Annotation of Aisenman Family Photo, Ostrowiec, Poland, circa 1921-1922-Family History Notes from the photo written by David Isenman (son of Yechiel-Yosef/Joe - born Mar. 15, 1909 and  died Nov. 13, 2001)

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David and Sheindl Aisenman had 10 children, 7 of which are present in the photo, these being (in descending order of age):

Raizelah, Itzik, Yente, Soraleh, Yechiel-Yosef/Joe (as an aside named after paternal grandfather), Moishele and Leibeleh.

Missing is :

-the eldest son, Binyamin (Yuma), who may have already been in British Mandatory Palestine with his wife Batia (a paternal side first cousin)

Harsh-Hillel (Harry), who would have been 24-25 years old at the time (so chronologically I believe in between Itzik and Yente) and was either on his way, or already in Toronto, Canada

- and the second youngest of the brothers, Leibish-Pinchas

Family details and history of above children:

The eldest sister Raizeleh, was married to Beryl (Dov Ber) Feldbloom and they had 6 children, 4 of whom are in the photo, namely (in descending order of age): Chaiyaleh, Rachel/Ruchel, Tzipora and Devorah. Missing from the photo are the youngest two siblings (not born yet), Basha and the only son, Fishel.

Harry married Rose (maiden name unknown) in Toronto shortly after he arrived there.  They had no children. When Harry came to Canada, he dropped the “A” from the English spelling of the surname and it became Isenman. Other members of the family in Israel transliterate the surname as Eisenman or Eizenman.  Rose Isenman died in Toronto, December 12, 1966, age 71.  After a couple of years, Harry remarried to Faye Rubinoff.  Harry died in Toronto August 25, 1987, age 92.

Joe immigrated to Canada in 1926 (landing in Halifax, Oct. 21, 1926), joining his brother Harry in Toronto.  He would have been 17 or 18 at the time.

In May 1936, Joe married Chana-Pesel (Anna/Annie) Finkelstein in Toronto.  Ironically, Annie was also born in Ostrowiec, Poland, and stranger still, had also given March 15, 1909 as her date of birth. In reality, neither Annie nor Joe knew their exact birthdates and just gave an estimate for the purpose of their immigration documents when they independently immigrated to Canada.  Annie did so with three other brothers and their mother as they reunited with their father, an older sister and two older brothers already in Toronto in 1923 (landing in Quebec City, June 9, 1923).  Annie and Joe did not know each other while in Poland, although they told me that they had a sense that the Finkelstein and Aisenman families knew each other in Ostrowiec.  They had one son, David Asher/David Elliot (me), date of birth, June 12, 1949. Joseph died in Toronto November 13, 2001, age 92 (93?).  Annie died in Toronto January 24, 2005, age 95.  David and his common-law spouse, Jacqueline/Jackie Segall, (together since April 1994) live in Toronto.

Joe believed that his parents, David and Sheindl, both died in Ostrowiec of natural causes before the outbreak of World War II.  Aside from Joe, Harry and Binyamin, who had all left Poland well before World War II, none of the other Aisenman siblings, or their spouses, survived the Holocaust.   

The only children who survived were two sisters from the Feldbloom family, Ruchel and Basha, both of whom survived Auschwitz.  After the war, Joe and Harry in Toronto managed to find them through public postings for missing relatives put up on various notice boards in Poland by North American Jewish agencies.

The fate of Basha and Ruchel Feldbloom:

Basha was in her early teens and would easily qualify to be sponsored to come to Canada under an orphaned children program.  Ruchel was older (probably early 30’s as deduced from extrapolation from the 1921-22 era family photograph, although this is disputed by her daughter Frieda Brodbaker and her Canadian registered birthdate of record, May 7, 1922, would have made her closer to 25) and was much more of a problem to sponsor under Canada’s immigration rules of the time.  There was, however, a program to recruit skilled trades people that Canada needed, such as for the garment and fur coat trades.  One of Joe’s friends, and fellow Labor-Zionist organization member, was a labour leader in the Toronto furrier’s union and was on the Canadian recruiting mission to Poland.  Joe basically told his friend that one way or another, he had to designate Ruchel Feldbloom as a qualified asset for the fur trade.  That indeed came to pass, with Ruchel coming to Toronto first, 1948, and Basha following, in 1949 (just before I was born).

Ruchel and Basha Feldbloom each married other holocaust survivors, who through various family sponsorships, also wound up in Toronto.

Ruchel married Yitzhak Brodbaker (March 1951) .

Basha married Shimon/Simon Kerbel (June 1950).