Story of Ruzsha Roitman Steiner

This is one of the more interesting biographies I came across while researching the Jewish community of Czarny Dunajec. Róża (Ruzsha) Steiner came from Czarny Dunajec. According to the preserved registry books, she was born on May 27, 1920 as Rachela Adela Steiner, although she maintained until the end of her life that her date of birth was May 27, 1923. We don't know why she rejuvenated by three years, but her future husband also gave a different birth date from her actual one for many years.

Ruzsha Steiner, photo: Steiner family archives

Róża's parents were Bernard Dov and Chana Tamer (née Messinger) Steiner from Czarny Dunajec, her grandparents were Szaje (Yeshayahu) Steiner and Hani Steiner (née Feit). Her grandparents and Bernard and his family lived in neighboring houses on Kmietowicza Street. Róża's father traded in timber and had a hardware store. You can read the history of the Steiner family here.

Róża had at least three younger siblings: Salomon (born 1925), Salomea (1926) and the youngest Jakub (born 1929 or 1934).

According to Estera, Róża Steiner's daughter, who currently lives in the USA, her mother left for the East, to Baranowicze, after the outbreak of the war. She was supposed to meet her uncle, her father's brother, Jecheskiel Szraga (who later changed his name to Herman), but it turned out that in the meantime her uncle had already left for the USA. Róża stayed with his wife, aunt Sara (née Biteńska, worked in Baranowicze as an accountant), who was pregnant. According to the descendants of the family, Sara tried to leave the city and get to her husband in the USA, but was murdered during the war - supposedly because of the fur coat she was wearing. We do not know the details of Róża's stay in Baranowicze, but we do know that she lived in the ghetto that the Germans created in that city in 1941. There she met Noah Roitman, who was a cousin and neighbor of her aunt Sara. Theoretically, Róża and Noah were the same age, but after years it turned out that Róża was born in 1920, not in 1923 as she maintained all her life, so in 1941 she was really 21 years old, not 18, while for many years Noah gave the date of birth of his older deceased brother (January 10, 1923), but in fact he was born in 1924, so in 1941 he was 17 years old. Almost the entire Roitman family died during the Holocaust, some of the relatives, 25 people, hid during the war in a bunker dug next to the house, which was discovered by the Germans, the rest died during the liquidation actions in the ghetto. Noah escaped from the ghetto and joined a partisan unit in the forests near Baranowicze. He not only got Róża out of the ghetto, but also about 80-100 other people. He was helped in this by, among others, Edward Chacza, who in 1964 received the title of Righteous Among the Nations for helping Jews during the war.

We also know little about the partisan part of this story. According to Estera, the daughter of Róża and Noah, her father was first a member of Zhorkin's unit, the commander of his group was Mome Kopelowicz. It is not known whether Róża joined this unit. Later, both were already in Pugachev's unit, also known as Kaganovich's unit. The commanders of the Jewish partisan group include: Moshe Zalmanowicz, Aliosha Zarykiewicz, Moniek Muszyński, Izaak Medresz, Szlomo Reb.

The next names of the units they belonged to were the Matrosov Brigade, Group 112 and the Molotov Brigade. Among the commanders were Orłowski (pseudonymous "Mucha") and Nikolski, and later "Igor". More about Noah Roitman's own war history can be found in his 1999 account for the Holocaust Museum in Washington (after the end of the fighting, he was conscripted into the Red Army and took the combat route to Berlin). After the war, Róża returned to Czarny Dunajec with her cousin, Salke Hecht, who had survived exile to Siberia (this name and surname appears on the list of delegates from Szczawnica to the Nowy Targ Judenrat during the war, but I do not know if this is the same person) and his sister Henchie Hecht (later Kluger). According to Esther, her house was already occupied by a Polish family, and a cow was kept in the room where Róża's grandfather kept Torah scrolls and prayed, because due to his advanced age he could not always go to the synagogue for services. The residents of this house told Róża that one of her cousins ​​had survived the war, but when he returned and wanted to get his house back, someone murdered him at night. Unfortunately, this information cannot be verified, and we do not know the name of the cousin in question.

Another question that remains unanswered is what happened to Róża's youngest brother Jakub. According to her, when the war broke out and she left for the East, Jakub was five years old, and their neighbor offered to take him for safekeeping and claim that he was his relative.

There is another tragic memory in Róża's story: during the war, her parents sent her a postcard from Auschwitz. “We are all in Oświęcim, we live in a resort, it is beautiful here, they treat us well and feed us.” From Róża's closest family, only relatives who left for the USA before or during the war and cousins ​​Salke (who left for the USA) and Henchie Hecht survived (she left for Israel, after marriage she had the surname Kluger).

After the war, Róża joined Noah, they got married while still in Europe and got to the territory of the future Israel (on the way they spent a few more months in a British camp in Cyprus, Noah took part in the Arab-Israeli war in 1948) from where in 1963 they went to the USA with their daughters Tamar and Esther, who live in Maryland with their families. Róża died on October 5, 2004 and Noah on January 16, 2023.

Ruzsha Roitman's grave. Photo: Steiner family archives

In the photos taken before the war in Czarny Dunajec, Róża is the girl in the light dress. Next to her is sitting a friend from Krościenko Ryfka Weissbard (née Bromberg), and behind her cousin Henchie Hecht.

Photo: Steiner family archives

In the family photo are Róża's father Bernard (standing) and her grandparents. The photos were taken in front of the house and in the garden of the Steiner house on Kmietowicza Street.

Photo: Steiner family archives