Story of the Korngut family

In Czarny Dunajec and the surrounding area there were several families with the surname Korngut. We managed to learn more about one of them from the descendants' family and from documents preserved in the archives.

The head of the family was Abraham Dawid Korngut, who was born in the first half of the 19th century, possibly already in Czarny Dunajec. He had at least four children with his wife Lina (Cina). The oldest was Szymon (born around 1867), then Izrael Moses (1870-?), daughter Genendel Minka (1876-?) and Efraim Dow (1880-?).

The Kornguts were engaged in trade, from preserved records it appears that they had, among other things, a shop in the market with textiles, sold headscarves, had a warehouse with wine and beer, and traded in leather. In addition, Efraim and Moses were councilors, Szymon was on the list of deputy councilors in case of a vacancy (data from 1920).

Abraham's eldest son, Szymon Korngut married Hinda (1867-?) née Neugreschel from Krościenko (her parents were Majer and Mali Neugreschel), they had at least nine children: the eldest Chaim was born in 1893, then successively Jakub Szija Cwi (1895 -?), Abraham Dawid (1897-?), Hirsch (1898-?), Izak (1899-?), Estera (1900-?), Jecheskiel (1906), Jehuda Leibisch and Sali (1911-?).

According to information provided by Ania Brzyska, who deals with the history of the Jewish community in Brzesko, two cousins ​​of the Kornguts from Czarny Dunajec married two girls from Brzesko. Jakub Szija (son of Szymon) married Scheindel Landau from Brzesko (born 16.12.1895 in Brzesko, daughter of Moses Dawid and Reisla Landau, merchants of mixed goods). We know of their two sons, who were born in Brzesko: Hersz Majer, born 07.09.1922 and Abraham Henryk, born 06.01.1924. His cousin Aron (son of Efraim) married Cyla Silberman (15.12.1909, daughter of Berisch and Ella Silberman from Brzesko). First they lived in Brzesko, where their daughter Ewa Jochewet was born (02.12.1937), then they moved to Nowy Targ.

Abraham's second son - Izrael Moses with his wife Lea Mindel (née Bober or Dober) had at least seven children: Józef Dawid (born 1900 in Czarny Dunajec - died in 1990 in Israel), Rosa, Estera, Malka, Sara, Wilk and Ryfka.

Abraham Dawid's youngest son, Efraim Dow, had at least six children with his wife Chawa Ewa née Horowitz (born in 1879 in Zborov in present-day Slovakia): Genendel Minka (1905-?), Aron (1909-?), Chaskiel (1911-?), Jakub Osias (1912-?), Debora and Izak Hirsch. When Chawa died (probably around 1917) Ephraim married her sister Hinda Horowitz (1890-?), with whom he had a son Izak. The two sisters who were Ephraim's wives came from the Horowitz family from Zborov, their parents were Samuel and Sala, née Zimmerman. Sala's relatives live in the USA: great-great-grandson of her sister Breindla Zimmermann, who after marriage was called Miller.

In those days, marrying one's deceased wife's sister was not uncommon, as were cousin marriages. Two of Ephraim Korngut's children married their cousins: Genendel Minka married Józef Dawid Korngut, and Izak Hirsch Korngut married his cousin Esther (daughter of Szymon).

The only known daughter of Abraham Dawid, Gendel Minka (1876-?), married Izak Aron Kalfus, who came from Altendorf (today's Spišská Stará Ves in Slovakia), but after the wedding moved to Czarny Dunajec, where he traded alcohol. We know about one of their children: their daughter Sydonia was born on July 1, 1911 in Czarny Dunajec.

The war archives contain information about Abraham Korngut, born in 1873 in Czarny Dunajec, who died on December 7, 1916 during World War I (he served as a platoon sergeant in the 5th company of the 32nd Landsturm Infantry Regiment of the Imperial-Royal Austro-Hungarian Army).

From the descendants of the Korngut family we know for sure that Joseph David (who had a textile shop in the market before the war), the son of Israel Moses, escaped the Holocaust by fleeing to the east in the first days of the war. His son Israel Koren, who currently lives in Natania, Israel, told a short story of his survival: “After the war broke out, my father and his family fled east until they found themselves in Przemyśl, which was already on the Soviet side. He was sent to a labor camp in Siberia, where he worked, among other things, cutting down trees. After some time, he reached Uzbekistan. During this wandering, my father’s six-year-old niece or nephew died of typhus.” The rest of the family survived and, thanks to the help of the Jewish Agency, reached a camp for displaced persons (DPs) in Wels, Austria, where they lived for several years, and in 1948 they left for Israel. Józef Korngut married his cousin Genendel Minka (daughter of Ephraim), who was also born in Czarny Dunajec. In 1949, their son Israel Koren was born in Israel.

During the entire wartime wanderings, Józef and Minka managed to keep documents from Poland: his identity card and copies of both of their birth certificates. Israel Koren transferred a copy of these documents to the digital archive of Jewish Czarny Dunajec.

Israel is related to another family from Czarny Dunajec, whose story was described earlier, namely the Kleinzahler family. Rosa Korngut was his aunt (father's sister), she was born in Czarny Dunajec and in 1926 she married Menachem Mendel Kleinzahler, with whom she had four children. After the outbreak of the war, the entire Kleinzahler family fled to the east, the parents died of typhus on the way, and the four children survived, passing through camps in Tehran and Karachi, among others, and reached Israel. The whole story is described here.

Israel Koren (with his wife Chaja) - son of Józef Dawid Korngut, born in Czarny Dunajec - during the commemoration in 2024, photo by Jagoda Bukowska-Ziółko