Created from the Jurysta Archive’s documented facts and clearly labeled family testimony. This is an educational retelling, not a primary source. Review the archive’s evidence labels and original documents for research use.
Działoszyce · Poland · the world beyond
What was carried forward.
A living record of one family—its homes, names, documents, losses and survival—assembled so that each generation can know where it began.
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The record so far
Eight generations, reconstructed one act at a time.
c. 1783earliest estimated birth
1824–1950documented record span
3 continentssurvivor destinations
The paper trail begins in early nineteenth-century Działoszyce with Majer and Faygla Jurysta. Civil registrations, marriage acts, population books, displaced-person files and a ship manifest now connect their descendants to New York, Florida and Israel. The tree below includes relatives by marriage because every spouse brought another family history into this one.
For every generation
Create an age-appropriate family story.
Choose a reader’s age and a chapter of the family history. Younger readers receive a gentle account centered on family, courage and remembrance. Older readers receive progressively fuller historical context about persecution, forced labor and loss.
How adaptation works
The generator never changes the underlying facts. It adjusts vocabulary and the explicitness of difficult Holocaust history. It does not invent dialogue, private thoughts or undocumented events.
Family tree
Roots and branches
Green edges are document-supported. Amber cards mark relationships or details still being tested.
Document-supportedProbable / partialResearch lead
Majer c.1783–1849 · Faygla c.1800–1848
Działoszyce. Their marriage is not yet located, but multiple children’s acts and death records support the household.
Collateral Działoszyce branch
both born c.1809 · married 1833, Act 14
Ryfka’s parents: Berek Majerczyk and Rykla.
both c.1840 · married 10 Aug 1858, Act 20
Ruda’s parents: Icek and Laja Cukierman.
Majer born 15 Jul 1864 · married 24 Apr 1883, Act 21
Małka’s parents: Szmul and Chaja Pilcer.
born 4 Mar 1898, Działoszyce
Later Kraków records appear to understate his age by four years.
Direct ancestral line
Sandel born 10 Apr 1838
Sandel’s birth act identifies Majer and Faygla. Ryfka Chana’s surname and marriage act remain open.
married 1873, Act 7
Their original Russian-language marriage act links the next generation.
Judka born 1874 · married 1894, Act 11
Confirmed parents of Symcha.
Symcha born 1895 · Szajndla born c.1892, Nowy Korczyn
Symcha’s birth act is confirmed. Szajndla’s original Nowy Korczyn act remains a priority.
born 3 May 1917
First married Ruchla Gitla; later Manci Jacobs. Children: Deborah and Loretta.
born c.1919
Part of the four-man survivor cluster; postwar destination needs confirmation.
born 15 Sep 1922
Married Rose Mermelstein in New York, 1956. Children: Steven, Barbara, Alan and Ilissa.
born 1924–25
Hanandel may be the register form of the same child; exact civil birth act remains unresolved.
Families joined through marriage
Fisz · Nowy Korczyn
Szajndla Fisz
Her birth and sibling acts may identify additional spouses, descendants and survivor lines.
Lewandowska branch
Ruchla Gitla Jurysta
Born 22 Dec 1919 to Sandel Jurysta and Bajla Rywka Lewandowska; Berek’s first wife. Her pregnancy and wartime fate remain under investigation.
Jacobs / Jakab · Hungary
Manci Jacobs
A Jewish Auschwitz survivor from the Satu Mare region; sister of Lillian Szender. Her formal birth name may have been Magdolna or another Hungarian form.
Mermelstein · New York
Rose Mermelstein
Daughter of Isidore Mermelstein and Bessie Lipshitz; sister of Perry Morell. Married Meyer in Manhattan in 1956.
Swicarczyk / Świerczarska
Bluma Swicarczyk
Her 1894 marriage to Judka is documented. The parental household links the Jurysta line to another Działoszyce family.
Survivor cousin lines
Shmuel, Arye & Shaya
Shmuel/Sam later lived in Florida; Arye and Shaya went to Israel. Evidence favors a cousin branch rather than children of Symcha.
Document center
The evidence, kept together
Original scans and translations are paired wherever possible. Every item opens in a new tab.
Translation notice
Translations and transcriptions on this site were prepared with ChatGPT and may contain errors, especially in handwritten names, dates, occupations and place names. Always compare the working translation with the original image and consult a qualified translator before relying on it for legal or genealogical proof.
Civil act · original
Majer Jurysta & Tauba Szyewicz marriage
Russian-language record; identifies the preceding generation.
1874 registerCivil act · original
Judka Jurysta & Bluma Swicarczyk marriage
Działoszyce marriage act confirming both households.
1894 · Act 11English translation
Symcha birth transcription & translation
Prepared transcription paired with the original act.
1895Displaced-person record
Meyer Jurysta DP card
Documents the survivor cluster after liberation.
PostwarDisplaced-person record
Henry Jurysta DP card
Postwar identity and movement evidence.
PostwarDisplaced-person record
Berek Jurysta DP record
Records Berek after the war; marital status requires historical context.
PostwarShip manifest
General Heintzelman passenger manifest
Berek, Henryk and Majer arriving in New York from Bremerhaven.
13 Jan 1950Municipal archive
Henry’s proof-of-residence request
Connects later family research to the Działoszyce register.
c. 1991Geoportal extract
Działoszyce property map
Plot and orthophotomap research for Krakowska addresses.
ModernSurvivor lead
Shmuel Jurysta record
Likely collateral cousin line; relationship remains under study.
PostwarSurvivor lead
Shaya Jurysta record
Associated with the Israel branch and related survivor testimony.
PostwarArchive links are intended for family research. Every translation remains a working aid—not a certified translation or a substitute for the original record.
Witness testimony
In their own record
Original testimony files are separated from later family recollection. A missing catalog match is shown as unresolved.
Confirmed original
Signed postwar testimony preserved in the Chronicles of Terror collection.
Read testimony ↗Confirmed original
Signed postwar testimony from the same archival witness series.
Read testimony ↗Confirmed testimony link
USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive testimony identified by the family. Access may require a free USC Shoah Foundation account.
View USC testimony ↗Homes and property
Krakowska Street
Addresses anchor the family in a real landscape. Historical occupancy does not establish present ownership or a current legal claim.
Primary family addressDocumented residence
Krakowska 57
Population and address registers connect the Jurysta household to this property. A six-room description and overhead geometry make two side-by-side structures plausible. An addition may have been completed around 1934, but the original construction date and exact room allocation remain unknown.
- Form
- Likely two attached or closely spaced structures
- Use
- Family residence; possible small garden or household production
- Confidence
- Address confirmed; architectural reconstruction interpretive
Related addressUnder study
Krakowska 63
Appears in property and mortgage-book research associated with the wider family network. The modern parcel crosswalk and exact historical owner still require archival confirmation.
Related addressOpen file
Krakowska 33
Named in the Unit 101 property review. Historical mortgage, transfer and abandoned-property files are needed before assigning an owner or heir line.
1939–1950
Displacement, survival, migration
This route combines records with family testimony. It is a reconstruction, not a complete transport list.
1939
Działoszyce
confirmedGermany occupied the town on 6 September. The family’s normal life, work and property rights were progressively destroyed.
1942
Działoszyce → killing centers
likelyDuring the liquidation, thousands were shot or deported. Family testimony and regional deportation evidence point to Bełżec for Szajndla, Dwora, Abram, Perla, Szmul and others, but individual transport lists have not yet been found.
1942–43
Forced-labor system
likelyMajer, Berek, Chaim and Henry remained together. Their first transfer after Działoszyce is not yet documented act by act.
1943–44
Kraków–Płaszów
supportedFamily testimony places the four men at Płaszów, where prisoners endured starvation, violence, selections and industrial or construction labor.
1944–45
Częstochowa / HASAG area
likelyThe reported Soviet liberation in January 1945 fits survival in a Częstochowa-area labor camp better than an evacuation west from Płaszów. The exact subcamp remains open.
1945–49
Poland → Landshut / Deggendorf
confirmedDP documentation traces the survivors through postwar Germany while they sought relatives, legal status and a destination.
1949–50
Bremerhaven → New York
confirmedThe General Heintzelman sailed 29 December 1949 and arrived 13 January 1950. The manifest names Berek, Henryk and Majer.
Płaszów
A camp built over a cemetery
Prisoners faced arbitrary violence, public executions, hunger, overcrowding and exhausting labor. Work assignments could include construction, workshops and nearby factories. Survival often depended on remaining useful to the labor system while enduring constant selections.
USHMM historical context ↗Częstochowa / HASAG
Industrial slave labor
Jewish prisoners in the HASAG complex manufactured ammunition under dangerous conditions, inadequate food and brutal discipline. The January 1945 Soviet advance is consistent with the family’s liberation account, although the precise factory camp is not yet proven.
Bełżec
Destination of annihilation
Bełżec was a killing center, not a conventional detention camp. Deportees were deceived, stripped of belongings and murdered soon after arrival. Assigning an individual family member to Bełżec requires transport or testimony evidence, so the names here remain labeled “likely.”
USHMM overview ↗Lives remembered
Survivors and victims
The absence of a death certificate is not evidence of survival. The lists reflect the best current synthesis of documents, testimony and chronology.
✦
Survivors
Lives rebuilt
Majer / Meyer Jurysta
Działoszyce → camps → DP Germany → New York. Married Rose Mermelstein; died 19 Apr 2000.
Confirmed survivorSurvived with his brothers. Arrived in New York in 1950; later married Manci Jacobs.
Confirmed survivorDP and residence records support his path from Działoszyce through postwar Germany to America.
Confirmed survivorChaim Dawid Jurysta
Family testimony places him with Majer, Berek and Henry through liberation. His later documentary trail is incomplete.
Survivor testimonyManci Jacobs & Lillian Szender
Sisters from the Satu Mare region and Auschwitz survivors; Hungarian birth and prisoner records remain active research targets.
Family-confirmed relationshipShmuel / Sam, Arye & Shaya Jurysta
Collateral survivors who emigrated respectively to Florida and Israel; exact parentage is still being assembled.
Collateral family│
Likely victims
Names carried forward
Szajndla / Szyndla Fisz Jurysta
Likely deported during the 1942 destruction of Działoszyce and murdered at Bełżec.
Likely · 1942Ruchla Gitla Jurysta
Berek’s first wife, born 22 Dec 1919. Family testimony says she was eight months pregnant when taken. Her transport and fate are not yet documented.
UnresolvedDwora, Abram, Perla & Szmul
Close relatives remembered as having died at Bełżec. Individual corroborating records remain to be located.
Likely · BełżecSymcha Jurysta
Family history gives a 1939 death in Działoszyce, before the mass liquidation. A civil death act has not yet been cited.
Reported · 1939The world around them
Work, faith and everyday life
Działoszyce
A market town in the Kielce region, part of the Russian Empire’s Congress Poland during the earliest records and of the Second Polish Republic after 1918. Jewish families formed a large share of the town’s population before the war.
Registers repeatedly describe Jurysta men as small traders, laborers and merchants. Such occupations likely meant market-day commerce, hides or cloth, foodstuffs, repair work and household-scale trade rather than large industrial enterprise.
Nowy Korczyn
Szajndla Fisz’s birthplace lay within the same regional network of Jewish market towns. Marriage connected families across short distances, and relatives often moved between towns for work, apprenticeship and matches.
Home life
A multi-generation address such as Krakowska 57 likely mixed sleeping, cooking and work space. Rooms changed function as households grew. Furnishings would generally have been practical: wooden beds and tables, storage chests, a tiled or iron stove, religious books and Sabbath objects where means allowed.
This description is historical context, not a claim about the exact contents of the Jurysta home.
Historical point of reference
USHMM: a Działoszyce resident’s account ↗JRI-Poland town index ↗Arolsen Archives ↗Sources and citations
Where the record comes from
Archived copies preserve the evidence used on this site. External links lead to the institutions that hold or index the originals.
Civil and population records
- Majer Jurysta–Tauba Szyewicz marriage actDziałoszyce Jewish civil register, Act 7, 1873/1874; parentage and preceding generation.
- Judka Jurysta–Bluma Swicarczyk marriage actDziałoszyce, 1894, Act 11; identifies the two parental households.
- Symcha Jurysta birth actDziałoszyce, 1895, Act 78; confirms Judka and Bluma as parents.
- Symcha birth transcription and translationWorking English aid paired with the original act.
- GenBaza / MetrykiDigital images of Polish civil and religious registers used in the family reconstruction.
- Szukaj w ArchiwachPolish State Archives catalog and scans, including Kielce population and property units.
- JRI-PolandJewish vital-record indexes used to locate Działoszyce and neighboring-town acts.
Holocaust and survivor testimony
- Berek Jurysta testimonyPostwar signed witness statement; Chronicles of Terror collection record 13052.
- Heniek Jurysta testimonyPostwar signed witness statement; Chronicles of Terror collection record 13053.
- Lillian Szender testimonyUSC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive; family-identified interview.
- Arolsen ArchivesPersecution, forced-labor, displaced-person and tracing files.
- Chronicles of TerrorInstitutional home of the Berek and Heniek statements.
- USHMM Collections SearchVictim, survivor, transport, testimony and historical collections.
- Yad Vashem CollectionsNames, Pages of Testimony, photographs and Holocaust documentation.
Displacement and immigration
- Meyer Jurysta DP cardPostwar identity and displaced-person evidence.
- Henry Jurysta DP cardPostwar registration and movement evidence.
- Berek Jurysta DP recordPostwar registration; marital-status notation interpreted with family chronology.
- General Heintzelman passenger manifestBremerhaven departure, 29 Dec 1949; New York arrival, 13 Jan 1950.
- Henry’s Działoszyce residence requestMunicipal archival evidence connecting the later survivor to the prewar population register.
- Ellis Island Passenger SearchPassenger-manifest catalog and immigration search.
Property, geography and historical context
- Działoszyce property-map dossierParcel, orthophotomap and Krakowska-address research; present ownership is not asserted.
- Krakowska 57 current mapModern geographic reference; not evidence of historical parcel boundaries.
- USHMM: KrakówHistorical context for occupation, ghettoization and Płaszów.
- USHMM: BełżecAuthoritative description of the killing center and its operation.
- USHMM: Działoszyce resident profileTown-specific Holocaust context.
- State Archive in KielceRepository for Działoszyce municipal, population, civil and property records.
Citation policy: a link to a local copy identifies the exact item reviewed for this archive. Dates and relationships labeled “confirmed” are supported by named records; “likely” and “unconfirmed” statements remain historical interpretations or active research leads.
The archive is unfinished by design
What we still hope to find
Close the early-generation gap
Locate Sandel Abram and Ryfka Chana’s marriage act and identify Ryfka’s surname and parents.
Name every wartime path
Find transport, labor-camp and testimony records that place Majer, Berek, Chaim and Henry between Działoszyce and liberation.
Reconnect survivor branches
Prove the parents of Shmuel, Arye and Shaya and invite their descendants to add photographs, testimony and corrections.
Help extend the archive
Request additional family research.
Submit a person, family, place or unresolved connection for review. Approximate dates and alternate spellings are welcome—historical records often vary.
Helpful details
- Names in English, Polish, Yiddish, Hebrew or Hungarian
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