BARBARA GANCZYK

Barbara Ganczyk is a retired history teacher in Poland. She studied the pre-war Jewish community of Klodawa, and has been an instrumental and integral part of the the information I have received over the years. When descendants write in, I have forwarded their questions to Barbara and she has almost always been able to produce records regarding their families. In addition, she has always been ready, willing and able to provide information for people who are planning visits, and has met several folks on their return journeys. Barbara has never asked for anything in return for her efforts. I am/ we should be extremely grateful for her time, effort, compassion on our ancestors' behalf. Below is an account by Dan Roth and his experience working with meeting Barbara:

DAN ROTH TRIP TO KLODAWA JUNE 2014 IN HIS OWN WORDS (SUBMITTED 05JUL2015):

 The idea of visiting Klodawa began early this year . I sent a mail to Judy Muarty and asked for any information about Klodawa. Judy gave me an email of Barbara[GANCZYK] woman  from the village who research the jews in the village.

 I found a wonderful woman who was ready any time to help us with our family project . about  2 month mails were exchange everyday.

Barbara was history teacher and retired . she investigating the jews life and has a lot of information since about 1790 .

 Tola the mother of my wife Bracha and her sister Dwora   was born in Klodawa belong to Krel and Rashevsky  families . she and her cousin Moshe Krel was survived from the big famiy.

We know she was two and half year at Poland family underground and some time at Attic ,  we know that she jump from a truck on the way to be murder. but the whole picture is not clear.

On the 10h of June 2014 we ( Bracha & Dan, Dwora & Menachem ) arrived from Warsawa to KLODAWA. A day before we  completed an organized trip to Poland .

 At the entrance to the village we met  Barbara Ganczyk and Aleksander Loza.

Aleksander is a grandchild of a lady "Righteous Among the Nations" and came from Poznan  .

Aleksander   was our translator and he also dedicate to the story of the jews.

First we visited the Jewish Cemetery where the grandmother, grandfather and the rest of my entire family from Krel & Rashevsky families were buried.  The place has no tombs and instead there is only one memorial stone.

We continued to the flourmill [KRZEWACKI ?].  At this place an open ghetto was established for the Jews of KLODAWA.  We continued to a church where all the Jews of Klodawa were made to congregate before being sent to Chelmno.

We arrived at the Jewish area at the East of the Klodawa River.  We passed the house of the Rabbi and Chazan and went into the synagogue which is used today as a cultural centre.  We continued to the Rynak where we saw signs of Judaism on some of the homes.  On the corner of the Rynak is the house of David Karel, father of Moshe Krel who lives in Miami Florida.  The owner of the house arrived specially to meet us and allowed us to go into the house which today stands empty.

On another corner of  warsawa street , Tola  and her big of the family lived, The houses were made of wood were no longer there.

We arrived to the offices of the city . Barbara enable us to see the books   which concern to our family. We saw the document about the birth of Tola and many others documents regarding the family.  These documents helped us a lot to complete our family story and family tree.

Surprisingly Barbara invited us to her home for lunch.  She prepared a rich Polish lunch which reminded us of our childhood.  In the yard she showed us pieces of tombs that she found in the street . At the end of the meal we left the house in the direction of Chelmono. She stopped at a flowershop and bought us a bouquet of flowers on which was written "Israel and Klodawa".

We arrived at the concentration camp in Chelmono where most of the citizens of Klodawa were killed.  Due to little time we only entered the entrance of the camp and the Palace in which the people were gassed.

On the monument at the entrance we put the flower bouquet and we lit Yorzheit candles.  We departed from the hosts and we travelled back to Warsaw to the airport

We must stress the warm hospitality of Barbara and Aleksander who helped us with the translation and came specially from the city of Poznan.

Barbara is a wonderful woman.  She is sensitive, and exerts all her energy to embrace the Jewish world of Klodawa.

It must be noted that Barbara explained everything until the last detail right through our visit – a most moving visit.

We were asked to help to establish a memorial stone in honor of the Jews of Klodawa in Chlemno.

I hope that with friends from the U.S.A. we will be able to fulfill this request.

BELOW PHOTOS SUBMITTED BY DAN ROTH JUL 2015 OF HIS TRIP TO KLODAWA IN JUNE 2014:

BARBARA GANCZYK, BRACHA ROTH (DAUGHTER OF TOLA KRELL/RZEWESKI) VISIT TO KLODAWA JUN 2014. (To the left of them driver)

KLODAWA CEMETERY
FROM LEFT : DVORA (SISTER IN LAW ), MENACHEM (HUSBAND ).  BRACHA (MY WIFE).  BARBARA GANCZYK .  LOZA ( THE TRANSLATOR). DVORAH AND BRACHA DAUGHTERS OF TOLA KRELL RZSEWSKI.	The only Memorial Stone in the Klodawa Cemetery today.

The German collected all jews into the Church for one or two days  before without any food sending to Chlemno .	The building that was the school in Klodawa, which is now the town cultural center.

In Klodawa was the first Gehtto which was open and people could get out without any restrictions . this maybe explain us about Tola movements at the beginning of war .	Another view of the ghetto. According to Dan, the ghetto was the site of "the flour mill" [probably Krzewacki].