Nine year old Rafał Jeleń in Łódź in 1925. The photo, sent to "my dear Uncle and Auntie" supplied an incomplete clue to the identity of the boy.

Rafał Jeleń, grandson of Nisla Mirla Halborn and Ajysyk Frelich, was a cousin to all of us in the Halborn family who are alive today. He was a first cousin, or a first cousin once removed to some of us, a second cousin to others, and a third cousin to still others.

We used several pictures of Rafał in our family book: The Halborns: Ancestors - Immigrants - Survivors. Some were taken in Łódź in 1938, the year before the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany. Some were of Rafał alone, some with my grandmother and aunts and some with several young women and a young girl we did not recognize. We had found no trace of Rafał's father and no clues about who the young women and the girl might be.

Over the three years since our book was published, with the help of co-author Roman Weinfeld, who provided all of the translations from Polish and who found some key documents about the Jeleń family, I have learned a little more about Rafał, about his father and about relatives on his father's side of the family. The story is still incomplete, but in this post I have put together what we now know about Rafał's life and about his fate.

The post is dedicated to my father, Rafał's uncle, Roman Freulich, who, in the days before the Internet existed, tirelessly devoted many hours to corresponding with and calling every available agency to try to trace his mother, sister, his nephew Rafał and other relatives who were swallowed by the Holocaust.

A photo of Paulina, Nisla, Roman and Salome Freulich in Częstochowa in about 1911.

First Clues

Years ago, while sorting through boxes of family photos, I came across image that looked about 100 years old. I recognized my father— a young boy of 12 or 13 in the picture — and three women I knew were his mother and two of his sisters.

I turned the picture over and noticed the photographer's name and address were printed on the back — the photograph had been taken in Częstochowa, where my father was born.

Along with the printed material, there were several hand written words on the back of the photograph. But they were in Polish and I didn’t pay much attention to them.

Later, when exploring our family history, I happened across the old photo once again. For the first time I noticed the word “Jeleń” written in a corner of the back (the bottom right corner in the photo o the left below) . It was a surname — but whose surname? The photo dated from about 1911. Was the notation “Jeleń” written that same year or added later? And what connection did it have to our family?

The portrait of the schoolboy at the start of this post added some information, but increased the mystery. The message shown at the right, was written on the back of the photo, but it was undated, sent to “unce and auntie” an signed Rafalek — the diminutive of Rafał

Two photographs had provided three disconnected clues: the name Jeleń; the name Rafałek; and the greeting to a n “uncle and Auntie” living half a world away in California.

The young boy, Rafałek, seemed to be my first cousin. But who was he? Who were his parents? What was his full name? And what, if anything, did the surname Jeleń on the back of that old photo of my grandmother, my aunts and my father have to do with any of this?

Two photographs had provided three disconnected clues: the name Jeleń; the name Rafałek; and the greeting to an “uncle and Auntie” living half a world away in California.

The young boy, Rafałek, seemed to be my first cousin. But who was he? Who were his parents? What was his full name? And what, if anything, did the surname Jeleń on the back of that old photo of my grandmother, my aunts and my father have to do with any of this?

A careful search of more old photographs eventually provided information that pulled the three early clues together. It was a portrait of a young man of about twenty and it had another message written on the back. But this time the message had a date — August, 1935 — a town — Łódź — and a full name —Rafał Jeleń.

Rafał Jeleń was a Halborn, and a cousin. This was the first clue that connected the name Jeleń and the young man Rafał to our family.

Rafał's story has come to us slowly over time. It has arrived in small and incomplete pieces, either from additional information that is constantly being added to online Jewish databases or through responses to various inquiries made to Yad Vashem, Polish archives, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the International Tracing Service. The timeline of Rafał's short life, as much as possible, is provided here.

Rafał Jeleń sent this photograph to his uncle, Roman Freulich in California. The portrait may have been taken to mark his graduation from gymnasium. The back contained a greeting: "As a sign of my remembrance I am giving my image to my beloved Uncle Roman Frajlich" Loving nephew, Rafał Jeleń, Łódź, August 1st 1935"

Salome Frejlich and Herman Jeleń

According to Łódź town records, Rafał was born on September 11, 1916, son of Herman (Hersz Josek) Jeleń and Salome (Sura Ryfka) Frejlich. His parents were married on February 14, 1917. Both events took place in German occupied Poland in the middle of World War One.

The marriage record for Rafał’s parents includes the following statement:

The newly married couple declare that the child named Rafał born before signing this document, and more precisely on 11 September 1916, is their own son and according to law is on the same level as if born after marriage.

The marriage record provided other facts that were useful in tracing the Jeleń family and in locating still more documents. They told us Herman worked as a barber and lived in Łódź. Herman's father Rafał, for whom his son Rafał was named, was deceased. Herman had been born in Wiskiki, in about 1872. The record also told us that Herman had an earlier marriage, in 1898, to Necha Gelbart. The two were divorced. And the document confirmed that Salome, Rafał’s mother, was born in Częstochowa in 1878, to Ajzyk Frejlich and Nisla Frejlich, maiden name Halborn.

Recently digitized Łódź address and census registration cards have confirmed the birth and marriage records and provided additional information about the family. A record for Herman Jeleń states and that he was born in Wiskitki on February 15, 1872, and that his father's name was Rafał Jeleń. Herman lived with his family, first at 21 Zachodnia Street and then, in about 1917, at 11 Olgińska Street. His wife, Salome Jeleń, was born in Częstochowa on April 8, 1886. Salome's date of birth does not match the birth record we have for her — a common enough occurrence in these records. And her maiden surname is spelled in the German manner. But this is clearly a match for my aunt, Salome Frejlich Jeleń and her family in Łódź.

The household list includes two other people: Rafał, born in Łódź on September 11, 1916, and Leon, born in Łódź on April 14, 1900. Leon, we assume, was Rafał's half brother, the son of Herman and his first wife, Necha Gelbart. Leon is listed as a barber, as is Herman. A notation next to Leon's name, written at a later date, states that on March 2, 1921 Leon came "from Kalisz", where it appears he had lived for a short time.

The address records made it clear that our Jeleń family in Łódź was large. Herman had a brother named Maurycy, who was born in Wiskitki in 1870, two years before Herman. Maurycy is also listed as a barber and it is likely that the brothers, together with Herman's son Leon, owned a small shop.

Other records that have been added online recently helped complete the picture: Herman and Maurycy came from a large family. Both were sons of the older Rafał Jeleń with his first wife, Zlota Warm, who died in 1874. Their father, Rafał, re-married in Wiskitki in 1876 and the two boys were probably raised by their stepmother alongside at least five younger half brothers and sisters.

Maurycy and his family —his wife Zonia and six children who were born in Łódź between 1908 and 1917 — lived at 25 Konstantynowska, a short distance from Herman's home at 11 Olgińska street.

The newly digitized records also revealed some surprising facts concerning Rafał's Freulich Grandmother Nisla Mirla and his Aunt Helena Frejlich. We know from family photographs that Nisla and her daughter Helena moved to Łódź sometime after World War One. The address record created when they moved provided an exact date —July 30,1920. It also told us that their first address in Łódź was Number 25 Konstantynowska Street — the very building where Herman Jeleń's brother Maurycy lived with his large family. It is a good guess that this was not a coincidence.

It is remarkable what a few words written hastily on a printed form can reveal: The first record for Nisla and her daughter, below, is a simple address card. Still, it contains some additional interesting information. Ajzyk Frejlich, son of Dawid, born in Pinczow in 1849, is listed in the record as married and the head of the household. But Ajysyk, though still married to Nisla, had not moved from Częstochowa and was not living in Łódź in 1920. He had lived in the United States since 1913. Ajysyk (Isaac in the United States) had traveled to America three times between 1902 and 1913. It is likely that he planned to return to Poland, but the war interfered. And by the time peace returned he was too old and too sick to make the trip. The 1920 census confirms that he was still living in the Lower East Side of Manhattan with his daughter Paulina. He died in Bellvue Hospital in New York on April 16, 1925 with severe heart and arteriosclerosis complications. He and his wife had not seen each other since mid-1913. But the two never divorced. Aysyk's death certificate is marked "married" and "wife in Poland."

A second record — a census registration card exists for Nisla and Helena, and it reveals more surprising information: For some time we have known from our family photos and from Łódź Ghetto records, that between at least 1930 until 1940, when the Łódź Ghetto was created and they were forced to move, Nisla and Helena lived at Number 2 Piramowicza. Then, with the help of Łódź map databases we discovered that before about 1925, Piramowicza — which is a one block long street near the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral — was called Olgińska Street. This was the very same street where Herman and Salome and the two boys lived. The record further reveals that Rafał's aunt and grandmother lived for awhile in the same building, at 11 Olgińska, where the Jeleń family lived.

Rafał's Frejlich grandmother and aunt had come to Łódź from Częstochowa to be near Salome and her Jeleń family. For a time, while Rafał was growing from a small boy to a young man, he was surrounded by close family.

Thirteen year old schoolboy Rafał stands in the courtyard of Number 2 Piramowicza next to his mother, Salome. Left to right next to Salome: Rafał's uncle Jack, grandmother Nisla, cousin Henry and aunt Helena . Jack and Henry were visiting from Los Angeles, California in the early spring of 1930.

Visitors From America

At least twice in his young life Rafał had a chance to meet part of his American family. None of the correspondence between Rafał and his uncles has been found, but it seems clear from the messages he wrote on the back of pictures sent to them that he valued his relationship with them and had a great interest in the life they lived in California. In 1930 Nisla's oldest son, Jack Freulich visited Łódź with his son, Henry. Eight years later Rafał and his family received another visit, this time from Nisla's youngest son, Roman Freulich.

Rafał lost his mother three years before Roman Freulich's 1938 visit. He was just 18 years old when Salome (Sura Ryfka) Jeleń died on April 7, 1935, little more than a year after he sent a formal portrait of himself to America. Salome was 56 years old. Her death record states her name and lists the names of her father, mother and her husband: "Hersz Josek Jeleń, widower". Salome's place of birth is listed as Częstochowa. Her permanent residence is listed as Wiskitki, the birth town of her husband. The record lists no cause of death.

Photographs Roman Freulich took during the late February and March 1938 visit confirm Rafał's continuing interest in his American family. He was Roman's constant escort during his stay in Łódź. He may also have traveled to Warsaw to accompany Roman to Łódź after Roman's arrival in Poland. Some of those photographs have haunted me for years —who were the people who came to spend time with Rafał and his American visitor in the early spring of 1938?

Ghetto

Less than 18 months after Roman Freulich's visit to his Łódź family, on September 1, 1939, Poland was invaded by Nazi Germany.

In the first week of fighting Łódź was the target of German bombing. Thousands of Jews fled the city. Some made their way to join Polish troops fighting the invaders, some fled first to Warsaw and then across the border into Soviet Russia. Some were caught and interned.

By September 8, 1939 Łódź was fully occupied. Shortly afterward, the town was renamed Litzmannstadt, declared an integral part of the Third Reich, and scheduled to be made entirely "Judenfrei" — free of Jews. A first step was to crowd all Jews living in the town into a single area from which they could be easily transported. Planning for the Łódź Ghetto was first discussed in German memos in December 1939. By February 1940 over 170,000 Jews had been forced to leave their homes and assigned to the 31,000 flats within the Baluty neighborhood of Łódź. Thousands more followed.

The Łódź Ghetto was located in a neighborhood without sewers and where fewer than 800 structures had running water. What the ghetto did have was records, kept on order of German authorities. Those records tell us several things about our family members who remained in Łódź. They tell us that Helena, Rafał's (and my) aunt, was shipped to Chelmo in 1942 and gassed. They tell us that Nisla, Rafał's (and my) grandmother, died in the Łódź hospital of "unknown causes" five months after the ghetto was established. And they tell us that there were more than six dozen people with the name Jeleń living in the ghetto. Many of those Jeleńs were probably part of Rafał's family.

One small group in the ghetto records caught my attention: there seemed a strong possibility they match some of the photographs my father took during his trip to Poland in the winter of 1938:

The records list four Jeleń's living in the ghetto at 4 Frohe Street, Flat 4. One, named Leow is listed as a barber, born on April 14, 1900 — the exact profession and date of birth for Rafał's half brother Leon. The record notes that "Leow" died on July 7, 1942. Another set of records, for the ghetto hospital lists Leo Jeleń, born in Łódź in 1900, a barber living at Frohe Gasse 4. According to the record, strangely dated July 20, 1941, Leo died on July 23, 1941. The cause of death is given as Unterernährung — undernourishment.

The second Jeleń listed at the Frohe Street address was Fajga Ryfka, born June 23, 1904. It is possible, even likely, that Fajga was Leo's wife. Her name does not appear in the ghetto hospital records, but the ghetto database states, simply, "GEST 4.10.42" Fajga Ryfka Jeleń, age 37, died within the ghetto.

The third Jeleń at number Frohe 4 was a girl named Nacha, born on June 3, 1924. It is possible, even likely, that Nacha, age about 18 in 1942, was a daughter of Leo and Fagla, named for Herman Jeleń's first wife, Leo's deceased mother, Necha. No further information is available for Nacha. She did not survive the Holocaust.

The fourth Jeleń at number Frohe 4 was Mirjam, born on December 22, 1926. Mirjam is listed as "Unzencia" — she was a schoolgirl. It is possible, even likely, that Miryam, age about 16 in 1942, was Leo and Fagla's daughter. It is possible, and even likely, that she is the young girl in two of the 1938 photographs above. There are no additional records for Miryam. She did not survive the Holocaust.

Missing Years

But where was Rafał?

The Łódź Ghetto records are numerous, but they contain no Rafał Jeleń. And his name is missing from almost every Holocaust database and list we could find. Beyond a record in Yad Vashem, placed by one of his cousins, that said he had probably been murdered in the Łódź Ghetto, there was nothing to be found. That Yad Vashem record turned out to be wrong.

It took inquiries to many sources to find documents with Rafał's name. Those documents, for the most part, were compiled and provided to us by the International Tracing Service. But the earliest record the Tracing Service could find is a list of Jewish prisoners compiled almost five years after the September 7, 1939 occupation of Łódź by Nazi troops.

Almost five years — Holocaust years — are missing from Rafał's young life.

Did Rafał, like thousands of others, leave Łódź in the first days of war to find and join a Polish army unit or resistance group? Did he try to cross the border into Russian territory or seek refuge somewhere within Poland but away from the fighting? Was he caught up by Nazi troops while fleeing Łódź and sent, with thousands of other healthy young people for forced labor? Was he even in Łódź at the time of the Nazi invasion? Relatives who submitted information to Yad Vashem after the war seemed to think so. But unless some hidden cache of records still remains to be uncovered we will never be sure.

Kauen

The city of Kovno, along with the rest of Lithuania, fell to German troops in June 1941, after a year under the control of the USSR. Soviet control had been the result of the 1939 non-aggression pact between Russia and Germany that divided Eastern Europe between the two nations and that lasted only until Germany decided to invade Soviet territory in June, 1941. Kovno was renamed Kauen by the Germans.

Within six months of occupation, according the the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, half of the city's Jews were murdered by Nazi mobile killing units (the same units we discussed in Alytus to the Internet, Part One, our post on Norman Abramson's Lithuanian family).

In July and August 1941 the remaining Kovno Jews — fewer than 30,000 — were rounded up and forced into Kauen Ghetto. As in Łódź, the area picked for the ghetto was the poorest in the city, an area the Holocaust Encyclopedia of the USHMM describes as one of "small primative houses and no running water" where "each person was allocated less than ten square feet of living space." The Jews in the ghetto became a pool of forced laborers for the Nazis. Then, in the autumn of 1943, the SS took over the ghetto and turned it into the Kauen Concentration Camp.

Rafał Jeleń was in Kauen in July 1944. But so far we have found no earlier record for him in either the Kauen ghetto or the concentration camp. We have no idea whether he was there when a ghetto was formed or shipped in to supplement the city's slave laborers after the ghetto was transformed into a concentration camp. The only record for Rafał in Kauen is the record sent by the International Tracing Service. It is a list of Jewish prisoners transported from Concentration Camp Kauen to Concentration Camp Dachau on July 29, 1944.

Rafał Jeleń's name is the ninth in the first column. He is listed as prisoner number 86103, a Polish Jew from Litzmannstadt, birthdate September 11, 1916.

Dachau and Kaufering

By July 29, 1944, when the first available records containing Rafał's name document his transfer to Dachau, Nazi Germany was shrinking. In mid-June 1944 Russian troops were advancing toward the Vistula in Poland, Rome had been liberated, and British and American troops had secured beachheads on the French coast in Normandy. Nazi Germany was far from admitting possible defeat. But the pace of moving prisoners — still considered slave labor assets to the war effort — was beginning to accelerate.

According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, on July 8, 1944, SS authorities began a final deportation of the few thousand Jews who remained in Kauen Concentration Camp. Most were sent to Stutthoff, on the Baltic near Danzig, or to Dachau, near Munich, more than 1,500 miles to the southwest of Kauen.

Rafał was sent to Dachau, a journey of several days, that took him through Poland, and possibly through Łódź. He left Kauen on July 29, 1944 and arrived at Dachau on August 1, 1944. His name appears on the list of male prisoners above and on the Dachau record, below.

The Dachau record for Rafał provides additional information about his arrival date from Kauen (August 1, 1944), his address in Kauen (Ozeskiesstr. 4), his profession (Schlosser or locksmith), his destination (Kaufering) and his status (Sch.,J - Schutzaft or protective custody, Jew). It also provides information about his departure date and next destination (7 Jan 1945 - Flossenbürg).

Rafał and the Jews who were transported from Kauen with him were not destined for the main camp at Dachau. They were quickly transferred to Kaufering, one of the largest of over 100 forced labor sub camps and external work sites commanded by Dachau SS. Kaufering was located about 60 kilometers from the main camp and was one of dozens of labor camps supervised by the Dachau command. According to information on the USHMM website, Kaufering, like hundreds of other sub camps across Germany and German occupied Europe, was built by slave laborers during 1944 as part of a German effort to create underground factories that could replace aboveground Nazi production facilities that were being disrupted and destroyed by Allied bombing :

In Bavaria, two major camp systems, Mühldorf and Kaufering, were set up as sub camps of the Dachau concentration camp. Its inmates provided the labor necessary to build subterranean facilities for fighter aircraft production in the Landsberg area. The region was chosen in part because of its favorable geological composition for the construction of huge underground installations, which were to be insulated by 9 to 15 feet thick concrete walls.

The USHMM description of Kaufering states:

At the Kaufering and Mühldorf camps, prisoners often slept in poorly heated and badly provisioned earthen huts, which were partially submerged in the soil and covered with earth to disguise them from the air. The larger of Kaufering's 11 camps each contained several thousand prisoners, the vast majority of whom were Jews. Disease, malnutrition, and the brutal conditions in the workplace and in the camps took its toll on the inmates, resulting in a high mortality rate.

Flossenbürg and Leitmeritz

Five months after Rafał arrived at Kaufering he was transferred to Flossenbürg.

The transport took place when the end of the war was just months away. Nevertheless, the destination, once again, was not the main camp but an Arbeitslager — another labor sub camp: Leitmeritz. This camp, like Kaufering, was created in 1944 as a site for the underground production of war material and weapons at a time when Allied air strikes were causing heavy damage to aboveground factories. LIke Kaufering, it was built and worked by slave labor.

Sub Camp Leitmeritz was the largest of 94 sub camps of Flossenbürg Concentration camp. The camp was located 500 kilometers to the north east of Dachau, near the town of Litoměřice, in what is now the Czech Republic. The transfer, which took place on January 7, 1945, is shown both on the individual record of Rafał's transfer from Kauen to Dachau, shown above and the list of prisoners below.

Rafał's name is the fifth one on this page, which is marked 8 Seite - page 8. The typed explanation at the top states that the list is of 835 Jewish prisoners selected for transport from Concentration Camp Dachau to labor camp Leitmeritz on January 7, 1945.

Leitmeritz was built by slave laborers at the sight of the Litoměřice quary. Two large underground factories, were constructed: Richard I quary for the assembly of tank engines and Richard II for the production of electrochemical components for Osram, an electrical goods manufacturer formed by Seimans and two other German companies.

In January, 1945, conditions in concentration camps throughout the steadily diminishing territory of the Third Reich were deteriorating. Food in Leitmeritz was scarce according to survivors: even more limited than at Auschwitz. A United States Third Army report written after the was call Leitmeritz "one of the worst" of the Nazi forced labor camps.

As Allied forces advanced, more prisoners from other camps were crowded into Leitmeritz. Dysentery and typhus, added to starvation, increased the number of deaths to the point where the SS, which had been shipping the dead to Theresienstadt, commanded that a crematorium be built within the camp.

View of the crematorium in Leitmeritz, 1945. Because of the high number of deaths, the SS 1944 commanded the construciton of a crematorium in a brick factory on the Leitmeritz grounds. Prior to the construction of the crematorium, bodies of dead prisoners were shipped to Theresienstadt for cremation. The photograph is from the Theresienstadt Memorial Museum collection.

Bergen-Belsen

By March, 1945, the German Reich was collapsing. At Leitmeritz, preparations were underway to ship prisoners back toward the west, from the rapidly shrinking German ruled areas of Czechoshovakia to the German heartland.

Apparently in preparation for the move, someone in the SS ranks was assigned to go through a list of prisoners and create an inventory of those who were still alive, in preparation for transporting some of them from Leitmeritz into still secure German territory — to Bergen-Belsen, over 500 kilimeters to the north west in Lower Saxony. Why some, but not all of the prisoners were to remain at Leitmeritz is unknown. Perhaps those who were still capable of work were retained to bury the dead — there were so many dead by this time that the camp crematorium could not keep up and mass graves needed to be dug to hide the evidence of starvation, disease and maltreatment.

The page on the left below appears to be a part of that inventory of Leitmeritz inmates. The list of prisoners seems to have been an older one with the date of arrival at Leitmeritz written in the last column. New comments, written sometime in early March, 1945, are in darker ink. The dead on the page outnumber the living — 19 of 30 names have crosses inked next to them and for some, but not all, a date of death appears to have been known and written in dark ink. Others simply disappeared from among the living. Only four of the 11 living prisoners listed on this page have the destination Bergen-Belsen written in the last column.

A second list, shown on the right, is neatly typed and headed with the notation "500 selected transfers from Leitmeritz to Bergen-Belsen on 7 March 1945".

Bergen-Belsen was in chaos during the last weeks of the war. The Holocaust Encyclopedia of the USHMM states:

Sanitation was incredibly inadequate, with few latrines and water faucets for the tens of thousands of prisoners interned in Bergen-Belsen at this time. Overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions, and the lack of adequate food, water, and shelter led to an outbreak of diseases such as typhus, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and dysentery, causing an ever increasing number of deaths. In the first few months of 1945, tens of thousands of prisoners died.

Bergen-Belsen was liberated by British troops on April 15, 1945, six and a half weeks after Rafał and 499 other prisoners left Leitmeritz. Rafał was not among the survivors found by British troops who entered the camp. We do not know if he died in transit or died within the camp during those six and a half chaotic weeks.

Rafał's name appears in lists for Dachau, Kaufering, Flossenbürg, and Leitmeritz. Kauen appears next to his name in some documents, Bergen-Belsen in others — six concentration and slave labor camps.

Rafał's name can be found in the Bergen Belsen Book of Remembrance — a list of all known Holocaust victims who passed through the camp or were transported to the camp. The list provides a space for the name, date of birth and place of birth for known Bergen-Belsen victims as well as the time and place of their liberation or their death. Rafał's birth date and place of birth appear —September 11, 1916, Łódź. Four columns next to Rafał's name are blank — the time and place of his liberation and the time and place of his death.

No trace of our cousin Rafał Jeleń can be found beyond the March 7, 1945 transport list of 500 Leitmeritz prisoners selected for transfer to Bergen-Belsen.

Cousin Rafał