Story of Sala and Ernest Horowitz

The history of this Horowitz family (rather unrelated to another family of the same name) begins in the mid-19th century in Czarny Dunajec. Szlomo Horowitz was a horse trader; according to descendants' accounts, he prospered, but died early, at the age of 35 from being kicked in the head by a horse. Szlomo had a son, Giza (Gershon), who was born in Czarny Dunajec in 1876, but did not trade horses, but was a tinsmith. His daughter (we don't know her name), on the other hand, was partially paralyzed, had a caregiver and went once a year to a spa in Karlovy Vary for rehabilitation and therapeutic baths.

Giza left Czarny Dunajec at the age of twenty and in Ružomberok (today's Slovakia), he met Netti (Yete) Berger, four years younger, who was the daughter of the owner of a local restaurant. They married in 1899, and a year later their daughter Etelka was born, but Netti then left for the United States for two years. Upon her return, Netti gave birth to three children in Ružomberok: Julanka (1907), Sandor (1908) and Ernest (1910). A year later, the family moved even further south in the Austro-Hungarian Empire - to Kecskemet, located outside Budapest. On July 8, 1911, the town was partially destroyed by an earthquake, and as a result of the tremors the local synagogue was also damaged. An appeal from the local Jewish community, which needed professionals to rebuild the synagogue, Giza also responded and moved with his family to Kecskemet. According to family memories, he opened his workshop there, where he employed more than 30 people, but at one point he lost all his money in cards and he had no money to pay his employees with. The year 1914 brought war and mobilization for the army. Giza was also drafted into the army, where he spent four years. Netti during the war went to Vienna and, as a soldier's wife, applied for a family allowance from the government of Austria-Hungary. Ina (1914) was still born in Kecskemet, and after World War I Tibor and Anuszka.

In 1930 Giza returned with part of his family to Czarny Dunajec. During World War II, all three Horowitz daughters lived in Hungary, it is not known where and when they died. Ina lived in Krakow and died in Auschwitz, Sandor in Tarnow and died there as well. Nothing is known about Tibor's fate. Netti and Giza during the war probably went to Mszana Dolna, perhaps they had family there, but also unknown where and when they died.

Photo of the Horowitz family. Ernest, who was the only survivor of the Holocaust, stands first from the right Photo from the Horowitz family archives

In this photo, there is only one person from the entire family who survived the Holocaust. That's Ernest, who was 29 years old when the war broke out - he stands first from the right. His parents Netti and Giza are sitting in the bottom row in the middle, with their youngest daughter Anushka between them. First from the right is eldest daughter Etelka, her husband Sandor sits first from the bottom left. Standing in the top row from the left are Ernest's brothers and sister Ina (Yena), Tibor, Julenka and Sandor. Attention is drawn to the Hungarian and Czech names of the children. They were all born in what was then Austria-Hungary, which was a great national and linguistic melting pot.

Ernest, born in Ružomberok, came with his father in 1930 from Hungary to Czarny Dunajec and met his future wife Sala in a tailor shop. Sala Stiller was born in Witow on 27.02.1915, but moved to Czarny Dunajec at the age of 11. Her parents were Israel and Jentel (née Ring), who in addition to Sala had Jacob, Karol and Rela, and Israel with his first wife Maria (née Langer) had a son Moses. Sala went to tailor school and later worked as a seamstress for her cousin Adolf Stiller (son of Aron Stiller, Israel's brother). Ernest and Sala became engaged in 1936, and were married two years later. A week before the outbreak of war, they had a daughter, Rebecca. Ernest was mobilized and left for the front, and Sala and her week-old daughter began fleeing to the east, but the family was reunited after a while. 

As refugees from German-occupied Poland, they were detained in Podhajce, and in 1940 were deported to Siberia near Sverdlovsk (today's Yekaterinburg), where they spent five years in a hard labor camp. Little Rebecca could not endure the hardships of such wandering and died along the way at the age of six months. 

Postcard sent to Sala and Ernest when they were staying in Podhajce Photo from the Horowitz family archives

Postcards sent during the war by Sala's mother from Nowy Sącz to her daughter and her husband in Siberia have survived. At the time, Jetti Stiller was staying at a Jewish orphanage and asking for food parcels. "We are now in a very difficult position, we work hard for a piece of bread, but still it is impossible to work out for a living. You wrote that you would like to help us. People from there often get food packages. If you can, we ask you very much to send us some foodstuffs, maybe they would at least partially save us from the misery we live in." - wrote Sala's mother in 1940.

Sala and Ernest Horowitz with their daughter Esther Photo from the Horowitz family archives.

After the war ended, Sala and Ernest returned to Poland. During their return in 1945, their second daughter, Esterka, was born in what is now Ukraine. They settled with her in Cracow, where this photo was taken around 1948. In 1950. The Horowitzes left for Israel, and Esterka married and lived to have four daughters.