The Broniatowski Family Legacy

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

The Broniatowski family from Czestochowa, Poland, included innkeepers, weavers, and soap makers as well as prominent figures in medical research, science and the arts.

During the Second World War, a family book, containing the history and origins of the Broniatowskis was lost. This project is an attempt to rebuild and reconsolidate this missing information.

Project Photo is a sculpture created by Karol Broniatowski, born Łódź, Poland 1945.

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1. Abram Broniatowski was a carpenter, living at Zydowska st. 12 in Lodz, Poland.
2. Ajzyk Broniatowski was a prominent physician from Częstochowa, Poland. He was certified as a general practitioner and had an interest in cardiology. He had offices in Krakow at Zwierzyniecka 17 and in Dzialosyn. He, and his wife Regina (Mania) Broniatowska and son Bronisław (Bruno/Bronek/Broneczek) Broniatowski, were murdered on Purim Eve 1943 when over 100 Jewish intellectuals and their families were shot by the Nazis in Częstochowa.
3. Albert Isadore Brown (Broniatowski) married Rose Barezovsky and had two sons, Robert and Newton. After having a heart attack when he was 36, the family moved from Paterson, New Jersey to Miami, Florida. Albert Isadore Brown died of heart failure in 1945.
4. Albert Israel Brown (Broniatowski) was a political science major at George Washington University and had recently returned from a semester abroad in Spain. He was fluent in English and Spanish. On March 15th 1978, while he was spending Spring break in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, he was murdered while using a vending machine in his hotel. He was 20 years old.
5. André Chaim Broniatowski was born in Czestochowa, Poland. on January 5, 1911. When he was 17, he voluntarily enrolled in Włodzimierz Wolinski military academy, as a cadet in the Polish reserve officer school, with the aim of gaining an advantage in the Polish university system. While in the military, he was attacked by a member of Endecja -- a Polish nationalist party -- who entered the cadets' locker room with a group of compatriots who were looking for Jews to attack. André was accused of treason as a Jew wearing a Polish officers' uniform, and was attacked with a knife. André counterattacked with his saber, wounding the attacker. This event led to André's discharge from the army, despite his captain's defense. His received an honorable discharge because the attacker spat on his uniform -- he was therefore defending the honor of the Polish army. André made his way to France where he enrolled in medical school but was unable to finish before the war broke out. When the Germans invaded, he served as a liaison officer between the 1st Polish Infantry Division and the 4th French army stationed in Meurthe-et-Moselle, Lorraine. On June 16, 1940, he was wounded in battle in Dieuze, when a piece of shrapnel was lodged in his back. He was held as a prisoner of war in Coetquidon, and later Amiens, between June 1940 and April 1941, although he ultimately led an escape and used explosives to sabotage the German-constructed airport in nearby Poix. As a consequence, the Major of the Garrison in Amiens committed suicide. He was later imprisoned in German Prisoner of War camp, Oflag 11A. While there, he volunteered for duty as a kommando, clearing debris from the aftermath of English bombing raids. During one of these missions, he was taken to Altona, where he escaped by holding onto the wheels while hiding under a train. This train stopped in Maastricht, where he was helped by Dutch and Belgian railworkers. Upon his return to France, he found that his Paris apartment at rue de Charonne 97 had been pillaged. He rescued his brother, Albert from a French POW camp -- some say by stealing a German officer's uniform and walking out the door (he spoke German fluently). Together, André and Albert joined the French resistance. Using the pseudonym "André Caron," he masqueraded as a French farmer in Dordogne and covertly blew up train tracks to disrupt German supply lines. 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. Using his Polish military training, he enlisted with the British army as an artilleryman, teaching courses in trigonometry and using his command of the German language to interrogate German prisoners of war. 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 in 1940). 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, which he ran until his retirement in 1977.
6. Arnold Broniatowski was born on February 9, 1906 in Czestochowa, Poland. His father, Chaskiel Broniatowski, was a soapmaker. After having attended high school in Czestochowa, he studied technical chemistry at the German superior technical school (Deutsche Polytechnikum Berlin Charlottenburg Filiale) in Brno, Czechoslovakia. At this school, he obtained an engineer-chemist's diploma (Dr. Ingenieur) on June 29, 1929. From October 1929 to the end of 1931, he worked at the Przeworsk candy factory in Poland. In January 1932, he started working at the Czestochowa paper mill where he worked first as a shop foreman, then section manager, and laboratory manager, until the outbreak of hostilities in September, 1939. In December 1939, Aron became a refugee in Russian-occupied eastern Poland. In January 1940, he was employed by the Russian authorities as a department head in the state paper factory in Mokurin near Rowno. He worked in this factory until June 22, 1941. On July 23, he was mobilized in the Red Army. He was injured in the Battle of Western Ukraine. At the end of July 1941, he was assigned to the largest paper and cellulose mill in the Soviet Union -- the "Kombinat" of paper and cellulose in Balachna, on the Volga. This assignment was made based upon the quality of his hands, which marked him as an intellectual rather than a laborer. In this factory, he exercised the following functions: engineer in charged of the technical control of the "Kombinat" from August 1941 until the middle of the year 1942, adjunct to the section head of technical control until May 1943, chief chemist (head of the Kombinat laboratories) until April, 1946. In April 1946 Aron was decommissioned and repatriated to Poland thanks to the Russo-Polish Repatriation Accord, where he legally changed his name to Antoni Arnold Broniatowski. In Poland, Arnold worked briefly at the State Directorate of Paper Mills. While in Czestochowa, he returned to his father's house until the Chief of Police told him that his safety could not be guaranteed due to the climate of anti-Semitism pervading Poland at the time. In September 1946, he traveled to Switzerland to visit his sister, who was married to the redaktor of the Novelle Gazette de Zurich, Dr. H. Peter. At this time, Arnold spoke Polish, German, Russian, and Czech, and was conversant in English. Although he hoped to obtain a position at a paper manufactory at Attisholz, Solothurn, he did not get the job -- some say, because his experiences in Russia led him to be suspected as a "Red" Communist. He ultimately left for Sweden to work in Stockholm's National Paper Institute and the Karolinska Institute, where he invented a form of fire-resistant paper. He was naturalized as a Swedish citizen in 1954, and lived there until his death. He and his wife, Anna, co-founded the Anna and Arnold Broniatowski research fund at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
7. Aron Mendlowicz 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.
8. 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.
9. Arthur Broones (Broniatowski) was the first member of the Broniatowski family to have been born in the USA, having been born in 1895, about one year after his parents' marriage. He ultimately became a successful South California businessman.
10. Artur Broniatowski was a prominent dentist in Czestochowa, Poland, who worked at Panny Marji 8 and Waszyngtona 7. He was a member of the Society to Help Poor and Sick Jews.
11. Barbara Wiczyk (Broniatowska) 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.
12. 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.
13. Robert H. (Bob) Brown (Broniatowski), son of Albert and Rose Brown was born in Paterson, NJ on May 16, 1929. His brother, Newton was born 4 years later and they lived there and in Florida until their father died in 1945. After college, Bob enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1953 where he was stationed in Latin America during the Korean War. When the Air Force sent him to Panama, he met Frida Trajtman of Peru; they married in 1956. Robert and Frida had three children; Albert, Sandy and Stuart. The family was terribly saddened when Albert was murdered in 1978 . Bob and Frida moved to Sarasota, Florida from New Jersey in 1993 after a career in consumer marketing and advertising. They enjoyed being grandparents and traveling during their time in Florida and had celebrated 54 blissful years together before Frida passed away in 2010. Bob moved to Mercer Island, WA near his daughter and son-in-law and died of a heart attack after Yom Kippur on September 26, 2012.
14. 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.
15. David Broniatowski owned a restaurant called Feldschlösschen in Gleiwitz. He was the owner from 1899 to 1928, when he had to sell his restaurant and house. (He stood surety for a margarine factory with his house. The company went bankrupt and he lost his house). After that he owned a shop in the "Flugplatzstr" until mid-1934.
16. Elias Klein (Broniatowski), is professor of medicine at the University of Louisville and an expert in Biology, Biomaterials, Medicine, and Artificial Organs. He invented dialysis filters that help keep over a million people alive that depend on hemodialysis to treat their kidney failure. Elias also collaborated with several Israeli scientists on the problem of desalination of sea water using artificial membranes. The Elias Klein Founders' Travel Award was created in his honor by the North American Membrane Society.
17. Eliasz Broniatowski was the first in a line of three generations of soapmakers in the Broniatowski family.
18. Georg Broniatowski owned a hotel in Gleiwitz.
19. Grete Broniatowski nee Blumenthal was born in 1888. Prior to, and during, WWII she lived in Berlin, Germany. She was deported with Transport, Train Da 31 from Berlin to Riga, Latvia on November 27, 1941. Grete was murdered in the Shoah three days later.
20. Hans Broniatowski was born in Laurahutte, Germany (now Siemianowice, Poland) in 1914. He was an Olympic capable javelin thrower. Although he moved with his family to Breslau, according to Lotte Wiener, he left Breslau in 1938, with his brother, Kurt, for New York City, USA. He arrived in New York on the S.S. Volendam, which sailed from Rotterdam on August 18, 1938, where he is listed as a “hotel employee,” most likely having worked in the hotel of his father, Georg. Hans and Kurt had obtained visas for the Philippines in their passports, issued in Breslau on June 28, 1938, for unknown reasons (there were no family members living in the Philippines at the time). Although their original intention was to immigrated to the USA, they were told that they needed to first go to Canada to effect their immigration. They did not want to bother and instead left for the Philippines. While there, Hans managed a restaurant in Bacolod City, in the southern Philippines. He the died tragically in 1940 when he was stabbed by the restaurant's cook, although the cook was later exonerated by the Philippine court system.
21. Harry Broniatowski was a student at Jagiellonian University with a concentration in the humanities. Harry was born in Dimotika, Bulgaria (now Didymoteicho, Evros, Greece). He was murdered by the Nazis in Treblinka.
22. Haskiel Broniatowski was the owner of the Fiszel soap factory in Czestochowa at 5 Fabryczna Street. He lived at Nadrzeczna 46. 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 non-Jewish high schools and universities throughout Europe. According to some, he was excluded from his Stübl as a consequence. 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, although some say that, prior to this event he was given a lethal injection of morphine by a nurse so as not to experience the pain of the massacre.
23. Henryk Broniatowski was a renowned chemist, originally from Czestochowa, Poland. He held several patents in the UK, USA, and Switzerland. His last position was as deputy manager of the Swiss CIBA chemical factory in Pabianice near Łódź (Pabianizer Aktiengesellschaft der chemischen Industrie Pabianice, PCI). He was a reknowned specialist, with a title of Doctor (more than PhD). He was well respected, and rich. Henryk, together with his son, Henryk, Jr., and another senior manager of PCI, Roman Ruszewski, were arrested in September 1939 by Gestapo and interned in a Pabianice cinema "Wolność" (Freedom). Ruszewski was moved in November to the Łódź Radogoszcz prison from where he was rescued by his family for a bribe. According to the account of Zofia Serednicka, the fiancee of Henryk Jr., she failed to get funds for a bribe for the Broniatowskis because a safe in the elder Henryk's office, for which she was secretely given a key, had been opened and plundered. A person which had the only other key to the safe was Herman Thommen, a Swiss manager of PCI. According to the family story, the father and son were brutally killed on the stage of cinema Wolność but according to a Polish book called '100 years of CIBA in Poland', they were taken to the Łódź Gestapo headquarters and executed there in November.
24. Henryk Chaskiel Broniatowski was a law candidate in Czestochowa. He died tragically at the age of 25.
25. Henryka Broniatowska was a Polish translator and publisher. During World War II, Henryka lived in the Soviet Union, and from 1943 served in the Polish People's Army as a political and educational officer. From 1946-1947 she was the Director of Propaganda PPR House in Lodz, then an employee of the Department of Propaganda of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. In this last function, she oversaw creation of the Crooked Circle Club, and in May 1956 became a part of the board. From 1958 to 1968 she worked as deputy editor of the publication "Sparks." She was also an employee of the "Our Books" publishing house and the National Publishing Agency. She the originator of the series, "Read to me, Mom," "From books to Bookcases," "Feature with postage stamp", and "Lucky Seven." She translated Russian literature, and was one of the organizers of the Polish Section of IBBY. She was a member of the Polish Writers' Association and was awarded the Polish Gold Cross of Merit in 1955.
26. Hersz Aron 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 for attempted desertion, who put him on the front lines of the Soviet Red Army. While fighting in Germany, he met his first wife, Kseniya Gavrilova Vasilina, when liberating the women's concentration camp Ravensbruck, where she was interned. At the end of the war, he returned to Lodz, where his son, Michał, was born. He wanted to go to Israel, although Kseniya preferred to return to her native Ukraine; Consequently, they divorced. He later remarried, moved to Israel, and eventually, moved to the USA, where he settled in New England in 1969. He died there in 2005 at age 83.
27. 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.
28. Irena Broniatowska was an author and translator, who documented Polish expatriate communities living in England post WW2.
29. Irina Broniatowska lived in Lodz, Poland, as a young child. After her parents' divorce in 1952, she returned to Ukraine with her mother and younger brother. The famines brought on by Stalinist policies made times difficult, and the family was often cold and hungry. In 1954, the family moved to Stavropol (Russia), where Irina lived in an orphanage. In 1957 the family moved to Rostov-on-Don, where she was tragically killed in a train accident at age 15.
30. Irmgard Broniatowski (nee Fruchtzweig) of Cleveland Heights was born Jan. 21, 1916, in Oberhausen-Sterkrade, Germany, and died Jan. 31, 2014, at age 98. Irmgard graduated from Ursulinen Hochschule in Germany. She met her husband, Andre, in Paris at her sister's home in 1937. During the war, Andre was a liaison officer between the French and Polish armies, and the two were separated when he was sent to the front. In 1939, Irmgard escaped Germany to London where she was a fire watcher during the London blitz. Her job was to push incendiary bombs off the rooftops with a long broom. Irmgard and Andre were reunited in London in 1944 after he escaped from a German POW camp and joined the British army via Spain and Gibraltar. At the time, Irmgard was working as a cashier at the Cumberland Hotel in London and happened to see Andre walking down the street in British uniform near Marble Arch. She called out to him and they got married a few days later in London. After the war, the couple returned to France and in 1977 after Andre’s retirement, they moved to Cleveland to be closer to their son. Irmgard had an impish sense of humor and was known for her exquisite taste. She enjoyed art, music, antiques, and dogs.
31. 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.
32. 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.
33. Jakób Broniatowski was a prominent lawyer in Warsaw, member of the intelligentsia, and member of the Warsaw Judenrat with offices at Wspolna 10. He received his U. jur., and TU. jur. degrees in 1906 and 1907, both from the University of Tartu in Estonia. Jakób lived at Sienna 57/24 and died in the Warsaw ghetto.
34. Jadwiga Broniatowska Rodau was a Polish dentist. During the second world war, she, and her husband, disguised themselves as Polish gentiles using the names Boleslaw and Jadwiga Marcinkiewicz. As a result, Jadwiga was able to enter and leave the Warsaw Ghetto with impunity. In the words of Leszek Klewicki (a Polish gentile who sheltered Jadwiga): “A postcard came,” he says, “with the words: I've fallen ill, signed ‘Jadzia’. It was addressed to Józefów, near Warszawa, with no street name. The post office didn't know what to do with it, so they gave it to alderman Sulkowski, a good friend of ours, whose sons were in the underground. Mom read it and noticed the stamp that said Czestochowa and then she immediately knew it was Jadzia, the dentist she had been childhood friends with.“ Leszek was living with his mother in a two-storey villa in Radosc near Warszawa. His father had died during the bombing of Warszawa. Mom went to Czestochowa right away. First she brought Jadzia Broniatowska and her sister-in-law, Adela Mitelman, and later Jadzia’s husband, Natan Rodau, with papers in the name Boleslaw Marcinkiewicz, and his sister Natalia Frydrych with her five-year-old son Julian. In mid-1943 they were joined by doctor Waclaw Konar and his son Jerzy, also from the Czestochowa ghetto. “Jadzia had ‘good looks,’ Aryan papers in the name of Maria Helena Pelikant and as the only one she could go out. She and mom were working at the Central Welfare Council (Rada Glówna Opiekuncza). I was in charge of the house. I was 15 at the time. The hardest part was keeping them together and away from the windows.” There was a shelter in the landing, for emergencies. The alderman of Radosc would often tip them off about German raids. He knew the mother was part of the underground. “Their fear was greatest when the soldiers were searching the houses in our street. They wanted to run for the forest, but mom stood in their way and said whatever their fate was, ours would be the same. Everybody made it and we remained friends.”
35. 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.
36. Josef (ben Yechezkiel) Broniatowski was a prominent 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. One such letter was written in Czestochowa, with no date (most likely early November 1938) is translated from German in the book Jewish Responses to Persecution: 1933-1938 as follows: My dear boys! We sent you a telegram from Kattowitz [Polish: Katowice] to say that the German barbarians had thrown us out and that we ended up in Czenstochau [Polish: Czestochowa], now I want to tell you what happened: on Thursday, October 28, at one o'clock in the morning a regular policeman [Schutzmann] rang our bell and told us to open up, when he came into the apartment, he gave us a letter saying we were all being deported out of Germany and that very night had to get into the paddy wagon and go to the police station [Polizeihaus]. We took nothing with us, and we found that all of the Polish Jews in Plauen were already there, about 75 souls, old people, and little children aged 1 year, and also Grandpa, Grandma, and Uncle Moritz with his kids and Uncle Markus. We sat in the station the whole night and were then brought to Chemnitz in a bus; there they forced us on a special train where we found all the Jews from Zwickau and Chemnitz, and we couldn't buy even a glass of water, even though the little ones had been pulled out of bed and hadn't eaten all night! The train went to Dresden, where two trains with Jews from Leipzig were already waiting, and after a 12-hour trip that was guarded by Nazi bandits, they arrived at Beuthen [in Upper Silesia] on the Polish border. Here the worst crimes began since the world war, when the German barbarians went on a murder spree that has no equal: more than 8,000 people, only Jews, people ranging from 80 years old on down to children who were 14 days old were driven out of the cars in the night at eleven o'clock onto an open field, and on both sides were thousands of SS bandits, and all were forced to march over meadows in the dark of night, after marching for 3 kilometers, we heard the pitiful cries of people who were being murdered, we were led to a spot where there is a water-filled ditch four meters wide and up to a meter high, the border between Poland & Germany, people were thrown into the water there so that they would go over to the Polish side. Many people died during this, the bandits stole everything that people had quickly packed into their suitcases. I jumped into the water and Mammi threw Sascha to me and I threw Sascha over the water onto the meadow, then Mammi threw herself on me and I took her across, afterwards Mammi pulled me out of the muck with her bare hands and that's how it was for everyone, Uncle Moritz got Donald and Achim across and Grandma sprained her leg. The Nazi bandits screamed drown the Jewish brood while this was happening. Thousands of Jews ended up on the meadow and marched soaked up to their waists across the fields. As we were getting close to a Polish village, some Polish soldiers came and chased us back to the German border, all the while hitting people and shooting. The Poles said that the German barbarians should take us to the legal border, not the smugglers' border: and so thousands were pushed back and forth between the borders the whole night, during which many old people and little children died. Early in the morning, we were on the German side again and were driven about 8 kilometers to the legal border crossing, where a Pole let us through. There the Jews from Kattowitz already knew what had happened and quickly brought milk and bread to the children and old people and brought them to a shelter [Lager], where they could dry their wet clothes. The suffering was terrible, in the village to which they chased us the miners, who are Catholics, started crying when they saw all this suffering and misery. The next day we took a special train to Kattowitz and then traveled as far as Czenstochau. We took nothing with us, only the clothes on our backs, everything was left behind in Plauen. We are here at our parents' place, Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle Mortiz, Aunt Loni, Sascha, Achim, and Donald. They are bargaining with the barbarians to let us go back to Plauen to fetch our furniture and clothes. My children, we will never forget this, and the Jewish people will know for eternity what the German culture of thieves [Rauber-Kultur] has done. For the time being write to us at this address: Ch. Broniatowski, Czestochowa (Poland) u. fabryczna 22. Give this letter to Rabbi Miller to read and also our other friends. You can also let the newspapers know but don't give our names because there are also German informers around here. We are happy that none of us was hurt because we all could have gotten sick after wandering around all night in wet clothes. Even little Donald had to join this funeral march. We hope that Mr. Kirschmann already sent the tax certificate [Steuerzettel] so that we can get the visa from the American consul in Warsaw as quickly as possible. I send loving greetings and kisses, Your Papa. Josef and his family members listed in this letter ultimately perished in the Holocaust.
37. Joseph (ben Mendel) Broniatowski was a soldier in the German army. He perished during the First World War.
38. Jozef (ben Yehuda Leib) Broniatowski, was a lawyer in Czestochowa, with an office at N. P. Marii 40. When the Nazis invaded, he served briefly as a member of the Czestochowa Judenrat, although he resigned after three weeks. He ultimately perished in the Warsaw Ghetto.
39. Karol Broniatowski is a Polish sculptor who lives and work in Berlin. He studied at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts from 1964 to 1970, having studied with Professor Jerzy Jarnuszkiewicz. In 1976, Karol settled in Berlin, thanks to a grant from the Deutcher Akademischer Austauschdienst. While in Berlin, he started working on a cycle of sculptures called "Big Man" -- an 18.8 meter tall walking man divided into 93 pieces of newsprint and granite. In 1977, he created "Object 93 - The second presentation of the Big Man" -- 93 eggs made of polish bronze placed on a plate and reflecting each other. In 1978 he created "Stukowisko - The third presentation of the Big Man" by transmitting 93 signals by knocking on a microphone using Morse code. In 1979, in the Lodz Museum of Art, he displayed "Head out of the sand" -- a plaster mold filled with sand where pieces of the mold were gradually removed until only the sand remained and, ultimately, dissolved. In 1981 he introduced the "folding and reclining sculptures" - a self-portrait of the sculptor made up of many layers. In 1985 he started a project called "Small border," in which he formed 93 bronze figures, each about 25cm high, all of which are striding forward with their left leg, and adjustable in various configurations. Karol also participated in a series of competitions for monuments and sculptures designed for public spaces. In 1991, the created the "Memorial for the deported Jews of Berlin at Grunewald Station" -- a 20m long concrete block in which he left hollow forms of human figures, making their silhouettes visible. In 1996, at the request of LGT Bank in Liechtenstein, he created the "Foot of Bendern" The 5.15 m high bronze statue is the fragment of a foot. The open form is the visible part of an invisible giant. Karol's work includes a variety of bronze sculptures. The topic of these is always the outline of a male figure surrounded by women in different dimensions actions. Since the late 1980s, he has continued to expand his work into drawings, including a private collection of large-scale gouaches that arise as monotypes. Since the late 80s, these images show black and red figures that are "thrown" on white sheets.
40. Klara Broniatowska Ben-Hefer From our earliest childhood we first met Klara as the mother of Hagar. A small, hunched, woman with a big presence - full of energy, always telling stories, always worried about something - and we associated her with recruitment for potato collection, which she organized with a strong hand and powerful voice that could be heard from a distance. But what we do not remember are the sweet bowls that we heartily licked clean after emptying from them the dough and creams that Klara concocted for a happy kibbutz. We knew that Klara came from a town called with long and strange name - Czestochowa. Indeed, she was born in 1906 to parents of five daughters who lived in a courtyard in close quarters with two other families. The courtyard was full of children and the joy in it was great. Klara attended Hebrew high school and then spent three years at an agricultural school. At the age of 10 she joined We Started at Scopus and then the Young Guard (HaShomer HaTzair). She managed farms and vegetable gardens and was appointed by various groups to return to Czestochowa to establish the farm there, along with Gershon Rosenberg. The resulting farm Kibbutz formed the nucleus of the first group to emigrate to Israel. One portion of this group settled in Hadera and established Kibbutz Ein HaHoresh. At the burgeoning Kibbutz Klara established a profitable industry; she worked in the chicken coop, but most of her work was in the vegetable garden that she coordinated for many years. She began the public operations committee for regional growers. She was responsible for growing potatoes in the country, and was considered the queen of potatoes. For many years she was active in organizing vegetable growers and training young members of the kibbutz. She repeatedly asked the kibbutz to release her for various activities. She organized and taught courses to greengrocers and segmenters at Ruppin. In recognition for her many contributions, she earned the title of "Darling of the Vegetable Growers Association" in 1979. Aside from this, she worked at sewing for many years. Klara married Chip in 1932. They raised a warm family, and after the death of Chip in 1953, she raised the family alone and occasionally adopted other children who were raised on the kibbutz. Klara is remembered by her family as a principled, fiery woman who spoke her mind without fear. She was known in the kibbutz as a woman of valor, an excellent baker and seamstress. In her last years she suffered a cruel fate because her health cut her off from the majority of kibbutz life. She earned the tender care of a family of friends in the elderly patient and staff rooms. Like many of her generation, Klara symbolized the transition from a life of exile to a life pioneers who built their own home and country. And Klara remains in our memories.
41. Kurt Broniatowski was a commercial artist in the fashion industry who was born in Laurahutte, Germany (now Siemianowice, Poland) and later lived in Breslau. He immigrated with his brother Hans to the Phillipines, arriving in 1939. Per the account of Lotte Wiener, Kurt and Hans left Breslau in for New York City, USA in 1938. He arrived in New York on the S.S. Volendam which sailed from Rotterdam on August 18, 1938. The manifest has him listed as a “commercial employee”. Although no family members were living in the Philippines at the time, Kurt and Hans had visas for the Philippines in their passports for an unknown reason. These visas were issued in Breslau on June 28, 1938. Although the brothers wanted to immigrated to the USA, they were told that they needed to first go to Canada to effect their immigration. They did not want to bother and instead left for the Philippines. Kurt was tragically killed by a Filipino guerilla during the Battle for Manila, when American and Japanese troops were fighting for the island. Kurt's death is described by author Frank Ephraim in his book Escape to Manila: From Nazi Tyranny to Japanese Terror as follows: "...a young man by the name of Kurt Broniatowski, who lived with his mother a few blocks away and had stored his [extensive] stamp collection with Albert Welisch, ventured towards the Welisch home. He did not know that the Welisch family was not safely behind the battle lines. As he entered the back porch, a guerilla dressed in an American army uniform came out of the kitchen that led to the porch and shot him. A short time later, two physicians, residents of Manila, entered the house and asked them what was going on. Broniatowski, who was bleeding from his mouth tried to explain what happened, but before he could do so, the guerilla fired two more shots into him to prevent him from talking. Confronted with the rifle held by the guerilla, and noting that others were in the house with the obvious intent to loot the premises, the two doctors retreated." Kurt Broniatowski died from his wounds.
42. Kseniya Gavrilova Vasilina Broniatowska was born in Ukraine. During the Second World War, she was imprisoned in the Ravensbruck concentration camp for women. Due to his having been convicted by the NKVD, her future husband, Hersz Aron Broniatowski, was on the front lines of the unit that released the camp's prisoners. Kseniya returned with Hersz to Lodz after the end of the war, although they later divorced. In 1952, she returned to Ukraine with her two young children. There, she found that all of her family had been evacuated to central Asia. Furthermore, her father had remarried and Kseniya's stepmother refused to take her and her two children in. The famines brought on by Stalinist policies made times difficult, and the family was often cold and hungry. In 1954, the family moved to Stavropol (Russia), where they lived in the barracks and Kseniya's daughter lived in an orphanage. In 1957 the family moved to Rostov-on-Don, where Kseniya's daughter was tragically killed in a train accident. In 1963, Kseniya and her son moved to Batumi, Georgia, where she died in 1990 at age 65.
43. Leizer Broniatowski was a physician from Czestochowa, Poland. According to the 1947 Czestochowa Yizkor Book, Alexander helped construct the illegal library in Berliner’s house on Ogrodowe Street. The library consisted of a large case of books, mostly scientific or belletristic, but bought in the Warsaw Jewish bookstore. Alexander 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.
44. Lewik Broniatowski was a merchant who owned a haberdashery, bead, and toy shop in Czestochowa, Poland.
45. Leybus (Juda Leib, Leopold) Broniatowski was a tailor and clothier living in Czestochowa in the early 1800s. He died young, aged 38 years old.
46. Lillian Brown (Broniatowska) 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.
47. Ludomir (Lutek) Broniatowski was born in Czestochowa, Poland in 1904 to Paul and Felicja nee Liebermann. He was married to Celina. During the war he was in Paris, France. Deported with Transport 5 from Beaune la Rolande,Loiret,France to Theresienstadt, Litomerice, Bohemia, Czechoslovakia on 28/06/1942. According to a List of deportation from France found in Le Memorial de la deportation des juifs de france, by Beate et Serge Klarsfeld, Paris 1978, Ludomir was murdered/perished in 1942 in Auschwitz, Poland. This information is based on a List of Jews murdered in Auschwitz found in Auschwitz Death Registers, The State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau page 23236/1942. Family sources say that he died while attempting escape from the train to Auschwitz.
48. 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.
49. Mania Broniatowska was born in 1902 in Czestochowa, Poland. As a child, she was sent to I Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace im. Juliusza Slowackiego -- the local Catholic Polish high school for girls -- since the accreditation of the Jewish high school was not recognized by the Polish colleges. Because of her brown hair, Mania was neglected by the nuns, who preferred to focus on her Aryan-featured younger sister, Róśka. Upon graduation, she traveled with Róśka to Leipzing, where they studied at the Leipzig Handelshochschule. Although she finished the courses required for a “kaufmännisches Diplom” in 1925 she failed her final exams. Nonetheless she went back for a doctorate (Dr.rer.merc.) in 1934, working all the time through the economic crisis to support herself. After she was accused and arrested for “Rassenschande” and submitted to humiliating controls she left Germany in 1937. She first moved to Paris, where she visited with her brothers Albert (Abram) and Andre (Chaim) at the rue de Charonne 97, then to Switzerland, pretending her sister, Róśka, was very ill (actually she was pregnant with her second child). Róśka's husband, Hans A. Peter used his contacts as a journalist to get Mania to Switzerland. During this time she was closely observed by the Swiss foreign police while she stayed in Winterthur, and, in 1940, Zurich with her sister. She finally moved to Geneva in 1946 where she worked at the Jewish Refugees Help office and the United Nations' Bureau International de Travail. She died in 1954 during surgery for a fibromyoma.
50. Martin Broones (Broniatowski) was a songwriter ("Golden Girl", "Moon Melody"), and composer, educated at City College of New York and Columbia University. Having been born in New York to a family of Jewish physicians, he defied his fathers wishes and pursued a musical career. He studied with John Ireland and later wrote songs for Broadway musicals. Joining ASCAP in 1950, his other songs include "I Can't Get Over a Girl Like You", "Bring Back Those Minstrel Days", "I Don't Want Your Kisses if I Can't Have Your Love", "One Last Love Song", "Journey's End", and "The Thought". Broones ultimately became the first music director for the Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) film studio. He was married to Vaudeville star Charlotte Greenwood, and both were active members of the Church of Christian Science.
51. 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.
52. Mendel (Menachem ben Aharon) Bronatowski was an innkeeper and grain dealer in Czestochowa in the early 1800s.
53. Mendel (Menachem Yehuda 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.
54. Michal Broniatowski is a Polish journalist who currently works as deputy editor of the Ukrainian satellite TV station "EspresoTV." His first interview, while still a student at Warsaw University in 1979, was with Julio Cortazar - the famous Argentine writer. This was a good start for creative career of a young journalist. The beginning of the 1980's, while Michal was completing his education in Poland, saw the "Solidarity" strikes, followed by the country's imposition of martial law. Many journalists were left without work. His knowledge of English allowed Michal to settle in the Warsaw office of the British Independent Television News. Two years later, the office closed and Michal went to work in the Associated Press, and in 1985 moved to Reuters. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Reuters opened office in the former Soviet bloc, where Broniatowski headed the business office in Warsaw for four years, creating the Reuters economic service in Eastern Europe. During this time, the number of Polish employees increased from five to seventy people. Michal says his years of work in the AP and Reuters were the happiest in his life. He was one of the few in Poland who could speak openly about the events. " My language changed; I started calling a spade a spade " - said Michal . Then he was transferred to Moscow, where he led the Reuters offices in ten countries of the former Soviet Union , including Ukraine. There were also the years in Interfax , where Broniatowski was responsible for all corporate activities overseas, and participated in the opening of a large edition in Shanghai. Returning to Warsaw, Michal began working in the largest Polish media group TVN. He is now a member of the supervisory board of the company. In the years 2009-12, he led the Polish Internet project, and in 2013 he co-founded a new all day news channel in Ukraine - Espresso TV. Since October 1, 2014, Michal has served as editor-in-chief of the Polish edition of Forbes magazine.
55. Artur Mieczysław (Mietek) Broniatowski was an officer of the security apparatus of the Polish People's Republic. He was born into a family of Jewish origin, and starting in 1932, he studied medicine in France, and later in Krakow. He was a member of the "Academic Left" and the Communist Union of Polish Youth (KZMP). In 1935, he was sentenced to 1.5 years in prison for communist activities. During the Spanish Civil War, he joined the Spanish Communist Party, and served as a lieutenant in the the Jaroslaw Dabrowski fighting battalion of the XIII International Brigade. After the war, he was interned in France, and in 1943 escaped to the Soviet Union. On August 15, 1943, he joined the Tadeusz Kosciuszko 1st Infrantry Division, where he served as head of the Personnel Department of the Political-Educational Management Board. On August 1, 1944, he was transferred to the head of the Ministry of Public Security, Stanislaw Radkiewicz. After 1945, he was head of the Provincial Public Security Bureau in Warsaw, administering the Office of Public Safety (UB) in Plock and Rzeszow province. Given the rank of Major in the Polish People's Army, he served as Director of the Central School of the Ministry of Public Security in Lodz, Director of the Office of Social and Administrative Affairs in the Office of the Council of Ministers, and Director of the Department of Social and Administrative Affairs in the Ministry of the Interior. On September 17, 1946, he was awarded the Gold Cross of Merit by resolution of the Presidium of the National Council. His memoirs, entitled "It Started with the Pyrenees," were published in 1986. He died in Warsaw, where he is buried at the Powazki Military Cemetery.
56. 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.
57. Michael Biron-Cegla (Broniatowski) endowed a scholarship at Hebrew University in memory of his late wife, Amalia Peretz.
58. 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.
59. Moszek Broniatowski (AKA Morris, Mortiz, and Joseph Broones) was born in Czestochowa, Poland, in 1868. He the earliest member of the Broniatowski family to immigrate to the United States of America, having arrived in 1892 on the Augusta Victoria, where he was listed as a dentist. Upon his arrival, he stayed with the family of his cousin, Louis Zyss. Changing his name to Joseph Broones, he married Erna Schömann, in 1894; the same year that he was granted U.S. Citizenship. He briefly worked as an osteopathic physician specializing in massage and ultimately settled on chiropody (i.e., podiatry). Joseph Broones ultimately became a successful physician and entrepreneur, and lived in New York City until his death in 1926.
60. Nachman Broniatowski owned a tailor shop on Pomorska 53 in Lodz.
61. Natan (ben Eliahu David) Broniatowski was a prominent architect in Berlin in the late 1800s, and later, as a councillor. He lived at Reichsstraße 1
62. Natan (ben Yechezkiel) Broniatowski worked as an accountant/bookkeeper in Czestochowa, and later at Zawadzka 9 in Lodz, Poland.
63. Nathan Brown (Broniatowski) 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.
64. Otto Broones (Broniatowski) was an otolaryngologist who lived in New York City and worked at the Bellevue Hospital.
65. Pinkus Szulem (Paweł) Broniatowski was a prominent physician in Czestochowa, with a practice located at N. P. Marii 21. 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.
66. Rita Simke (Broniatowski) was born in Siemianowitz, Poland and died in Manila in 1957. Prior to immigrating to the Philippines to escape Nazi aggression, she worked as a physician in Breslau. Rita Broniatowski's husband, Ernest Simke, was Israel's honorary Consul-General in Manila. Simke came to the Philippines from China in the early 1930s and managed the La Estrella del Norte branch in Bacolod. The Simkes were one of the Jewish families in the Philippines who chose to remain in the country and take on Filipino citizenship.
67. Romuald Broniatowski was a prominent surgeon/OBGYN in Czestochowa and Warsaw, Poland. He served as a medical officer in the Polish army.
68. Róśka (Itta Ruchla) Broniatowska Peter was born in 1904 in Czestochowa, Poland. As a child, she was sent to I Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace im. Juliusza Slowackiego -- the local Catholic Polish high school for girls -- since the accreditation of the Jewish high school was not recognized by the Polish colleges. Róśka, blond and blue eyed, was the nuns‘ favorite as they hoped to convert her. Similarly, the Nazis adored her when she opened the first Leipzig Süsswarenmesse after the war in Spring 1933. Thomas Mann, whom she met through her husband when he stayed at Zurich, called her "a beautiful Slavic woman" in his diaries. In contrast, Róśka was mostly impressed by the speed with which Katia Mann gobbled up the sandwiches offered for the guests. After graduating from highschool in 1922 Róśka first studied at Krakow and then (because she was fascinated by socialism and catholic mysticism) was sent by her father, Haskiel to study in Leipzing, Germany in 1924, where her elder brother Joseph, had married into the local Kaufmann family. Róśka's sister, Mania joined her and together they studied at the Leipzig Handelshochschule. Róśka graduated as Dr.phil.I/Dr.rer.pol in 1931 from Leipzig university, having written a dissertation on tax policy and land reform. They both lived and worked in Leipzig and Berlin until Róśka left for Switzerland in late summer 1933, having met her husband, Dr. Hans Armin Peter , a Swiss man from Solothurn, at university. They lived at Winterthur until 1940, then moved on to Zurich. Róśka lost her first child during pregnancy, and her daughter Ruth Maria died of diabetes. Anna Ruth (Ania), was born in 1943, graduated from Zurich university in 1969 and worked as a highschol teacher until retirement, living at Zurich and Basel. Mania‘s death, in 1954, almost took Róśka with her, but she survived a serious illness and started to work as an accountant and bank clerk. In 1971 her husband died. She lived on to 1990, spending her last months at hospital and an old age home.
69. Salomea Broniatowska was the headmistress of a pre-war boarding house for girls belonging to the Centos (the Central Organization for Orphan Care), at Sliska Street No. 28 . In this boarding house in the ghetto there were many more children. She 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. On Thursday 6 August 1942 the Germans deported Korczak, his assistants and the two hundred children, from the orphanage at 16 Sienna Street, the orphanage having been relocated from Krochmalna. A witness to the orphans three mile march to the deportation train described the scene to the Jewish historian Emanuel Ringelblum as follows: This was not a march to the railway cars - this was an organised, wordless protest against the murder. The last route of Korczak and the children is recalled by Nechum Remba: The children were lined up in fours, led by Korczak gazing upwards, leading two little children by the hand. The second party was led by Stefania Wilczynska, the third – by Ms. Broniatowska (her children were carrying blue backpacks), the fourth – by Mr Szternfeld of the boarding house in Twarda street. Those were the first Jewish ranks walking to face death with dignity (…). Even the security personnel stood at attention and saluted them. As the Germans spotted Korczak, they asked each other: “Who is this man?” They were all deported in crowded cattle cars, windows covered with barbed wire, to the death camp in Treblinka. Nothing is known of their last journey to Treblinka, where they were all murdered by the Nazis.
70. Szymon Broniatowski lived in Zawiercie, Poland, where he was a prominent member of the assimilationist movement.
71. Ilse Bulova, daughter of Otto Simachowitz and Rosa Broniatowski, was born in Heinzendorf, Austria-Hungary (now Hynčice, Czech Republic). She and her husband, Dr. Ernst Bulova, were Austrian educators living in Germany in the early 20th century. Dr. Bulova ran an educational radio program in Berlin, but following the Nazis' rise to power he and his wife were forced to flee to England, where Dr. Bulova became co-director of the Beltane School in Wimbledon. With the help of relatives who owned the Bulova Watch Company, Dr. and Mrs. Bulova emigrated to the United States in 1940 to find a refuge for British children during World War II. The site chosen was hilly farmland in the Merryall region of New Milford, but since crossing the Atlantic had become too treacherous, the plan was abandoned and Ernst and Ilse convinced their relatives to sell the land to them. Thus began Buck’s Rock Work Camp, where the Bulovas put into practice some of their Montessori-based principles on how children learn and grow. The earliest campers came from two of Manhattan’s progressive schools, The Dalton School and The Walden School. In addition to learning about New Milford’s small-town governance, the children worked on neighboring farms to alleviate the wartime manpower shortage. Once the war ended, the camp really took off and a unique program of creative and artistic endeavors evolved.
72. Shirle Horowitz