KOZIWODA COURIER

The village of Kozia Woda

2004-12-29T21:59:00.000-08:00

map showing Kozia Woda

Here's a cute explanation for Goat Water:

from http://www.b-v-i.com/Cooking/Curry/default.htm
Goat Water
Goat water is actually a curried stew.
Cube the goat (lamb can be substituted) and marinate 1/2 hour in the above- mentioned roti ingredients of curry powder, garlic (but not ginger), Scotch bonnet pepper and onion, adding more onion flavor with shallot and scallion, salt and pepper and even a couple of tomatoes (peeled and seeded)
Brown the meat only in a skillet with butter and oil, then add the marinade and water, and cook until the meat is tender. Serve over rice

Our branch of the family came from Pajeczno (Moshe Koziwoda, known in Australia as Morris Cohen) who married Zelda Berkovitch from nearby Dzialozyn. Below are some historc notes of these two villages. Some of the information on Pajeczno is translated from the Polish using an 'automatic' translator; I tried to clean up the text but it may not be 100% - sorry.

Działoszyn (Province of Wielun)
translated by Alex P. Korn
POPULATION NUMBERS
Year General population Jews
1764/65 ? 649
1793/94 1,294 846
1808 1,339 842
1827 2,845 784
1857 3,092 1,237
1921 3,985 1,430
Sep 1, 1939 ? about 2,000

Działoszyn gained official municipal status in the beginning of the fifteenth century. The Jewish settlement was established there in the first years of the seventeenth century, but it was tiny and it began to grow only at the end of that century. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Jews had already become the majority of Działoszyn's population, and its Jewish community was the largest within Wielun County. In the eighteenth century, Jews from 104 settlements belonged to its Kehillah, among them the five cities of Krzepice, Pajeczno, Praszka, Wieruszów and Wielun. In the first half of the nineteenth century, the residents of these cities became independent Kehillot. In the middle of the eighteenth century a fire broke out in Działoszyn and destroyed many Jewish homes, or houses belonging to the nobleman in which Jews resided. The fire weakened the Jewish community. State taxes and rental fees to the noblemen weighted heavily upon the Jewish community's finances, so much so that the Kehillah council was forced to borrow money from the nobility and the Catholic priests. With the passage of years, payment of interest put the Kehillah under more and more duress, and so the loans increased and multiplied, until the delay in payments brought about persecutions from the lenders. In 1740 the archbishop demanded that the Jews pay their debt to the monastery in Krzepice. Also, he prohibited Catholics from doing business with the Jews; and so, the Jews were forced to pay back their debt immediately. At the end of the eighteenth century the debt of the Jewish community of Działoszyn rose to a sum that was the largest for its time – over 41,000 zlotys. The occupational structure of Działoszyn's Jews in the 1790's consisted as follows. At that time there were seventy Jewish merchants, of which a few dealt in paper, produce and leather. Fifteen Jews worked at administering breweries and liquor distilleries, and at inn keeping. There were then in the town seventy-five Jewish and thirty-six Christian craftsmen. Among the artisans were also bookbinders - for the production of Hebrew books. Several Jews in partnership with each other founded a tannery and, inter alia, also produced parchment. During this period a plan was attempted to establish a Hebrew printing house, but it did not come to fruition. In the eighteenth century and in the beginning of the nineteenth, the major portion of the Jews of Działoszyn was involved in the wool trade. Among them were large wholesalers who purchased wool from the peasants and the wealthy noblemen, and supplied it to the small-weavers and to Silesia for its weaving industry. In the first half of the nineteenth century, Działoszyn's merchants occupied an honored place in the commercial traffic between, on the one hand, the Kingdom of Poland and, on the other, the Prussian-occupied regions and Galicia. A few of these merchants came to great wealth, one of which was Kopel Yakobovitch, who, in 1861, contributed to Moses Montefiore the amount of 5,000 rubles for the building of a yeshiva in Jerusalem. In the last decades of the nineteenth century, the economic status of the Jews of Działoszyn worsened because of the decline in trade between the Polish Kingdom and Silesia, and because of the effect that the crises in the textile sector had on the wool trade. Działoszyn ceased to serve as a center for the wool business, and in 1870 its municipal status was canceled. At this time there were no sources of income remaining for the Jews of the town except in crafts and in peddling. In 1888 a third of the houses of the city went up in flames, and one hundred Jewish families were left homeless. The first information concerning Dziaoszyn's rabbis comes from the seventeenth century. One of them was Rabbi Shlomo son of Moshe. In 1764 there were two rabbis in Działoszyn, and one of them served, so it seems, either as judge or as Maggid [morals preacher]. At the end of the eighteenth century the famous Maggid and Halachic scholar, Rabbi Shraga Feivish, lived in Działoszyn.* In the first decades of the nineteenth century two rabbis famous for being great men of Torah served in Działoszyn as judges. One was Rabbi Nathan HaCohen, son of Rabbi Ze'ev HaCohen, the rabbi of Lask, and the other was Rabbi Moshe [son of Gershon] who was one of the select students of the Seer of Lublin and the Maggid of Kozinice. He is known from his books, “Tikunei Shabbat” [“Regulation for the Sabbath”, a commentary on the Siddur], “Mishpat Tzedek” [“Judgment of Righteousness”, a collection of inspirational teachings culled from rabbinic sources on life's tribulations, originally published as a companion to the Psalms], “Ge'ulat Yisrael” [“Redemption of Israel", a commentary on the Passover Haggadah consisting of a compilation of miracles accompanying the Exodus] and also responses to Halachic queries. Rabbi Moshe passed away in 1831. For a few years Rabbi Ya'akov Aharon Yanovski served as rabbi of Działoszyn, and served afterward in the years 1856-1866 as rabbi of Alexandrów. For a certain time, Rabbi Shlomo David Margolit, the author of “Chidushei Marshadam” [“Original Works by the Teacher and Rabbi, Shlomo David Margolit”], served in Działoszyn's rabbinate, and at some other time as rabbi of Luków. After his death in 1890, Rabbi Ya'akov Moshe Landau served as the rabbi of Działoszyn. He passed away in 1901. The last rabbi of Działoszyn was, it seems, Y.M. Bumatz [Sic: In Tchenstochover Yidn, page 336, Itshe Meir Boymatz is listed in the Charity Committee, and Rabbi Binjamin Eliah is listed as its chairman.] At the beginning of the twentieth century the influence of socialistic ideologies began to spread among the youth of Działoszyn, [notwithstanding that] most of them had been educated within the spirit of the ancient traditions. These young people participated in the revolutionary demonstrations of 1905-1907, contributed towards the goal of revolution, and, during strikes, forced the Jewish merchants to close their stores. The leadership role of the revolutionary movement for the district was in the hands of the brothers, Chaim-Yehudah and Lewek Fuks. Other active revolutionary workers were Ya'akov Solmeirski, and the bakery worker Yisrael Berkowicz, who was arrested in 1908 and exiled to Siberia. During the period between the two world wars, most of the Jewish population of Działoszyn was petty merchants and tailors who made inexpensive ready-to-wear clothing. They used to sell their own products in the markets and fairs, or travel among the villages with their wares. The following Zionist organizations existed in Działoszyn: The General Zionists, Mizrachi, The National Guard [HaShomer HaLe'umi], and The Zionist Youth. In the elections for the Zionist Congress of 1939 the General Zionists won 18 votes, the Zionist Youth 30, Mizrachi 41, and the League for the Working Land of Israel won 3 votes. Especially prominent in the local Jewish community was the influence of Agudat Yisrael. Their control as well as that of other Charedim [ultra-Orthodox], was particularly strong in the Kehillah council. In the election to the Kehillah council in 1931 they won five mandates against the two of the Zionists. In the elections of 1934 the influence of the Zionists increased somewhat in its winning 3 mandates; whereas, Agudat Yisrael also gained 3, and the “non-partisan” candidates won 1 mandate. [Also prominent in Działoszyn was the right-wing Zionist youth group, Beitar, of which there was, on the basis of a head-count from a group photograph, about 40 individuals. - translator's comment] Because of the deteriorated economic situation of the Jewish community of the Jewish community, the Kehillah council could not find the necessary funds even to reinforce the crumbling synagogue nor the Miqveh [ritual purification bath], which had already become nearly unusable. In the thirties the council managed to obtain donations from Działoszyners living abroad for the renovations of these buildings. In January of 1937 the Jews of Działoszyn received substantial assistance from the Jewish Aid Council of the Warsaw Jewish Community. In February of the same year a Gemillut Chassadim Fund was established, which was supported by the “Joint” [i.e., the American Jewish Joint Distribution Fund] and by former Działoszyners living abroad. However, these actions did not overcome the severe poverty of significant portions of the Jews of Działoszyn. In the twenties several modern Jewish cultural institutions were established in Działoszyn. Around 1928 the “Bildung” [i.e. Education] Society was founded with a library next to it, as well as a Drama Circle. The second library, which was called The People's Library, was established in 1930 next to the Organization of the General Zionists. A plan for the opening of an elementary Jewish school was made, but it did not come to fruition because of a lack of funding. In the thirties a wave of anti-Semitism enveloped Działoszyn. In 1936 windows of Jewish homes were often shattered. In December of that year and in January of 1937 the Emergency Guard forbade Christians from patronizing Jewish stores. On January 28, 1937, the situation came to outright rioting. The mob attacked Jewish stores and market stands, and any Jew that happened to be in the way was beaten. During these pogroms about forty Jews were injured, six of them seriously. The police unit that arrived from Wielun stopped the attackers and arrested several hundred people. The sentences were typical: of the rioters one was incarcerated for one month only, and from the other side, one Jew was sentenced to three months in prison, and another Jew to one month. The attacks on Jews continued and increased. In July, 1937, the Jewish cemetery was desecrated, the fence was destroyed, and many gravestones were smashed, and several graves were dug up and the bones of the dead were scattered [I found no evidence in the sources for this atrocity. Neither does my aunt, who was a teenager at this time, remember such an event. Translator] During the war, in September of 1939, the town was bombed and was totally destroyed. The vast majority of the Jews of the town, nearly 2,000, ran for shelter to neighboring Pajeczno. A number of Jews from Działoszyn was also found in Zelów (Lask county) in 1939 or 1940, and about 250 in Kielciglow [sic?] (Wielun County). As for the refugees of Działoszyn in Pajeczno who had nothing, the local Joint committee took care of them. Many refugees, like the local poor, were hired out to wealthy Jews and others worked in those places for the Germans as forced labor. The fate of the Jews of Działoszyn was [ultimately] that of the other Jews of the region.

PAJECZNO: US Commission No. POCE000172Pajeczno is located in Czestochowa region at 51÷09 19÷00, 49 km from Czestochowa; 30 km from Radomsko. The cemetery is located N of the town. Present town population is 5,000-25,000 with no Jews.
Town: Pajeczno is Urzad Miasta; Gminy ul. Cmentarna, tel. 7523.
Regional: region Konserwator Zabytkow, 43-217 Czestochowa, ul. Domegelskichz, tel. 49-745.
1921 Jewish population was 618. The Orthodox Jewish cemetery probably was established in the first half of the 19th century. Between fields and woods, isolated the flat land has no sign or marker, no wall, gate, or fence. Reached by turning directly off a public road, access is open to all. No gravestones are visible, no known mass graves. The municipality currently owns it. Properties adjacent are agricultural and forest. Local residents visit rarely. The cemetery was vandalized during W.W.II. No maintenance. Vegetation is a constant problem, disturbing graves. Jan Pawet Woronrak, Sandomierska Street, 21m.l, 02-567 Warszawa, tel. 49-54-62 completed survey.

PAJECZNO
28 March 1993 Beit HaTfutzot (Museum of the Diaspora, Tel Aviv)

Town in the district of Lodz, south central Poland.

Jews lived in Pajeczno in the 18th century. In the 1820’s the Jewish community numbered in equal parts local families and families from the neighbouring villages. Only a very few were shopkeepers and peddlers. Most breadwinners could not pay the community taxes. In 1936 antisemitism was rampant, and the economic boycott aggravated the livelihood difficulties of the Jews. Almost a quarter of the Pajeczno Jews were forced to emigrate and half of their number lived on charity, raised by emergency donations carried ot by the community and the Zionist organizations.

Prominent amongst the Zionist parties were the “Zionim Haklalim” who founded the “Noar Hazioni” and operated a hostel and a library. As well as the “Agudat Israel” supported by the Gur Chasidim, “Hamizrachi” was active too. In 1936 the leadership of the community passed from the hands of the “Agudath Israel” to the “Zionim Klalim”.

The Holocaust Period
With the outbreak of World War II the Jews fled Pajeczno. They returned after the German occupation in September 1939, suffering beatings, robbery of property and plundering of he holy vessels from the synagogue. Several Jews were murdered during the first days of the occupation.
In October 1939 the Germans appointed a Judenkrat dealing with tax collection and the organization of work-teams for forced labour in the stone quarries near Konstantinow.
Jewish refugees numbered more than 2,000 persons, helped by the Joint, the ghetto was erected at the end of 1941 in the most squalid quarters of the town with a barbed wire fence around it. Jewish police watched its entrances. Its inhabitants existed from smuggling. They prayed in the Beith Hamidrash and kept a cheder and a kindergarten.
Beginning in the summer of 1941 hunts were carried out and people kidnapped for labour camps in the Poznan area. When the difficulties of their existence became known a “committee of Poznan people” despatched bread to the camps. I the summer of 1942 the head of the Judenrat and eleven other Jews were murdered.
The ghetto was liquidated at the en of August 1942: 1,800 Jews were densely packed into a church without food until 140 persons who previously hid joined them. The old and weak were executed. 50 Jews were ordered to collect the remnants of property and all the rest, some 1,400 persons, were transported to their death at the Chelmo extermination camp.
Six or seven Jews survived the death camps, part of them hiding until the end of the war.

The polish version of the -
HISTORY OF PAJECZNO
from http://www.pajeczno.pl/
(‘automatic’ translation)

Ancient settlement, rose in immemorial times among extensive forest borons which relicts kept on ascent and midnight from town. Settlement spread on table-land on both sides of medieval road, wiodącego from ascent on west. Local legend tells of the spider of uncommon dimensions which before covers he had here to settle and he was calamity for tenants. Legend about spider probably decided about name sediments.

Archaeological explorations carried out over thirtieth years in neighbouring forest indicate the existence of early colonization from the first Iron Age.

In the light of documents the name of settlement was formed over the space of a few periods. Chronicler's record exchanges in 1140 year village "Pageuchno". In 1265 year Black Leszek, książe sieradzki, bestows sediment foundation charter. First reference to Pajechnie, proprietary urban lawful according to documents kujawskich and kaliskich - how gives B. Ulanovski - it walks about from 1276 year. Town possessed coat of arms representing fortress wall with open gate ended with three towers with topped battlements.
The year 1277 as the date of the existence of first church that of endowments of Peter Dunina.

Pajechno belonged to unfortified towns. Economically conditioned it was from starosty brzeźnickiego, in warehouse which it entered. Vladyslav With Yagiello charter from 1401 year it designs Pajechno together with rich parish on the salary of Colleges Krakovskiej. Since then with administrators of parishes were largely professors of Colleges. To midway XVI century cover town received charter weekly bargain and two fairs in year. Zygmunt Long-standing with document from the give 22 September 1518 year he gave off from the economy of książęcej 60 corn-fields of general complex area from soils, of forests and meadows with zaroślami called "Poor" bestowing it town and his tenants in free usufruct.

In XIX centenary this "Poor" she happened the proverbial bone of discord and prolonged lawsuit between town and hr. Starchevskim. The numerous charters of later kings flowing on town how from the bugle of abundance, elevated economic import Pajechna.

On set-back the development of town put into port Swedish wars. In 1717 year Pajechno together with starosty brzeźnickim, in warehouse which it entered, it was bestowed to the order of paulites in Chestochovie on holding in standing of defensive religious order jasnogórskiego which including time it fulfiled the fortress role with being stationed with the garrison of royal armies and it possessed nation-wide import.

Parochial church
Pulsating once life economic and known from moving bargains Pajechno visited it was couple of times elemental defeats. From given acts municipal and church chronicles we learn about numerous fires. In 1793 year fire devoured buildings in Market-place and the part of church. 4 September 1810 year great fire again visited town, spłonął partly church, to annihilation submited acts parochial together with chronicle towns written through parish-priests as well as the tomb of Marcina Bielsk chronicler with neighboring White Gentleman's. Fire devoured municipal town-hall in Market-place together with księgami municipal, alcohol distillery and brewery. After numerous fires town reduceded to poverty and it did not recover its ancient splendor. On farther dooms Pajechna played a part historical events, which one rozgrywały sięw country from the second half of XVIII centenary, and so Polish taking to pieces, occupation Prussian and Russian, revolts national as well as the loss of municipal laws.

After the collapse of the revolt of November right pajęczańskie they were through invader skonfiskowane and past on government property. With czar's ukase from 1837 year from economy pajęczańskiej are given off area 1718 morgów from granges Rams and Pajechno as well as sediment of forestry Siedlec and Zajachki vesting his Russian general Giecevichovi Beyond "believer service". Rights poduchowne are sold to peasants. After revolt January czar's government renamed town on settlement. In 1870 year Pajechno formally it lost municipal autonomy, settlement happened the abode of office of a commune.

Before first world war townsmans in defense before wyzyskiem established in Pajechnie cooperative grocery "Accord". In the first days of war 1914 year through Pajechno they withdrew the frontier garrisons of Russian armies. In neighborhood took place skirmishes with entering armies German and austriackowęgierskimi.

When the second world war Pajechno more considerable annihilations it did not experience. Sustained a loss instead civilian population, of chiefly Hebrew origin.

The intense development of town succeeded only after II worlde war. In 1956 year Pajechno it was the abode of the authorities of administrative district. Municipal Laws recoveried in 1958 year. Town happened local center economic and cultural, lived the period of intense urbanization. They rose in particular new cultural objects, business, the institutions of work. Reform administrative passed in 1975 year smashed earths pajęczańską between 3 provinces: Częstochowskie, sieradzkie and piotrkowskie. The town development was przyhamowany. From 1999 year again it is Pajechno the abode of administrative district.

Interesting they are some demographics of Pajechna.
In 1793 year town possessed 130 houses and it counted 643 tenants, with why 20 persons trudniło craft, and 2 trade. In 1820 year it was 176 houses and 1077 tenants, in 1850 year - 1253 tenants. In thirty years later are noted 195 houses and 2057 tenants. In 1900 year settlement counted 2895 tenants, and in 1908 year 1756 tenants. In 1921 year according to first universal census settlement counted 2609 tenants, and in 1935 year - 3500 tenants. Given statistic list from 1971 year wykazują 4000

Trips to Poland - Bary & Sol

2004-11-19T03:54:00.000-08:00

HELLO!!! WHERE ARE YOU?

SO FAR NOT MUCH RESPONSE, BUT WE KOZIWODAS AREN'T EASILY DISCOURAGED...

In this second edition of the Koziwoda Courier you get reports of two trips to Poland. The first by Barry Cohen in 1989 and the second by Sol Goldberg and David Shenhav in 1999.

Before proceeding, did you hear that cousin Carmel (Marjenberg) has found a place called KOZIA WODA?!!! Absolutely amazing!! I rushed out and bought a ordinance map of two areas in Poland (1:100,000) and lo and behold there it is - it is just past the western outskirts of Radomsko, north of a little place called Ladcize. So far I have not been able to find anything about Kozia Woda but I would guess that it is the origin of the family name Koziwoda. [I have always held the popular belief that we were given the name by an anti-semitic beaurocrat, but I think that perhaps there is more credence to the town-theory]. HOWEVER, the ordinance map shows that Kozia Woda consist only of two houses ...

I still have not figured out how to put photos on this blog, but be patient, I will! And then I will post a map showing Kozia Woda.

In the menatime pls pass around the word that we are on the 'Net and pls send me (Peter Keeda) all the family's email addresses (keedad@hotmail.com). It would also be encouraging if some of you Koziwodas out there would send me a few words of encouragement, either on this blog or to my email address above.

Now, here are the two trip reports -

The long way home (1989)
BARRY COHEN traces his origins through Auschwitz to a Polish village in 1890

The sign read:' "Pajeczno - 19km". The hair on the back of my head stood on end. I realised that I was within walking distance of the village in Poland which my grandparents had left almost a century ago. To the best of my knowledge, I was the first member of the family to return.
In the late1890s, to avoid conscription, Moishe Koziwoda (later Morris Cohen) crossed the borders of Russian-occupied Poland under a vegetable cart. Unlike Australia's two-year service for the Vietnam war, conscription in the Tzar's army was for a mere 30 years. With anti-Semitism then a national pastime, Jews were given the dirtiest and most
dangerous duties - few survived. Joined later by his young wife, Zelda, they found safe haven in Britain, South Africa and finally, shortly after the outbreak of World War I, in Australia. Throughout their sojourn in these more accommodating societies, they raised seven children, including my father, Lou.
The Koziwodas were part of the procession of Jews who fled Russia and Poland during the latter part of the 19th century to escape the periodic pogroms and institutionalised anti-Semitism that resulted in the slaughter and persecution of hundreds of' thousands of their co-religionists. Other members of the family found sanctuary in Britain, Canada, the US and South Africa - anglicising Koziwoda to Cohen, Cozens, Cousens and Conn. Most of those members who remained in Poland and survived the Tsar and World War l perished in the Holocaust.
I was 16 years old when my grandfather died but, having lived most of my life in Griffith, my knowledge of him was restricted to family visits during our annual holidays. I knew him as a short, stocky, deeply religious, rather austere man who looked as if be had never left the shtetl (Jewish village). Later, as I became more aware of my heritage and the tragedy of European Jewry, I wished that I had taken the time to understand him.
Worse, I knew nothing of that cultural milieu in which he moved, its poverty, hardship, suffering, humour, kinship and religious orthodoxy that enabled Jews to survive such a hostile environment.
Thanks to the Nazis, the rich Yiddish cultural life that flourished in pre-war Poland has gone forever. Out of three million Jews who lived there, only 6,000 remain. And this some call a hoax!
For years I had hoped that one day I might find the whereabouts of the village of Pajeczno but the various spellings and pronunciations I had been - given by members of the family - made it impossible to locate. An introduction at a family wedding by my Uncle Joe to a cousin from Pajeczno who had survived the Holocaust enabled me to pinpoint it on a map. I knew immediately that one day I would visit Poland to see for myself whence I had sprung. A parliamentary delegation to Canada provided that opportunity.
Being wedged between two brutal giants, Russia and Germany, has ensured for Poland a legacy of war, revolution, genocide and near-permanent foreign domination. With the past century being one of continuous conflagration and upheaval, it was difficult to imagine that any trace would remain of the Koziwodas. Surely it would have been impossible for records to have survived. The faint hope I had harboured that the Pajeczno cemetery would yield something was dashed when a cable arrived from Poland stating that the Jewish cemetery had been destroyed by the Nazis and the headstones used for road paving. Sensitive people, those Germans! However, the same cable contained the news that some records dating back to the latter part of the l9th century were available at Pajeczno, Lodz and Czestochowa. It seemed too much to hope that they would be preserved in good condition.
Together with my wife Rae, and a driver and interpreter kindly provided by the Polish Government, we drove 200 kilometres from Warsaw before I spotted the sign indicating that we were coming to the end of our long journey.
The Mayor of Pajeczno - a handsome, man in his late 40’s – welcomed us with coffee and chocolates and a brief history of the fate of the Jewish population of Pajeczno and Dzialoszyn, the neighbouring village where my grandmother had been born.
"When the Nazis arrived in Dzialoszyn in June 1940, they took all the Jews out in the fields and shot them immediately!" The mater of fact way he said it chilled my blood. I found myself biting the inside of my cheek. "However, in Pajeczno they kept all the Jews
in a ghetto in the Jewish quarter bordered by Kosciuski Street. They remained there for about one year until one day they rounded them all up and put them in the church, where they kept them for a week. While they were there, the Polish people tried to help by smuggling food to them but eventually trucks came up and took them all away. Most were never seen again!
"After the war, a few came back and sold their property to the local community
and in 1957 some Jews came here to obtain death certificates of those who had died."
Just like that. In a few brief, chilling sentences he told how one in five members of the local community had been butchered. Pajeczno had been made, as Hitler promised the whole of Europe, “Judenrein”. Among those who had gone to their deaths at Auschwitz, Treblinka, Sobibor, Maidenek were those members of the Koziwoda family who had not had the prescience or good luck to have left at the time of my grandparents.
It is difficult to describe my emotions at the time. At first I was numb, trying yet again to comprehend how people - any people, let alone the most sophisticated in Europe could behave this way to fellow human beings Then my numbness turned to bitterness, anger and frustration. Bitterness at what those monsters had done anger at the Allies’ failure to do more to rescue those whose lives were in peril, frustration that so many of the perpetrators had escaped without trial or punishment
"The Koziwoda family were very well known in Pajeczno the Mayor continued. I had been hanging on his every word but when he spoke of my family in such familiar terms I felt myself trembling with anticipation. It was the first time I had ever heard an "outsider” refer to them. It confirmed, if confirmation were necessary, their existence.
By now, I was itching to see if there were records and, if so, whether they contained some written record of the Koziwodas. It was one thing to hear the name spoken but to see it written would provide that final authenticity.
For the next hour-and-a-half, we sat drinking voluminous cups of coffee and discussing everything but the records contained in the registry office at Pajeczno. Finally, I could contain myself no longer "Mr. Mayor, do you have any records that I might be able to look at?"
"I am sorry but we have been waiting until they finish some marriage ceremonies at the: Registry Office!" He glanced at his watch. "They should be finished now, so we can go around and examine what we have." . :
The short journey t6 the Registry Office in Kosciuski Street seemed to take forever. I
was shaking with excitement but painfully aware that I was likely to be disappointed. How could anything as unimportant as the records of the births, deaths and marriages of the small Jewish community of a tiny village in Poland have survived. the devastation and turmoil of the past century? Who would have cared enough to preserve them?
We were ushered into a small room on the second floor of the old stone house that had probably been built in the last century. A clerk answered the Mayor's request to bring out the records.
“What year would you like?" he enquired.
"What year?" I replied. "Any year … preferably the earliest you've got. How far back do you go?"
"We keep the records for a hundred years, then we send them to the Central Archives at Lodz or Czestochowa. Our earliest here is 1887."
"Then let's have a look at 1887!" I said.
He disappeared into the next room and reappeared seconds later with a small, hard-covered book much like the old ledgers and cashbooks that we used before the age of technology. He flicked through the yellowing pages to the index at the rear while I stared at the genealogical tree put together by my cousin, Cecil. All of us crowded forward, peering anxiously and intently at the precise copperplate writing that covered this century old record of the village of Pajeczno. I could hardly contain myself.
“In the village of Pajeczno on the 20th day of September 1887 Tovia Koziwoda, merchant, 46 years of age brought with him a male child and stated that the child had been born at Pajeczno in September 1873 … and stated that he did not know why his son had not been registered … At the circumcision the child was given the name Itzhak Mayer Koziwoda."
I couldn't believe it! "Read it again!” I gasped. "In the village …” I looked at the papers that I had brought with me from Australia. There it was. Yossel Tovia, my great-grandfather, and Itzhak Mayer - my great-uncle.
If we had discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls, I couldn't have been more excited. Out came the next book… Moishe Koziwoda, Laibel, Czarna, Malka, Yehuda, they were all there. Name after name, they leapt from these old and fading books – the one, and probably the only, link between the Koziwoda, Cohens, Cozens, Cousens and. Conns now spread all over the English-speaking world.
Rae was crying - and her family come from Barra in the Outter Hebrides and County Cork - the McNeills and O’Reagans.
"Would you mind if I photographed these records?" I asked, still stunned at this unbelievable treasure trove of my family's history. At first, the clerk was nervous. Apparently the rules forbade it. However; the Mayor decided that I had traveled sufficient distance to waive the bureaucratic regulations. I clicked away with my Pentax selecting carefully from the considerable number of pages on which the name Koziwoda appeared.
I couldn't believe my luck. I had traveled to Pajeczno with no more than the faintest hope that I find any record of the Koziwodas.
Not only had I found more than I had ever thought possible but I also had with me, courtesy of the Polish Government, a talented young interpreter - Andrzej - who could speak fluent English, Polish and Russian. As the records were all in Russian, he ensured that I found what I was looking for.
When we left Pajeczno at around 3.30pm, it was already growing dark. All I wanted to do was to share my excitement with other members of the Koziwoda-Cohen family back home in Australia and with those I had never met, spread throughout the rest of the world.
No matter what else happened to me in Poland, nothing could match the extraordinary feeling of elation I felt at that moment.
I was to be brought down to earth quickly. A few kilometres out of Pajeczno I passed through my grandmother's village. I wondered in which field the Nazis had slaughtered the Jews of Dzialoszyn. The search for the Berkowitz family would have to wait until my next trip to Poland.
The next day we were to visit Auschwitz.

Diary of Sol Goldberg and David Shenhav/Shanoff
May 1999

Introduction:-
1. The purpose of our trip was to learn as much as possible about our ancestor's homes and background, which were deeply rooted in Poland, prior to World War II and the Shoa.
2. The maternal (Bornstein) and paternal (Goldberg) families of Sol Goldberg as well as maternal (Goldberg) and paternal (Chrzanowicz, hereafter called Shanoff) families of David Shenhav/Shanoff have, as cursory historical research evidenced, been linked to Poland for countless generations.
3. Sol's research of our families' history was very much embellished by oral nostalgic reminiscences by older members of the Goldberg, Bornstein and Shanoff families residing in North America.
4. The research determined the route of our travels in Poland:- Warsaw, Lodz, Radomsko, Kamiensk, Pajeczno and Cracow.
5. Sol's father Leibish and David's mother Tobale were two of nine Goldberg siblings, born to Yitzhak Goldberg and Esther-Breindel Rosenzweig. All immigrated to Canada prior to 1930 except for the eldest daughter Blima-Devora who was married to Noah Zoberman. The Zobermans together with with their children and grandchildren were either killed in the Radomsko Ghetto or were sent to their deaths in Treblinka.
6. David's father Chaim-Shmuel Shanoff was the only child of Yosef, who left Poland for Canada. All of his siblings perished in the Holocaust. Two cousins, Fela Friedman and Henry Waks survived and now live in Toronto. In addition David's uncle Shimon-Moishe's widow Luba also survived Auschwitz and lived in Montreal until her death.
7. Sol's mother Frymcia (nee Bornstein) immigrated to Canada in June 1930 together with her husband Leibish and children Ruth 6, Sol 4 and Rita 2. Sol's mother's siblings immigrated to the U.S. in the early Twenties and settled in N.Y. Only Frymcia's father Chaim Bornstein and his daughter Hendel, and her daughter Sonya, remained in Radomsko..Chaim died a natural death in 1941 while Hendel and her daughter Sonya are presumed to have died either in the Ghetto or in Treblinka. Frymcia's mother Ruda nee Koziwoda died of a heart attack en route home to Radomsko from the U.S. in 1923..

The Tour in Poland
1. We met in Warsaw in Thursday May 20.. ol's plane from Madrid, where he attended his new Grandson Sergio Simcha's Brith-Milah, was delayed which curtailed our first day's plans. After checking in to The Forum Hotel in the city's center we made our way towards Warsaw's only remaining synagogue, the Nozyk, on Ulica Twarda. We met and were very impressed by the new Rabbi (Rabinowicz), a Dane, who had been ordained in Jerusalem and had taken on the position of Chief Rabbi of Poland. He is 27 years old and was expecting his wife and three children to join him imminently. He had
learned to speak Polish and we spoke to him in English and Hebrew. He invited us to a meal (seudah) the following evening to celebrate Shavuoth. As we left the shul and were passing the adjoining Yiddish Theatre a woman invited us in to see the musical "Chagall". The performance was in Yiddish mostly by a non-Jewish cast. The sets were reproduction of paintings by Chagall, hence the title, and the songs were sad and sentimental of other times.

Friday, May 21st
1. We visited the many sites connected with the Jewish Community prior to Sept. 1st, 1939 when Jews comprised a third of Warsaw's population.
2. The Ghetto Area. The Nathan Rappaport Monument commemorating the Ghetto Fighters. Mila 18. Photographed the other monuments and bunkers memorializing heroes such as Emmanuel Ringelboimm and Mordechai Anielewicz.
3. Umsclagg Platz This is where the station platform was where all Warsaw Jews were herded on to freight boxcars for deportation to Treblinka. Here we shed a few tears and silently prayed. We were horrified by the anti-Semitic graffiti.
4. We taxied over to Stara Miasto, the old town, where we had a light supper at a Bistro type restaurant, Castle Square has a lot of Pubs, Restaurants and Boutiques and pushcarts selling all manner of souvenirs. The Square was packed with hundreds of young Poles enjoying the pleasant weather.
5. The previous evening we were told at the Shul to come for Shabbat services at 10.30 because dusk falls late in Warsaw. When we got there sadly there was no minyan...actually there were 15 of us, but the rabbi wouldn't accept the pedigrees of six of the men and so could not count them for the minyan. We did, however, participate in the Shavouth Seudah which was accompanied by enthusiastic singing in Hebrew. Present was a nice young man, Yona, from Brooklyn with his wife and baby girl. Yona is the
representative in Poland of The Ronald S, Lauder Foundation. He is also a Habadnik. The evening meal lasted past midnight. We met several interesting people in the course of the evening, a mother and son from Costa Rica en route to Israel and a young Jewish girl from Lithuania. Tired and full of "Yiddishkeit" we returned to our hotel.

Saturday, May 22, 1999.
1. After breakfast, we picked up our car, a Renault Megane Automatic as neither one of us had driven a gearshift for years. We then set out for Lodz about 2 1/2 hours from Warsaw. The countryside was unattractive and rural with many villages alongside the two lane highway. On arrival in Lodz we checked in to The Grand Hotel, built in 1888 which must have been truly Grand in it's day and which our Fathers surely knew. It is still a very nice and comfortable hotel and we were quite pleased with our room which
only cost U.S.$67 per day including breakfast. The hotel is located on the main street , Piotrokowska corner Sierpna and we recommend it to anyone visiting Lodz. It is only a few meters away from the apt. bldg where Arthur Rubenstein was born and lived and faced a small green park named in his honour.
2. We were most anxious to visit the sites connected to our family's history. In this aim we were tremendously assisted by the remarkable memories of our cousins Adele Yablon in Montreal and Fela Frieman in Toronto. Adele had lived in Lodz as a teenager and Fela lived there until the outbreak of war in '39.
43 WOLCZANSKA ST. David's parents, Toba and Chaim-Shmuel Shanoff lived in
an apt in this bldg until they left for Canada. The bldg is in not too bad a state of repair and still has a very attractive facade. We went in to the courtyard and admired and photographed the bldg from many angles. Both David and his brother Harry were born in the bldg. David distinctly remembers his apt being on the first floor on the right side facing the bldg.
3. 24 PIOTROKOWSKA ST. Our Aunt and Uncle, Sabina and Simcha Grossman lived in this bldg and two of their three children ( Diane and Gabriel) were born here and the third Stanley was born in Canada....it is worth noting that our uncle Simcha was the first to immigrate to Canada and our entire Goldberg family will be eternally grateful to him for having brought all of them to Canada in the 1920's. Only two of the Goldberg siblings did not come to Canada.The eldest Blima-Devora whom was married and remained in Radomsko and Reuven who went to Israel in 1925 and lived there all of his life.
4. Our attempts to find the home of our Goldberg grandparents and Sol's father were futile. The people we asked could not even direct us to the area we sought, Grunya Mark.
5. 21 PODREZECZNA ST. This bldg consists of residential apts. and commercial
premises (formerly #9) and was owned by David's grandfather Yosef who died prior to the war. We photographed the bldg. and spent some time examining the exterior.
6. 19 PODREZECZNA ST. This bldg has been recuperated by a relative who lived there before the war and is already collecting a meager rent. The last two bldgs. are located opposite a park and not too far from the plants of the Famous Jewish Poznanski Family textile empire, Poltex.
7. In Lodz we met a nice young man, Pawel Nowak a native of Radomsko, who Sol had met on the Internet. Pawel is 24 and a student at the University in Lodz in the Law Faculty. We had dinner in a lovely restaurant, The Esplanada, on the main street and turned in exhausted after what was an emotional day...

Sunday, May 23, 1999.
1. After checking out of our Hotel early we made one more tour of the family homes and before heading for Radomsko we visited the Jewish Cemetery, which we found in a remarkable state of preservation. David attempted to find his grandfather Yose's grave near the famous Radoschytzer Rebbe, but to no avail. The Lodz cemetery was untouched by the Nazis. It is surrounded by a high stonewall and contains more than 300,000 raves, many of which are of imposing stature, decorated and sculpted. The most outstanding ones are dedicated to the Poznanski and Karse families..They are truly works of art.
2. After a pleasant drive through the backroads around Piotrokow, we arrived in Radomsko and checked in to The Europa Hotel on Reymonta, a very modest hotel, to say the least, which Sol's Aunt Gina had stayed in when she returned to visit her Father in the early 1920's. After checking in and with our young friend Pawel in tow, we proceeded to see the town sights including where Sol's family lived and where he and his sisters were born at #12 Ulica Krakowska.. The bldg was totally demolished in the first days of the war by German Bombers as Radomsko was not too far from the German Border. The Municipal Fire Station now sits on the property. We also saw where sol's grandfather's bakery store was on the Reymonta which is now occupied by two stores. It was impossible to locate with any certainty, despite determined efforts, the homes of our grandparents Yitzhak and Esther-Breindel Goldberg and of our aunt and uncle Blimah-Devorah Zoberman as street names have been changed...The fault for not finding our
grandparents home was that we were looking for Ulica Dobryscyzska, 3 on the wrong side of the railway station..
We then proceeded to the Jewish Cemetery on the Przedborz Road where we indeed felt the ghosts of our mishpacha. We lit memorial candles at the Ohel (mausoleum) of the Radomsko Rebbe. Sol's Grandmother Ruda is buried close to the Rebbe's Ohel, but a cursory look around was unsuccessful in finding it. A Hassid of the Rebbe cleaned the area around the Rebbe's grave, but the rest of the cemetery is in deplorable condition, overgrown with high grasses and hard to plough through. Sol is determined to do something about having the cemetery cleaned up and towards that end has been in touch with Rabbi Besser who is with the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation which supports the maintenance of Jewish Cemeteries in Eastern Europe. Sol has also suggested to Gloria Berkenstat Freund, Chairperson of the Radomsko Shtetl Committee on the Internet, that we try to raise private funds ourselves. Gloria thought it was a good idea and that we plan a trip to Radomsko to rededicate the cemetery after it is cleaned up. At the Hotel Zamachek where Sol and Davis stayed, they were told by the owner Andrejz that he could hire men to clean up the cemetery at a cost of 800 Zlotys (U.S.$200) per man for a month. We feel that $2,000 would be a good starting point. Incidentally, there are about 2,000 graves in the cemetery which is surrounded by a high stonewall, which Rabbi Besser told me was repaired with funds provided by The Lauder Foundation. It was now rather late in the afternoon and we still hadn't eaten since an early breakfast. The 2 or 3 restaurants in town were packed with families celebrating communions of their children which is the custom here in May, and we were unable to get food anywhere this being Sunday and the stores were closed. We then made a decision to check out of the Europa and head for our next destination, Cracow, a distance of 200 kilometers, and hoping
to revisit Radomsko on the way back. So driven by hunger we reclaimed our suitcases and hit the road. We stopped at a roadside MacDonalds outside of Czestohowa for a burger, fries and a coke.
We arrived in Cracow and checked into the "Cracovia Hotel”. After getting settled we headed for the "Stara Miasto" or market square in the old town, a 10 minute walk from our hotel...We had a good meal at the "Hawalka" a 150 year old restaurant which was nicely decorated. We did a short tour of the square which was jammed with young people and tourists and returned to the hotel.

Monday, May 24, 1999
After breakfast we walked to the old town again and went through the market where we made several souvenir purchases at some of the dozens of stalls there. They were mostly selling amber jewellery, decorated boxes and Polish artifacts.. We then took a taxi to the old Jewish Quarter of Kazimierz, named for a King who allowed Jews to participate in commerce and live in Cracow proper. Jews had lived here from the latter part of the 15th
century until their annihilation in the Holocaust. We toured the entire quarter for a ouple of hours and had lunch at a psuedo Jewish Restaurant "Ariel" which featured "Carp a la Juif" which actually was very good. We visited the remnants of five ynagogues and spent a great deal of time in the Isaaca Synagogue which has been turned in to a museum and exhibition hall. A documentary was being shown of the Cracow Jewish community before the war. It was truly bustling with active commercial, cultural and religious life. There was also a photographic exhibition of life in the ghetto during the war.
In the evening we returned to the old market square in Cracow and again ate at the “Hawalka". We enjoyed a long walk back to our hotel having lost our way for over 1/2 an hour. Cracow is a very attractive city, especially the Baroque parts built during the reign of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. We were unable to establish how many Jews there are in Cracow today, but they can't number more than a few hundred.
Tuesday, May 25, 1999
Auschwitz-Birkenau and Radomsko
We left Cracow early after breakfast and drove to the concentration camp through lovely countryside and arrived in Auschwitz mid-morning. We spent several hours there and lit candles in the crematoria and said Kaddish. There is nothing we can add to what is already known. It would be superfluous. This was Sol's third visit to Auschwitz. We then drove back to Radomsko where we were fortunate to find accommodations at the only decent Hotel in town, a charming rural type of Inn set amidst a small forest...It could easily be mistaken for New England Bed and Breakfast. The hotel is called Zamachek which we mentioned earlier. There is an excellent and reasonable restaurant on the premises and enjoyed Borscht, Potato Latkes (placzki, which we could not find anywhere else in Poland), excellent Schmaltz Herring with diced onions in oil, vodka and beer and finished with dessert crepes and good coffee. We deserved a good meal and it was nice to have found it in Radomsko. The owner, Andrejz was so glad to know that Sol was born in the town that he presented us with 2 bottles of Vodka that were crated and handsomely hand painted and surely cost more than what we paid for the meal or even the room.

Wednesday, May 26th
After breakfast we toured the town looking for family homes and returning to 12 Krakowska where Sol was born...We drove up and down streets that Sol remembered his Mother talking about:- Reymonta, Aleja, Stodolna Gasse, etc. We then spent the rest of the morning at the Radomsko Regional Museum. The exhibits dated from pre-historic to the present. We were escorted around the Museum as if we were dignitaries when they found out I was a native. In a small room devoted to photos and artifacts of the pre war
Jewish Community we saw a poster sized picture of the Jewish Community Council of seven men and to our surprise it included our uncle Noah Zoberman who was married to our aunt Blima-Devorah, the eldest of the Goldberg siblings. Sol had previously seen the picture in the Radomsko Yizkor Book.

Herewith a little family history:-
Our grandfather Yitzhak Goldberg was born in Kamiensk, 16 kilometers from Radomsko. Our Grandmother Esther-Breindel nee Rosenzweig was born in Radoshytz close to Kamiensk. They lived in Kamiensk where their first five children were born:

Blima-Devorah 1886
Shaya 1888
Toba 1891
Sabina 1893
Leibish 1895

When Sol's father Leibish was 3 weeks old, the family moved to Lodz where the next 4 children were born:- Reuven, Adele, Shimon and Chayele.
Sol's maternal grandfather Chaim Bornstein was born in Predzborz and his grandmother Ruda Koziwoda in Pajeczno. They lived in Radomsko, where Chaim owned a very successful baker, and where all their children were born, here in chrnological order and their subsequent place of residence.
Julius California
Sol New Jersey
Adolph Brooklyn
Frymcia Canada
Kitty Long Island
Millie Brooklyn
Shirley Florida
Gina Manhattan
Hendel Never left Radomsko and perished in the Holocaust
Sol obtained Birth Certificates at the Radomsko City Hall for himself and his two sisters Ruth And Rita, a nice souvenir. We bid Adieu to Radomsko and drove North about 16 kilometers to Kamiensk, where we spent hours exploring the lovely shtetl which was but a hamlet in our grandparents time. As already noted above, our roots on the Goldberg side are here. We visited the City Hall where we were graciously received by the town's engineer, who presented each of us with a descriptive brochure of the town. We enquired where the Jewish Cemetery was and to our consternation we were told that a playground and soccer field now cover the ground of the former Jewish cemetery which was completely destroyed by the Nazis. We visited a "Shenk" (Bar) and drank a toast to our family with Vodka. From Kamiensk we drove through exceedingly beautiful country,
pastoral fields with spring flowers, for about 30 kilometers to Pajeczno where Sol's maternal grandmother Ruda Koziwoda was born and where for generation the Koziwodas lived, worked and prayed. We found the site of the town's synagogue which alas is not the cinema. We met an elderly couple who lived across from the shul and they described to us the boundaries of the Ghetto as established by the German Army. They told the cemetery was behind the church. We drove over there only to find a playing field. Just
as in Kamiensk not a grave or a marker remains.
From Pajeczno we headed back north to Lodz. To our dismay, we could not obtain accommodation at the Grand Hotel, where we had previously stayed because it was booked solidly for a ballet festival. On a stroll near the Grand we chanced upon a photographic exhibition under the patronage of the British Ambassador whom we met together with the British Consul in Warsaw. The Ambassador told us that a fortnight earlier he had escorted the wife of London's Lord Mayor back to her shtetl. To our great discomfort we could only get a room in an old hotel which spoiled our stay in Lodz and we decided to leave the next morning. However, in the evening we took a tour in a bicycle powered "rickshaw" and then had dinner again at the nice Esplanada Restaurant.

Thursday, May 27th
Early in the morning we took a spin around Lodz again visiting the family's former residences before leaving for Warsaw where we arrived after a 3 hour drive. We again checked into the Forum Hotel which we found to our liking especially because it is so centrally located. In the evening we went back and wandered around the old town and had a nice dinner at a restaurant facing the square. After dinner we went back again to the Yiddish Theatre where we saw a melodrama "Yoshka Musicant" by the late great Ida Kaminska.
We did not enjoy it as much as "Chagall". We met a tour group of Jews from Florida and enjoyed talking to them. Also sitting next to us was another couple from Florida not connected to the tour group. During intermission the man told us that he was a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto and began crying, as did others, when he recounted how he suffered at the hands of the Germans. After the theatre we turned in early for the long drive the next morning to Treblinka.

Friday, May 28th
The drive from Warsaw to Treblinka took close to 3 hours, some over rather
sub-standard roads, but through beautiful scenery.. We imagined our relatives travelling the same way en rout to the ovens. Treblinka is miles away from populated centers. At the Camp there is no realistic trace of the atrocities that took place there. There are literally hundreds of commemorative gravestones, each bearing the name of Jewish populated cities, towns, and shtetls whose Jews were annihilated by the Nazis. We, of course, searched for those connected to our families and found and photographed gravestones with the names of Lodz, Radomsko, Kamiensk, Pajeczno, Radoshytz, and others. We presume most of our family perished in Treblinka. Interestingly, the only other people there were 5 Polish Gentiles who lit candles at the main monument. The return trip to Warsaw was a sad and silent ride.. When we got back we turned in the
car to Hertz and retired early as we had to leave the Hotel for the airport at 6 a.m.

Friday, May 29th
We arrived at the Airport at 6.30 a.m. Sol went back to Madrid to again see his son, daughter in law and his two grandsons, Daniel and Sergio. David left for the return trip to Tel-Aviv.

Some additional notes;
1. We were blessed with perfect weather throughout our stay. The days with temperatures of 22-25c ((75-80f) and pleasant evenings. Not a drop of rain during our stay.
2. We enjoyed the car which was comfortable and safe. We had one unpleasant
incident. We stopped for a drink at a service station between Katowitz and Radomsko. when we tried to start the car it was stalled. The station phoned a company called S.O.S., aptly named, who had to tow us 20 miles to the Renault dealer in Katowitz where the problem was solved in 2 minutes. Cost for towing 200 zlotys, about $50.

Observations:-
1. Poland is a huge Jewish Graveyard
2. Anti-Semitism is pervasive, even without Jews. As Yitzhak Shamir said
"They suck it in with their Mother's Milk".
3. Poland is covered with anti-semitic grafitti and on a wall in the Jewish quarter in Cracow, Kazimierz, we saw a wall plastered with writing "Zydz Kurwa", Jewish Whores! No Comment needed.
4. Our visit was interesting, educational, stimulating and permeated with a non-dismissive deep sense of sadness at times a dreadful feeling of helplessness.

WE'RE OFF!

2004-10-28T21:21:00.000-07:00

Dear Family,

A few months ago I suggested that perhaps we start a Koziwoda website but the response was zilch ... About a week ago a friend of Carmel's (Marjenberg) made a remarkable discovery that there is a village called Kozia Woda and so I am enthused anew. Someone said that a 'blog' is easy to do, so here it is...

You are all invited to share and to to join in. Drag out those family stories and photos and let's share them. For the archivist amongst you, give me a hand to try to unravel our Polish past. Is there any possibility of getting earlier than the 1800's?

To start things off here is a map showing the position of Kozia Woda - just west of Radomsko, north of Ladcize (click on link). I have sent some emails to places in the area but so far no responses.
http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?client=public&X=2155000&amp;amp;amp;Y=6600000&width=500&height=300&gride=&gridn=&srec=0&coordsys=mercator&db=PL&amp;amp;amp;addr1=&addr2=&addr3=&pc=&advanced=&local=&localinfosel=&kw=&amp;amp;amp;inmap=&table=&ovtype=&zm=1&scale=100000
and here is an aerial picture of Pajeczno -
http://www.rosiosk.lodz.pl/miasta/air-pajeczno.html

So far I have gathered some info on Pajeczno and Dzialozyn which I'll post if there is an interest.

Does anyone know how to add pictures/photos to this blog?

I am compiling a list of family email addresses so pass the word around - you can add them here or send them to me at keedad@hotmail.com.

Love to all,

Peter Keeda