Rachel Finkielsztejn survived the Holocaust in Radzilow. She married her
Catholic rescuer Stanislaw Ramotowski, and thereafter changed her name to
Marianna Ramotowska. She is 92 years old and living in an old age home in
Warsaw. Stanislaw passed away just a few months ago.

http://www.radzilow.com/rachel.htm

I've already located Rachel's cousins on her father's side (Finkielsztejn),
a tree that is documented in Radzilow going back to at least the mid-1700's.
Now I'd like to see if anyone on her mother's side can be found. The
interesting thing is that it has now come to my attention that
Rachel/Marianna's mother was not >from anywhere near Radzilow, but was from
Kielce, over 190 miles away. Her full maiden name was Sora JANKIELEWSKI.
I also have details on Sora's father.

As the story has now been developed: Sora Jankielewski's family lived in
Kielce. It was a wealthy and well-educated family. One of her brothers was
an engineer, another a doctor, and a third, not known. But they didn't have
enough money or luck to find a good husband for Sora in Kielce, so they
found the owner of a mill in Radzilow (Yitzhak Finkielsztejn), quite a
distance away in those days. Rachel was born in Radzilow in 1910. She
finished primary school there, but her mother wanted a better life for her
in the big city and so she sent her to the family of her brother back in
Kielce, where she finished gymnasium. Rachel came back often to Radzilow
for vacations, but when the war broke out in 1939 she came back to Radzilow
for good and found herself there on July 7, 1941, the day almost all of the
town's residents, including her parents and siblings, were herded into a
barn and set afire. Rachel survived, thanks to Stanislaw Ramotowski.

I have received a couple dozen photos of Marianna, some pre-war, taken in
Kielce and Radzilow. Two of the photos >from Kielce are quite a find, for
they show her in front of the Chevrolet agency where she worked.

I've contacted the Kielce landsmanshaftn in Israel about any Jankielewski
family, but so far no response.

While Sora's immediate family probably perished, I have to believe there's a
good chance some Jankielewski cousins emigrated >from Kielce before the
Holocaust. Given the distance between Radzilow and Kielce, it's easy to
understand that any Jankielewski cousins abroad would have no knowledge of a
cousin who survived in Radzilow.

If anyone knows on a Jankielewski family living anywhere, that was
originally >from Kielce or anywhere nearby, please let me know.

Thank you,

Jose Gutstein
E-Mail: Gutstein@bellsouth.net
Radzilow web page: http://www.radzilow.com