Bielitz / Bielsko-Biała — Wilhelm Barber’s shoe shop

Bielsko-Biala, situated in one of the most picturesque regions of the Carpathian Mountains, was once a location of [two thriving Jewish communities](https://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/Krakow/biala/biala_index.htm): Biala under the Kraków administrative organization, and Bielsk under the Katowice administrative district. With its surrounding suburb of Lipnik, the town of Biala was at the most western border of Galicia. Biala was a business and industrial community famous for its textiles and dye-works. Connected by railways with Vienna and Kraków, Biala was a center of business transactions. Recently (2002) Mr. Jacek Proszyk wrote a wonderful book titled Cmentarz Zydowski w Bielsku-Bialej (Jewish Cemetery in Bielsko-Biala), which is highly recommended reading for those interested in this shtetl. Wilhelm Barber, brother of Pauline Barber, established a large shoe shop in Bielitz, now Bielsko-Biała, and was prosperous before the Second World War. Wilhelm, his wife Frieda Scharf and their children Harry and Hilda were living in southern Poland when Germany occupied the area in September 1939. Wilhelm perished after being confined in Kraków; Frieda was killed in Auschwitz; Harry died in a forced-labour context near Königsberg; Hilda survived and later moved to Israel. A [1929 Business Directory of Biala](https://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/Krakow/biala/1929_Business_directory.htm) shows several Barber and Scharf family names.

Bielsko-Biała, Silesian Voivodeship, Poland