Jewish Homes Around The Town Square Perimeter
Many of the homes (or buildings) around the Klodawa Town Square are said to have been owned or rented by Jewish families prior to World War II.
My father, Max Rotbart, lived in one of them with his parents and sister. I had a hunch when I visted Klodawa which apartment may have been my family's, but I couldn't confirm it.
Does anyone recognize these apartments? Who lived in them? 
the one story house belongs to my wife's family- kawa, it was the only one story house in the center. try to make it possible to enlarge the photos as older people find it difficult, also i cannot read the merchants list
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I have enlarged the photos, as you suggested. I hope they are easier to view. If you still have problems let me know and I'll email the photos directly to you.
I'm still not sure I know which of the homes belonged to your wife's family. They all look like two-stories or more to me. What color was it.
Can you tell me more about your wife's family? What did they do? What were their names? What happened to them (did they escape the camps)?
Please contribute all the information that you can so that we can all learn.
Many Thanks,
DEAN
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on the very left,hardly caught in the photo, appears to be a green sign above a window,this is our one story house. if you can e-mail the photo, so that i can enlarge it, i will try to show it to the person that lived there
best wishes, your site look fine,
robert
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Dean,
The white 3-story building was my Grandmother's brother's house. I have to ask my father what his first name was but his last name was Szczecinski. He died in the Holocaust. I will ask my Father for more information about him but since my Dad was only 10 when the war started, I am not sure what else he will remember.
Ron
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That is valuable information. One goal I would have is to create a 'map' of Klodawa, highlighting where each of our families lived. I'm still trying to figure out where along the town square my father's family resided. Each house I eliminate gets me one house closer to a bullseye. Thanks. DEAN
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One more comment: This picture was taken from in front of my Great-Grandfather's house. His name was Moses (Mosz) Szczecinski. Next to his house was another house owned by my family: Naftali Tabaczynski was married to my Grandmother's (Helena or Xena per her birth record) sister Rosalia. Additionally, another sister, Halina was married to a man named Marzak and lived on the street as well. Just around the corner was my Great-Grandfather's leather shop.
Ron
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Here are two more homes from the market square in Klodawa. The two-story yellow structure, which was a Jewish home, is located on the corner and is opposite the town hall. The grey building -- which I don't know whether it was Jewish or not -- is at No. 8 Market Square.
Anyone who knows more about these two structures, please share your knowledge with us.
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Dean,
The yellow house, which is now used by the town for administrative functions (I had thought that it was the town hall) was owend by my Great-Grandfather, Moses Szczecinski. He raised his 12 kids there. Upon his death in 1927, ownership passed to his children. When the war began in 1939, my Grandfather, Icek Jozef Wolkowicz, took his family there because he thought it was safer to be in a small town than the city of Kalisz, where they lived. At some point, probably no later than early-mid 1940, the Nazis forced them out of the house and took it over to use as their headquarters in the town until the Soviet Union overran Poland in early 1945.
Ron
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Dean-
If you look closely at the photo that I have submitted of my family's home at 10 Rynek, you will see it is almost identical the tall pinkish colored building (next to the yellow one, and on the left of the red van). At first glance, I noticed a similarity. But, as I examined even closer--the windows, doors and balconies matched exactly. In addition, there is a small blue square on the bottom of the buildings in both photos, and the home to the right is bright yellow. Also, the tree in front seems to be the same.
Do you agree? I would be willing to bet that the photo you have posted includes Rynek No. 10. Do you know the name of the street where this was taken? The street name may have been changed by the Germans and not renamed. I'm not familiar with how that process went.
If it is not, than it is a striking coincidence of the similarity. Maybe there are several buildings that have that same structure--but the yellow house to the right with those windows all matching as well seems too coincidental.
The photo that I have was taken by my cousin in 1997. Yours was taken in 2001.
Do you agree??
Judy
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Hello Dean,
i would like to fix my fathers mistake, on his comment from 3/2006:
our family that owned the one story house in the twon square in the LEWIN family, and not as mentioned above.
did you ever create a map of klodawa?
L.
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Has anyone used the Books of Residents for Klodawa? These provide lists of people with dates of birth, parentage and so on, and each house is given a number. A fellow researcher was provided with some entries by a professional genealogist in Poland. They were undated, but apparently came from the 1870s or thereabouts. I don't know how easy it would be to link up the numbers of the houses with street addresses, but assuming that geography played some role in the numbering, it might be useful to combine the information with the identifications you've already made.
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I have never heard of these Books of Residents, Chris, but would be interested in learning more about them. Can you provide some direction on how we can get a hold of the informatin within them?
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I must apologise - I tried to post a reply some time ago, but it doesn't seem to have appeared.
The Books of Residents are described on the JRI Poland website, here:
http://www.jewishgen.org/jri-pl/bor.htm
By following the instructions I found that the following records for Klodawa had survived:
(1) Tytul spisu Ksiega ludnosci stalej gminy Klodawa
Miejscowosc Klodawa
Województwo Konin
Obszar gmina
Nazwa zespolu Akta gminy Klodawa
Daty 1872-1914
Numer zespolu 37
Sygnatura 168
Ilosc jednostek 1
Numer karty k. 1-355
Zawartosc spisu ksiegi meldunkowe, rejestry meldunkowe
Doprecyzowanie zawartosci spisu ludnosc stala
And four others for which the details were similar, except for those listed below:
(2) Sygnatura 169
Ilosc jednostek 1
Numer karty k. 1-403
(3) Sygnatura 170
Ilosc jednostek 1
Numer karty -
(4) Sygnatura 171
Ilosc jednostek 1
Numer karty k. 1-286
(5) Sygnatura 172
Ilosc jednostek 1
Numer karty k. 1-317
I believe the records are all in Russian for this period, and as far as I know the only way of getting access to the information would be through a researcher who could visit the archives in Konin.
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I've tried twice to reply with further information, but for some reason my posts haven't appeared.
I'll try again, and will split the reply into three, just to see if it helps.
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The Books of Residents are described on the JRI Poland website, here:
http://www.jewishgen.org/jri-pl/bor.htm
By following the instructions I found that five records for Klodawa had survived.
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There is some information on the Books of Residents on the JRI Poland website, with a link to the Polish State Archives website and instructions on how to find the records in the database:
http://www.jewishgen.org/jri-pl/bor.htm
There are five volumes listed for Klodawa. The details for the first are as follows:
Tytul spisu Ksiega ludnosci stalej gminy Klodawa
Miejscowosc Klodawa
Województwo Konin
Obszar gmina
Nazwa zespolu Akta gminy Klodawa
Daty 1872-1914
Numer zespolu 37
Sygnatura 168
Ilosc jednostek 1
Numer karty k. 1-355
Zawartosc spisu ksiegi meldunkowe, rejestry meldunkowe
Doprecyzowanie zawartosci spisu ludnosc stala
Then the others are similar, but with the following variations:
Sygnatura 169
Ilosc jednostek 1
Numer karty k. 1-403
Sygnatura 170
Ilosc jednostek 1
Numer karty -
Sygnatura 171
Ilosc jednostek 1
Numer karty k. 1-286
Sygnatura 172
Ilosc jednostek 1
Numer karty k. 1-317
I don't think there's any alternative to hiring a professional researcher to make extracts. If I understand correctly, the records are in Russian for this period.
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The details of the surviving records are:
(1) Tytul spisu Ksiega ludnosci stalej gminy Klodawa
Miejscowosc Klodawa
Województwo Konin
Obszar gmina
Nazwa zespolu Akta gminy Klodawa
Daty 1872-1914
Numer zespolu 37
Sygnatura 168
Ilosc jednostek 1
Numer karty k. 1-355
Zawartosc spisu ksiegi meldunkowe, rejestry meldunkowe
Doprecyzowanie zawartosci spisu ludnosc stala
And four others for which the details were similar, except for those listed below:
(2) Sygnatura 169
Ilosc jednostek 1
Numer karty k. 1-403
(3) Sygnatura 170
Ilosc jednostek 1
Numer karty -
(4) Sygnatura 171
Ilosc jednostek 1
Numer karty k. 1-286
(5) Sygnatura 172
Ilosc jednostek 1
Numer karty k. 1-317
I believe the records are all in Russian for this period, and as far as I know the only way of getting access to the information would be through a researcher who could visit the archives in Konin.
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