family history

A blank starter map

By foo.barstein

32 posts

• Rozdol — Kestler / Kessler ancestral town — Rozdol was a small Galician town where the older Kestler family records begin. Mincze / Mina Kestler, later Kessler, was born or registered…
• Drohobycz — Kessler and Heimberg Galician roots — Drohobycz, today Drohobych in Ukraine, was the birthplace of David Leib Kessler on 3 January 1889. Before the First World War it lay in eas…
• Boryslaw — Kessler family births — Boryslaw, southwest of Drohobycz, appears in the family records as the birthplace of several Kessler children, including Karoline / Keile,…
• Oświęcim — Barber family home and Auschwitz — Oświęcim, called Auschwitz by the Germans and Oshpitsin in Yiddish, was the Barber family’s Galician home. Pauline Barber was born here on…
• Vienna — family center before the Anschluss — Vienna became the central family city for both the Kessler and Barber branches. David Leib Kessler moved to Vienna as a teenager and became…
• Baden — Kessler family villa — During the prosperous years after Edith Kessler’s birth, David and Pauline Kessler had a villa in Baden, where they would go to take the wa…
• Nowy Sącz — Wistreich family branch — Julie / Jehides Barber married Josef Wistreich and lived in Neusandetz, now Nowy Sącz, southeast of Kraków. Their daughters Helena, Lola an…
• Bielitz / Bielsko-Biała — Wilhelm Barber’s shoe shop — Wilhelm Barber, brother of Pauline Barber, established a large shoe shop in Bielitz, now Bielsko-Biała, and was prosperous before the Secon…
• Edith Kessler’s Kindertransport route to Britain — After Kristallnacht, Edith Kessler sought documents and visas to leave Austria. She obtained a British domestic work permit but struggled t…
• David and Pauline Kessler’s escape route — Leo Safran helped arrange David and Pauline Kessler’s escape through the socialist Riverline network. David crossed first at a border gate…
• Paris — refuge, resistance and Wistreich-Weill branch — Paris was a refuge point for several family members fleeing Austria and occupied Europe. Bronia Wistreich-Weill settled in France before th…
• Drancy — deportation of Lola Wistreich — Lola Wistreich escaped first to Belgium and then into France. After France fell, foreign and stateless Jews were concentrated in camps. On…
• Riga Ghetto and Kaiserwald — Helena and Alfred Schatten — Helena / Hela Schatten née Barber and her son Alfred Simeon Schatten were deported from Vienna to Riga on 6 February 1942. The journey last…
• Maly Trostinec — murder of Vienna relatives — Maly Trostinec, near Minsk, was the killing site for several relatives deported from Vienna. Ettel Wegner née Kessler and her husband Elcho…
• Warsaw Ghetto — Sigmund Sachs — Sigmund Sachs, son of Regina Barber and Solomon Sachs, was a textile worker. During the war he was in the Warsaw Ghetto and died there in 1…
• Theresienstadt — Josef Weintraub — Josef Weintraub, husband of Julia Kessler, was deported from Vienna to the Theresienstadt ghetto on 1 April 1943 and perished afterwards. T…
• London — refuge, rebuilding and later family life — London became a major post-escape family center. Edith Kessler reached Britain in March 1939 and later married Alwyn James Ryan in Romford…
• Liverpool Street Station — Kindertransport arrival — Liverpool Street Station was the London arrival point for Edith Kessler after her Kindertransport journey from Vienna via Holland and Harwi…
• Romford — Edith’s first English home and marriage — Romford was Edith Kessler’s first English base after arriving in Britain. Hilda Winn had answered Edith’s advertisement offering dressmakin…
• New York — arrivals and new beginnings — New York was a major destination for relatives who escaped Europe. George Heimberg emigrated to New York in 1913 and was naturalized in 191…