A documented family record · about this record
Four families, from Galicia, Šariš and Masovia to wherever their descendants live.
The Hofstatters of Nowy Wiśnicz, the Lilings and Honigs of Stropkov and Košice, the Barks of Długosiodło, the Berliners and Morgensterns of Myszyniec — and everyone descended from them. Every person here is tied to a record; where the paper runs out, the page says so.
Where the story happens
Five towns, three journeys.
Two centuries in Galicia, Šariš and Masovia; then, in six years, Slovakia, Auschwitz, Bavaria, the Arkhangelsk forests and Kazakhstan; and after that Melbourne, Montreal, Antwerp, Jerusalem and Brooklyn. The map is schematic — degrees of latitude and longitude, no coastlines — so that the distances are true.
On a real map: Nowy Wiśnicz · Košice · Stropkov · Myszyniec · Długosiodło · Bratislava · Augsburg · Antwerp · Melbourne · Montreal · Brooklyn · Jerusalem
Two hundred and seventy-four years
From Nachem's house to this page.
The dated events the records give us, on one line. The spacing is true to the years: two centuries in one place, then everything at once. Click a point to open its chapter.
Four founding families · four books
Every branch is a peer, and every family has its own book.
The four families are not related to one another; each has its own book, and each book tells that family's story on its own — its chapters, people, tree, places and sources, as long as the story needs. How the four lines came to meet is told on its own page. Open a book by clicking its panel.
Hofstatter · Nowy Wiśnicz
Nachem Hofstatter (c. 1752–1822) → Meyer → Nochem → Zev Wolf & Reisel FedergrünBranches of Zev Wolf and Reisel: Yaakov & Mindel (Bentzion's family in Melbourne, Israel and Antwerp; Nathan & Gizela's in Montreal, New York, New Jersey, Florida and Israel) · Chane Malke Scharfeld, Tarnów · Beile Stechler · Isser, Tarnów · Nachim, Kraków · Temerla Kalfus · Selig & Matel. Cousin lines from Meyer's second marriage to Sara Pitzele: Beinisch the rosh ha-kahal, whose ten children went to Vienna, Antwerp (the Hofstetters of Putte), Bochnia (Żupnik), New York and Israel · Israel in New York from 1886 · Nathan in Radomyśl; and the Tarnów Hofstädters of Lemel and Dine Keller. Photographs of Zev Wolf and Reisel are in chapter 4.
Liling & Honig · Stropkov, Roztoky, Košice
Yaakov Liling → Meir Liling (d. 1936, Stropkov) → Moshe Liling & Rochel HonigBranches: Gizela Hofstatter · Freida Schonfeld (Israel) · Edith Grunfeld · Goldie Winfield · the murdered: Etel Malka, Jakob, Ber Eliezer Dov. Meir's other children: Jacob (d. New York 1921), Giza Amsel; Judel's line, Stropkov.
Bark · Długosiodło
Avraham Yitzchak Bark & Fruma Zlata → Aryeh Dovid & Shayna Soroh → Yerucham Fishel & Rachel BerlinerBranches: Chani Hofstatter · Esther Dorfberger · Mel Bark · Fishel's sister Malka Stein.
Berliner & Morgenstern · Myszyniec
Moshe Eliyahu Morgenstern & Chana Feiga → Esther Hinda & Yaakov (Jankiel) BerlinerBranches: Manes Berliner (Winnipeg) · Rachel Bark · Miriam Losh (Kfar Chabad) · Chaya Kozlowski · Louis · Yossel. The Morgenstern cousins in Israel and Los Angeles.
How to read the record
An original record image or a repository-served scan was seen and is cited: Arolsen Archives documents, Yad Vashem Pages of Testimony, register scans supplied by the archive.
An index entry or a professional extract from an original record: JRI-Poland extracts by Howard Fink and Aron Kohn, Gesher Galicia indexes, Yad Vashem list-derived records. The original still needs to be ordered.
Family knowledge or secondary sources: Howard Fink's chart, memorial dedications, the family's own statements, Geni. Useful for direction, not proof.
How the four lines meet
Four families, one household.
The four founding families were never related to one another. Each has its own book; this page tells only how they met.
Documents
The records themselves, and what each one says.
Every archival record, census sheet, printed page and gravestone behind this site, with a plain explanation underneath: what the document is, what it tells us, how sure we are, and where the original is kept. Click any picture to enlarge it. Family-held papers — letters, certificates, questionnaires — are kept off the site; only material from public archives, cemeteries and print is shown here.
The town
Nowy Wiśnicz: four hundred years, in nine pictures.
The town the Hofstatters lived in for at least two centuries, from its founding to today, with the family's own dates set against it. Every fact here is traced to a source in the town history file; the pictures are public-domain prints, photographs and postcards from the Polish National Library and Wikimedia Commons, credited in each caption. Click a picture to enlarge it.
People
Every ancestor, with the record that puts them there.
Choose a line. Each card shows the person's dates, what the records say, and the source with its evidence grade. Item numbers open the original at Yad Vashem or Arolsen.
The Shoah
Who was murdered, who survived, and where the record of each one is.
Nowy Wiśnicz's Jews were moved to the Bochnia ghetto in August 1942; those not deported were shot in the Baczków forest on 24–27 August 1942. Košice's Jews were deported to Auschwitz in four transports between 16 May and 24 June 1944. The Berliner family was expelled from Myszyniec in September 1939 and deported by the Soviets to the Arkhangelsk forests in July 1940.
| Name | Relation | Fate | Record |
|---|
Nathan's wartime path. He was in the Bochnia ghetto in August 1942; how he reached Prešov is not yet documented. Family knowledge is that he spent the war there with the Hellinger family, his brother Bentzion's in-laws. His January 1949 AJDC emigration card gives his address as Prešov, Lehotská 9, with Paraguay as intended destination. Arolsen holds an eight-document tracing file on him opened in 1962 (case 862.442), requested 17 September 2026; it should answer the missing years.
Rachel's path, in her own words on the Claims Conference questionnaire: expelled from Myszyniec September 1939 to Ogrodniki near Białystok; deported July 1940 to Shidrovo on the Northern Dvina, where her mother Esther died of hunger in May 1941 leaving six children; Kazakhstan near Chimkent from November 1941; Szczecin May 1946, eight months pregnant; DP camps Traunstein and Gabersee; sailed from Bremen on 4 October 1949 with Fishel, baby Moses, her father Jakob and her siblings Chaja and Josef.
Places
The towns, and what survives of their records.
Nowy Wiśnicz
Bochnia district, Galicia · 49.915 N 20.463 EA private Lubomirski town with a large Jewish community. Jewish civil registers survive from 1814 (births), 1821 (marriages) and 1814 (deaths) to 1942, held by Archiwum Narodowe w Krakowie, Bochnia branch, fonds 29/4076/0, with 10,686 scans online. Gaps: no deaths 1853–1859, no marriages 1831–1833. The Jewish cemetery, first mentioned 14 June 1641 with its oldest stone from February 1639, has more than 600 surviving stones, mostly without surnames; the last burials were in autumn 1942. It was fenced in the 1980s by Abusch and Josef Hirsch, who built the ohel over Rabbi Naftali Rubin (1860–1939, rav of the town for 42 years after the first Bobover Rebbe; he officiated at Wolf and Reisel's 1904 marriage) and his grandson Elazar. Before the war Rabbi Rubin lived on Kazimierza Wielkiego street, on the right-hand side going from the Rynek toward the cemetery, old house number 241 (local memory). No Hofstatter stone is known. Visits via Muzeum Ziemi Wiśnickiej.
Košice (Kassa, Kaschau)
Czechoslovakia · 48.72 N 21.26 EMoshe Liling kept a delicatessen just off Hlavná, the main street — on Hunyadi utca, today's Timonova/Galenova, near the Orthodox synagogues on Zvonárska and Puškinova; the family lived on Bethlen körút, today's Kuzmányho ulica, and the Page of Testimony gives a wartime address on Josefova. Laser Liling's hiding place in 1944 was a cousin's house on Zvonárska, the street of the Orthodox community's synagogue, mikveh and rabbinate. Jewish registers 1844–1918 are filmed by FamilySearch; later records are at the Košice city and state archives. Deportations to Auschwitz: 16 May, 17 May, 3 June and 24 June 1944.
Stropkov and Roztoky
Šariš, Slovakia · 49.20 N 21.65 ERochel Honig was born in Stropkov; Moshe Liling in the village of Roztoky, Svidník district, in 1887. Stropkov Jewish births 1851–1901 and Svidník births 1862–1884 are on FamilySearch. The Stropkov community was deported in 1942.
Myszyniec
Ostrołęka county, Masovia · 53.38 N 21.35 EHome of the Berliner family; Rachel was born here on 15 September 1924. Almost nothing survives of its Jewish civil records: JRI-Poland holds only the year 1930. The family's story after 1939 is documented instead by Soviet deportation, DP and IRO records.
Długosiodło
Wyszków county, Masovia · 52.73 N 21.60 EFishel Bark's birthplace, 14 April 1915, written "Glogoschotle" by a DP camp clerk in 1947. Surviving Jewish registers: 1910–1911 and 1922–1938, held by the local civil registry office; 1912–1921 is a gap, so Fishel's own birth entry is probably lost.
Prešov (Eperjes, Preschau)
Šariš, eastern Slovakia · 49.00 N 21.24 ENathan's wartime and immediate post-war home — a Šariš town near the Galician border, 35 km north of Košice, not to be confused with Bratislava 400 km to the west, where only the Joint's emigration office that stamped his 1949 card sat. The Hellinger family of Prešov, into which his brother Bentzion married, sheltered him. Lenka Hellingerová, born Prešov 1922, was deported from Poprad to Auschwitz on 3 April 1942.
Shidrovo, Arkhangelsk
Northern Dvina, USSRSoviet special settlement on the Northern Dvina where the Berliner and Bark families were sent on 9 July 1940 and where Esther Berliner née Morgenstern died on 13 April 1941 (NKVD card; the family remembered May). Buried three hours away by boat, place unknown.
Brooklyn
New YorkThe Bark and Berliner families arrived on the USAT General M. L. Hersey on 4 October 1949, listed for 688 Rogers Avenue and 1158 Sutter Avenue in Brooklyn and 123 Beach 86th Street in Rockaway. Zevi was born in Brooklyn in 1995.
Family trees
The four lines, drawn out.
Each chart runs from the earliest known ancestor down to the living generations. Choose a name to light up that person's line back to the founder; dashed boxes are people known only from family charts, not yet from records. Wide charts scroll sideways.
Highlighted line Relative Family chart only Murdered in the Shoah
The Dukla branch
The Toronto Hofstedters, and the one name that ties them to the Wiśnicz line.
The family has always believed it was related to the Hofstedter family of Toronto, who came from Hungary and before that from Dukla in Galicia. On 17 September 2026 the records showed a real connection, though not yet a blood line.
The Toronto family is that of Sandy (Nosson Nota Yitzchok) Hofstedter, born 18 August 1924 in Mezőkövesd, Hungary, a survivor of the Hungarian labor battalions and Gunskirchen who came to Toronto in 1948 and died in December 2021; his son is Rav Dovid Hofstedter of Dirshu. Pages of Testimony filed by Sandy's great-granddaughter give the line: his parents were Zev (Willy) Hofstedter and Matel née Schwartz of Sárospatak, murdered at Auschwitz on 17 June 1944 with four of her children; his grandparents were Arye Leib Hofstedter, the shochet of Dukla, about 70 in 1944, and Feige Leah née Biron, both murdered at Auschwitz. Arye Leib's father was Eliezer Aharon.
Among the family\'s own papers is a 1966 Jerusalem death notice for Rabbi Chaim Tzvi Hofstatter, son of Rabbi Eliezer Aharon, shochet u-bodek of Pressburg, buried 13 November 1966. Two ritual slaughterers, one in Dukla and one in Bratislava, both sons of an Eliezer Aharon Hofstatter, are brothers. So the notice the family kept is for the Toronto family's great-uncle. It does not put Nathan and Chaim Tzvi in the same town — Nathan lived in Prešov from 1945 to 1949 and Chaim Tzvi was the shochet in Bratislava, four hundred kilometres west — but it shows that the two families knew each other and treated each other as family two generations ago.
What is not proven is a shared ancestor. No Eliezer Aharon appears in any Wiśnicz record, and Dukla's Jewish registers survive only from 1914, so his birth and marriage cannot be pulled from Polish archives. The memorial record for Matel Hofstedter that was earlier listed as a puzzle in this record is Sandy's own dedication for his mother and has been reassigned to this branch.
| Person | Facts | Record |
|---|---|---|
| Eliezer Aharon Hofstedter | Born c. 1830–1850, place unknown. Father of two shochtim. | Named on YV 13705894 and on the 1966 death notice |
| Arye Leib Hofstedter | Shochet of Dukla, b. c. 1874, son of Eliezer Ahron & Feigeleah; wife Feige Leah née Biron, dau. of Yitzchok & Reitzu. Both murdered Auschwitz 1944. | YV 13705894 · 13705895 |
| Chaim Tzvi Hofstatter | Shochet u-bodek of Pressburg, son of Eliezer Aharon; d. 13 Nov 1966 Jerusalem, survived by sons, daughters, sons-in-law and grandchildren. | 1966 death notice, family papers |
| Zev (Willy) & Matel Hofstedter | Mezőkövesd. Matel née Schwartz, b. Sárospatak, dau. of Mordechai Zvi & Leah; murdered Auschwitz 17 Jun 1944. Murdered children: Moshe, Yakov, Rochel, Rivka and two unnamed. | YV 13705887, 13705888–93; memorial 9780692 by Sandy |
| Sandy Hofstedter | b. 18 Aug 1924 Mezőkövesd; survived; Toronto 1948; d. Dec 2021. Family book: Family Chronicles, Sandy & Aranka Hofstedter, ed. M. Mandelbaum. | NLI catalogue |
Sources
The record behind every claim.
Repository documents are linked to the original where the archive serves it online. Family-held scans are listed by their archive ID. The records themselves, with pictures and explanations, are on the Documents page. The Claims Conference questionnaire (D1) contains private identifiers and is not reproduced here.
| ID | Document | Repository | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| D20 | Nathan Hofstatter, AJDC Emigration Service Bratislava index card, file PAR.2155, 21 Jan 1949 | Arolsen Archives 3.1.3.2 | 80198367 |
| X20 | Natan Hofstatter, ITS tracing case 862.442 (1962), 8 documents | Arolsen 6.3.3.2, not online; inquiry 2026-09-17-60239 | — |
| D21 | Rachel Bark née Berliner, DP registry card: father Jankiel Berliner, mother Ester Morgenstern | Arolsen Archives | 66509009 |
| D22 | Fischel Bark, DP registration card, Eschenstruth, July 1947 | Arolsen Archives | 66508931 |
| D23 | IRO nominal roll, Transocean Airlines convoy, München, Sept 1949, rows 318–323 (Bark and Berliner families) | Arolsen Archives | 81750221 |
| D24 | IRO nominal roll, USAT General M. L. Hersey, Bremen-Grohn, 4 Oct 1949, page 21, rows 292–299 | Arolsen Archives | 81664253 |
| D25 | Mindel Hofstatter, Page of Testimony by her son Nathan | Yad Vashem | 7180536 |
| D26 | Isser Hofstatter, Page of Testimony by his nephew Nathan | Yad Vashem | 7180537 |
| D27 | Moshe Liling, Page of Testimony by his daughter Gizela | Yad Vashem | 7180534 |
| D28 | Rochel Liling née Honig, Page of Testimony by her daughter Gizela | Yad Vashem | 7180535 |
| D13 | Etel Malka Liling, Page of Testimony by Dov Shenfeld | Yad Vashem | 838844 |
| D14 | Jakob Liling, Page of Testimony by Dov Shenfeld | Yad Vashem | 445074 |
| D30 | Roiza, Gitel, Kreindel, Matil Hofshteter — memorial dedications by their brother Bentzion | Yad Vashem O.41.3 | 14349926 · 14349912 · 14349920 · 14349923 |
| D34 | Meir Liling, gravestone, New Jewish Cemetery, Stropkov (photo 2003) | JewishGen JOWBR | J_SLOVAKIA_0004232 |
| K1 | Aron Kohn (Montreal), Ancestry trees "Mayer Hofstadter Nowy Wisnicz" (502 people), "Hofstadter Family Wisnica", "Kohn - Rosenfeld" and others; GEDCOM exports and gallery images, 23 Sep 2026 — incl. photographs of Zev Wolf and Reisel (shared by Davya Cohen 2021), Beila Stechler, and gravestones at Putte, Antwerp, Vienna, New York and Florida | Family archive (compiled tree, grade C; stones grade A) | — |
| K2 | Yossi Kwadrat (Legacy Studio; descendant of Reisel née Hoffstadter, daughter of Lemel of Tarnów): index of the Nowy Wiśnicz Land & Mortgage books, fonds 29/464, house 6 acts 1792–1882 (compiled 16 Dec 2022, 12 pp.), and photographs of act 201, 4 Aug 1832 (pp. 463–464); shared via Bentzion Hofstatter, 27 Sep 2026 | Family archive; originals at Archiwum Narodowe w Krakowie, 29/464 sygn. 770–782 | — |
| — | Beila (Bajle) Stechler née Hofstädter, b. 18 Mar 1888 Leksandrowa: 1939 German minority census, Berlin-Mitte; Isser Stechler, b. 1916 Wiśnicz: Palestine naturalisation application, 1946 | Ancestry collections, via Kohn | — |
| O1 | Goldie Winfield née Liling, recorded telephone interview with Zevi Hofstatter, c. 2016, 49 min 53 s; transcript 2026 | Family archive (oral history, grade C) | — |
| — | KZ-Außenlager Augsburg-Michelwerke (Dachau subcamp): c. 500 Hungarian Jewish women from Płaszów/Auschwitz, 7 Sep 1944 – Apr 1945; Michel-Werke, Ulmer Str. 160, Kriegshaber; evacuated via Dachau and Mühldorf; liberated Seeshaupt 30 Apr 1945 | Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte, Dachau subcamp list; Stadtlexikon Augsburg; KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau; L. Bitton-Jackson, I Have Lived a Thousand Years | HdBG list |
| D35 | Bentzion Hofstatter, burial record and gravestone, Springvale Adass Cemetery, Melbourne | JewishGen JOWBR | J_AUSTRALI_0005906 |
| D33 | Lenka Golde Liya Hellingerová, deportation list Poprad→Auschwitz 3 Apr 1942 | Yad Vashem | 14759863 |
| R001 | Nochem Hofstatter, Nowy Wiśnicz marriage register 1841, act 6 — a registration of district marriage permit no. 10444, c. July 1841, groom aged 18, single, no bride (re-read 29 Sep 2026 against the whole page, R018; formerly described as a marriage). Scan supplied by Howard Fink, 2018 | Family archive; original at ANK Kraków 29/4076/0/11, online scan 19 | — |
| R014–R016 | Nowy Wiśnicz Jewish deaths 1826–59: p. 12 (Moses Hoffstetter, house 7, aged 2, March 1829; Zündel Lewinger; Eisig Obstfeld), p. 20 (Ewa Hofstatter, house 7, aged 40, Oct 1830; page certified 30 Oct 1830), p. 26 (Lemel Hofstatter, aged 47, Aug 1831, cholera) | ANK Kraków 29/4076/0, reading-room photographs via Yossi Kwadrat (K2) | — |
| R017–R019, R024–R027 | Nowy Wiśnicz Jewish marriages 1827–76: pp. 7–8 (1838–41, incl. act 6), 13 (1845), 18–19 (1858–59, incl. Nathan Hofstatter & Reizel Borgnicht, permit 4 Jun 1858 no. 7034), 20 (1847–50), 20 (1859–60); pp. 9, 15, 16, 17 (1842–58) seen, no Hofstatter, not yet archived | ANK Kraków 29/4076/0/11, online scans via Yossi Kwadrat (K2) | — |
| K3 | Archív mesta Košice (Mgr. Martin Bartoš; PhDr. Gabriel Szeghy): domicile-and-citizenship file of the family of Mojžiš (Mór) Liling — births, the 1910 Stropkov marriage, the eight children, the sisters' 1947 citizenship certificates; and the 1947 national-reliability record of Gizela Liling. Reported 1 Oct 2026; scans ordered | Archív mesta Košice, Kováčska 20 | — |
| D29–D32 | Stropkov registers, certified extracts: marriage of Mózes Liling and Rachel Hönig 24 Aug 1910 (vol. 3 no. 18); births of Eszter Malke 10 Jun 1911 (vol. 6 no. 75), Jakab 15 Aug 1912 (no. 125), Yetti 7 Nov 1913 (no. 155, with the note of her Košice death act 158/1929). Issued 24 Sept 2026, ref. SAPO8-2026/009121; on the Documents page | Štátny archív v Prešove, pracovisko Archív Svidník | — |
| P3, P4 | Gravestones of Meir Liling (d. 28 Av 5696) and Shloime Honig (d. Pesach 5699?) in the Stropkov Jewish cemetery, photographed 2026 and sent by a cousin | Family archive | — |
| P5, P6 | Wiśnicz cemetery stones IV 332 (Yenta Feiga bat R' Nosson Nota, d. erev Rosh Hashanah 5595) and IV 384 (Yitzchak Itzik ben R' Nosson Nota); photographs and inventory readings by Iwona Zawidzka, 30 Sep 2026 | Iwona Zawidzka, Bochnia (inventory of the Wiśnicz cemetery) | — |
| — | AGAD Warsaw, letter O1.6342.31.2026 of 1 Oct 2026: the Jewish poll-tax registers (1764–65 and after) were destroyed in WWII; remnants in ASK 84; Mahler's tables give totals only | Archiwum Główne Akt Dawnych | — |
| W1 | WhatsApp group "Hofstätter Nowy Wiśnicz" (Bentzion Hofstatter, Yossi Kwadrat, Zevi Hofstatter), 28–29 Sep 2026: Yossi Kwadrat's full read of both death books Aug 1826 – May 1832 (no Nochem Hofstätter death), his analysis of the 1841 permit entries, and the discussion of Nochem's parentage | Family archive (correspondence, grade C) | — |
| R003–R011 | Nine Nowy Wiśnicz register scans from Howard Fink (WeTransfer, May 2018): births of Jakob 1881 act 130, Chane Malke 1883 act 152, Sare 1886 act 3, Nachim 1892 act 42, Isser 1894 act 115, Temerla 1897 act 27, Selig 1899 act 89; death of Lemel 1892 act 4; marriage of Wolf & Reisel 1904 act 42 | Family archive; originals at ANK Kraków 29/4076/0 | — |
| R002 | Maier Hofstätter death, 30 Sep 1868, entry 1018, age 82, marasmus (scan supplied by Howard Fink) | Family archive; original at ANK Kraków | — |
| I1, I2 | Nowy Wiśnicz USC (1900–1942) and PSA (1814–1906) index extracts, Howard Fink and Aron Kohn, JRI-Poland | Family archive; personal-use terms | — |
| C1 | Hofstatter chart, Howard Fink | Family archive | — |
| D1 | Rachel Bark née Berliner, Claims Conference questionnaire, 7 pages, first-person account | Family archive; private | — |
| P2 | Family photographs of Nathan and Gizela Hofstatter and their children, and of Fishel and Rachel Bark; gravestone photographs of Aryeh Dovid and Shayna Sara Bark, Melvin (Moshe Eliyahu) Bark, Naftali (Tuli) Kagan and Nathan Hofstatter (Montreal); video of the Wiśnicz park gathering, 2 Aug 2023 | Family archive, supplied by Zevi Hofstatter, 23 Sep 2026 | — |
| — | Nowy Wiśnicz Jewish deaths index book 1919–1942 (Yaakov, 1933, page 50 record 3) | Gesher Galicia; State Archive Tarnów fond 276 sygn. 81 | search.geshergalicia.org |
| — | Fonds 29/4076/0, Akta stanu cywilnego Izraelickiego Okręgu Metrykalnego w Wiśniczu, 1814–1942, 29 units | Archiwum Narodowe w Krakowie | szukajwarchiwach |
Open questions
What is still being looked for, and who has been asked.
Whose son was Nochem of house 63 — Meyer's (b. 1823) or Lemel's (b. 1830)? Raised by Bentzion Hofstatter, September 2026. Both Nachums were born in Wiśnicz after old Nachem died in 1822, first cousins. Settled by the register pages (29 Sep 2026): Meyer's Nochem did not die as a child (no death 1826–1832; a marriage permit at 18 in July 1841 — the 1841 "marriage" is a permit registration with no bride); Moses died 1829; Lemel, Beila's husband, died in the cholera of Aug 1831, so his Nachum was an orphan raised in Meyer's family. For Meyer: alive in 1841; the son Majer 1872. For Lemel: the 1880 census "1829"; Wolf's children Beile and Lemel; Chana's age (b. c. 1832) and the first child 1852 fit a groom born 1830; the orphan explains "house 6" and Majer. Act 201's omission of a living Nochem is unexplained. Balance: Lemel's son, about two to one. To settle it: what became of Meyer's Nochem after 1841 (Wiśnicz deaths 1832–59; Bochnia, Brzesko, Tarnów, Kraków); the house-63 Nochem's own death after 1880, read by eye; Beila's death and household; house numbers on Nochem's children's births. Kraków burial lead withdrawn. Chapter 3 and Nochem's card show both candidates.
Which Nathan Hofstatter married Reizel Borgnicht in 1858? Marriage register p. 19, entry 23: Nathan Hofstatter, born 1834, single, district permit 4 June 1858 no. 7034; bride Reizel Borgnicht, born 1836; witnesses Leib Wolf Ginsberg, Moses Rottenberg, Israel Nathan Blumenkranz (the date column reads "15 Jäner 857", which cannot precede the permit). The only Nathan of that age known here is Wolf and Rywke's son, carried as born 1837 and married to Ryfka Feniger — a different bride for the same man, or an unrecorded Nathan.
The Land & Mortgage acts on house 6 — the scans. Chaim, the "Łazowscy" name, the Hofstatter/Nikelsburger split, Jenta Feiga née Joskowicz, Natan and Ryfka Lewinger, Meyer as brewer at house 213, and the 1847 assignment to Lemel all rest on a 2022 index of fonds 29/464 (sygn. 770 acts 21, 78–79, 81, 82, 100, 103, 109, 115, 189, 273, 274, 306; 771 acts 199, 216; 773 acts 128, 285, 359, 421; 775 act 555; 782 acts 524, 525, 604). Until the acts are read, each is grade B. The 1847 acts are in German and may say how Lemel was related to Meyer.
Aron Kohn's trees — eight questions. Whether he has anything before Meyer (Nachem, Chaim, house 6); the Tarnów Lemel (his son of Meyer b. 1829 vs. the Lemel fathering children in 1817); Nochem's 1856 son (Isak or Jacob) and Nochem's second family; Wolf's death (1932 vs. 1928), Mindel's (1942 vs. 1940), Gitel Forscher's (1909 vs. 1906); his sources for the Tarnów-ghetto deaths; living contacts in Antwerp, Vienna and Ramat Gan; and who Davya Cohen is, who holds the originals of Wolf's and Reisel's photographs.
The four sisters' camp records. The Dachau memorial confirmed to Zevi that three Liling girls were transferred to Dachau; Arolsen should hold Dachau/Augsburg-Michelwerke cards for Freida, Gizela, Edith, Goldie and Rivka Liling, and Auschwitz/Buchenwald records for Ber Eliezer (Laser). Also wanted: Etel Malka's husband's name, and the Kassa 1944 ghetto and deportation lists for the Bethlen körút household.
Meir Liling — the link is closed. The Košice city archive's domicile file of Moshe's family (Oct 2026) names his parents as Majer Liling and Rachel Schildkraut, his birth as 18 Feb 1883 Roztoky, and his marriage to Rachel Hönig at Stropkov on 24 Aug 1910, with all eight children. Scans ordered. Extracts of the 1910 marriage and the three Stropkov births received 18 Oct 2026 (Documents D29–D32): Shloime's wife was Leah Sarah née Rosenvasser. Still wanted: Meir's 1936 death entry (Svidník, fee paid), Shloime's 1939 death entry, Rochel's 1888 birth (Prešov; 15 or 22 September), and Yetti's Košice death act 158/1929.
Nachim's family after February 1941. Nachim, Ewa, Rosa and Mina Hofstätter entered the Kraków ghetto; Lea reached Stutthof in 1944 as "Lolla Brandys". The originals — the 1940 registration forms with photographs, the Kennkarte files, the Stutthof card and the Czechoslovak deportation list naming Nachman and Selig — were requested from USHMM on 22 Sep 2026. Then: Yad Vashem, Arolsen and the post-war survivor registers for Lea. Can anyone in the family remember an uncle in Kraków?
Yehudis (Jolana) Hofstatter's video testimony, USC Shoah Foundation interview 45352, recorded in Jerusalem in English. Her own account of hiding around Prešov and, presumably, of Bentzion and Nathan's arrival. Ask Yankel whether the family holds a copy; otherwise request it from USC Shoah Foundation or view it at USHMM.
Where Esther Hinda was buried. Her death at Shidrovo on 13 April 1941 is now documented; the burial place is not. Letters sent 22 Sep 2026 to the IPN (full source cards for all fourteen family entries in the Indeks Represjonowanych) and to KARTA (memoirs of Szydrowo and the burial grounds used in 1941). Direct requests to the Arkhangelsk police archive and civil registry are drafted but held.
Nathan's 1962 Arolsen tracing file (case 862.442) and Rachel's and Fishel's (953.433, 953.454). Inquiries 2026-09-17-60239 and 60243; replies take months.
Wiśnicz deaths 1827–1853 and the earlier books of residents. Digitisation or a paid search for Hofstätter and Obstfeld entries asked of Archiwum Narodowe w Krakowie, 21 Sep 2026; Howard Fink is checking the Obstfeld family.
Who owned house 6 in 1788 and 1820. The Josephine and Franciscan cadastres for Wiśnicz Nowy, in the Lviv archive. Quote requested from Pamięć Bliskich.
Australian naturalisation files. Nathan and Gizela (NAA B78 1957/HOFSTATTER N and G), Bentzion, Jolana, Eva and Vera (B78 1956/HOFSTATTER B, J, E, V) and Etela Hellinger — not digitised; copies need a free RecordSearch account.
When exactly did Rabbi Rubin take the boys to Slovakia? Between the German entry on 8 Sep 1939 and the march to Bochnia on 21–22 Aug 1942. Mindel's death act (Jan 1940 in the register, Jan 1942 on Nathan's Page of Testimony) is the hinge: she was alive when they left. The Rubin family of Los Angeles and Yehudis's testimony are the living sources.
Laia Obstfelder was not Nachem's wife. The Land & Mortgage acts name his wife as Jenta Feiga née Joskowicz. Who Laia was — she died at house 6 in the same month as Nachem — is still unknown.
Nachem's father was Chaim, not "Nosson Nota". Act 21 (1792) has Nachem and his brother Józef buying house 6 from their father Chaim. Chaim's own parents and dates are the new frontier: the 1765 Jewish poll-tax lists at AGAD were destroyed in the war (AGAD, 1 Oct 2026), so the Potocki estate inventories of 1785–1807 (AGAD, Archiwum Publiczne Potockich) and the 1788 Josephine cadastre in Lviv are what remain.
Was Nosson Nota Nachem's father-in-law? The Land & Mortgage index names Nachem's wife as Jenta Feiga née Joskowicz; the Wiśnicz cemetery has a stone (IV 332) for Yenta Feiga daughter of the nagid R' Nosson Nota, d. 3 Oct 1834, and another (IV 384) for her brother Yitzchak Itzik. If the two Jenta Feigas are one woman, Nosson Nota Joskowicz was Nachem's father-in-law — which would explain the Nathans in Meyer's and Wolf's families. Tests: acts 78–79 (her father's name); the Wiśnicz deaths of September 1834 for a Jenta Hofstatter; any Joskowicz stone. Iwona Zawidzka has been asked.
One Wiśnicz Hofstetter without parents. Benzion (b. 1882/83, Vienna, died Łódź ghetto 1942) is now placed as Nathan Nuta's son and Beinisch's grandson, and the Majer b. 1885 as Israel's son, the Kraków pharmacist (Kohn; YV 656605). Still open: the Majer born 1879 who was in Kraków in 1940 — a son of Nochem's second family, or of Nathan (b. 1843)?
Chana Feiga Morgenstern née Friedman. Did she reach Eretz Yisrael, and where is she buried? Nothing found yet in Israeli burial or immigration indexes; IGRA and the Central Zionist Archives need a logged-in search.
Aron and Sheina Bark after 1949. Now confirmed for Sheina: her gravestone, in an American cemetery, gives her death as 20 Teves 5744 (26 Dec 1983), and Aryeh Dovid's stone stands beside it. Still wanted: the name of the cemetery, Aryeh Dovid's date of death (below the frame of the photograph), and the 1949 manifest that carried them.
Moshe Liling's mother is Rachel née Schildkraut. The Košice domicile file (Oct 2026) names her, and the 1930 census of Roztoky house 50 gives her as Ružena, born 11 Apr 1858 Vyšný Komárnik, married to Meir 19 Dec 1877. “Sara Lea” on one Page of Testimony was an error.
Rubin Schöngut and Izaak Drenger. The family's regular witness at the Leksandrowa brissen and the witness to the 1904 legitimisation — relatives? JRI-Poland search pending a login.
Zaidy Nathan's recorded interviews (five recordings, 2017 and 2023, in Yiddish) still to be transcribed and indexed against the records.
Descendants
Everyone descended from the four founding couples, by branch.
Living people are listed by name only, with no dates or places; married names are in brackets. The dead carry their dates. The lists come from the family's Geni tree (September 2026), the civil registers and the memorial records; a branch that is short is short because nobody has sent its names yet — see how to add yours. Branches marked in red were cut off in the Shoah.
About this record
What this is, who keeps it, and how to add your branch.
What it is. A single documented record of four families — the Hofstatters of Nowy Wiśnicz, the Lilings and Honigs of Stropkov and Košice, the Barks of Długosiodło, and the Berliners and Morgensterns of Myszyniec — kept for all of their descendants. It is not one person's ancestry. Every branch that descends from the founding couples belongs here on the same footing, and the generations are counted from the founders down, not from any reader up.
Who keeps it. Compiled and edited by Mordechai Zev (Zevi) Hofstatter, Lakewood, New Jersey, from September 2026, with the help of the people credited below. An accountable editor is what keeps a family record honest: every fact on the site carries a source and an evidence grade, conflicts are shown rather than smoothed over, and anything not yet proven is labelled as such.
The rules. Grade A means an original record image was seen; B an index or professional extract; C family knowledge or a secondary source. Living people appear by name and relationship only — no dates of birth, addresses or documents. Photographs of the living appear only where the family has supplied them, unnamed in the caption, and come down at once on request. The dead are given their dates, their places, their records and, where the family holds them, their pictures. Private papers (the Claims Conference questionnaire, birth certificates, the kvittel, passports, DP-camp cards) are described, never reproduced.
Add your branch. If you descend from any of these families and your line is missing, thin or wrong, write to zevih99@gmail.com with: the names of your line back to the ancestor you share; dates and places for those who have died; and any photographs, documents, gravestone pictures or stories. Say which living names may be published. Corrections are as welcome as additions — a record that cannot be corrected is not worth keeping.
With thanks to Howard Fink (JRI-Poland, Nowy Wiśnicz), Aron Kohn, Phyllis Rosner, Steve Orelowitz, Yumi Rosenbaum, Benzion London, Iwona Zawidzka (Muzeum Bochnia), Gabriel Szeghy (Archív mesta Košice), the Rubin family of Los Angeles, Chani (Annie) and Robi Hofstatter, and the archives and databases whose work this rests on: Archiwum Narodowe w Krakowie, Arolsen Archives, Yad Vashem, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, JewishGen and JOWBR, JRI-Poland, Gesher Galicia, the National Archives of Australia, the Štátny archív v Košiciach and the Prešov/Svidník archive.
Research log
How the record was built.
- 18 Oct 2026
The Stropkov registers speak. The first envelope from the Svidník archive arrived: certified extracts of Moshe and Rochel's marriage of 24 August 1910 and of the births of Esther Malka (10 June 1911), Jakob (15 August 1912) and Yetti (7 November 1913). Rochel's mother is named for the first time — Leah Sarah née Rosenvasser, the Sára of the 1930 census; Moshe was a shopkeeper of Roztoky at his wedding and a Talmud student in 1912; Yetti's birth entry carries the number of her Košice death act, 158/1929. All four are on the Documents page (D29–D32); the People cards, the Liling chapters and the Shoah list are updated. A second envelope, with Hönig records, is still in the post.
- 16 Oct 2026
Documents page. Every archival record behind the site — the Wiśnicz register pages from 1822 to 1904, the 1880 Book of Residents, the 1930 census sheets for Roztoky, Košice and Stropkov, the Długosiodło acts, the Stutthof file, three printed pages on Reb Beinish, and the gravestones — each with a picture and, underneath, what it is, what it tells us, how sure we are and where the original is kept. Family-held papers stay off the site.
- 16 Oct 2026
Each family now tells its own story. The four founding families were never related to one another, so the shared eleven-chapter story has been taken apart and each book carries its own chapters from beginning to end: Hofstatter in nine (Wiśnicz from Nachem to the flight of 1940, Prešov, Paris, Melbourne and Montreal, the 2023 visit, the names carried forward); Liling & Honig in four; Bark in four (Długosiodło, Shidrovo, the DP camps and the General Hersey, the names); Berliner & Morgenstern in four (Myszyniec, the expulsion and Esther Hinda\'s death at Shidrovo, Rockaway–Winnipeg–Kfar Chabad, the names). One short page, How they meet, tells only the three marriages that joined the four lines. The timeline now opens the right book.
- 14 Oct 2026
The 1930 Czechoslovak census, online at Slovakiana, gives the Lilings two household sheets. At Mäsiarska 52, Košice: Moric Liling, butter-and-milk merchant with a shop in a courtyard at Hlavná 100, in the city since August 1914; Roza, nine children born, two dead — a ninth child nobody had counted; and seven children by name, Laser already apprenticed at the Reich brothers\' store. At Roztoky house 50: Meir Liling himself, born 7 May 1855, farmer, and his wife Ružena — Rachel — born 11 April 1858 at Vyšný Komárnik, married 19 December 1877, eight children of whom four had died. The “Sara Lea” question is closed. Both sheets are in the Liling book.
- 12 Oct 2026
The Liling book has its own chapters. Goldie\'s son Stephen Winfield sent thirteen photographs from his visit to Košice and Stropkov (about 2024, the year after her death) and a copy of his mother\'s birth certificate: Zlata Liling, born 7 Oct 1927 to Moric Liling and Ruzena Honig of Mäsiarska 52 — the family\'s first documented address — with the house, the shop at no. 53 and at Hlavná 92, the Orthodox synagogue on Puškinova with its deportation plaque and two pencilled lines from April 1944, the Stropkov cemetery gate, and himself saying Tehillim at Meir Liling\'s grave. Four book chapters: the two grandfathers; the house in Košice; the four sisters, 1944–45, told in full from Goldie\'s interview; and the years after. Ruzena = Rochel, b. Sept 1888, now attested three ways.
- 1 Oct 2026
The Liling family, documented at last. The Košice city archive found the domicile-and-citizenship file of Moshe Liling\'s family: Moshe born 18 Feb 1883 Roztoky, son of Meir Liling and Rachel née Schildkraut; married Rochel Hönig in Stropkov on 24 Aug 1910, she born there 22 Sep 1888, daughter of Shloime; eight children with dates — Estera 1911, Jakob 1912, Jolana (Yetti) 1913–1929, Lazar 1915, Freida 1920/21, Gizela 11 Mar 1922, Edita 1926, Zlatica (Goldie) 1927. A cousin\'s photographs of the Stropkov stones of Meir Liling and Shloime Honig (d. Pesach 5699) are on the Liling pages; both widows were deported from Stropkov in 1942 and have no graves. Meyer\'s first wife is Chava (Ewa), not Chana. Iwona Zawidzka\'s photographs of the Wiśnicz stones of Yenta Feiga daughter of R\' Nosson Nota (d. 1834) and her brother Yitzchak Itzik — very probably Nachem\'s widow and brother-in-law. Beinisch and his son Nuchim held the town\'s liquor lease 1896–1921. AGAD: the 1765 Jewish census is lost. Sources K3, P3–P6.
- 29 Sep 2026
The register pages, from Yossi Kwadrat: Moses died March 1829 aged two, house 7; Ewa died October 1830 aged forty, house 7; Lemel, Beila's husband, died in the cholera of August 1831; no Nochem Hofstatter death Aug 1826 – May 1832; and the 1841 "marriage" of Nochem is a registration of marriage permit no. 10444, c. July 1841, for a Nochem aged 18 with no bride — Meyer's son, alive. So Meyer's Nochem did not die as a boy, and act 201's silence is an unexplained omission. But Lemel's Nachum was an orphan raised in Meyer's family, and Chana (b. c. 1832) fits a groom of 1830: the balance stays with Lemel, about two to one, unproved. Chapter 3, Nochem's, Meyer's, Nachem's and Chana's cards, the tree and the open questions rewritten; the Kraków burial lead withdrawn; a new question on Nathan Hofstatter's 1858 marriage to Reizel Borgnicht; sources R014–R027 and W1.
- 28 Sep 2026
The Land & Mortgage books of Wiśnicz (fonds 29/464), through an index shared by Yossi Kwadrat of Legacy Studio: the line goes back one more generation, to Chaim, from whom Nachem and his brother Józef bought house 6 in 1792; the family had been "Łazowscy", and Józef's line became the Nikelsburgers. Nachem's wife was Jenta Feiga née Joskowicz; two more children, Natan and Ryfka Lewinger. Meyer was a brewer; his first wife Ewa was Jakob Tugenthal's widow and died 2 Nov 1830; house 6 passed to Lemel in 1847. Act 201 (1832), read from photographs, settles Ewa's estate on her "surviving minor children" without Nochem or Moses — the balance on Nochem's parentage tips to Lemel. The Nosson Nota guess is withdrawn and Laia Obstfelder is no longer read as Nachem's wife. All of it grade B until the acts are scanned; Yossi is being asked to obtain them and the deciding registers. New source K2; new Generation 0 on the People page; chapters 1–3, the tree, the open questions updated.
- 25 Sep 2026
Bentzion Hofstatter (London) challenges Nochem's parentage: the Nochem of house 63 may be Lemel's son of 1830 rather than Meyer's son of 1823. New evidence from him — Gitel's birth entry read as 13 Jan 1852; an 1832 Land & Mortgage act listing Ewa's heirs without Nochem; Wolf's sister Beile alive until 1917 — set against the 1841 marriage of a Nochem aged 18 and the son Majer named in 1872. Neither case is proved. Chapter 3, the tree, the Descendants page, Nochem's and Meyer's cards and the open questions now show both candidates, graded B, with the four records that would decide it. Svidník archive: fee invoice received for the Liling extracts (Etel, Jakob, the marriage, and the newly found sister Yetti, d. 1929).
- 23 Sep 2026 (night)
Family photographs and gravestones received from Zevi: Nathan and Gizela (four pictures, and with their children in the 1950s–60s), Fishel and Rachel, and the stones of Aryeh Dovid and Shayna Sara Bark (she d. 20 Teves 5744 — proof the parents reached America), Melvin (Moshe Eliyahu) Bark, Tuli (Naftali) Kagan, Nathan in Montreal and Yaakov Berliner (father: Menachem Manes). Two family accounts recorded: the sisters' uncle Shaya Lilling of Bardejov in Paris, and the four sisters married from his house. Corrected on a family reading: Prešov is not Bratislava — Nathan's war and 1945–49 were in Prešov. Site restructured into four family books with a corrections form on every page.
- 23 Sep 2026
Aron Kohn of Montreal opens his Ancestry trees. From them: photographs of Zev Wolf and Reisel Federgrün — the oldest faces on the record; Meyer's second wife named as Sara Pitzele; Beinisch's ten children and their descendants traced to Vienna, Antwerp, New York, Illinois and Israel, with gravestones at Putte, the Zentralfriedhof and Brooklyn; the "Benzion b. 1882" of the Shoah table placed as Nathan Nuta's son; Meyer's sons Israel and Nathan followed to New York and Radomyśl; the Tarnów branch of Lemel and Dine Keller; Beila Stechler found in Berlin in 1939 and her son Isser in Palestine in 1946. Chapters 2 and 4, the trees, the Descendants and People pages updated.
- 23 Sep 2026
Goldie Winfield's recorded interview (c. 2016) transcribed by Zevi and worked into the record: she names her grandfather Meir Liling and Roztoky; identifies Laser (Ber Eliezer Dov), Jakob's labour-service death and his widow Rivka, Etel Malka and her baby on the ramp; gives the sisters' route Birkenau – Płaszów – Augsburg – Seeshaupt and the Kassa addresses. The Augsburg camp identified as the Dachau subcamp at the Michel-Werke (electrical parts for Messerschmitt); Bethlen körút = Kuzmányho, Hunyadi utca = Timonova/Galenova. Chapters 6 and 8, the People, Shoah and Places pages updated.
- 2016–2023
Howard Fink (JRI-Poland, Nowy Wiśnicz area coordinator) supplies the PSA and USC extracts, his Hofstatter chart, and scans of Nochem's 1841 marriage and Meyer's 1868 death.
- Jan 2019
Iwona Zawidzka, Muzeum Bochnia, confirms no surviving Hofstatter gravestone in Wiśnicz.
- 17 Sep 2026
Arolsen: Nathan's 1949 AJDC card, Rachel's and Fishel's DP cards, and the two 1949 IRO transport lists located. Yad Vashem: Nathan's and Gizela's Pages of Testimony for their parents, Bentzion's dedications for his four sisters, the Liling family Pages. Mindel's maiden name corrected to Schmeidler from the register extracts; her parents named. Yaakov and Mindel's eight children listed in full. Nachem (c. 1752–1822, house 6) identified as Meyer's father from naming patterns and the house number. Fishel's birthplace resolved as Długosiodło. Inquiries sent to Arolsen, ANK Kraków, Muzeum Bochnia, Howard Fink and Pamięć Bliskich.
- 17 Sep 2026
Howard Fink's 2018 WeTransfer recovered from Google Drive: nine original register scans for Wolf and Reisel's family. Jakob's exact birth (24 Nov 1881, Leksandrowa 49), the 1904 civil marriage naming Wolf's parents Nuchem and Chana, Reisel's parents the tavern-keepers Isser and Gittla Federgrün, the ninth child Lemel (d. 1892 aged 2), and the first Bobover Rebbe as Jakob's sandek. Chani's Morgenstern, Bark and Rosenberg charts received and read; Geni tree cross-referenced (Mindel Barber/Schmeidler resolved; Aryeh Dovid's parents; the Stropkov Liling cousins).
- 17 Sep 2026
The Dukla branch: Arye Leib Hofstedter, shochet of Dukla, son of Eliezer Aharon, identified as Sandy Hofstedter's grandfather; the 1966 Pressburg death notice in the family papers recognised as his brother Chaim Tzvi. The Matel Hofstedter memorial record reassigned from the Wiśnicz line to the Toronto family.
- 21 Sep 2026
Original pages read: the 1822 deaths (Nachem, 70, house 6, beside Laia Obstfelder, 65) and the 1880 Book of Residents, house 63 — Nochem's household of nine. NAA: the two families' arrival in Melbourne on the Surriento, February 1950. The NKVD card file for Arkhangelsk: the whole Bark and Berliner households at Shidrovo from 9 July 1940, Esther's death 13 April 1941, Fishel's parents Aron and Sheina named. Zaidy Bark's handwritten account transcribed. Košice city archive: no Liling in the domicile registers; Gizela's 1947 file ordered.
- 23 Sep 2026
The record reframed for all descendants: four family panels on the Overview, generations counted from the founders, a Descendants page built from the family's Geni tree (132 profiles exported 22 Sep) and the registers, an About page with the rules and how to add a branch, a tree control that highlights any person's line to the founder, and the closing chapter rewritten around every branch. Geni supplied three more surviving daughters of Moshe and Rochel Liling — Freida Schonfeld, Edith Grunfeld, Goldie Winfield — and Moshe's brother Jacob, who died in New York in 1921.
- 22 Sep 2026 (night)
JRI-Poland and JewishGen searched with a logged-in account. Two gravestones found in the JewishGen burial registry: Bentzion Hofstatter, Springvale Adass, Melbourne, d. 19 Nisan 5727 (29 Apr 1967) — parents Yaakov and Mindel on the stone; and R' Meir Liling son of R' Yaakov, Stropkov, d. 28 Av 5696 (Aug 1936) — a new generation on the Liling line. Index finds: Isser Federgrün d. 1894 (act 83) and Gitla d. 1898 (act 19); Nathan of Tarnów (the 1925 stone) d. aged 88, son of Wolf Beer, Meyer's brother; Pinkus's wife Ester Lieberman and his sons' Kraków birth acts; Dresel née Wohlman; Beinisch's wife Gittel née Vorscher d. 1906; a Nuchem and a Brajndul Hoffstätter in the Kraków cemetery register. Full list in the project file JRI_JewishGen_Search_2026-09-22.
- 22 Sep 2026
Second pages of the seven 1881–1899 register scans read (witnesses, mohels, midwives, the 1904 legitimisation notes; Reisel's egg-and-butter trade). Gesher Galicia and the USHMM database searched directly: Nachim's family in Kraków 1940–41 with a third daughter, Mina; Lea at Stutthof in 1944; uncle Pinkas expelled from Kraków; Majer son of Beinisch died Stanisławów 1938; Benzion b. 1883 died Łódź 1942; and Yehudis Hofstatter's Shoah Foundation testimony located. Letters sent to the IPN and KARTA on Shidrovo; USHMM document request drafted.
- 20 Sep 2026
Photographs from the family's August 2023 visit to Nowy Wiśnicz with the Rubin family of Los Angeles added: the cemetery board, gate, memorial to the murdered community, and the ohel of Rabbi Naftali Rubin — the rabbi who officiated at Wolf and Reisel's 1904 marriage. The story chapters written. The family's account of Yaakov's deathbed oath and the flight to Slovakia with Rabbi Rubin's son, corroborated by the Rubin family, recorded (Family_Oral_Histories).