Warning! The text retains the original spelling of surnames and place names by an Israeli researcher; in many cases it may not be correct. Fragments that could contain current personal data have been removed from the interview.
Name of Interviewee: Bezalel Lavi [Czesław Zalewski];
Interview topic: Family of Bezalel Lavi;
Family:
Father: Avraham-Moshe (Mieczysław in Polish) Zalewski, was born in Sterdyń, near Treblinka, on 7.3.1912.
Grandfather Shmul-Jankel Zalewski was born in 1865 in Sterdyń, Grandmother Ester-Rachel Blumstein was born in 1878.
Brothers and sisters: Alter, Zawel, Yolke, Sara-Riwka, Grine.
Alter left Poland for Argentina in 1921; the two sisters left for France in the mid 20's.
Mother: Itka (Irka, in Polish) (nee Samont), was born in Sterdyń, on 18.1.1925.
Great-grandparents (grandfather's parents): Motl Samont and Tobcze.
Great-grandparents (grandmother's parents): Mordechai Baruch Kagan and Golda.
Grandparents: Calke Samont and Chana Kagan.
Brother and sisters: Leib, Golda, Masha, Chaya.
All the members of the family, except for the father's brother and sisters who lived abroad, perished in the Holocaust. Lavi's parents survived the war wandering and hiding in the villages and forests of the region, east of Warsaw; at age of 17 the mother survived when Germans ransacked a house where she was hiding behind a cupboard.
After the war
After the war Lavi's parents were transferred to the south and settled in Dzierżoniów, the former German town Reichbach [Reichenbach], in Dolny Śląsk. He was born there on 28.8.1946 and named Czesław Zalewski. His brother Jan, was born on 16.8.1948. They were not told and were not aware of the Holocaust until their school years in Israel. Even then, his parents were not eager to talk about their memories and details of their family's past. Therefore it is mostly unknown.
Several thousand Jews lived in Dzierżoniów. They settled there after the war. They enjoyed social, educational, cultural, and religious life. Jews participated in the football club "Start". IA Jewish theater was active and a library was open. The old synagogue was overcrowded during the Jewish holidays. Although not religious, Lavi's family attended services during holidays. Their mother tongue was Yiddish. The boys studied in the elementary no. 5 Jewish school (Lavi graduated from fourth grade and his brother, from the second).
The father worked as a butcher and the mother was a housewife. They lived in a peaceful environment without any anti-Semitic incidents whatsoever. Each summer they used to go on vacation – in the first years to nearby mountain villages and afterwards to Międzyzdroje, a resort area by the Baltic Sea.
Emigration
In 1956, when immigration to Israel became possible, his parents decided to take that opportunity although he cannot recall that Zionism was the motivating force behind it.
The family arrived in Israel on January 1957 and settled in Ashkelon. Lavi's father managed a grocery store; he passed away in November 1979 and his mother died in November 1991.
Lavi studied Social Sciences at the university and graduated with a master's degree in International Relations. He specialized in local energy as well as in the media writing and editing and in tourism.
Lavi is married and has a son and a daughter. His brother is an advocate. He is married and has three children and three grandchildren.
Since the 90's Lavi visited Poland several times. The first trip, after 35 years, was in August 1992 when he traveled with his family to Dzierżoniów. During that trip, they were permitted inside the apartment where he grew up. That visit was a very moving event.
On May 2006, Lavi and his wife traveled to Sterdyń to meet the head of the community. Lavi found out on the Internet that the head of the community's name was identical to his birth name, Czesław Zalewski. He wanted to learn more about Lavi's past.
Considering that Lavi's parents were born in the same place, he replied to his inquiry saying that it probably was a coincidence.
At Lavi's request, he was very generous and handed him a copy of the document (written in Russian) certifying Lavi's father's circumcision on March 15th, 1912. He learnt a number of details regarding his grandparents from that document.
