Koden, Poland

FOREWORD

I had never planned to write a Memorial Book to the people of Koden. In 1976 my father asked me to compose a family tree of his Szeynersnayder relatives as my present to him on his 50th wedding anniversary. He was born in Koden and knew the names of his grandparents and all his uncles and aunts so I started writing a chart using the information he and many relatives, especially, Bella Szeynersznayder Fishman (his first cousin), provided to me. Bella knew the sisters and brothers of the grandparents but that was as far back as I could go. Then I attended the first meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society in New York City and discovered that the Latter Day Saints (Mormons) had recorded the records of Koden (1826-1854=#0813,999, 0813,400. All these records were in written Old Polish ). I ordered the films (which were indexed) and found my family. I started doing the research beginning with the year 1826. Not knowing who would end up in my family I recorded every birth, the names and ages and occupations of parents, and did the same for the marriage and death certificates. This took me back to my father's great-great grandparents, Mordko and Rifka Szeynersznayder (born circa 1773) and their son, Icko (Issac), born 1795 in Koden and his wife, Bayla Sura, born 1797.

About 5 years later the LDS Church released more records of Koden (1855-1875 & 1889= #1496655, 1496654. However in 1868 the records became written Old Russian). I translated the records to 1867 and studied and practiced reading Old Russian for one year. When I could read some names I copied the records of my family and asked someone to translate them. I discovered Bayla Sura's death certificate in 1860, she was born in Koden in 1797 and her parents were Gedalia and Maryem. Gedalia is not a common name in Koden. I decided if I could find another man or woman with the same parents names I could discover Bayla Sura's surname. It meant translating the remaining 500+ records from Russian. There were a few years that were indexed and my brother, Bernard Schneider, M.D. found a translator for me and helped finance the index translation. But I found it impossible to translate the documents. I mentioned my problem to a librarian in Budd Lake, New Jersey and she knew of many newly arrived Russians who were living in the area. She mentioned my dilemma to a handsome, young, Russian engineer, Arkady Kotylar, who came to my rescue and translated all the documents. I will be forever grateful to him. Incidentally of all the 4000+ documents no one had a father, Gedalia and a mother, Maryem.

Now I discovered I had a data base of 4000+ names of every Jew who was born, married and died in Koden 1826-1875 & 1889. [I learned that the records 1810-1825 (#0813992, 0813993) were mixed with the Catholic records and the Jews did not have surnames registered before this time but I translated the records anyway. Someday, census or other documents may come forth and help determine the surnames. There were 295 Jewish surnames in these films.] All records from 1888 to the present time are held in the Koden Archives. I have written to them, in Polish, several times and never received an answer. In 1986 Dawn Lazarus visited Koden and tried to obtain documents but could not locate the Archives. I am grateful to her for the pictures of Koden included in this book.

With all this data that I had amassed I decided to group all the names into families and write a Memorial book to those who had lived in this town for over 200 years. (ATTENTION: *** precedes a name that I believe belongs to a family of the same surname. I have no proof.) I had followed families through their marriages, births of their children and deaths of their children, and grandchildren.. A cholera epidemic in 1873 killed so many I was saddened to see families decimated. Writing this Memorial Book has been especially hard, when I knew that in 1939 all the descendents of these families that remained in Koden were to be killed. I have contacted Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial and advertised in the Jerusalem Post to locate the names of those who may have died in 1939. If anyone reading this knows of others whom I have not listed, I would like to know their names. Many of the families have survived because a son or daughter left to make a new life on distant shores. That is the triumph of the Jews of Koden.

Many thanks to Harry Mayo who guided me through the use of Wordperfect, Roots3 & 4, and fixed all the glitches on my computer. I would have given up years ago without Harry. My most fervent thanks to, Bob, my husband, who has put up with my moods while I tried to master Polish and Russian and who has endured many evenings as I rambled on about families that lived in the 18th and 19th centuries. Thank you , Bob, it was really appreciated.

[Page 1]

KODEN

Koden, once a city, now a village lies on the left bank of the Bug River, in Poland, about 10 miles south of Brzesc and 26 miles from the border town of Terespol (the crossing point to Brzesc and the Belarus Republic). The town is pronounced "KAW-dane" by the Polishpeople and pronounced "KUD-na" by the Jews who once lived there. (The city got its name from a battle cry, TO DEN;" IT'S THE DAY ", later corrupted to KODEN.) It was founded in 1511 by the Sapieha family, famous in Polish history.

The village houses a Seminary and is known for a painting OUR LADY OF GUADELUPE (now OUR LADY OF KODEN), which was pilfered from Rome in the 17th century.

In 1864, according to Polish sources, the village in 1864 was home to 1,588 Christians, 792 "Old Testamentarians" (Jews), 9 brick and 251 wooden houses. In 1939 there were 541 Jews living in Koden. All were led out of town by the Nazis, and shot. If any managed to get across the border to Russia and escape , noone I have contacted has ever heard from them. The Jewish cemetery is no more. The Nazis used all the tombstones to put on the dirt roads so their tanks could travel easier. What remains is a large empty field (fenced in by the Polish government).

From the records that I have translated, I know a few more facts about the Jews of Koden. Koden was a 'service' community of Brzesc and the surrounding larger cities.Most of the trades were tailoring, furriers, shoemakers, etc. Their records start in 1810 but I have determined that they were living in Koden as early at 1725. They intermarried with the towns of Biala Podlaski, Brzesc, Terespol, Lomazy, Radzyn Podlaski, Miedzyrzec Podlaski, Slawatycze, Wisznice,Wlodawa, Janow Podlaski, Kobrin and Domacheva. In 1855 the death toll was triple the average. I have no idea if it was the result of disease or a pogram. The years 1865,66 and 67 very few births , marriages and deaths were recorded..The next few years all the vital records from those years were entered. Whether the reason for this was political turmoil, or war, I don't know. Then in 1873 there was a cholera epidemic that tripled the number deaths in the Jewish community. Sadly, these facts are all I know about the history of all the Jewish families that lived and died in Koden.

[Page 5]

THE HOLOCAUST VICTIMS OF KODEN

BLUMENKRANZ FAMILY

*RIFKA (MAJZLIC) BLUMENKRANE, WIFE OF MOSES AVIGDOR BLUMENKRANE. KILLED 1941

*SAUL BLUMENKRANE, SON OF MOSES AND RIFKA (MAJZLIC) BLUMENKRANE,BORN 1929, KILLED 1941

*GITEL BLUMENKRANE, MARRIED NAME UNKNOWN,DAUGHTER OF BERKO AND BASIA (GARFINKEL) BLUMENKRANE. BORN KODEN 1876, KILLED WWII. AT TIME OF DEATH WAS MOTHER OF 10 CHILDREN AND GRANDMOTHER TO 90 CHILDREN.

*HUDES BLUMENKRANE, WIFE OF ? OLINSKI, DAUGHTER OF BERKO AND BASIA

(GARFINKEL) BLUMENKRANE. BORN ABT. 1872 KODEN, KILLED IN WARSAW WITH HUSBAND AND 2 SONS.

GOLDWASER FAMILY

* SZEYNA PERLA GOLDWASER, WIFE OF LEJZOR JABLONKA,DAUGHTER OF ITZIK AND GITEL MALKA (ZYLBERWASER) GOLDWASER, BORN 20 NOV. 1911. KILLED 1943.

*FEMALE JOBLONKA,DAUGHTER OF LEJZOR AND SZEYNA (GOLDWASER) JABLONKA. BORN ABT. 1930. KILLED 1943.

*ITZEK GOLDWASER, SON OF SHLOMO AND BASIA (MORGANSTERN) GOLDWASER. BORN KODEN, 1870. KILLED 1942/43 IN BIALA PODLASKA.

*MOSHE KOPYTOWER GOLDWASER, SON OF SHLOMO AND BASIA (MORGANSTERN) GOLDWASER,BORN KODEN 1876, KILLED 1943 IN LOMAZY. WAS HIDING ON TOP OF A TALL OVEN WHEN A LOCAL POLE POINTED OUT HIS HIDING PLACE TO THE GESTAPO.

*NUCHEM CZERK/CZERSKI, SON OF LEYBU AND NECHEMA (GOLDWASER) CZERSKI,BORN ABT. 1920 kODEN, KILLED 1942 VILNA, LITHUANIA.

*FRAIDL CZERK/CZERSKI, DAUGHTER OF LEYBU AND NECHEMA (GOLDWASER) CZERSKI, WIFE OF NATAN ??, BORN ABT. 1914 KODEN,KILLED 1942 VILNA, LITHUANIA.

*IDES GOLDWASER, WIFE OF IZEK GROBMAN, DAUGHTER OF MOISHE AND LIBA RUCHEL GOLDWASER, BORN 22 MAR 1889 KODEN, KILLED 1943 MIEDZYRZEC PODLASKI.

*RIVA NORTMAN, WIFE OF HERSHEL KOHN, DAUGHTER OF MOISHE AND ESTER (CELNIK) NORTMAN. BORN ABT. 1890 KODEN, KILLED 1943 MIEDZYREC PODLASKI.

*FEIGE PYTERMAN, WIFE OF SHLOIME KERNER, DAUGHTER OF VICTOR AND BRUCHA (LEJBZON) PYTERMAN, BORN 1876/79 TERESPOL, STARVED TO DEATH 2 OCT 1943 MOGOLOVSKAGA OBLAST, USSR.

*SHLOIME KERNER, SON OF MOSHE AND BRAJNA KERNER, BORN 4 AUGUST 1874 TERESPOL, STARVED TO DEATH 4 AUGUST 1943, MOGOLOVSKYA OBLAST, USSR.

*CHANA ROZENSZAJN, , WIFE OF NUCHEM GOLDWASER,DAUGHTER OF JANKIEL AND DWERA (RAJZNER) ROSENSZAJN BORN 1889/99 TERESPOL.KILLED 1942 BREST LITOVSK USSR.

*JANKIEL GOLDWASER,SON OF NUCHEM USZER AND CHANA (ROZENSZAJN) GOLDWASER,BORN 17 JAN 1926. KILLED 1942 BREST LITOVSK.

*MALE GOLDWASER( FIRST NAME UNKNOWN), SON OF NUCHEM USZER AND CHANA (ROZENSTZAJN) GOLDWASER, BORN ABT. 1928 TERESPOL, KILLED 1942 BREST LITOVSK.

MARGULES FAMILY

* 33 MEMBERS OF THE MARGOLIS FAMILY ALL BORN IN KODEN WERE KILLED IN WWII.

NUDENBERGER FAMILY

*JOSEPH NUDENBERGER, SON OF DAVID BORUCH AND LEAH (ROSENBAUM) NUDENBERGER, AND FAMILY. BORN IN NAPUTCHNA. KILLED IN WWII

*GEDALIA NUDENBERGER, SON OF DAVID BORUCH AND LEAH (ROSENBAUM) NUDENBERGER, AND FAMILY. BORN IN NAPUTCHNA, KILLED WWII.

*BRONKA NUDENBERGER, SON OF DAVID BORUCH AND LEAH (ROSENBAUM),BORN IN NAPUTCHNA, AND FAMILY,KILLED IN WWII.

SHULMAN FAMILY

*LAIBEL SHULMAN, SON OF SMILA AND ELKA SHULMAN, BORN 1900? KODEN. KILLED IN WWII

* 3 CHILDREN OF LAIBEL SHULMAN. BORN IN KODEN, KILLED IN WWII

* 2 DAUGHTERS OF JOSEPH SHULMAN. BORN IN KODEN, KILLED IN WWII .

* PASCAL SHULMAN, SON OF BUMAN AND BAYLA (SZEYNERSZNAYDER) SHULMAN. BORN KODEN, KILLED WITH WIFE AND FAMILY IN WARSAW, WWII

* SON OF PASCAL SHULMAN. BORN IN KODEN, KILLED IN WWII IN WARSAW

* LEAH SHULMAN, WIFE OF ? GUTMAN, DAUGHTER OF BUMAN AND BAYLA SURA (SZEYNERSSZNAYDER) SHULMAN, BORN KODEN, KILLED WWII IN BELGIUM

SZEYNERSZNAYDER FAMILY

*SQALIA SZEYNERSZNAYDER, SON OF CHASKIEL AND BRYNA SZEYNERSZNAYDER, BORN ABT 1878 KODEN. KILLED IN WWII IN BERLIN

*?? SZEYNERSZNAYDER, WIFE OF SQALIA, BORN KODEN. KILLED WWII, BERLIN

*RIFKA SZEYNERSZNAYDER, DAUGHTER OF SQALIA AND ?, BORN ABT 1910 KODEN. WROTE TO AMERICA FOR TICKETS IN 1930'S TO LEAVE BERLIN. SOLD TICKETS AND USED MONEY FOR DOWERY TO MARRY A BUTCHER. KILLED IN WWII.

*MALE SZEYNERSZNAYDER, SON OF SQALIA SZEYNERSZNAYDER,.KILLED WWII. BERLIN.

*LEA ZISHE SZEYNERSZNAYDER, WIFE OF MORGANSTERN, DAUGHTER OF ITCHA SZEYNERSZNAYDER, BORN ABT 1910 KODEN. A SEAMSTRESS. MOVED TO BIALYSTOK. KILLED IN WWII.

*FOLICE SZEYNERSZNAYDER, SON OF ITCHA SZEYNERSZNAYDER,BORN ABT 1912. MOVED TO BIALYSTOK TO BE WITH SISTER, LEAH. KILLED IN WWII.

*CHASKIEL? SZEYNERSZNYADER, BORN ABT 1908 KODEN, SON OF LAYB (LOUIS SCHNEIDER) AND YETTA SZEYNERSZNAYDER. YETTA WOUlD NOT COME TO AMERICA WITH HER CHILD TO JOIN HUSBAND. BOTH KILLED IN WWII.

*AVRIMEL SZEYNERSZNAYDER, SON OF MORDECAI, WAS LIVING IN NEWARK NJ. WENT BACK TO BREAST LITOVSK 3 TIMES TO CONVINCE HIS WIFE AND CHILDREN TO JOIN HIM IN AMERICA. SHE REFUSED SO HE RETURNED TO BREST. ALL WERE KILLED IN WWII.

[Page 18]

THOSE WHO HELPED

MURRAY GOLDWASER
11 REDCOAT DRIVE
EAST BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY 08816
(908)-651-7031
(GOLDWASER , ROSENSZAJN, ZYLBERWASER, MORGANSZTERN, CELNIK, CZERSKI, PYTERMAN, KERNER, TENEBAUM , FRYDMAN)

MORTON MARGOLIS
LIPKESGADE 25ST.TH
COPENHAGEN 2100 0
DENMARK
(MARGULES)

MIRIAM GOLDFARB
13855 CUMPSTON ST
VAN NUYS, CA 91401
(MARGULES)

THEO BLOOM
MECHELSESTEENWEG 172
2018 ANTWERPEN
BELGIUM
(BLUMENKRANC, GARFINKEL)

FAY FELDMAN (KODINER BENEVOLENT SOCIETY)
57 CLARIDGE PLACE
COLONIA, NJ 07067
RIVERSIDE cemetery
ROCHELLE PARK, NJ 07662
(201)-843-7600

DAWN LAZARUS
11 PAULA BLVD.
SELDEN, LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK 11784
(516)-696-3002

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