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ABRAHAM FRISCH FAMILY FROM ROZHNIATOV/HALPERN FAMILY FROM DOLINA
A set of letters hand-written in Yiddish surfaced out recently in the
family of my husband, Uriel Frisch. Most of them are written by
Abraham Frisch, Uriel's paternal grand-father, and his wife Sima
Frisch, born Halpern. The letters, sent to their children, were
spanning the years 1926 to 1940. We are now in the process of
translating them into English, and are also trying to trace back some
family members who lived in Galicia before WWII.

ABRAHAM FRISCH FAMILY. A FEW DATA

Around 1908-1909 Abraham Frisch left Rozhnyatov, a small town about
60km West of Ivano-Frankivsk (= Stanislawov, Galicia) and moved to
Gelsenkirchen, Germany, with his family. In Gelsenkirchen, they had a
small clothing retail store. They were very religious and Abraham
Frisch was well versed in Torah studies.

The members of his family at the time of his arrival in Gelsenkirchen
were: his wife, Sima (or Selma, born in Dolina, in 1878) and three
children: Regine (Rebecca, born in 1902 in Yaremche), Moritz (Moshe
Chaim, born in 1906 in Rozhnyatov, Uriel's father) and Sarah (born in
1908 in Rozhnyatov). Abraham and Sima had three more children born in
Gelsenkirchen, Rudi (Rafael, born in 1911), Shaul (born 1913),
Rose (Shoshana, born in 1916).

Abraham Frisch died in July 1937 in Germany (Cologne) of cancer.
Being of Polish nationality, Sima Frisch was expelled from Germany.
In mid-August 1939 she traveled to her brother Benjamin Halpern in
Stanislawov (she had no other place to go). Sima Frisch was probably
killed in Stanislawov after the invasion by the Germans in July
1941. We have no written record. Benjamin Halpern and his children
had the same fate.

Sarah and her two young children (Franzi 8 yr old) and Harry (6 yr old)
were deported from Belgium to Auschwitz in October 1942.
The other five children of Abraham and Sima Frisch survived the war,
escaping to France, to the United States and to Israel before the
beginning of the war. We personally knew all of them but only one of
them is still alive and cannot be interviewed anymore. We are still
in touch with their children and grand-children.

ABRAHAM FRISCH FAMILY. QUESTIONS

We have indications that Abraham Frisch was born in Rozhnyatov, but we do not
know the date of his birth, that the given name of his father was
Moses (Moshe) and that Moses Frisch was a rabbi. We
have no information on the name of Abraham Frisch's mother, where she
was born, etc. We also know nothing on Abraham's siblings, if any.
We have never heard of anyone, except for a mention in a letter
to a sister in the United States, married to a certain Yosl Kaufmann.
The American branch of the family has never heard of them.
It is unlikely that siblings of Abraham have emigrated to Israel,
since the Israeli branch of the family would have heard of them.

HALPERN FAMILY. SOME DATA

Sima Frisch born Halpern had a sister Deborah, born in Dolina in 1880. Deborah
lived in Gera, Germany and was deported with her husband David Spiegel
to Belzec in 1942. Sima Halpern's brother Benjamin had a yeast
factory, 19 Rynek, Stanislawov.

HALPERN FAMILY. QUESTIONS

We have some indication that the given name of Sima Halpern's father
was Isaac. We do not know the name of her mother and whether
Sima had other siblings, in addition to Deborah and Benjamin.
We do not know the place and date of birth of Benjamin, neither the number nor
names of his children. It also unlikely that siblings of Sima Halpern
emigrated to Israel or the United States, again they would have been
known by the Israeli and American branches of the family.

Additional information

According to one of the letters that we have already translated,
Sima Frisch made a trip in late 1936 to Dolina, Rozhnyatov
and Stanislawov. Abraham and Sima Frisch must have had relatives and/or friends
in Galicia at that time.

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