On the left is Shimon Bartnovski by all accounts the last Jewish person living in Bialystok (Jewish pop. 60,00 prior to WW II) in front of his apartment house at 12 Zabia Street, Apt 6, Bialystok, Poland. Center is "lunch in Symon's apartment". On the right is the exterior of Shimon's apartment house on Zabia street.
I was made aware of Shimon's existence in Bialystok by Tomasz Wisniewski back in the early spring of 2000. Tomasz spoke to Shimon for me briefly. Shimon told him that his Bartnovski family was from Bialystok, but he remembered hearing before the war that there was a Bartnovski branch in Zabludow (my family). However, Shimon said that he knew nothing at all about them, or what specifically the connection might be between the Bartnovski's in Bialystok and those in Zabludow. After hearing this I soon made an effort to have someone in Poland do a more in depth interview of Shimon. Several people were kind enough to make an effort to accomplish this for me. None of them were successful in contacting Shimon though I had his postal address and his phone number. Soon I received the sad news that Shimon Bartnovski had died about a month earlier.
Shimon has been described as "clearly a vibrant man of inner strength and conviction". My information is that Shimon along with several thousand other Jewish Bialystoker's were deported from the Bialystok Ghetto to the Pruzany Ghetto on January 31, 1943. He was later deported from the Pruzany Ghetto to Auschwitz. Shimon was born Febuary 23, 1921. His father's name was Yankel Bartnovski, and his mother was Szyrma Menucha. According to his prisoner registration form his occupation was "Tinker".
In recent years Shimon was active doing what he could to preserve local Jewish cemeteries, and other Jewish monuments. He would frequently meet Jews visiting the Bialystok area from overseas, and there are many stories of his helpfulness to "foreign" Jews searching for their roots in Bialystok. Shimon also took part in official ceremonies such as the August 1992 Bilaystok Ghetto Uprising Ceremony, and the 1995 dedication of the Memorial to the Bialystok Great Synagogue. It was burned to the ground by the Nazis in June of 1941, with many persons locked inside. Click here to read about Shimon's activities with "foreign" Jews in 1977.
I've been told that Shimon's father Yankel was a blacksmith, the same occupation as my family in Zabludow. I'll probably never know the exact relationship between Shimon and myself. Perhaps Shimon's grandfather and my great grandfather were brothers? It appears that my great grandfather Shmuel may have left Bialystok in the late 19th century for trade or marriage, and established a Blacksmith shop in Zabludow. The are no records of Bartnovski's in Zabludow other than my great grandparents and their offspring, and no records of Bartnovski's as having been located in Zabludow before my great grandfather Shmuel. I regret never having the chance to meet Shimon Bartnovski, survivor of the Bialystok Ghetto, Pruzany Ghetto, Auschwitz.
Honor his Memory!
Zabludow Cemeteries Zabludow Synagogue Maps Town History Zabludow Landsmanshaftn Zabludow Holocaust Page Links Zabludow "Ancient" Pnkas Web: 2003 Tilford Bartman
