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Esther Rivka Kronjek


POB: Pultusk, Poland
DOD: 1942, Location: Treblinka, Poland

Submitted by Ilene Rubenstein, Marvin Deluty, and Marc Gross

 

Marvin Deluty writes:

Esther Rivka Kronjek had four daughters and one son: Rosa (my grandmother), Ida, Hena, Feyge, and Motel. Ida came to New York and Motel went to Argentina before the War. Feyge was abandoned by her husband before the War. She had one child, but I do not know his/her name. Esther Rivka, Hena, Feyge, and Feyge's child were killed in Treblinka.

Rosa married my grandfather (Zev) and had three children: David (my father), Moshe (Maurice, my uncle), and Hinda (my aunt). My grandparents and aunt were killed in Auschwitz.

My father and uncle survived Auschwitz (in Birkenau and Buna/Monowitz) from 1942-1945. They were then on a death march from Buna/Monowitz to Gleiwitz in January 1945. Afterwards they were in Ohrdruf (a sub-camp of the Buchenwald network of camps) . In April 1945, my father and uncle escaped by jumping from the train that was transporting them to another camp in The Czech Republic. They became separated, and were each sheltered by Catholic Czech families who risked their lives hiding them. After a long ordeal, they were reunited in Paris. My uncle came to the US in 1946, and my father came here in 1949.

Marc Gross writes:

Ester Rivka died after a long trek from Pultusk to a detention camp in Poland that was a waystation before transport to the concentration camps. I saw this in the records of all those who died in the Holocaust in a visit to Poland.

Hinda was a tragic case. She was about 16 years old, fair and blonde, and could have passed for gentile. Although the story is questioned by other family members, I was told that when the Jews were being forced to leave their Polish towns after the Nazi invasion, a neighbor offered to take her in, but on condition that they raise her as a Catholic so there would be no suspicion of harboring a Jew. Her father Zev refused. Hinda went to Auschwitz with the rest of her family where her parents were immediately separated and murdered. Her brothers, who barely managed to survive themselves, possibly due to their carpentry skills, reportedly passed portions of their bread to Hinde through the fence separating men and women so she could survive. She did not.

Rosa and Zev Dluto

Rosa and Zev Dluto

Hinda Dluto

Hinda Dluto