I’ve never been to Vienna before. Then again, I’ve never been to a lot of places. This week I will fly to Vienna to attend a fantastic conference – the first held by the relatively newly formed Association for Central European Jewish History and Genealogy (CEJHG). In addition to attending the conference I am very interested in seeing places where my extended family lived in the first half of the twentieth century.

It’s difficult to disentangle the family to introduce you to the branch about whom I want to speak because there are so many branches in which the same first and last names show up, but I’ll try. A pair of my 3x great-grandparents were Markus Schmiel Braunstein and Libe Zweifler. Their daughter, my great-great-grandmother, Gitel Tova Zweifler married my great-great-grandfather Shimon Kreisler. The families were from nearby cities in Galicia, Austrian Empire: Nadwórna and Stanisławów. My great-grandmother Chana Jetta and her older sister Devorah were the two oldest of the 10 children born to Gitel Tova and Shimon. Those of the siblings who survived infancy immigrated to the U.S., except fr Chana Jetta and Devorah – they perished in the Holocaust on the streets of Stanisławów along with many of their children and grandchildren.

Devorah married Josef Schaffer. They had several children including Benzion Schaffer. Sometime around 1935, he married Hencia Arbeit Zwirn possibly in Stanisławów. They ultimately settled in Israel. Hencia’s parents were Yehiel Jakob Zwern and Sosia Arbeit. Yehiel Jakobs parents, Hencia’s paternal grandparents were Itzig Zwirn and Rechel Zweifler. Rechel was Gitel Tova’s sister.

Yehiel and Sosia had ten children. Several of them settled in Vienna: their son Samuel, born in 1889, their daughter Sara born about 1897, and their daughter Chaya Devorah (Clara) born in 1902. Their daughter Lena (Lilly) likely also was in Vienna for a time.

Lilly arrived in New York sometime before her 3 July 1922 marriage to Isak (Isaac) Schechter. Isak arrived in New York in July 1921. At the time, he was single, and was born in Galicia, but his last residence was in Vienna, Austria, according to his ship manifest. His father was his closest relative still living in Europe, and he resided in Skalat, then in the Tarnopol province of Poland, now in Ukraine. Isak’s ship manifest and naturalization records say he was born in LICZKWICZ. This was probably Ułaszkowce in the Czortków district of Galicia. In Yiddish it was known as Lashkavitz. After World War I, when Isak left, it was in the Tarnopol province, and today is Ulashkivtsi, Ukraine. Skalat and Ulashkivtsi are about 50 miles apart.

It is probable that Lilly and Isak first met in Vienna. The family story says that she left Europe for New York to marry Isak. The couple traveled to Europe at least once before Lilly’s 1939 naturalization. Isaac had naturalized in 1927, after the birth of their first child in 1924, and before the birth of their second in 1929. The family story goes on to report that Lilly was responsible for getting several of her siblings out of Vienna in August 1939 including her sister Clara. Clara married Jakob Korn in Vienna in 1933. Their daughter, Henrietta was born there in 1935. Henrietta and Clara left Europe in August 1939. Jakob was incarcerated in Buchenwald where he died in 1941. The family’s address in Vienna in 1939 was 34 Bauerlegasse. When I’m in Vienna later this week, I’ll be staying just two miles from this address, which is not far from the Danube. I will definitely walk over there.

Lilly’s sister Sara, again according to family information, didn’t want to leave Europe – Henriette told me the story many years ago, and I think she stayed either because her husband was ill or he was already captured. Sara and her husband were both murdered in Auschwitz. I wish I remembered the full story, and had thought to write down or record what Henriette told me.

Henia Shaefer filled out the Page of Testimony in 1956 at Yad Vashem. This is the same Hencia who married Benzion Schaffer, the son of Devora and Josef, Devora was my great-grandmother’s sister. To make things more complex, Benzion’s brother, Shimon, married Sidonie Zwirn, a daughter of Samuel Zwirn and Helene Schneier.

Lilly’s brother Samuel was incarcerated in Dachau, and he and his wife Helene arrived in the U.S. in December 1939. A 1939 file from Europe said Samuel resided in Vienna since 1920.