Hadasa PINKUS about her childhood, parents and their families, fates in ghetto, Auschwitz camp and Germany, return to Ostrowiec after war, stay in Dzierżoniow and emigration to Israel
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An English resume of an interview in Hebrew that took place in Israel as a part of the Polish ROots in israel Project. Interviewee name: Hadasa Pinkus
Hadasa PINKUS nee HALBERSZTADT was born on 5.6.1924 in Lublin.
The Halbersztadt family came from the town Halberstadt in Germany. Existing documents prove the existence of a Jewish community in the city many centuries back; one document, dated 1261, guaranteed the security of the Jews "as in the past", meaning there were Jews in the city before 1261.
Lublin is one of the old Polish cities. Jews lived in Lublin from the 14th century and it became the most important Talmudic center in Poland. In the 19th and 20th centuries Lublin was the main center of Hebrew and Yiddish culture, with theaters and newspapers, as well as the center of political parties and Jewish organizations. Lublin of 1939 had a population of 122,000 inhabitants, about 40,000 of them Jews.
The family used to live at Lubartowska Street no21, in a three room apartment, and later on, at Targowa Street no7, in a four room apartment. Lubartowska Street was the main street of the Jewish part of the city. It was a long street with tall 3-4 storey buildings, many shops, warehouses, schools, synagogues, charity institutions and the market. In short, the heart of the neighborhood.
The relationships with the non-Jewish inhabitants were very good and Hadasa doesn't remember anti-Semitic incidents.
Although it was a very Jewish and religious home, it was very liberal too. When Hadasa's sisters, Mina and Pola, finished the Jewish Gymnasia, their father asked his rabbi for permission to send them to university. Hadasa doesn't remember any talk about Palestine or Zionism, and in fact she and her sisters, were never members of any Zionist youth movement.
The financial situation of the family was fair.
When she was seven, Hadasa went to a Polish primary school, where all the pupils were Jews. 3-4 years later, her parents sent her to a Jewish school, Bet Ya'akov; then she went to the Jewish Gymnasia, but was there for only one year, because the war broke out.
At home, Hadasa and her sisters spoke Yiddish with their parents and grandparents, and Polish among themselves.
Hadasa's Parents
* Her father, Rabbi Szlomo Halbersztadt, was born in 1893 in Lublin, to a family of Radzyń hassidim (pious men). As a Radzyn Hassid, he used two kinds of Tefilin, phylacterics, alternatively: Rashi and Rabenu-Tam. He used to save money to travel to the city of Radzyń on Jewish festivals to visit and sit at the Admor (head of a Hassidic movement) of Radzyń's table, and hear his Talmud interpretations. Szlomo cried like a child when the Germans murdered the Admor.
He studied in several Yeshivot. From a young age, he was involved in the politics of the community, and he was a member of endless organizations. Szlomo subscribed to many Jewish newspapers and journals and used to cut out articles and file them according to subjects. Everything connected with the Jewish life in Poland interested him, specially the Lublin community.
He started his community career in 1928, when he was elected member of Lublin Jewish Community Board. In 1932 he was elected Deputy President of the Board and in 1936 he was elected unanimously as President until the war. He was also the elected secretary of the famous Lublin Sages' Yeshiva. He was very popular and highly venerated and admired within the Lublin community. People used to ask his opinion on every subject, and ask for advice on material and moral issues.
Szlomo was also a member of the first Judenrat, until Pessah 1942.
On Pessah 1942, Szlomo was taken "to a labor camp", together with his daughter Esther; they never returned.
* Hadasa's mother, Riwka Rachel Hirszhorn, was born in 1893 in Kraśnik not far from Lublin. She loved classical music and used to go to concerts. She was sent on a transport, together with her daughter Pola; they never returned.
Szlomo and Rachel married through a sziduch (marriage arrangement) in 1910s. They had four daughters:
- Mina, was born in 1914; she studied special education and married Menek X while in the ghetto. The couple was in Ostrowiec and Auschwitz-Birkenau, where her husband was murdered. Mina and Hadasa were always together, all through the war. After the liberation in Germany by the Soviets, she married Grisza Kaplan, a widower too, and returned to Lublin. They immigrated to Israel in 1958. They had two children: Szlomo (he died in a car accident at the age of 13) and Rachel. Mina also died in a car accident three years later, almost in the same place.
- Perla Pola, was born in 1918, unmarried; she was murdered.
- Esther, was born in 1920, unmarried; she was murdered.
- Hadasa, the interviewee
Hadasa's paternal family
Her grandfather, Hercz Halbersztadt, was the owner of a big paint shop. He died in 1940. Hadasa's grandmother died before 1924.
Hadasa's grandparents had seven children:
- Szlomo, interviewee's father.
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