Reich Family

About authors:

​My name is Zuzanna Jarosz and I am 22 years old. I am a student of journalism and social communication at the University of Rzeszów. I love traveling, meeting new people, and spreading a positive attitude towards life. In my free time I read books, write poems, and listen to music. You can hear my voice on the academic Radio Feniks.fm and Polskie Radio Rzeszów. I joined the project because I wanted to deepen my knowledge of the Jewish history of Rzeszów and discover a piece of the forgotten past.

My name is Iwona Kajmowczi. I study journalism, social communication, and history in Rzeszów. Sometimes I also write for the student magazine Nowy Akapit. In my free time I like to be active, read books, and go on short or long journeys. I have decided to participate in the project because of the opportunity to search for yet undiscovered stories, in this case family ones.

Representative of the Reich Family – Ruben Weiser

What does Ruben Weiser know about his family from Rzeszów?

As a young man, Ruben Weiser obtained information from the archives, with which he maintained extensive correspondence; he also visited old cemeteries. When he was around 30 years old, the Internet became widespread which enabled Ruben to achieve what was previously unattainable. Instead of traveling, he traversed virtual archives and databases, pulling together the complex puzzle of his origins – piece by piece. 

With great meticulousness, Ruben traced every brunch of the family tree, leaving no fact without thorough analysis. His determination has become a testimony of perseverance and unyielding desire to find the truth.

Ruben Weiser applied to the project with an intimidating amount of information, dating back several generations of the Reich family. His oldest ancestors from Rzeszów included in the family tree are a married couple of great-great-great-great-great-grandparents: Eliasz Riech born in 1789 and Sara Ides née Irom. This couple had 12 children, 65 grandchildren, and twice as many great-grandchildren – and this all without including spouses! Ruben learned about this number of family thanks to Eliasz Reich’s obituary published after his death in one of the German-language newspapers. Ruben has translated this small piece of a press into Spanish, according to his needs.

Our project partner also possesses other very unusual documents: a will of Eliasz Reich from 1876 in German language, and a contract for the purchase of a house in Rzeszów, written in Polish and concluded in 1792. Moreover, Ruben told us that in Rzeszów the Reich family ran their own brewery, which he believes was located near the Castle. If so, it must have been an extraordinary location.

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Thanks to Ruben, we had a lot of information about the Reich family from the very beginning of the project. Due to his extensive family tree, we learned many names, surnames, and dates of birth and/or death. The fact that the tree included many people who lived in the 19th century, including those born in the 18th century, worried us a bit. We were afraid that we would not be able to efficiently search through so many documents regarding the distant past.

We started with the belongings of Ruben. With the help of our friend, we translated Eliasz Reich’s obituary published in a German-language newspaper. Thanks to this, we learned that at the time of his death, 89-year-old Eliasz had 8 children (4 of his children had died before their father’s death), 65 grandchildren, 95 great-grandchildren and 7 great-great-grandchildren. It is a shame that the title of the newspaper remains unknown to us. It is certain that it was not a newspaper published in Rzeszów as the article contains the sentence: “It was written to us from Rzeszów”. In a short press release, Eliasz Reich is described as “highly respected in our community”; there is also an information that his last will included a donation to charity – we know that the money was donated, among others, to a Jewish hospital.

We also thoroughly analyzed the will of Eliasz Reich, translated by Ruben into Spanish (it was originally written in German) which contains the names and surnames of children, grandchildren, and sons-in-law, as well as how the head of the family divided his wealth. From the document we learned, for example, that Eliasz Reich legally excluded his sons Leib and Simon from the inheritance – due to having previously paid off their debts and given a certain amount of money in cash. The will also indicated places in the Old Town Synagogue (4 men’s places and 5 women’s places) in the New Town Synagogue (3 women’s places), and in the synagogue called “Bethamedrasch” (1 men’s and 2 women’s places). Every place was valued at 450 florens and passed on to Eliasz’s daughter Leia and son Pinkas. Moreover, the will mentions many properties, hence, we can conclude that Eliasz was a wealthy man.

Another important document we analyzed was the purchase and sale agreement from 1792, which is even older than the obituary and will. The document was written in longhand in Polish and the process of reading the agreement was quite challenging. First of all, the Polish language from the end of the 18th century is very different from the modern one. Second of all, the handwriting was not easy to decipher. We read this document many times, comparing our interpretations. We also used the help of other people. Still, we couldn’t understand some words at all, but we finally translated most of the agreement.. from Polish into Polish.

The contract states that “A voluntary agreement was established between Mr. and Mrs. Wincenty and Franciszka Cybulski, residents of Tyczyna town – the Vendor – on the one party, and Orthodox Leyb Raich and Malka, married residents of Rozwadów – the Buyers, on the second party”. The agreement concerned a house in Rzeszów, which was bought by Malka and Leib Raich, Eliasz’s parents. The building has no address indicated in the agreement, only its number – 68. There is also a description: “The house contains a large room, an upper store, small rooms, and a basement in the back”.

What is interesting, the vendors were from Tyczyn, and the buyers from Rozwadów, so none of them were from Rzeszów. Perhaps it was the moment the Reich family moved to Rzeszów. We are able to establish that Eliasz Reich was 13 years old at the time of this alleged move. 

The agreement also includes information such as: the paid sum, a certificate of no debts on the sold house, and an approval of the agreement by the Tyczyn municipality. Besides, the agreement was signed in Tyczyn on July 31, 1792. 

We were surprised by the difference in the spelling of the surname: “Raich”, not “Reich”. It seems that in the contract the surname of Ruben Weiser’s ancestor was written as it sounded in Polish: “Raich”. In turn, the later notation “Reich” is a record of a German pronunciation. However, we emphasize that this is only our theory. It is worth noting that in the year the agreement was drawn up, Rzeszów had already been under Austrian rule for 20 years (the first partition took place in 1772 and already then Rzeszów ceased to be part of the Commonwealth of Poland).

One of Ruben’s requests related to our project was to check the possible kinship of his ancestors to the hero of World War I Stanisław Wiktor Reich – the resident of Rzeszów. He was a lawyer who volunteered for Józef Piłsudski’s Legions and then died during a fight on February 14, 1916. Originally, ordnance technician Reich was buried in the war cemetery by Styr river, but on May 28, 1916, his body was transported to Rzeszów and buried in the Jewish cemetery at Czekaj. His funeral became a patriotic manifestation uniting Poles and Jews. Thus Stanisław Wiktor Reich went down on the history of Rzeszów.

From numerous online articles, the Encyclopedia of Rzeszów, as well as the biographical and bibliographic summary “Rzeszów residents in the fight for independence in 1918”, we learned that Stanisław Wiktor was born in 1888, and his father was a lawyer Samuel Reich, who died in 1933. We confirmed this information in the State Archives in Rzeszów. In the Israelite Register of Births from 1888 we found Stanisław Reich, the names of his parents and his father’s profession. Everything connected with each other just fine.           

However, there are discrepancies regarding Samuel Reich. The Reich family tree, sent by Ruben, includes Samuel Reich, but does not mention a wife or children. According to the family tree, Samuel Reich was born in 1846. 

In turn, in the Israelite Register of Deaths from 1933 we found an entry regarding Samuel Reich. According to the register, he was 82 years old at the time of his death, which would indicate that he was born in 1851 – a different date than in Ruben’s family tree. The matter could be clarified by documents confirming Samuel’s birth, but unfortunately we could not check the Registers of Births from either 1846 or 1851 because they have not been preserved in the Rzeszów archives. Therefore, we are not able to state with certainty that Stanisław Wiktor Reich is related to Ruben Weiser.

Then our search focused on the head of the Reich family – Eliasz Reich. Due to the fact that we knew he was wealthy and owned numerous properties, we decided to look through the Public Records, among others: “Nominal List of House Owners in the City, 1858”, “List of Houses and Properties Located Within the City of Rzeszów, 1880”, or “Tax on Movable and Immovable Property, 1880-1918”.

Unfortunately, a problem has occurred again due to the lack of earlier documents, especially from the first half of the 19th century. But still, we found our Holy Grail! In a book with an unusual title “List of Ground and Building Lots in the Current Cadastre and in the Former Land Register from 1820 located in Rzeszów and registered in 1882” we found information about buildings and gardens from 1820, which were entered into the registers in 1882. The surname Reich appears in the document several times!

The owner’s column from 1820 includes names like: Leib Reich (perhaps the buyer of the house no. 68, Eliasz’s father), Eliasz Reich, Pinkas Reich (Eliasz’s son) and Rachel Reich. It is unknown if Rachel is related to the Ruben’s family. In the family tree, provided by Ruben, none of the daughters have such a name, only granddaughters who were born after 1820. Rachel owned a garden and a building, and Eliasz owned 4 buildings; however, next to his name three abbreviations appear: spk. or spółk., probably signifying ‘company’. We can therefore assume that these buildings were the property of a company run by Eliasz Reich and his partners; it is possible that these were his sons and grandchildren. Leib, in turn, had two gardens and a building.

All this data concerned the year 1820, while in the section of current owners and taxable owners from the year 1882, there are no names of current owners written in the mentioned register (and not only next to the Reich surname, but in the entire book. If there is a name entered, it is by pencil.)

The book has sections with house numbers, division numbers, and newer topographic numbers. This gave us hope that we might find buildings and gardens on city maps, as we were curious where Eliasz’s family once lived in Rzeszów and whether it was near the Castle. However, the numbers of properties in the mentioned register probably concerned the year 1820, and the earliest maps of Rzeszów that we found in the State Archives in Rzeszów were created in 1849 and 1852. Hence, we are not sure if the numbering is the same. We had to admit with regret that our possibilities were exhausted at this point.

Summaries

Iwona Kajmowicz

Participating in the project “My Rzeszów, Our Rzeszów” was a new, and interesting experience for me. It surprised me how one can be so interested in their family’s past, and keep searching for information, even if one lives on the other side of the world. The very process of searching for documents (and the information those contained) in the State Archives taught patience, but also brought joy when we finally managed to find something new. I will remember the project positively.

Zuzanna Jarosz

Project “My Rzeszów, Our Rzeszów” taught me patience and meticulousness. Searching through dusty documents in the State Archives was a time-consuming but inspiring experience. It was not always possible to find the desired information right away, but each new discovery brought great joy and satisfaction. Working with Ruben Weiser made me realize how important it is to take care of the memory of our ancestors. Thanks to the project, I have made a lot of new friends, I have expanded my knowledge about the fate of Jews of Rzeszów origin, and I have learned how to select the acquired information. I am glad I could take part in it. It was a live lesson in history that I will remember for a long time.

Ruben Weiser

The times I visited Rzeszow I was very surprised to see how the Jewish history of the time was almost forgotten, and did not find almost any clue of any Jewish past in the city of Rzeszow.  So when I learned of this wonderful project I was very enthusiastic about it and now I see my own ancestors mentioned in it. I feel very grateful.

List of Ground and Building Lots from 1820, document from the collections of the State Archives in Rzeszów.

House purchase and sale agreement from 1792, document from the collection of Ruben Weiser.

​​Eliasz Reich’s passport application from 1814, document from the collections of the State Archives in Rzeszów.

Nominal List of House Owners in the City, 1858, document from the collections of the State Archives in Rzeszów.

The Register of Deaths from 1933, document from the collections of the State Archives in Rzeszów.

Fragment of Eliasz Reich’s obituary, document from the collection of Ruben Weiser.