Shtetl Life

History

Contact

Friday 7/27/2007 8:03:46pm

Name:

Lynn Orlowski Cutress

E-Mail:

yowmn1@msn.com

Referred By:

Just Surfed In

Location:

Webster, MA USA

Comments:

I found your website while searching for information on my grandfather Stanley Orlowski, son of Peter Orlowski and Jessee Pablowska. My grandfather also went under the name of John Drenzek after his biological father, Peter was killed and his mother remarried. I didn't know the name of his town until recently when I came across his draft card with Szuzcyn listed as his town. I at least got to see pictures of where he came from. Very nice website.

Saturday 7/21/2007 6:13:31pm

Name:

Isaac Tetenbaum

E-Mail:

Referred By:

Just Surfed In

Location:

Brooklyn, NY ----> Los Angeles, CA

Comments:

Wow! To think that all these people around the world have roots in this Polish town. I'm a pianist and student, son of Abraham Tetenbaum the playwright. His father is Dr. Herbert Tetenbaum. My great grandfather Isaac, for which I am named, emigrated from Poland at the turn of the century.

Great website!

Thursday 7/12/2007 11:08:32pm

Name:

June Brumer

E-Mail:

Referred By:

Friend

Location:

Oakland, California, US

Comments:

This is a most helpful website; thank you, Jose Gutstein! I will be visiting Szczuczyn during the last week of August of this year, with my daughters. My mother was born in Szczuczyn in 1902; she came to the US with her parents, Jacob Horowitz and Ida Gabelman Horowitz in 1911. I would be pleased to hear from anyone who has visited recently, or who may know of this family. Thanks so much. June Brumer, Oakland, California

Sunday 7/01/2007 11:13:19pm

Name:

Bill Krul

E-Mail:

boleslaw310@yahoo.com

Referred By:

Friend

Location:

Michigan, USA

Comments:

Very nice website--and helpful. Grandmother (Marianna Bukowski) born in Szczuczyn in 1896 and G-Grandmother, Jozefa Grajewska in 1870 in nearby Czarnówek. Grandfather, Frank Starzynski born in nearby Korejwa in 1892. My cousin and I hope to visit Szczuczyn in Sept. of this year (2007) and hope someone in the area can respond and help with our visit.

Thursday 2/08/2007 1:36:11pm

Name:

Brad Rubin

E-Mail:

BradRubin@BradRubin.com

Referred By:

Search Engine

Location:

Woodbury, Minnesota, USA

Comments:

Jose has done an outstanding job assembling this website and gathering the information behind it. It is interesting and informative, and provides a context for my genealogical facts. My two favorite features are the studies of alternative town names (which can be a major research obstacle) and the potential to network with other researchers. Great Work! -- Brad Rubin

Sunday 12/31/2006 9:30:38am

Name:

Mark Chelchowski

E-Mail:

mmcpl@poczta.onet.pl

Referred By:

Just Surfed In

Location:

Poland/Germany

Comments:

Your page is wonderful: content and design. I have found Chelchovski surname here. Can you or anybody else give me more information about this family, their history and what they do in present time. I have found in Ellis Island database Basia Chelchowska. Would be happy for more information about her.

Sunday 10/15/2006 7:28:32pm

Name:

Michelle Cohen

E-Mail:

footloosethecat@hotmail.com

Referred By:

Friend

Location:

Chicago, IL USA

Comments:

My children and I enjoyed viewing your photos. I am the granddaughter of Lejba (Louis) Awensztern. He was a wonderful man.

Monday 8/14/2006 5:38:52pm

Name:

Danny Beris

E-Mail:

Referred By:

Just Surfed In

Location:

Jerusalem, Israel

Comments:

Hi Jose,
I have just started browsing through the website and found several pictures of both my grandparents, Chaim Berys and Dvora Tetenbaum, who immigrated to Australia in 1938. Other relatives I found are the Leizerson and Pikel families. I'll have to visit again, and soon!
Keep up the good work.

Monday 5/15/2006 10:17:58pm

Name:

Joelann (Gawel) Smith

E-Mail:

Referred By:

Search Engine

Location:

Murphysboro, US

Comments:

You have a very extensive site and I found it very interesting and informative. Keep up the good work. P.S. my great grandmother is Frances Grabowski. The surname is on your site but I didn't see any info.

Saturday 11/05/2005 5:39:04pm

Name:

Russ

E-Mail:

Referred By:

Search Engine

Location:

Houston, Texas, USA

Comments:

I just saw the photographic exhibit about Szczuczyn at the holocaust museum in Houston, which mentioned this website. The museum exhibit was good, and since I am moving to Poland soon, it was especially interesting and moving. Dziekuje.

Monday 5/09/2005 3:39:38am

Name:

Clarita Malchi (Wapinski)

E-Mail:

Referred By:

Friend

Location:

Ramat Hasharon, Israel

Comments:

Dear Jose:
I don't stop admiring your work. I signed in a few years ago when you first started and see now your new job. You are exceptional and I am sure that each of us, Wapinski descendants, will appreciate forever what you are doing. Wish I could do more to help or cooperate with you. Please keep on.... for the sake of all of us who are still here and for the sake of the future and so our descendants will also know...

Monday 3/28/2005 9:43:59pm

Name:

Esther Simmonds

E-Mail:

Referred By:

E-Mail

Location:

Rockville, MD

Comments:

I am the granddaughter of Yitzchak Moishe Wapinski and the daughter of his eldest son, Chaim. I am also of the "Vaupen" branch. This is a wonderful opportunity to have a window on the past - much gratitude for your efforts in capturing a piece of our history!

Sunday 3/27/2005 11:45:17pm

Name:

Joanne Prass-Jones

E-Mail:

joanne@usjoneses.com

Referred By:

Search Engine

Location:

Fremont, CA

Comments:

My Grandfather, Abraham (Harry) Barres, came to the United States from Szczuczyn through Galveston and settled in Minneapolis. This website is great.

Sunday 3/27/2005 9:03:21am

Name:

Hy Vaupen

E-Mail:

hvaupen@vaupenfinancial.com

Referred By:

Friend

Location:

Cooper City, Florida, USA

Comments:

I am proudly part of the Wapinski/Vaupen family tree, with large roots from Szczuczyn. Jose, I want to thank you for your efforts at retaining an important historical memoir and link for current and future generations.

Tuesday 6/29/2004 9:14:52pm

Name:

Dianne B. Stillman

E-Mail:

Referred By:

Friend

Location:

Scarsdale, New York

Comments:

I am the great-granddaughter of Moyshe David Korzhenkovski (sp.?) The name was changed to Korenstein at Ellis Island for the American contingent. My brother, David Stillman, named for him, just alerted me to this website. I am awed by your work. We will search among my mother's photos for additional ones from Szczuczyn. Thank you so much for your efforts. I am so curious about what made you begin this work.

Sunday 6/27/2004 7:20:38pm

Name:

Margaret

E-Mail:

Referred By:

Just Surfed In

Location:

Joliet, Illinois, U.S.

Comments:

Bardzo ciekawa strona. Jest tyle w niej historii,o ktorej nie mielismy pojecia. Moj maz Robert D. spedzil w Szczuczynie pierwsze szesc lat swojego dziecinstwa, mieszkajac z babcia. Bardzo milo wspomina te czasy...

Translation:

Tuesday 5/25/2004 10:18:46pm

Name:

Sandra (Kyman) Krystal

E-Mail:

Referred By:

Friend

Location:

New York City

Comments:

What a wonderful tribute to exceptional human beings. My grandfather Schmul Kyman and his wife and children all left for the US long before Naziism. But my Uncle Shimon stayed the longest and your site has a few pictures of him which certainly made me cry - remembering this erudite, gentle, loving uncle. He lost his wife and sons in the camps and when Chaya Golding came to America they married. So the letter that is on your site is from my Aunt Helen whom I knew as a dynamic, vivacious woman. I cannot believe she lived through all that is outlined in her letter. We were very close and she took me shopping in Manhattan until I was well into my late teens. She was great fun but, oh, my Uncle Shimon - he was such a fine, soft-spoken man whose heart was broken as he never got over the loss of his first wife and his sons.
Thank you so much for this excellent site. I wish you were able to gather more pictures; they are such treasures.

Thursday 4/29/2004 0:50:15am

Name:

Norm Kayman

E-Mail:

Referred By:

E-Mail

Location:

Melbourne, Australia

Comments:

My daughter Selina told me about you and your research on Szczuczyn. I am grateful to you; what a rich communal and cultural life existed there! My father would not talk about Poland and his lost friends and family, but my children and grand-children need to know what life was like in Szczuczyn. Thanks a million.
Hope to meet you at the exhibition in New Orleans in 2005. Norm.

Tuesday 2/24/2004 4:10:48am

Name:

Anna Andersson

E-Mail:

Referred By:

Just Surfed In

Location:

Landskrona, Sweden

Comments:

Thanks for great website. I would like to receive some information about my fathers Henryk Gierszko Sosnowski family who lived in Szczuczyn before the 2 war: Lejzor and Jospa Sosnowski.
Please contact me. Thanks.
B.Rgds/Anna Andersson

Wednesday 1/28/2004 2:08:16am

Name:

Anna Chorosz

E-Mail:

Referred By:

Just Surfed In

Location:

New Britain, CT, USA

Comments:

I lived in Szczuczyn all my life until I moved to us in 98. You did an excellent work, please feel free to email me.

Thursday 1/08/2004 10:39:27pm

Name:

Alan J Stern

E-Mail:

Referred By:

Search Engine

Location:

Halifax, Canada

Comments:

Hello Jose!

I continue to visit the site and admire your excellent work. Of course I enjoy looking at the Awensztern family in the context of other families from Szczuczyn.

Best regards, Alan J Stern

Tuesday 12/30/2003 7:32:10pm

Name:

Phyllis Rosner

E-Mail:

Referred By:

Search Engine

Location:

Comments:

Wednesday 12/29/2003 11:21:13pm

Name:

M Bodenstein

E-Mail:

Referred By:

Just Surfed In

Location:

Brooklyn, NY USA

Comments:

My step-father, Rabbi Avrohom Yitzchok Lincberg born in Shtutsin, just passed away in Paris France, where he was the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Ohr Yosef. He is buried on Har Hamenuchos in Jerusalem, Israel. He studied in many of the famous Yeshivos in Poland including Bialystok, Nevardok. There is an Avrohom Lincberg living in Israel today who was a cousin to my step-father. It was wonderful seeing your home page as we really got a feeling of where he came from. Thank you.

Tuesday 12/23/2003 4:48:39pm

Name:

Peter

E-Mail:

Referred By:

Search Engine

Location:

Szczuczyn, Poland

Comments:

At first I have to say thanks for such a great website. I live in Szczuczyn, but I didn't know many of these informations about my hometown. I have a grandma, who was in captivity for years. Maybe, I could help with bringing some new photos or some other memorials.

Friday 12/12/2003 2:24:54pm

Name:

Adaire Klein

E-Mail:

aklein@wiesenthal.net

Homepage URL:

www.wiesenthal.com/library

Referred By:

E-Mail

Location:

Los Angeles, CA, USA

Comments:

Referred by Mike Marvins in Houston. Fascinating photographs and a great website.

Sunday 8/03/2003 0:16:03am

Name:

Flavia Berys

E-Mail:

Referred By:

Just Surfed In

Location:

Southern California

Comments:

Hello! Great site. I know next to nothing about my ancestry, but I do know that my grandparents on my dad's side are from Poland. I looked up my last name on a search engine and your site came up. I'm sure there is some connection... well, this is a great site and thanks for sharing this info with the world!

Wednesday 7/30/2003 7:09:44pm

Name:

Linda Berris

E-Mail:

Referred By:

Search Engine

Location:

Chicago, IL

Comments:

My father, Benjamin Berris (born Berek Berys) was born in Szczuczyn in 1902, and emigrated to the U.S. with his family c. 1907. I have been enjoying and learning from this site for a very long time now, and it's time I thanked you publicly, Jose, for your amazing work. This site, along with the site on Radzilow, are an amazing portal into a once-beautiful but now-lost world. Without people like you to help preserve it, most of us would have no way to trace it.

Monday 7/28/2003 2:56:35pm

Name:

Michal

E-Mail:

Please give me your E-Mail address if you read this

Referred By:

Just Surfed In

Location:

Jersey City

Comments:

I think this is an awesome website of Szczuczyn. I was born in Szczuczyn in 1981 and have migrated to US in 1993. It is great to share these memories with everyone who visited this website. I think the author did a phenomenal job in regards to history, pictures, and the information gathered. I tip my hat to the author. Good luck to all who have visited this awesome website.

Friday 6/27/2003 2:09:27pm

Name:

Sam Berry

E-Mail:

Referred By:

Friend

Location:

San Diego, Ca.

Comments:

Was referred to your website by my cousin Audrey Berry Bernstein. My father Abe Berry (Berys) came from Szczuczyn. His father was Chaim Laibl Berys. My uncle Chatskel Berys (a coppersmith) was killed by the Poles.

Jose, this website is magnificent. Thank you for a great job.

Thursday 6/26/2003 6:38:27pm

Name:

Sandra Barton Bialostocky

E-Mail:

Referred By:

Search Engine

Location:

Comments:

GREAT WEB SITE! AMAZING INFO!

Wednesday 5/07/2003 6:06:35pm

Name:

Rita Hilu

E-Mail:

Referred By:

Search Engine

Location:

Brooklyn, NY

Comments:

Jose, I don't have words of appreciation for all the extraordinary work you have done, thank you for all the memories. My dream is to go visit my father's SHTETELE.
My father, BENJAMIN SZEJNBERG was born in SZCZUCZYN in 1909. He was the son of
ISRAEL MORDECHAI SZEJNBERG and NECHE ELENSZTEJN. He was the only one that left town and came to Argentina in 1929. My father died in 1964 in Argentina. In 1982 my husband Leon, my 3 daughters and me, moved to the USA, and since then we live in Brooklyn, NY. Thanks, Rita (Szeinberg) Hilu.

Thursday 5/01/2003 8:19:53pm

Name:

Audrey Berry (Berys) Bernstein

E-Mail:

Referred By:

Friend

Location:

New York City

Comments:

Referred by relatives. Your photos add to what we saw at the Jewish Museum exhibition in NY last summer. I will spend more time at this sight--and refer other relatives.

Friday 4/11/2003 10:26:30pm

Name:

Charles Gamson

E-Mail:

Referred By:

Just Surfed In

Location:

Comments:

My parents were at the fifty year party, and I have a picture just like the one you showed, I will look for it. My family name is Gamzon.

Thursday 12/19/2002 10:02:37pm

Name:

Shira Muhlstein

E-Mail:

Referred By:

Friend

Location:

Valley Glen, CA USA

Comments:

To my great-uncle Martin Wengrofsky and family. My parents, Herman and Perla Muhlstein, sent me this website to look at. It is very interesting. I am now in Israel for my year in Seminary. I will I"YH be going to Poland at the end of March and will take pictures to hopefully add to the photo gallery. I think it is very important to have a website like this to keep the memory of all our relatives alive and see the people who I am named after. Thank you so much to everyone who was involved in making this website available to be viewed.

Sincerely, Shira Yael Tzirl Malka Muhlstein

Saturday 11/16/2002 10:54:09pm

Name:

Susan Romain Speirs

E-Mail:

Referred By:

Just Surfed In

Location:

Paradise Valley, Arizona

Comments:

It is fascinating to know more about our family's history.

Wednesday 10/02/2002 5:00:40pm

Name:

Dafna Furst

E-Mail:

firstd@zahav.net.il

Referred By:

Search Engine

Location:

Jerusalem/Israel

Comments:

After viewing the web, we felt we have to go back, and see it all... for the first time, my mother who is now 85, wanted to go back! She left when she was 17, to come to Israel. We went there, not much changed!!! The same streets and houses are standing there... and no Jews.

We took some photos, they will arrive soon, through Ellen Massie, my cousin's wife, her mother-in-law, Felice Massie and my mother Hana Mazor are the Ozorowitch sisters: Fela and Hanka.

Thank you for the great work you have done.

Thursday 09/05/2002 2:25:05am

Name:

Dorothy Leivers

E-Mail:

Dorfleiv@aol.com

Referred By:

Search Engine

Location:

UK

Comments:

I have been visiting this site regularly since it first went on-line and I am still learning from it. It is a treasure- like a good book which you reread and always find something you've missed. Thank you so much Jose....the hours you put into creating this page and to helping other researchers is an inspiration.

Dorothy

Saturday 08/31/2002 11:39:27am

Name:

Mark Gerson

E-Mail:

Referred By:

Search Engine

Location:

UK

Comments:

Very impressed with the website and all the painstaking research you have put into it. It is a wonderful piece of work. The information is greatly appreciated.
My father was born in Szczuczyn in 1876 and left for South Africa in the late 1880s. I'd be interested to hear from anyone who knows about the Gerson family in Szczuczyn, in particular my aunt Raitsa Gerson, who we know little about.

Saturday 08/17/2002 5:28:10pm

Name:

Lisa Schwartz ,Sandy Cohen, Carol Romoff

E-Mail:

Referred By:

Friend

Location:

New City, NY USA

Comments:

Our mother and grandmother was from Szczuczyn. Her name was Chana Frydman. She and her sister, Dora, came to America around 1927. Their brother Jack came a few years later. Their mother and younger sister were murdered by their Polish neighbors. Their sole surviving first cousins, Dov and Minna Ben Itzchak live in Ramat Efal in Israel.

Wednesday 08/14/2002 7:10:14am

Name:

Leo Sawicki

E-Mail:

Referred By:

Friend

Location:

Sydney, Australia

Comments:

My late father Chaim was born there and his father was Isaac the grain merchant. Chaim and his sister, Chaike are on the cover and rear plate of the book "Lives Remembered - A Shetl through a photographer's eye.

Tuesday 08/06/2002 3:55:51am

Name:

Ashley Kissin

E-Mail:

ash1951@aol.com

Referred By:

Friend

Location:

Ilford Essex, England

Comments:

My Grandmother Sarah Rosenbaum daughter of Rabbi Yitzchok Hershl Rosenbaum came to England just before WW1. This web site takes us back to those time and is a 1st class insight to what it was like before WW2.

Saturday 07/27/2002 1:36:24am

Name:

Moshe Karmin

E-Mail: