Heinberg Family
About authors:
My name is Natalia Baran and I am 17 years old. I am a student of the High School No. IV in Rzeszów. I am interested in music, literature, handcraft, and psychology. I love learning languages and meeting people from all over the world. I decided to take part in the project because I am interested in the history of World War II and I wanted to have a better understanding of the history of the Jews who once lived in my small homeland.
My name is Maja Myślińska and I am 17 years old. I am a student of the High School No. IV in Rzeszów, in a humanities-oriented profile. Most of all I am interested in one school subject – Polish, especially 20th century literature, as well as in writing prose and poetry. In my free time, I write articles for an online monthly magazine, read books, and go for walks. The project “My Rzeszów. Our Rzeszów” seemed to be an extremely interesting initiative allowing me to discover stories of my hometown that should not be forgotten.
The Representative of the Heinberg (Hajnberg) Family – Monika Harte
Monika Harte is the daughter of Roman Harte, a filmmaker from Rzeszów, born as Abraham Heinberg (in Poland the surname was spelled in two different ways, Heinberg before World War II and Hajnberg after the war. Monika was born in 1957 in Warsaw and grew up in Żoliborz district. As a child, she spent a lot of time with her father at the studios where he worked. She remembers a situation when he was working on the set of a movie titled “And You Will Become an Indian” that the actor’s costume terrified her.
In 1968, as a result of the outburst of a political anti-Semitic campaign following the communist propaganda after the 1967 Arab-Israeli conflict, the family was expelled and emigrated to the United States. Monika was 12 years old at the time and remembers those events vividly. What sank deep into her memory were, among other things, that her father would have lost his job if it were not for the support of director Czesław Petelski, and that the priest that was her catechism teacher treated her shamefully. She also remembered that at the same time, when the hate campaign against Jews was going on, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński defended Jews against communist propaganda and spoke from the pulpit about Jews being brothers of Poles and reminded that Jesus was also a Jew.
Monika remembers that the day the family was to depart was the same day as Soviet Union’s invasion of Czechoslovakia, which resulted in complete shut down of all transportation and communications. Her family had to wait for 10 days to leave, which was difficult, as they had already sold their furniture and, above all, they had been deprived of their citizenship. Finally, on August 28, 1968, they were able to board the first train at the Gdański Railway Station in Warsaw. Many of their friends came to say goodbye to them, everyone was crying. For Monika Harte, these are very sad memories. She also was left with regret and remorse for experiencing prejudice from their own people.
Arriving in the United States, the Hajnberg family settled in California, where distant relatives helped them acclimate. The beginnings were difficult, for example, Monika went to school without knowing a single word in English, the parents had difficulties to find work, especially for Roman in the film industry. The family changed their surname to Harte in 1974.
It is important to mention that drawing and painting, inspired by her mother, is an important element in Monika Harte’s life. Monika herself remembers that she had been drawing even before she learned to write. After becoming a student at the Polytechnic University School of Architecture, she met her future husband Jeff, with whom she founded an architectural office in 1988. They have two adult twins and they live in Los Angeles, where they have been running their business for 36 years.
Monika is interested in the history of her family that once lived in Rzeszów. She has never lived in our city herself, but she has visited it several times. She also speaks Polish very well.
What does Monika Harte know about her family from Rzeszów?
Monika’s interest in history initiated when she was contacted by Marian Rubin, a retired teacher from San Francisco, a few years ago. She was in the possession of a Ketubah (Jewish marriage certificate) from 1826. It was Isaac Wohlfeld’s certificate, Monika’s great-great-great grandfather, who was from Rzeszów. Marian Rubin conducted extensive genealogical research and discovered that Isaac had a brother in Rzeszów who was the great-great grandfather of Monika’s father. Marian Rubin created a family tree of the Wohlfeld family and, together with Monika, determined that they were fourth or fifth cousins. They remained friends until Marian’s death.
Monika’s interest was revived when she was contacted in 2018 by researchers from the Ulma Family Museum of Poles Saving Jews in World War II in Markowa (these were Kamil Kopera and dr Anna Stróż-Pawłowska). The exhibition they curated titled “On your soil, I was destined to sing the song of your land” presented the lifestories of outstanding figures of Jewish origin from Podkarpackie Voivodeship. It included, among others, Roman Harte.
Monika’s father, Roman Harte, was born as Abraham Heinberg on June 22, 1924, as the youngest son of Chana Ita Wohlfeld and Mendel Heinberg. He had three sisters – Lola (the eldest), Sala (Salomea), and Malwina (Malka). The family lived in Rzeszów at Kolejowa Street 3 (currently there is a commercial building there). Monika’s father used the Polish name Roman on a daily basis.
Roman’s father and uncle ran horse and cattle trading company, breeding horses for the local nobility and the Polish Cavalry in the 1920s and 1930s. Meanwhile, Roman’s mother was an accountant. The family was wealthy, and unlike most Jewish families, Roman and his sisters were well educated, having attended private schools with Polish children. Moreover, the older sisters had completed higher education in Leipzig, Germany.
Monika’s father knew very little about his father, Mendel Heinberg, and his family. He always told Monika that his father died when he was only 5 years old. Thanks to recent research, Monika has come to the conclusion that the more probable version is that Mendel did not die at that time, but rather abandoned his family. It was also only recently that Monika learned that her grandfather, Mendel, was one of 10 or 12 children. Mendel Heinberg’s parents were Meilech Heinberg and Rivka Bach (daughter of Moses and Ettel Bach). Interestingly, one of Roman’s uncles had a taylor shop in Rzeszów specializing in men’s suits. Clothes were sewn individually for each person, so the work took a lot of time. Just before the outbreak of World War II, in 1938, Roman’s oldest sister, Lola, emigrated to Israel.
It is also worth mentioning that the Heinberg family spoke Polish, German, and Yiddish. Ultimately, Roman’s fluency in Polish and German languages helped him survive World War II.
The ordinary life of the Heinbergs changed with the outbreak of World War II. When Roman, his sisters, and mother were forced to live in the ghetto in Rzeszów, he had to sneak out over the ghetto walls to get food. It was a very dangerous time. During the 1942 deportation, Roman was separated from his family; his mother and sisters were deported to the extermination camp in Bełżec, and he was left in the ghetto to work. In final deportations, Roman was selected for deportation, but he managed to escape from the train! Roman Harte talks about these and other events, in an oral history video recording in the Holocaust survivor’s testimony collections of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington and Shoah Foundation archives at USC in Los Angeles.
After escaping from the transport, Roman realized that he could not survive in the forests on his own and returned to Rzeszów, where he contacted his mother’s friend, Anna Płonka, involved in the resistance movement Armia Krajowa. She provided him with forged documents under the Polish name of Bronisław Krupa and helped him join the partisans operating near Rzeszów. In 1943, Roman was injured, which resulted in disclosure of him being a Jew. Then – and with AK’s help, posing as a Pole, using the name Bronisław Krupa – he was sent to forced labor in Austria, where he experienced the fall of The Third Reich.
After the war, Monika Harte’s father returned to Rzeszów as he wanted to find his family members. He did not find anyone. What was worse, at that time, anti-Semitism in many areas of Poland was rampant, which significantly affected the sense of security of Jews returning to Rzeszów.
Roman decided to leave the city and start studies at the Film School in Łódź, where he worked with, among others, Andrzej Wajda and Andrzej Munk, the most important creators of the Polish Film school. After completion of his Master’s degree he worked for Film Polski and the Iluzjon Studio. After leaving for USA, he continued to work in the film industry, teaching film production at American Film Institute (AFI) and freelanced, including work with director Alan Pakula on „Sophie’s Choice” and with former student director David Lynch on „Eraserhead”. Roman died in 2009 in Los Angeles.
After leaving for USA, he continued to be involved in the film industry, he worked teaching film production at American Film Institute (AFI) and did freelance work including working with director Alan Pakula on „Sophie’s Choice” and with former student director David Lynch on „Eraserhead”. Roman died in 2009 in Los Angeles.
Search effects
As Monika Harte already knew quite a lot about her ancestors, we received specific questions from her, which we tried to answer. First of all, Monika wanted to learn as much as possible about her father’s middle sisters, for example their dates of birth. She was also curious about the fate of her grandfather Mendel’s siblings.
The task was not that easy. Initially we only knew the dates of birth of Monika’s father (1924) and his eldest sister Lola (1911). We assumed that the rest of the siblings were born between the mentioned dates. Our assumptions were confirmed by documents we found in the State Archives located at Warneńczyka Street 57 in Rzeszów. We ordered a number of archive documets from Israeli Parish Registers, not wanting to miss any volume. It turned out that Roman and Lola’s sisters, Sala Salomea) and Malka (Malwina), were born in 1912 and 1919, respectively.
Our search also included extended family. Thanks to the Registers of Births, we found Abraham/Roman’s uncle, his mother’s brother, Chaim Wohlfeld. We determined that he was born on September 19, 1886. It is known from other documents that he married Teresa Schimel (born on August 4, 1893), with whom he had four children named: Luisa Regina (born in October 1911, died a month later), Józef (born in 1915), Romuald Henryk (born in 1921) and Helena (born in 1927). Unfortunately, no one from this family survived the war.
The search through old documents significantly exceeded our wildest expectations. Surprisingly, we found documents that we had not been originally looking for. For example, we gained information about Roman’s father’s sister and her husband.
Monika already knew that Mendel Heinberg, her paternal grandfather, had many siblings. She knew the dates of birth of some of them, but she knew nothing else about the grandfather himself. Luckily, we found one of Grandpa Heinberg’s sisters – Golde. In the Register of Births she is described as the daughter of Meilech Heinberg and Rivka Buch – thus we confirmed the names and surnames of Roman Harte’s great-grandparents and Monika Harte’s great-great-grandparents. Golde née Heinberg married Henoch Konik and they had at least one son named Meilech.
In addition, we found other members of the Wohlfeld family – the family of Roman Harte’s mother. We found the following names: Leib Wohlfeld, his wife Sara and their son, Abraham, born in 1880. Hence, we were able to provide our project partner with information about distant relatives, the existence of which Mrs. Monika practically did not know.
We found it very interesting to delve into various information about members of one family over many years. We learned several facts that were even decades apart. We would like to know what happened between moments recorded and preserved in the Archive, or what ordinary life of the Heinberg family looked like, but not everything can be answered – not least because some important sources have been lost or destroyed.
Summaries
Authors
We did not expect that searching for information and collecting it into one article would turn out to be so extremely difficult and tedious. Nevertheless, we are grateful that we could take part in the project. This task added a lot to our lives and showed that there are many things that we do not know, but that we can easily learn about – we just need to devote some free time and be patient. We also understood how important the memory of the past and one’s ancestors is in a person’s life. As well as how important curiosity is, leading to many questions.
Over the course of several months, we held meetings with an interesting group of other participants and visited the State Archives many times. The sight of the archives staff working hard to find the right documents will remain in our memory – it was thanks to their dedication that we managed to cope with our task. Cooperation with Monika Harte was also important to us. Participation in the project “My Rzeszów. “Our Rzeszów” broadened our horizons and provided us with memories that will stay with us forever.
Monika Harte
I carry the legacy and the burden to remember the history as it was. My father’s holocaust survival history is familiar to the group by now and it is well documented in Roman’s two separate oral history interview videos at the Yad Vashem and Shoah Foundation archives. It is personally important to me to discover the entire family tree and, against many odds, discover any distant relatives that may have been surviving children of common ancestors. This project to re-discover and narrate Rzeszow’s Jewish history in incredibly important, the Jewish population in Poland had valuable contributions to the society, the culture, to commerce and wealth of the county and were an integral part of the society for centuries even though they were separated, segregated and treated with prejudice.
The Jewish history in Poland is fantastically and beautifully documented at the Polin Museum in Warsaw. I can only encourage the young writers in this group to visit Polin.
I never thought that such a place would come to exist in Poland, much as I never thought I would see the Berlin wall and communism fall in my lifetime. It is both historically significant and personally gratifying to see the recognition of Poland’s Jewish history come to life in Poland and particularly in Rzeszow, it used to be nicknamed “Mojrzeszow” which was intended as a slur to mean “Moses-town” – for about a century, Jews made up about 50% of the population of Rzeszow, a very high proportion.
The saddest fact I carried away with me from Polin is the very last exhibit and is listed at the end of Polin’s book. It states that Poland had a population of about 2 million jews before WW2, the largest in all of Europe. After WW2 about 200,000 remained or returned, emigrating out at a rate of about 10,000 per year. By 1968 about 20,000 to 30,000 estimated Jewish persons remained in Poland, constituting about ½% of the population. This distinguished group was blamed for the economic failures, social and political unrest and insurrection, were declared as not citizens of Poland and essentially expelled.
Albeit the entire experience was very painful and degrading, in the words of a good friend I visited in 1978 who said, “I wish the communists would punish me like you and send me to USA”. In the finest of Jewish or Polish or human survivor spirit, we prevailed in US.
First couple years were probably the most difficult of our family’s life since WW2.
But it was only a few short years. By 1972 my father started working at the very prestigious American Film Institute, my mother became an accountant for a high fashion department store and worked on her art at home. My father more often had art rather than dinner waiting for him when he came home from work. I had the freedom to choose where I would pursue my higher education and we lived more freely than ever imagined. Within a few short years we started living the “American dream”.
I am very happy to see that Poland had made incredible social and worldly advances and improvements since fall of communism. I have only words of high praise and commendation for this group in Rzeszow and others throughout Poland who are looking for truth and facts of history and for recognition of the Jewish history in their midst.
I am both personally touched and very grateful that this is taking place. I am very grateful to have been invited by Grazyna Bochenek to participate in the project she developed to attempt to recreate some history of actual families from Rzeszow and to the young people she inspired interest in to undertake such a project. The students I worked with, Natalia and Maja produced highly commendable essays and body of research and I hope we meet in person someday. I have the impression we all have a very bright outlook for the future, in this way we can help each other grow rich in our shared Polish history.
Roman Hajnberg, later Roman Harte, circa 1949. Photo courtesy of Monika Harte.
Roman Heinberg, later Roman Harte, with his mother and sisters. From the left: Roman, his sister Lola, his mother Chana Ita; two more sisters: Sala (Salomea) and Malka (Malwina). Unknown place (it may be Rzeszów), 1935. Photo courtesy of Monika Harte.
Roman Heinberg, later Roman Harte, and his sisters. From the left: Sala (Salomea), Lola, Roman, Malka (Malwina). 1937-1938. Photo courtesy of Monika Harte.
Lola Heinberg, Roman’s oldest sister. 1938. Photo courtesy of Monika Harte.