The Streimer family

“I had a friend, Jurek Streimer,” Henryk Zdanowski told us many years ago, while describing the Streimer family’s hospitable house. Already back then we knew that the Streimers were one of the few families whose members (not all of them, but still) managed to survive the Shoah by fleeing to the East. Maurycy (Moses) Streimer was a Jewish lawyer and the owner of a large tenement house at No. 8, Kolejowa Street (today’s M. Kolbe Street). He ran a law firm in Mszana Dolna and was a partner in another one in Kraków, located in Św. Wawrzyńca Street. During the war, his large and spacious two-storey house with a garden was appropriated by the Nazi authorities and served as an administrative building, and thus became a silent witness to the Nazi crimes.

But before those events, Maurycy and his wife Eleonora (Lea) neé Heublum and their three children led prosperous, safe, and happy life. Their eldest son, Henryk, was born in 1918 and graduated from Gimnazjum im. S. Goszczyńskiego in Nowy Targ (a reputable grammar school), obtaining the diploma in 1936. His younger siblings were Janina (born in 1920) and Jurek (Yaakov, born in 1923). The Streimers were a family of assimilated Jews. Henryk Zdanowski remembered that he had seen the Christmas trees in their house while visiting his schoolmate, Jurek, during Christmas. In December, you could see the Chanukah candles in one of the windows, and the lights on the Christmas tree in another. The house was an open and hospitable one. Jurek’s mother often invited little Henryk Zdanowski, who came from a poor family, to dinner. Jurek and Henryk’s school was located just across the street.

Unfortunately, Henryk Zdanowski did not have any photo of his best friend and we thought that we would never know what Jurek looked like and what happened to his family, whom Zdanowski last saw in the fall of 1939 in Lviv, where they met as refugees. However, in the spring of 2019 we received a message starting with the following words, “I’m Jurek Streimer’s daughter.” Thanks to Heli Segal Arama and her sisters, Ayala Rubisnstein and Ofra Rosenstein, we are now able to tell the full story of Jurek and his family, and to present their photos. We were also able to experience an extremely moving moment when we placed a pebble from Mszana Dolna on the grave of Jurek Streimer and his wife in Haifa and read the Hebrew inscription stating he had come from Mszana Dolna. The fact must have been important to him.

The following account comes from Jurek Streimer’s daughter, Rachel.

Yurek (Yakov) Streimer 1923-1984

“Yurek (Ya’akov) Streimer was born in Mszana Dolna, a small town near Krakow, on 27 December 1923. He had two older siblings: Henryk and Yenina (Yanka). His parents were Maurizi (Moshe) and Eleonora (Leah).

“The father, Maurizi, had a PhD in Law and was a well-known lawyer in the area. He had a reputation for winning every case. It was a wealthy family who lived in a two-storey house.

“The family was not religious, but the father, who came from a traditional background used to go to the synagogue on Jewish holidays.

1939–1945 (The Second World War)

“The Streimer family lived in Piłsudski Street. Yurek was a high school student in Kraków. He planned to obtain an academic degree like his father, but his plans were disrupted. When the Germans invaded Poland, the Streimer family, who had planned their escape in advance, went to Szczebrzeszyn but the Germans arrived in this area soon afterwards and the family decided to go back to their hometown. On their way home, they found out that Russia and Germany had divided the Polish territory between themselves (the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact) and since they were on the Russian territory, and their home was on the German (Polish) territory, their way back was blocked. They did not know it at the time, but this saved their lives. The family decided to go to Lvov [Lviv], where their grandfather’s brother lived.

“At the beginning of June 1940, there were about 150,000–200,000 Jews in Lvov [Lviv]. Some of them were Polish Jewish refugees. The Russian government did not trust these immigrants and offered them Soviet citizenship on condition they agreed to give up their Polish citizenship. Many Jews refused to do so and were deported to Siberia. The Russian secret police (NKWD) gathered these refugees at night and sent them with some personal belongings to Siberia by train. There were about 30 people in each car. The Streimer family was aboard one of them.

“They were placed in a labor camp in Siberia. Life was very harsh. The Russians did not kill Jews, but the conditions in those remote and cold places were very cruel. Yurek’s mother got very ill and died there. Yurek suffered from snow blindness. The family was told that goose liver could save him. His sister, Yanka, somehow managed to get him some and indeed he was cured. We have no information about the name of the place the family spent the war in, how long they stayed there and how or when they left it. All we know is that after they had been released from Siberia, they spent some time in Kazakhstan and Kashmir.

“In March 1946, Polish citizens were allowed to go back to Poland. It was very dangerous for Jews in Polish towns because there were pogroms against the Jews who came back from the German concentration camps. The Streimer family went back to Mszana Dolna, just to sell their beautiful house for 10% of its worth, and to start their journey to the land of Israel ([Mandatory] Palestine).

“On the train that took them back to Poland, the family met some messengers from [Mandatory] Palestine, who were sent to find Jewish refugees, organize them in small groups called Kibbutzim, and bring them to Palestine. Yurek and his sister Yanka joined a kibbutz in Kraków. Their father also found a place in Kraków. Yurek and some friends were sent to a month-long course in Germany to become youth guides, whose mission was to tell young refugees, especially orphans in the orphanages what was being organized in Kraków, about the Zionism and Palestine, and help them prepare for their expected immigration to the land of Israel.

“After two months the Kibbutz and the orphanage were transferred to France. It was a long journey, supervised by the guides from Palestine. They travelled by train through Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Germany, pretending to be a group of foreign workers. In one of their stops, Yurek and a good friend were sent to Warsaw on a certain mission. They were told to speak only Polish because it was still very dangerous for Jews in Poland. In some cases, Polish people took Jews out of trains and shot them on the spot. There was also a pogrom in Kraków after the war.

“In Lyon, France, the young refugees spent several months in a palace that had been occupied by the Vichy Nazis. They were trained in self-defense. One night in February 1947, they were taken by closed trucks to a small port near Marseille. They were instructed to board a shabby cargo ship headed for Palestine. Each person was allowed to take up to 20 kg of personal belongings.

“The voyage was illegal as Palestine was occupied by the British who closed its gates and did not let the Jewish Holocaust refugees in. The ship sailed under the Panama flag for camouflage. There were 804 passengers, all in a storeroom originally built for storing coal. It was very crowded there; each person had space only for lying down. They ate cold canned food and bread. Every few hours a small group was allowed to go on deck for fresh air. The stormy weather intensified the people’s suffering. After two weeks, the ship approached the Palestinian shore, but it was discovered by British planes, which kept circling above it. British frigates arrived to capture the refugees and send them to Cyprus. The exhausted, sea-sick refugees tried to fight the decree as much as they could and the British used clubs to break their protest. Eleven refugees were injured. The rest went down to the ship’s belly, but the British threw stink bombs at them and they had no choice but to climb up. The wounded were taken to a hospital in Haifa and the others, after some hours in Haifa and a spray for disinfection, were forced to board a British ship and sailed to Cyprus. Their new living place was a fenced camp with barracks and British watchtowers near Larnaca, Cyprus. The barracks were made of tin and it was extremely hot there.

“There were about 200,000 refugees in Cyprus. They did not know how long they would stay in the camps, but they knew that eventually they would get to the promised land as the British released about 800 people every month. Young Jewish soldiers from Palestine entered the camps and the refugees were updated about the situation in Palestine and prepared themselves for it. They all took Hebrew lessons, for example.

“On November 29^th, 1947, the refugees were all sitting around a radio set waiting for the voting in the UN in New York about the decision to establish a Jewish state in a part of Palestine. They were thrilled to hear that the majority voted for the new Jewish state. However, they also knew that the Arabs were against the decision and that a war

would probably break out. They were anxious to reach the promised land although they knew they would have to join the fighting there. They were ready for this war as this time they were fighting for their independent state, a state that was so crucial for the Jews around the world after so many years of cruel persecution. On February 8^th, 1948, Yurek arrived at the port in Haifa, this time legally, aboard the ship Kedma.

The first days in the land of Israel

The British accompanied the new immigrants to a camp in Kiryat Smuel near Haifa to protect them from Arab snipers there. After a week Yurek and two friends rented a room and began to look for a job. Their first one was guarding shifts on the beach against occasional Arab attacks.

Seeing that the security situation in Israel had been escalating, Yurek decided to join the Zionist armed forces in Palestine (May 1948).

Basic training in Sarafand (near Tel Aviv) took only three days. The new recruits learned how to use weapons. Orders were given in Russian or Yiddish because most of these new immigrants did not know Hebrew.

Without proper training, the new recruits were sent to one of the hardest battles near Latrun (not far from Jerusalem). They found themselves walking through rocky valleys and hills in very hot weather, running out of water. They had no idea where they were. Luckily, jeeps were sent to collect them to one of the kibbutzim. After this first battle, Yurek was sent for further training. He took part in other battles until he was released.

Yurek started working in HaYama, a ship repair company. In 1968, HaYama became Israeli Shipyard and Yurek worked there till he died in 1984. He was very appreciated at work. He became an expert in aluminum construction and was in charge of this aspect of ship building.

In1960, Yurek married Malka Stiel. Malka was born in Germany but was brought to Israel at the age of two before the war. She was like a Sabra (native Israeli). Malka was a divorced woman with two children. Yurek treated her children like his own. They bought a house in Kiryat Haim near Haifa. In the following three years two daughters were born: Ayala and Rachel. Yurek worked very hard and never missed a working day. He loved gardening and had a big and pleasant flower garden. He loved fishing, too. On Saturday mornings he would get up very early, prepare some dough for fishing bait, take his fishing rod and ride his bicycle to the sea. Very often he came back with quite a lot of fish the family enjoyed at supper.

In 1969, Yurek was sent to Bremen, Germany, for three months, to learn about aluminum processing. This was an opportunity to meet his brother, Henry, whom he had not seen for 20 years. He met his brother in Copenhagen where he lived in poverty on a ship after he had fled from communist Poland. A few years later, Henry came to Israel for a visit. It was the first time Yurek’s family met his brother.

Yurek did not complete his academic studies but he was very intelligent and knowledgeable. He was strongly interested in history and remembered a lot of information from high school. He told his daughters that education in Kraków was very demanding. He was a curious person and was interested in politics and world affairs. Yurek did not speak about his war experience. A lot of the information in this document was gathered from friends and, unfortunately, a lot is missing.

Yurek died of cancer at home on October 29^th, 1984 at the age of 61. His sister, Yanka, who lived in Hadera, not far from Haifa, with a husband and one daughter, died of cancer in 1983. His brother, Henry, who had one son, died in Copenhagen in 1985 of the same illness.”

***

That would be all from Heli, Jurek’s daughter. We can only add a few more missing elements to complete the picture. Eleonora (Lea) neé Heublum, daughter of Jakub Heublum and Jurek Streimer’s mother died on 7 March 1941 in a settlement called Pysamo in Tomski powiat, in the Arkhangelsk region. The official cause of death given by the documents was “old age.” She was just 57 at the time. That was just the Soviet practice; nobody would dare to record that she had died due to general exhaustion, inhuman conditions, and being forced to perform labour beyond her strength. That good and kind woman does not have a grave which could be visited by her family, and so her name has been engraved on the tombstone of her son’s grave in Haifa.

After returning to Poland, Maurycy Streimer tried to come back to working as a lawyer in Kraków. The letters documenting his requests to be allowed to work in his profession again have been preserved. Unfortunately, a pre-war Jewish lawyer was not welcome in the People’s Republic of Poland, and Maurycy’s requests were not granted. Having heard the reports on acts of violence against the Jews returning to Poland, and especially after the pogroms in Kielce and Kraków, Maurycy decided to leave for Mandatory Palestine. He sold his house in Mszana Dolna to the Jania family and took actions necessary to enable him to emigrate.

Little is known about his later life in Israel, one of the remaining photos show him surrounded by his family, in another his daughter Janina visits his grave in Haifa. The family in Israel abbreviated the original surname, which was changed to “Szemer.” This is the surname given on the grave of Jurek and his wife Malka. Henryk Streimer abbreviated his surname as well. Henryk’s son, Krzysztof, signed the death certificate issued for his father with the new name, “Strama.”

After WW2, Janina married Adolf Samueli, a merchant from Vienna. Extant documentation includes a copy of their marriage certificate from 9 April 1949 and a passport application. Janina and Adolf emigrated to Israel as well. They had a daughter, Elisheva. The family lived in Hadera. Janina died in 1983.

Initially, Henryk stayed in Poland, but due to one of the anti-Semitic campaign (probably during the office of the First Secretary of the Communist party Władysław Gomułka in late 1960s) he, too, emigrated to Denmark. We know he had a son named Krzysztof, who sent information of his father’s death to his relatives in Israel on 29 February 1988. Henryk died in a hospital in Greve.

Jurek and Malka had two daughters: Rachel and Ayala. Jurek treated Ofra, Malka’s daughter from her first marriage, as his own. We were very happy when we met all three ladies in Haifa and heard them tell the story of their father. As we mentioned, together we placed a pebble from Mszana Dolna on Jurek’s grave in July 2019. Soon afterwards, Heli and her husband visited Mszana Dolna and, thanks to the kindness of the current owners of the Streimers’ house, the Chudzikiewcz family, they were able to see the place of their father’s childhood and youth. We hope that Jurek’s daughters and grandchildren will visit us in Mszana Dolna once again.

Finally, let us present a short summary demonstrating the victory of life over the cruel plan of the Shoah, which is our greatest joy. Jurek had two daughters—Ayala and Rachel—but he also raised his wife’s two children—Arye and Ofra—as his own. He treated all of them equally and their families consider all their children to be his grandchildren. So, to sum up, there are four children, fifteen grandchildren, and seven great grandchildren.

The eldest son, Arye, was a computer programmer and social activist. Unfortunately, he recently passed away at the age of 66, leaving five adult children and a grandson.

Ofra, who started her career as an English teacher, retired in 2018 after being Head of the Faculty of English Studies at the Gordon College of Education in Haifa for two years. She has three children and five grandchildren.

Ayala is a certified social worker, but she decided to raise her four sons as a full-time mother.

Rachel is a computer programmer and also teaches at a school for children with special educational needs. She has three children and one grandchild.

Jurek’s sister Janina had one daugher, Elisheva, two grandchildren and two great grandchildren. She was a housewife. Adek, her husband, was an accountant and warehouse manager at the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, and Social Services. Elisheva has recently retired after a long carreer of a social worker.

Little is knoww about Henryk Streimer. He, too, had a son, Krzysztof; it seems then that the Streimer family goes on.