Searching for those “Wener” roots in Poland

Rich in our private compartment on the overnight train from Vienna to Warsaw


Stork sitting on nest seen from the car on the way to Przasnysz


Typical old house in town of Przasnysz

Our guide Marius

Memorial in Pultusk made of Jewish grave markers torn down by Nazis

Site of one of two synagogues that existed in town of Przasnysz

Town square in Przasnysz - buildings had been mostly owned by Jewish merchants

Memorial at Jewish cemetary in Przasnysz- stones from other places since the ones from here had been used to pave roads!

Old town square in Cracow

Old Town square with clock tower in Cracow

Street in Nowa Huta

Memorial in ghetto square in Cracow

Jewish Cemetery in Cracow - grave of famous rebbe Ramah

Only synagogue still functioning in Cracow

Our next adventure was a trip to Poland where Rich was invited to give another talk at a university in Warsaw. But he also used it as a springboard to do some genealogy searching to be able to track some of his ancestors. Unlike the Kurshan side which has benefited from all of Richard’s hard work, there has been little exploration of where the Weners came from. All they knew was that Wener was not the original name, leaving even more questions. So Rich has been gathering whatever information he could from cousins around the country and through the wonders of the internet has started to figure some things out. He somehow connected with a wonderful fellow named Marius in the small town of Przasnysz, about 2 hours north of Warsaw. He turns out to be a local journalist extremely interested in the long history of his town and everyone who lived there. Even though he is not Jewish, he has access to local archives and was more than willing to do some digging and share with us what he knew. He was actually able to find the marriage certificate of Rich’s great- grandparents, Mendel and Esther Ducyminer. They were married in the nearby town of Ciechanow. As best we can figure, the name came from the town of Ducymin, where they must have lived earlier. Probably when the family came to the US, the first part of the name was left off and the M became a W, hence the Wener lines began!

Rich and I took an overnight train from Vienna to Warsaw on Tuesday night, arriving early on Wednesday. He had arranged a driver to take us to Przasnysz that day. It was only about 100km, but took a long time because there were only 2 lane roads and lots of traffic. But we got there and spent about 2 hours with Marius who took us around the town and began to tell some of the many stories that he knows. He is a wonderful, kind, funny and generous man who just wanted to share his love of the town with someone who was interested. He was so sorry that our time was so limited. We had the feeling he would have been happy for us to stay for a week! Since this town is north of Warsaw, and the smaller town of Ducymin is even further north, this was the area through which the Germans first entered Poland. Ducymin in fact was the first town they went through, immediately wiping out all the Jews who were still there. Before the war, Przasysz had about 9,000 people, of which 2,500 were Jewish. Now there are about 18,000 people there, and no Jews. There had been a lively Jewish community with 2 synagogues (of course) and this is where Rich’s grandfather lived until he was about 13 and emigrated to the US. Actually the town was the site of a big battle in WWI which completely destroyed the town. Much was rebuilt right after that, but of course most of the Jewish sites were again destroyed in the Second WW and none of the synagogues are still extant. Even the Jewish cemetery was vandalized by the Germans, who took the headstones and broke them up and used them as paving stones. There is an interesting memorial in another small town not far away in which numerous grave markers are assembled into a large memorial statue, as a way to honor those whose names would otherwise be lost. Anyway, in spite of the obvious changes to the town, it was quite moving for Rich to think about walking basically the same streets that his grandfather had walked as a child.

On Thursday, we had a whirlwind tour of Warsaw given by the woman at the University who invited Rich to give a talk. She drove us to a number of important sites in the city so we could see something during our short time there. One of the things she took us to see was a film about the destruction of Warsaw in 1939. She had been explaining about the buildings being rebuilt after the war, but we had not fully understood the extent of the destruction of the city. (In spite of the history we had previously learned, the reality of a place is totally different.) As many of you undoubtedly know, the destruction was totally complete, since the Nazis wanted to get even for the Warsaw uprising. When you see the photos of the people coming back into that devastated place after the war, removing each stone by hand, it is amazing that anything is there today. And when you go to the Old Town and see how beautifully it has been rebuilt, it is even more impressive. And of course, then the Soviets came in and rebuilt parts in the grandiose Social Realism style with long, extremely wide boulevards that have no relation to human scale. It really makes you appreciate the Polish people and all that they have gone through- and are still going through. The recent plane crash which killed so many leaders of the country has been a real blow to their psyches.

Anyway, we came to Poland with little expectations of what we would see, but the people were so warm and hospitable and there is so much energy everywhere that we have been very impressed. Rich gave a talk about his research in prisons and jails to people from a variety of fields at the Warsaw School of Social Psychology. The city is booming with lots of building going on and new schools opening all over.

Rich’s colleague invited us to her house for dinner after he gave his talk and we had more chance to hear about life today and as it was under the Soviets. She told us about when she was in high school and having to come home from school to wait on lines at the grocery store for two hours before her mother returned from work and took her place in line to wait for their small amount of rationed goods! Her grandparents had lived in a small town to the east of Cracow during the war and had hidden a neighbor from their town. They are recognized in Yad Vashem as Righteous Gentiles and she is quite proud of them and of her father who worked with the Resistance.

So we realized we had seen very little of the city and it was with some reluctance that we left Warsaw on Friday morning to go to Cracow. But onward one must go, so after a 3 hour trip to Cracow, our next stop was Tarnow (2 hours by train east of Cracow) where we went on Friday afternoon. (Lots of train schlepping on this trip) We had a guide meeting us there, a lovely young woman named Magda who had lived in NY and converted to Judaism and as such was the only Jewish person living in Tarnow! Her father and mother were both social anthropologists and had started and run a museum of the Jewish community of Tarnow before the war.

This seems to be a constant thread- non Jews stepping in to keep alive the Jewish history since there are no Jews to do it. According to our guide, interest in Jewish culture and history is quite strong in Poland. Several cities, including Cracow, host a festival of Jewish culture that is a big deal. At the same time, the guide also said that she has experienced not inconsiderable anti-Semitism. And all this with hardly any Jews in the country. (However, she also told us that right now there is a movement of Israeli Jews moving to Cracow!)

Back to our itinerary: Tarnow is a lovely small town that used to be a large Jewish center before the war- about 45% of its 56,000 population was Jewish. Apparently Jews first came there in the 15th century and by the late 19th century were quite well established and held important positions in the town. There were several synagogues and small prayer halls, as well as a large mikva and other facilities. Beginning in 1942, the Jews were murdered and deported so there is hardly any trace today. All the synagogues were burned down and the only reminder is the bimah from one of them. This is the town where Rich’s great grandfather on his mother’s side came from, although they know even less about this side of the family!

So that was Friday, and on Saturday we took a trip to Auschwitz and Birkenau. This is everything you think and have heard from others and it is hard to find anything to say that hasn’t been said before- hard, emotional, upsetting, and very important to see. We never actually felt like we wanted to go here, but once in the area, we really had to do it. And we were glad we did. Actually standing on that ground gives you a feeling of linkage with those poor people that you cannot really get from reading or even seeing pictures. This day as well as this whole trip has been an exercise in “what if…” The area, the people, the food is all so familiar that we could not help but feel that it could have been any of us, and any of the people we know.

We finished the trip on Sunday with a walking tour of the Jewish area of Cracow given by the same young woman, Magda, from Tarnow. We saw the original Jewish area (not ghetto) which has recently become a very hip area with tons of restaurants and bars (sort of like the Lower East Side) as well as the actual ghetto that was built by the Nazis and from which everyone was deported. There are several synagogues left in the city, but only one is being used as a religious building. (There is a very small community in Cracow, just hanging on. ) We also walked by Schindler’s factory which they are turning into a museum (not open yet) and went to the oldest Jewish cemetery. As opposed to Warsaw, the city of Cracow was not physically harmed during the war because for some reason the Nazis believed that it was a German town and intended to use it after the war. So it is quite lovely and picturesque with a very large old Medieval center and castle up on a hill.

For a real change of pace, in the afternoon we made our way to a suburban area called Nowa Huta, which was built in the 1950s as a large community for the working class in the Socialist Realist style, with huge apartment blocks arranged along grand boulevards. No beautiful but interesting from an urban planning standpoint, so we had to check it out.

After dinner at a Jewish style restaurant with food and atmosphere that felt like Bubbe’s, we took a night train back to Vienna, arriving early Monday morning. This time we had to share a compartment with a couple of women from Slovakia who spoke no English. We were in the upper bunks which was quite interesting also! Not much sleep on that part of the trip, but we are back home and settling in again. More on impressions and other stories coming soon.