THE INGATHERING OF THE EXILES IN EXILE: Part 3
This concludes the Three Part Series describing the emotional events of the gathering of the descendants from the prewar Jewish population in Mszana Dolna in 2022. They came to observe the first ever Yahrzeit (memorial) commemorating exactly eighty years of the liquidation of the Jews of that village by the Nazis and their Polish collaborators.
SNAPSHOT #8: Agnieszka Jozefial Lewandowska
I would be absolutely remiss if I did not mention Agnieszka Josefial Lewandowska who works for the local government of Mszana Dolna on Town Relations.
In 2010, I entered city hall asking for a map of the town. This very young lady approached me and asked me the reason for my visiting Mszana Dolna.
Immediately she stopped everything and accompanied me to see the two mass graves and the old (former) Jewish Cemetery.
In 2016, I again entered city hall asking for assistance. My reasons for coming were much broader. The mayor’s office had an old ledger listing deaths for over a century. No one spoke English, but the mayor was adamant not showing it to me for reasons of privacy even though I was a family member.
In comes another government official for other business concerning the mayor. I did not recognize her at first. It was Agnes. Six years is a long time. She did not recognize me but took the time to explain my case to the mayor and the staff. It was to no avail. I was not even able to take photos of the ledger.
Afterwards, I showed Agnes the photo of us in 2010. She vaguely remembered. She asked what my plans were. I said I am going to Ukraine in two days. She said, “Not like that you are, there is heavy snow in the Ukraine.”
With that she took me to a shoe store where I purchased heavy boots. The smartest purchase in my life.
Agnes then entered my driver’s car, and we went to the graves.
It is now 2022 at the 80th Yahrzeit. A young lady approaches me in the shed. “Saul, it’s me Agnes”. She has since got married and introduced me to her husband Adam, and her son. Yes, she asked if I remember the boots. I said yes, and said I still wear them, when necessary, till this day.
It turns out that every descendant knew Agnes. For those descendants who have previously visited Mszana Dolna, it was Agnes who welcomed them at the entrance.



SNAPSHOT #9: The Descendants
Capturing the descendants is the most difficult to write about. Till this day, I feel I would do each a disservice if I started describing them and what we experienced. Our coming together was, in a way, a miracle. Urszula, Marek and their families took years to search for us and to gather us together. Her dream, and unbeknownst to us, was our dream that came true.
We began as strangers. Everything was prearranged for us. We booked in the same hotel. We dined together and we shared so much with each other.
We began as strangers, but did not necessarily end as friends. We developed a much stronger tie. We became lantzmen1. We knew that even if we do not communicate when we return to our homes, there will always be a strong connection with each other.
That connection is a rarity in any life.

SNAPSHOT #10: The Aftermath
A. Meeting My Mother, Jean Chapnick.
My mother, at the time, was the last pre-war survivor of Mszana Dolna. She was 98 years old in 2022. My mother split her childhood between Mszana Dolna and Czarnow. She loved Mszana Dolna and the compound she lived on. She lived in her grandfathers, house Schulem Geller, along with her mother and brother. Life was good.
She, because of reasons of health, was not able to attend the Yahrzeit. However, her mind was still as sharp as ever, which allowed descendants to talk with her during the months after the August ceremonies.
The Streimer family, who live Israel, had a ZOOM meeting with Mom on September 8, 2022, just a week after the Yahrzeit in Poland.
The three granddaughters of Yurek Streimer, Rachel, Ayala, and Ofra , as well as Ayala’s husband Zvika attended the memorial services.
They were all anxious to meet Mom, the last connection to Msz. Dolna.
Mom remembered their grandfather, Yurek Streimer, very well. He was an attorney, and well respected by the Jewish community. His house bordered the area of the Jewish market, and he had a well-manicured floral garden in front of his house.
Mom also noted that their grandfather was one of the few non-religious Jews in the town, but he had a deep respect for Jewish tradition and his neighbors.

Dr. Gosia Wloszycka also attended the Yahrzeit Ceremony. Her doctorate dissertation was how the contemporary village of Mszana Dolna dealt with the memory of the Holocaust. She is currently the Professorial and Recruiting Advisor at University of Cambridge.
As soon as Denise and I met Gosia at Mszana Dolna, there was a connection. There still is until this day.
Gosia was most anxious to meet Mom. She had so many questions to ask her. When she was in New York City one weekend, we arranged the meeting.
Mom was leery about the meeting. She couldn’t understand why a Pole, and a non-Jewish one at that, was interested in the subject and her.
The meeting was wonderful, intense, and loving. Mom and Gosia created a bond. Mom insisted that every time Gosia is in the United States, she must visit her. Mom’s sincerity was real. She could not stop talking about Gosia for hours, even to her friends when they visited.


Which brings the encounter with the Recuckis. It was arranged that Mom meet the Recuckis via ZOOM. I was telling Mom about Urszula for years and my visit to her. Yet, Mom was reticent for the same reason she was reticent about Gosia. I understood her feelings.
Yet, it was a powerful meeting.
“She told us about the friendly, neighborly relations in Pre-War Mszana Dolna. She shared with us that her grandfather, Schulem Geller, shared dinners with the priest of Mszana Dolna. The Geller family lived across the street from the rectory and church.
However, she also remembered the hooligan antics during Easter, when stones were thrown at windows at her grandfather’s house. This sadly is the epitome of the pre-ecclesiastical doctrine which accuses Jews of Jesus’s death.
However, Golda/Jean has kept warm memories of our city. She has one message to its modern inhabitants; respect each other regardless of religion, nationality or skin color. We all have the same body and blood. All of us trust in the same God.
She is a miraculous survivor and appreciates the miracle of life.” – Urszula Antosz-Rekuka, September 19, 2022.
The most striking part of this meeting was towards the end. Mom asked Urszula and her daughter Rachela to sing the Polish National Anthem. They double checked what she asked of them. In the middle of the anthem, my mother chimed in with them.

The Poles may have treated us like “the other,” but the Jews felt very Polish, especially towards the founding father of modern Poland, Marshal Jozef Pilsudski. In fact, Mom’s Bobover family spoke Polish in the house, like many Jewish households in Poland.
B. Israel
Denise and I visit Israel quite often. I make a point to visit my many relatives when I can. That includes the lantzmen who entered our lives. Not only do we maintain contact by our visits, but also by the internet.
I made sure to visit Reb Avi Taylor, the cantor. He met me in the cemetery when Mom was buried in Beit Shemesh, performed the Keriah2 and was of great support to me during Shiva.
During one earlier visit, he arranged that I have a private audience with his Rebbe, the Modzitzer Rebbe. Afterwards I joined him at his Rebbe’s Tisch that was held in memory of the Rebbe’s grandfather, the previous Rebbe.
During the Gazan War, I visited Avi in the hospital where he is in Army Chaplain caring for wounded soldiers. Unexpectedly, it proved to be uplifting for him, as well for me. I was able to meet with a couple of the soldiers and their families.


Zvika and I also met up in Israel. We were lounging by the beach in Tel Aviv on Israel’s 75th Anniversary watching the air show by the IAF. Little did we know what would happen the next couple of months.
In July of that same year, Zvika and Ayala paid a Shiva call to me in Jerusalem for the death of my Mother. They met her just ten months previously via Zoom.
Then the Gazan War broke out, and I went to Israel twice as a show of support to Zvika, Ayala, and my relatives.
These bonds are permanent. These bonds are familial.



