Case Szynkarska Hela - Polish and Jewish Surname spellings

Chaja Szynkarska - Hela Czenkalska grave in this first row officially marked as 1501 01 V001601

This is how it started. I found a strange name among the medical cards Läkarkort in the archives of the Swedish Holocaust Memorial Association. Why strange? Although it was typed I felt uncomfortable with this Polish family name and surname - Hela, kind of nick name from Helena that many of my Jewish friends used.

On the medical card there was also the number of her DP-2 card with L-number 1661. The information there confirmed my worries that her name was misspelled already at UNRRA TC-centre in Lübeck. Her proper name she signed with an untrained signature on the DP-2 card Szynkarska.

I traced other Szynkarska and Szynkarski and found her sister and half-sister in the Arolsen archives and as well information about her parents in Yad Vashem archives.

Among DP-2 cards, I found her married sister Masza Suchodolski (Szynkarska) (1918 - 1990). It is likely that she was a twin sister ! ?


From the documents concerning only the Szynkarska (Szynkarski family) one can easily follow what happened to the Jews of city Częstochowa. Like in other cities Germans created Jewish residential district - ghetto in April 1941. The railway line formed the boundary of the ghetto to the west; the Warta River to the east; to the north, streets Kawia, Kiedrzynska and Jaskrowska; and to the south, ulicy Fabryczna, Narutowicza and Strażacka. All Jews who lived outside this ghetto area were forced to move into the Jewish district by no later then 17th April 1941. At the same time, all Poles had to leave the area.

The first deportation from the Częstochowa Ghetto started at night (at 3.00AM) on September 22 (on Yom Kippur). Of 7,000 people gathered for deportation only 350 were chosen for work. The rest were led to Zawódzie railway station where the train consisting of 60 cattle wagons was waiting. The train left in the direction of Treblinka. In the ghetto, on the ground, in puddles of blood there were 200 bodies of the Jews that tried to resist and escape from the deportation. The bodies are then thrown into a large mass grave at Kawia street which had been earlier prepared for the purpose. Further deportations took place on 25th-26th and 28th-29th September and in the first days of October..
The result of this Deportation Action was 40,000 Częstochowa Jews were transported to their deaths in Treblinka. The number killed on-the-spot was never accurately determined, but is estimated at around 2,000.In the Częstochowa area, the Germans left approximately 5,000 of the healthiest and strongest Jews alive for work in several factories, especially the HASAG munitions factory, where several thousand Jews were forced to work.

In Częstochowa the Small Ghetto was created almost immediately after the deportations from the Big Ghetto, the Small Ghetto was created with 5,200 Jews that were squeezed into houses in a north-eastern section of the old Big Ghetto with only one entry at Garncarska street where at number 16, Hela Szynkarska family lived. Deportations continued also from the Small Ghetto during the Spring of 1944.

DP-2 card with L-number 1661. The information there confirmed my worries that her name was misspelled already at UNRRA TC-centre in Lübeck. Here is, however, her proper name that she signed with an untrained signature on the DP-2 card Szynkarska. Please observe that sisters (twins ?) had the same parents.

It is most likely that sister of Masza Szynkarska /Suchodolski) provided the earlier info about her sister, that Helen-Chaja died 3 days before the liberation of Bergen-Belsen. They were in the same camp and probably both at very bad condition. One can only speculate that Masza was in the worse condition and not transportable to Sweden and stayed at Bergen-Belsen Hospital while Chaja-Helena was transported to Norrköping in the UNRRAs White Boat action.

DP-2 card of half brother (the same father) that survived the Holocaust.

After that Swedish Holocaust Memorial Association provided new info to the family of Chaja Szynkarska, the family changed info on the Geni page. Earlier it was stated that Helen-Chaja died 3 days before the liberation of Bergen-Belsen.

 - RECONFIGURING HISTORY BEYOND DISCIPLINARITY 

Inacurate information given to Yad Vashem by Helenas ans Maszas half brother that "Helen Szynkierski" died before the liberation of Bergen-Belsen. The surname i wrongly spelled, as maskulin form..

Surname spellings

Note that in Polish documents some letters can be interchangeable: i and j (e.g., Fraiman / Frajman), h and ch (e.g., Horowicz / Chorowicz), y and i, and others. In Russian (Cyrillic) documents, the letter g that may appear in place of h (e.g., Gofman instead of Hofman). Because some of the record collections we type include both Jews and non-Jews, a few of the names below are for non-Jews

Szynkarz synonyms in Polish:arendarz; karczmarz; oberżysta; właściciel gospody - means bar keeper.

First row

1501 01 V000101 (upplåten) 

Katoldn Arnstedn 

1501 01 V000201 (upplåten) 

Cesia Kleiner 

1501 01 V000301 (upplåten) 

Ren Iszkowitz 

1501 01 V000401 

Elisabet Klein 

1501 01 V000501

Josef Gärtner 

1501 01 V000601 

Cyla Wloszezowska 

1501 01 V000701

Vera Popper 

1501 01 V000801 

Irene Havas 

1501 01 V000901 

Ruzka Rosenbaum 

1501 01 V001001 

Edit Gunzler 

1501 01 V001101 

Regina Orkoski 

1501 01 V001201 

Sava Krystik 

1501 01 V001301 

Emma Kohn 

1501 01 V001401 

Ewa Kellerman 

1501 01 V001501 

Hela Czenkalska 

1501 01 V001601 

Paul Hormat 

1501 01 V001701

Bronislawa Dorfman

Last row

1501 18 V000201

Joseph Orzwxh 1922-1945 

1501 18 V000301 

Sala Botwin 1922-1945 

1501 18 V000401

Blanka Markowitz 1904-1945 

1501 18 V000501 

Rosenblom Abraham 1908-1945 

1501 18 V000601 

Frida Schlesinger 1945 

1501 18 V000701 

1501 18 V000801 

Ethel Klein 191-1945 

1501 18 V000901 

Elisabeth Klein 1913-1945 

1501 18 V001001 

Olga Esher 1924-1945 

1501 18 V001101 

1501 18 V001201 

 Iboja schechter 1927-19