Click Below

1 Birsha, father	2 Choshke	3 Citizen	4 Fathers family
5 Father	6 Grandfather	7 Grave	8 WWI ID's

 

1) My father on the right. His uncle Birshe on the left. 2) My great aunt Choshke 3) My fathers citizenship. 4) My father's mother,father,father's brother Rafiel on the left, and my father on the right. 5) My father.6) My grandfather's headstone, and 7) with English translation. 8) My grandparents WW I ID's.

 

1Shmuel Bartnovski

2Rina+children

3Chana Lopata

4Hana's Family

 

My father Albert Bartman (Abram Bartnowski) was born in Zabludow in 1913. My grandparents were Yosef and Tsirel Bartnowski. Yosef's mother's name was Rina, (meaning song in Hebrew). His father's name was Shmuel. Shmuel's photo is in thumbnail one. My grandfather Yosef had many siblings. He worked as a foreman in a leather factory in Zabludow, and his father had a Blacksmith shop on the little Rudnia river that ran through the town. My grandfather and my father's two younger brothers died in the 1918-19 influenza epidemic. As an infant, early in WW I my father was hit by a stray bullet in the foot during a raid on the Zabludow by members of a Cossack unit of the Russian Imperial Army .

My grandfather's siblings Choshke, Rivka, Dovid, and Machel (Morris) all immigrated to America. Except for Rivka who lived in New York they all settled in the Chicago and Detroit areas. In 1921 my grandmother and my father immigrated to America from the German port city of Danzig aboard a ship called the Susquehana. They lived in the New York city area along with my father's aunt Rivka. Once in America my grandmother married Hymen Petlin who was also from Zabludow. Afterward there was little contact with the Bartnowski family, who except for Rivka were far away in Chicago and Detroit.

My grandfather's brother Birsha Bartnowski remained in Zabludow working in the Blacksmith shop. He was shot dead in front of his wife and three children by German troops on the first day of the Nazi occupation of Zabludow, June 26,1941. Click on his name for an eyewitness account. My grandfather's sister Mindel also remained in Zabludow and was murdered along with her husband and children. It appears that at least one other sibling remained in Zabludow. According to the Polish Business Directory of 1928 there was an I. Bartnowski also working as a Blacksmith in Zabludow. I know nothing of his fate.

My grandmother's maiden name was Lopata (meaning baker's shovel in Polish). I've learned that my grandfather's sister Mindel married my grandmother's brother Itske Pasach Lopata. They had two daughters Hanna and Rachel. Hanna Lopata is in picture three, and with her family in picture four. My grandmother was born Tsirel Lopata, and was Hanna's aunt. Hanna married Yitzhok Rubbins most likely in 1940. They are listed in the Zabludow holocaust necrology. Yitzhok Rubbins is noted to have been 26 years old when murdered by the Nazi's. Survivors of his Rubbins family from Zabludow live in Israel and Australia. It's noted in the Zabludow Memorial Book that Hanna's parents and siblings were also murdered. I learned about Hanna from Mina Bar-On in Israel who recognized her as her very good childhood friend. Eber Perelgut was in in Zabludow until October of 1940, when he went to join the Soviet Army. Today he lives in Morton Grove, Illinois. He told me that when the Germans were in Zabludow briefly in 1939, a German solder began to sexually harass my cousin Hanna Lopata as she and her father Itske Lopata walked down a Zabludow street. Eber describes Hanna as, "the most beautiful women in Zabludow". Eber says that Itske was so outraged by the behavior of the German solder that he raised his hand, and struck him in the chest. The German solder was shocked, and stumbled off muttering under his breath.

It appears that my great grandfather came from a large Bartnovski family that lived in Bialystok, about 12 miles to the Northwest of Zabludow. He likely came to Zabludow circa late 1870's for trade or marriage. He established a blacksmith shop on the small Rudnia river that went through town. I have found no records of any Bartnovski's in Zabludow except for my great grandparents and their descendants. The Bialystok vital records index of births 1887-1898 show Bartnowski births below. The 1912 voter list also shows five Bartnovski's in Bialystok eligible to vote. I learned that Gitel Bartnovski married and moved to Antwerp Belgium where she became Gertrude Moed. She and her husband where deported from there to Auschwitz in 1943. There are descendants of this large Bartnovski family in Bialystok who live in Israel and Poland.

The last Jew living in Bialystok (1939 pop. 90,000) was Simon Bartnovski, age 80. He died in June of 2,000. His father was Yankel Bartnovski. I discovered that Szimon was deported from the Bialystok ghetto to the Pruzany ghetto, then sent to Auschwitz in January of 1943. He has a son Yanek Bartnovski who lives on Kibbutz Lohaemi Ha Getaot. I've also discovered that among the 1,200 children of the Bialystok Ghetto that were taken on orders of Adolf Eichmann from there to Theresienstadt Concentration Camp in August of 1943 were two Bartnowski children from Bialystok, Josel and Szloma who are both listed as being born in 1933. Josel's parents are listed as Szmulko and Rochel, and Szloma's as Wolf and Gitel. Apparently Eichmann had tried to use this group of children to barter a deal, hoping to obtain trucks for the German army. When negotiations failed, the entire group was deported to Auschwitz and gassed on Erev Yom Kippur, 1943.

Bialystok 1912 Voter List Father

BARTNOVSKI, Aron Mikhel Simkha

BARTNOVSKI, David-Aron Khlavno

BARTNOVSKI, Mordkhel Itsko

BARTNOVSKI, Aron David Khlavno
 
 Bialystok Births

-- 1891 Birth of Symcha son of Aron and grandson of Szlama

-- 1897 Birth of Fejga daughter of Aron

-- 1897 Birth of Gitel daughter of Szlama
 

Click to enlarge

From left to right. This is Birsha Bartnowski, wife Briana and child. Birsha's sister Mindel, her husband Itske Lopata and three children including Hana in back with hand around brother. My great grandmother Rina Bartnowski (Rina is a Hebrew word meaning song). Next is Choshke with her young son, and on the far right Choshke's brother Moshie Bartnowski.

    This is a photo taken in America of my father(in back), his two aunts, Choshke(left), Rifka (right), and Choshke's young son Chaim Perelgut (middle).

 

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 Web 2003 Tilford Bartman