek ARBUZ, born October 14 1887 in Belzyce, registered to take the tailor license exam in Lublin [http://biblioteka.teatrnn.pl/dlibra/Content/93715/images/IMG_7444.jpg]
• David Jakubson - Photo from Lublin and letter in Yiddish in the YIVO Vilna archives: Folder 2254: Jakubson (Yakubson), David (son of the Rabbi of Belzhits (Belzyce)) [https://vilnacollections.yivo.org/home?ca=((item.php!id__rg-3-s1-f2...]

Olivier Szlos