Story of the Kleinzahler family

The Kleinzahler family settled in Czarny Dunajec in the second half of the 19th century. As Gili Knipel-Sprei, granddaughter of Arie Lejb Kleinzahler, recalls, her grandfather was born in Wiśnicz and his wife was Rachela Weil from Nowy Sącz (born in 1853). Arie Lejb probably studied to become a rabbi in Nowy Sącz, as her granddaughter recalls that his mentor was the famous Nowy Sącz tzaddik Chaim Halberstam (1793-1876), who insisted that his student become a rabbi. After moving to Czarny Dunajec, his grandfather did not take up the challenge; he worked here as a teacher, mohel (circumcising boys) and shohet (i.e. ritual slaughterer). In the civil records of the Jewish community, there is a reference from 1883 that Arie Lejb Kleinzahler was then working as a mohel and Segensprecher (literally: blesser). According to Gila's memoirs, her grandfather served 13 villages - from Czarny Dunajec to Podwilk. 

Arie Lejb and Rachela had at least two children, Sara and Chaim (it is possible that Pinkus Aron Kleinzahler, born in 1885, was also their son; according to the Austrian military archives, he was wounded during the First World War). Sara Kleinzahler married the merchant Chaim Sprei from Czarny Dunajec, they lived close to the market square and church. A daughter Zlate was born to them in 1912, a son Samuel Baruch in 1919, Solomon in 1923 and in 1926 a daughter, Feigel, or Gila Knipel-Sprei, who survived the Holocaust and wrote down brief memories of the family.

Chaim Kleinzahler was a tailor by profession, was also a deputy councillor (from 1920), and lived with his wife Freidel (née Teitelbaum, from Gorlice) near the synagogue, later near the marketplace. In the house on Sienkiewicz Street, however, he ran not a tailor's workshop but a dairy; his sons helped him. In 1910. Chaim obtained a licence to run a tavern in Czarny Dunajec. He leased buildings from the municipality in the market area on the road to Ciche. A bowling alley was set up in the former pigsty, and next door was an inn; across the road was a house where the Kleinzahler family lived (the house was demolished in 2021, but we will return to it). Dunajec residents recalled that Chaim had the nickname "Chamidlo" and to this day this part of the village by the old marketplace is called “next to Chamidlo".

Chaim and Rosa had at least five children. From the memories of the locals, we know that "they had three sons, Pinkus, Mendel and Szymon, and two daughters, graceful and tall. One of the sons was a mute. The sons were also handsome." In the archives we found Pinkus (born in 1902), Rywka Laja (born in 1909) and Szymon (1912). Descendants of the family further confirmed that Chaim and Rosa had two more sons, Menachem Mendel (b. 1901) and probably the youngest of the siblings, Mejloch (Meilech), born around 1920/21.

Reisel and Mendel Kleinzahler, photo from Kleinzahler family archive

We know most about the family of Menachem, or Mendel Kleinzahler, because his children survived the Holocaust. Mendel married Reisel (Rozalia) Korngut, daughter of Moses and Lea, merchants from Czarny Dunajec. An entry in the nuptial book dated 26 August 1926 has been preserved in the archives. The wedding was performed for them by the Czarny Dunajec rabbi Isaac Lipschütz.

Mendel ran a dairy in the family home, then his father's inn. In 1927, their first child was born - a son Issachar Ber, or Berek (or Dov), and then three more every year: Leyb, Josef and Lola (Leah). When the war broke out, the entire six-person family and Mendel's brother Szymon fled to the east. The parents and uncle died on the way in the USSR, but four children managed to survive and as the "Children of Tehran" were evacuated to Palestine in 1943. The whole story of the escape, the stay of the Kleinzahler family in the east and the rescue of the children can be read in the article "Children of Tehran" from Czarny Dunajec. We have no information whether the rest of the family stayed or fled. According to the information contained in the register of the dead, Rachela, Ari Lejb's wife, died in 1917 at the age of 64, he himself probably did not live to see the outbreak of the war.

Photo of the four siblings after their arrival in Israel and before the war in 1948, photo from the Kleinzahler family archive

As a postscript to this family story will be the story of Mejloch Kleinzahler's letter, which has been reported here before. Mejloch was probably the youngest of Mendel's siblings and his brothers and sisters, the uncle of Berk, Leib, Josef and Lea. When the house where the Kleinzahler family lived before the war was demolished in 2021, a letter was found in the attic. The priceless document is 16 pages long and was written by the then probably 18-year-old Mejloch Kleinzahler to his cousin. It bears the date 17 August 1939 and was never sent. You can read the full story of the letter and its contents here.