Dear Galicianers, After 11 years of climbing a brick wall I had last week a breakthrough. My late father Leon/Leib ROSNER(1903-1999) >from KRAKOW never never spoke about the family he lost in the Holocaust.The only thing we knew were the names of my grandfather Chiel Jakub ROSNER (after whom I am named) and my grandmother Ittla BORGENICHT.
He had a brother and 4 sisters whose names he never mentioned. Someone told us that he was married before the war and had 2 daughters. 11 years ago I managed locate through Yad Vashem's PoTs and JRI-Poland a surviving son of his brother and a surviving son of his sister each of whom thought that the other and my father perished. They gave me details about my uncle and aunts but did not remember the surname and the names of my father's first wife and daughters(they called her Auntie).The only thing they knew that she died in 1940. All my attempts since and endless digging in Yad Vashem's advanced search lead me nowhere.
Finally I hired a private researcher in Krakow who did not find anything.Then I reread my cousin's memoirs where he wrote that my father lived in Podgorze which is a neighborhood of Krakow on the other side of the Vistula River (Schindler's factory is located there).This clue brought quick results. My father's marriage record >from 1930 was found there by the researcher. He married with Keile-Rachel LEIDNER. Following that I managed to find through the USHMM records the names of my half sisters Lusia and Ida who were born in 1931 and 1937 respectively.No PoTs for them at all. Either the whole family was wiped out or no one,including my father, had the "courage" to do it. I'll do it soon.
If any of this rings a bell I shall be indebted to hear about that.
