Top row (left to right): Yaakov, Shamai, Moshe, Meir
Bottom row (left to right): Shmuel, Mother Zviya, Father Shimon, Yosef
Wigdorowicz
(Vidar) Family
Shimon Wigdorwicz was born in Opatow in 1869 and married Zviya (Bainerman). They had 6 children: Yosef, Yaacov, Shmuel, Shamai, Moshe and Meir. All but Meir were murdered or died during the Holocaust.
Meir, who was born in 1913, married Ruta/Ruth in 1940. In the October 1942 liquidation of the ghetto, Ruta/Ruth and her 2.5 year old daughter Dvora were sent to Treblinka. Both died there, together with the thousands of other Ostrowiec residents sent there. Meir survived the war and later married Hadasa (Grondman). Meir and Hadasa had 4 sons.
Yosef had two sons, Shlomo and Pinhas. Shlomo was murdered on Apr 28 1942 during the slaughter as mentioned here.
Pinhas Vidar described the incident when testifying:
On 28/4/42, Mr. Vidar witnessed Wagner kill his brother, Mr. Shlomo Vigdorowits, on Sinkivitza Street in Ostrowiec. The victim was 18 years old. Witness Vidar was an eyewitness to this incident. At this time approximately 30 Jews were murdered. The witness saw the bodies in the Jewish cemetery, although he did not witness the killings. When Wagner & Bruner broke into the witness's house in order to kill his brother, the witness's father was captured and sent to Auschwitz along with a group of Jews. Three weeks later the witness's mother received an official notice that the witness's father was declared “dead.”
Pinhas, in his Holocaust memoirs, described how he saved his family photos during the Holocaust:
So they brought us to the showers, and we were afraid it was the gas chambers, because there were already rumors. They ordered us to undress completely and throw the striped clothes of the labor camp in one big pile, and take in our hands to the showers only our shoes.
I had (with me) pictures I took in Ostrowiec, and I took the pictures and put them in one shoe. At the entrance of the big hall of showers, stood a German with a whip, and saw that I had pictures in shoes from home, a souvenir from my parents. He hit me with a whip because I did not want to leave the pictures. At the end I threw all the pictures on the pile of the clothes, and I cried.
Another German asked why I was crying, and why the guard was beating me. I explained to him about the pictures and asked that I keep a souvenir from my Dad and Mom. The German told the Nazi guard, that he would let me take it quickly. I jumped on the pile, and I took as many pictures as I could. I shoved the pictures into the shoe, and went inside….
See more Wigdorowicz family photos from during the Holocaust below.
Modern “Matzeiva” near the area of the destroyed tombstone of Shlomo Wigdorwicz that was added by the family during their visit in June 2016.
The Jewish cemetery in Ostrowiec March 24, 2017, photo by W. Mazan. Photo courtesy of: http://zydowskiostrowiec.
English translation of the matzeiva:
Eternal remembrance
Here lies
Szlomo Wigdorowicz
who was murdered at home
April 28, 1942
18 years old at the time of his death.
In eternal memory
The Vidar, Wigdorowicz and Avigad families
Widgodorwicz family photos that were saved by Pinhas
