The Gelbarts
The Yom HaShoah article is coming together, though I have not heard back from the survivors yet, so I hope to reach out to the children to ask if they still do interviews? But I will do my best to tell their stories!
They are married and have been married for a long time. They have been married since 1955.
Arthur (born Abram) was born on March 25, 1929 in Kłobuck, Poland.
He was one of four children. He had three sisters, Chana Rywka (b. 1925), Edzia Ester (b. 1926), and Zisl Frajdl (b. 1931).
His father, Mordechai Gelbart was a butcher and his mother, Liba Zelkowicz Gelbart took care of the children. Arthur’s childhood was a happy one, until the war broke out in September of 1939. His father wanted to leave the city. He took his three younger children and walked to Warsaw. But when they reached Kielce, they turned back. In 1941, the Germans caught his father slaughtering a cow. The Nazis arrested him, and deported him to Aushcwitz, where he was murdered.
Abram’s sister, Chana had a husband named Pejsach Cyncytus. They helped them move to the Częstochowa ghetto. They stayed there until they were able to return to Kłobuck. Edzia, Abram, and Zisl went ahead of their mother. Her mother wanted to wait since it was Yom Kippur. She was murdered the next day. Edzia, Abram, and Zisl were then deported to Zagorze labor camp. They were forced to tear down houses, and deface Jewish cemeteries.
In December 1942, the four Gelbart children and Pejsach were deported to Blechhammer, a sub-camp of Auschwitz. A few days later the girls were transferred to the Langenbielau labor camp, a sub-camp of Gross-Rosen. Abram worked for the next two years in building and repairing roads.
In January 1945, all the prisoners of Blechhammer were forced on a death march to Buchenwald. While at Buchenwald, someone from his hometown, , Abram Ensel, took him under his wing and looked after him. When the camp was liberated, he found his sisters in the Weiden displaced persons camp in Germany. He immigrated to the United States in March of 1947. He was drafted in the United States Armed Forces. He served until 1950. He married the love of his life, Rose Grosman in 1955.
Rose (born Rozia) Grosman was born on January 3, 1935 in Leszno Poland, where Jozef owned a shoe store. When the Nazis invaded their hometown, they moved to Rzeszow, Poland. In December of that year, the ghetto was established, and the first deportations to the Belzec death camp began in July 1942. Rose and her family were placed in the ghetto. Her mother, Sabina didn’t look Jewish and was able to get out of the ghetto. She tried to place Rose in hiding, but it didn’t last long. Then, her mother had some luck. A woman found a man named Adam Zak who lived in Warsaw, and who wanted a housekeeper. Adam knew that Sabina was Jewish, and he got her false ID papers and a work permit. Adam’s children were instrumental in hiding Rose.
In the summer of 1943, Adam’s daughter Hanka and Rose went to Warka, Poland. They were only there for two months, as some people suspected Rose as being Jewish.
They fled to Ostroleka, where they were eventually liberated.
Rose’s father died in Rzeszow. Her mother eventually remarried. She married, Josef Gerszanowicz. They immigrated to the United States in 1951. She married Abram (Arthur) Gelbart in 1955. She has children and grandchildren with Arthur. She turned 87 this year.
The Gelbarts have been married for so long that they are inseparable .
My friend Cassidy had told me about them and wanted me to write about them for the Yom HaShoah article. I decided that I would do my best to interview them, but I haven’t heard back from them yet. I sent their son Michael an email, and hope to hear back from him, but I won’t hold my breath. I have a few survivors to write about this Yom HaShoah: Ruth Krell Steinfeld, Halina Peabody, Renee Silver, and Peter Feigl. I’m trying to write and interview as many survivors as I possibly can.
Let’s hope I can interview these two.
