Hepner / Gepner

The line is now documented across four generations. Avraham Yitzhak Hepner, buried in Warsaw in 1933, was born in Łódź on 30 August 1885 to Srul Dawid Hepner, a weaver from Żelechów, and Hendla née Gottheld. He married Gitla Hamer in 1913, and their five children — Zysla, Henia, Majer, Moshe and Yehoshua — were born on a farm at Łazy near Warsaw. The proof is the Łódź permanent-population ledger, pages 138 to 140, read on 8 September 2026.

1. Abram and Sura

   Named in record

   19th century · Żelechów

   Parents of Izrael Dawid, named in the Łódź ledger

2. DocumentedFather named on Izrael Dawid's own register card (Łódź, scan 118).

   Izrael Dawid Hepner

   ישראל דודConfirmed father

   born 1854 · alive 1927 · Żelechów · Łódź by 1885 · Warsaw 1920

   Father of Avraham Yitzhak — documented

3. DocumentedŁódź ledger, page 138, row 4: Abram Icek, son of Srul Dawid and Hendla Gottheld, born 30 August 1885 — the age of 48 on the gravestone, whose father is Israel David.

   Avraham Yitzhak Hepner

   אברהם יצחק העפנערConfirmed

   30 August 1885 – 9 December 1933 · Born Łódź · Łazy near Warsaw 1914–1923 · died Warsaw

   Kohen · son of Srul Dawid and Hendla

4. DocumentedŁódź ledger, page 140, row 5: Majer-Chil, son of Abram-Icyk and Gitla née Hamer, born 14 March 1918 at Łazy, gmina Falenty.

   Majer Gepner

   Confirmed

   born 14 March 1918 · Łazy, gmina Falenty, near Warsaw · Łódź · Dzierżoniów 1948

   Eldest son of Abram Icek and Gitla — documented

Everything documented about Avraham Yitzhak begins with this stone. It gives his name, his father's name, his priestly descent, the date of death — and, in a damaged line, his age.

Cemetery record

Record: cemetery.jewish.org.pl/id_20517/info/

Strong candidate for Avraham Yitzhak's father

The Łódź population register compiled under German occupation in 1916–1921 holds a card for an Izrael Dawid Hepner whose name, generation, home town and later move to Warsaw all fit the father named on the gravestone. The volume (Henkel – Herc) was read in full; the cards that bear on the family are reproduced below. Next to every document, a code links to the source list and a scan link opens the exact page in the archive's viewer.

Spis ludności Łodzi, 1916–1921 · volume Henkel – Herc · Archiwum Państwowe w Łodzi · fonds Akta miasta Łodzi · 39/221/0/4.12/24657 · 314 scans · Szukaj w Archiwach, unit 6209045 A1·unit 6209045

The card

Nazwisko · surname	Heppner — written with two p's on the card; the archive's index normalises it to Hepner
Imię · given names	Izrael Dawid
Imię ojca · father	Abram
Stan lub zawód · status	wdowiec — widower
Urodzony · born	1855 w Żelechowie — in Żelechów
Ziemi · county	p. Garwoliński — Garwolin county
Wyznanie · religion	mojż. — Mosaic (Jewish)
Przynależność państwowa	polska — Polish
Stały mieszkaniec · permanent resident of	Żelechowa — Żelechów
Mieszkanie · address in Łódź	Skwerowa 16, district VIII; a later line reads Benedykta 42
Uwagi · pencil note	„… VI 20 … do Warszawy” — to Warsaw, June 1920 (day partly legible)

Familienglieder – Członkowie rodziny, as written on the card

Name	Born	Place	Family knowledge
Fajga Fela H.	1 V 1900	Łódź	Known as Fajga, a sister of Avraham Yitzhak
Chawa Ewa	14 VII 1895	Łódź	Known as Chawa / Ewa, a sister of Avraham Yitzhak
Binem, Beno	1896	Łódź	Known as Binem, a brother of Avraham Yitzhak

Fajga, Chawa/Ewa and Binem are exactly the names the family knows as the siblings of Avraham Yitzhak — Eli Gafner, Majer's son, found this card independently on 7 September 2026 and made the match. That is the strongest reason to read this as his father's household. Avraham Yitzhak himself is not on the card; as an adult of about thirty he would have had a card of his own. A pencil note beside the family rows reads „… do Lublina” (to Lublin) with a date like 28 II 19…; which member it refers to is not clear.

Family knowledge: Eli Gafner, son of Majer Gepner, message of 7 September 2026.

What it changes

• The identification is now documented: page 138 of the Łódź permanent-population ledger, transcribed below, lists Abram Icek, born 30 August 1885 in Łódź, as the son of Srul Dawid and Hendla née Gottheld — and 48 years from that birthday is exactly the מ״ח the gravestone was read as.
• The card's children are the ledger's children: Chawa (born 14 January 1894 by the ledger, 14 July 1895 by the card), Symcha Binem (18 July 1896) and Chana Fajga (14 September 1902 by the ledger, 1 May 1900 by the card). Where the two disagree, the ledger is the earlier and more careful record.
• He was legally domiciled in Żelechów but living in Łódź from at least 1885; the ledger records the family's formal transfer on a resettlement permit from the head of Garwolin district dated 19 September 1891. He was a weaver.
• The clerk wrote the surname Heppner, with two p's; the archive's index gives Hepner; the Russian-era ledger writes Гепнеръ. All three forms are the same family.

Related cards in the same volume

Mojżesz Hepner, son of Izrael

Avraham Yitzhak's elder brother

Born 1877 in Żelechów by this card; the earlier Łódź ledger (page 143, row 9) has him as Moszek Berek, born 18 June 1878 in Żelechów, son of Srul Dawid and Hendla Gottheld. A widower and overseer (nadzorca) living at Pańska 45 with seven children — Avraham Yitzhak's nephews and nieces.

Imię ojca

Izrael

Urodzony

1877 w Żelechowie, p. Garwoliński

Stan lub zawód

(wdowiec) nadzorca — widower, overseer

Stały mieszkaniec

Łodzi

Children (all born Łódź)

Bencjon 1899 · Pinkus (year unclear) · Chaja 1905 · Ryfka 1907 · Aron 1910 · Brucha 1912 · Lajb 18 X 1917

Fela Hepner, daughter of Aron and Estera Bina

Żelechów Hepner, link unknown

Born 15 February 1896 in Żelechów; married; arrived in Łódź from Żelechów and registered on 21 February 1921 in the household of Izak Klejman. Her father Aron is a Żelechów Hepner of Izrael Dawid's generation — a possible brother or cousin, unproven.

Imiona rodziców

Aron i Estera Bina

Urodzona

15 II 1896, Żelechów

Stan rodzinny

mężatka — married

Paszport

issued in Warsaw, 25 VIII 1916, no. 65565/II

Skąd przybył

Żelechów · registered 21 II 1921, IV Komisariat

The permanent-population ledger, pages 138–140

Before the 1916–1921 census cards, Łódź kept Russian-era ledgers of permanent residents by house number. The volume for houses 752–759 was downloaded in full on 8 September 2026 and read spread by spread. Three consecutive pages are the family — and they answer the questions the gravestone left open.

Page 138 — Srul Dawid Gepner and Hendla, house 754

Russian-era entries. A red note across the first rows reads: „registered on the basis of a resettlement permit issued by the head of Garwolin district on 19 September 1891, no. 12428; see also no. 5090 of 1891”. The house column reads 754; the head's occupation is ткачъ — weaver.

№	Name	Parents	Born	Place	Status	Remarks
1	Сруль Давидъ Гепнеръ — Srul Dawid	Abram and Sura	1854	Żelechów, Garwolin district	married, later „wdowiec” (widower) in red	Passport booklets 24 I 1903 and 29 VIII 1913. Stamp: extract for an identity card issued 3 III 1927 (date partly legible) — alive in 1927.
2	Гендля Гепнеръ ур. Готгельдъ — Hendla née Gottheld	Moszek and Liba	17 May 1858	Żelechów	married, with her husband	„Zmarła w Łodzi dnia 8 sierpnia 1914 roku” — died in Łódź 8 August 1914.
3	Сура Сима — Sura Sima	Srul Dawid and Hendla Gottheld	18 January 1881	Żelechów	unmarried, with parents	Struck off on a gmina wójt's notice of 29 XII 1903, no. 3260; married (the husband's name is only partly legible, possibly Goldman).
4	Абрамъ Ицекъ Гепнеръ — Abram Icek	Srul Dawid and Hendla Gottheld	18 / 30 August 1885	Łódź	bachelor, with parents	Passport booklet 30 IV 1903 to 15 X 1906; in 1906 released entirely from military service; 30 I 1907. „Dopisany na str. 140 jako żonaty” — entered on page 140 as married.
5	Гитля — Gitla	Srul Dawid and Hendla Gottheld	16 February 1888	Łódź (a red correction reads Żelechów)	unmarried, with parents	Passport booklet 23 XII 1913. Struck off on the marriage record issued in Łódź 3 I 1917, no. 24, as married to Jankiel Friedman of Biała Podlaska.
6	Эстера — Estera	Srul Dawid and Hendla Gottheld	2 / 14 July 1890	Łódź	unmarried, with parents	Passport booklet 29 VIII 1913. Registered with her husband Abram Aksel[berg] in the Łódź book no. 140-465, 22 V 1918.
7	Хава — Chawa	Srul Dawid and Hendla Gottheld	2 / 14 January 1894	Łódź	unmarried, with parents	Passport booklet 17 IV 1914.
8	Симха Бинемъ — Symcha Binem	Srul Dawid and Hendla Gottheld	6 / 18 July 1896	Łódź	bachelor, later „żonaty” in red	Passport booklet 30 XII 1913. „Przeniesiony na str. 139 jako żonaty” — moved to page 139 as married.
9	Хана Файга — Chana Fajga	Srul Dawid and Hendla Gottheld	1 / 14 September 1902	Łódź	unmarried, with parents	Struck off on the notice of the Skierniewice magistrate of 12 III 1925, no. 2333/II, as married to Abram Icek Buk[…], resident of that town.

Page 140 — Abram-Icyk Hepner and Gitla, house 754

Polish-era entries for the same house. Every child was born in the village of Łazy, gmina Falenty, Warsaw county — the Łazy the family remembers. The family re-registered in Łódź at the end of 1923.

№	Name	Parents	Born	Place	Status	Remarks
1	Abram-Icyk Hepner	Srul-Dawid and Hendla née Gottheld	30 August 1885	Łódź	married, mieszczańskie, mojżeszowe	„Wojskowa notatka na str. 138.” Received an identity card at the Warsaw county Starostwo on 22 XI 1923, no. 2616 (Dz. 10576/23); Łódź, 27 XII 1923. Extract for an identity card 29 VIII 1924.
2	Gitla Hepner z Hamerów — née Hamer	Majer-Chil and Liba-Ruchla née Goldberg	23 July 1880	Biała, Rawa county	married, with her husband; previous residence Biała, pow. Rawski	Registered on the marriage act of 25 XII 1913 and a certificate of the Biała magistrate of 27 X 1920, no. 1290; Łódź, 15 XI 1920.
3	Zysla Hepner	Abram-Icyk and Gitla née Hamer	8 July 1914	wieś Łazy, gm. Falenty, pow. warszawski	unmarried, with parents	Extract for an identity card 29 VIII 1924.
4	Chendla Hepner — Henia	Abram-Icyk and Gitla née Hamer	10 September 1916	Łazy, gm. Falenty	unmarried, with parents
5	Majer-Chil Hepner — Majer	Abram-Icyk and Gitla née Hamer	14 March 1918	Łazy, gm. Falenty	bachelor, with parents	The 1948 passport gives 5 May 1918 and Łódź.
6	Moszek Hepner — Moshe	Abram-Icyk and Gitla née Hamer	16 April 1921	Łazy, gm. Falenty	bachelor, with parents
7	Szyja Hepner — Yehoshua	Abram-Icyk and Gitla née Hamer	9 March 1923	Łazy, gm. Falenty	bachelor, with parents

Page 139 — Symcha-Binem Hepner and Ryfka, house 754

Binem's branch, which explains the „do Lublina” pencil note on his father's 1916–1921 card.

№	Name	Parents	Born	Place	Status	Remarks
1	Symcha-Binem Hepner	Srul-Dawid and Hendla née Gotheld	18 July 1896	Łódź	married, mojżeszowe; from page 138
2	Ryfka Hepner z Frydmanów — née Frydman	Wolf and Małka née Walensztajn	1900	Lublin	married, with her husband; previous residence gmina Bełżyce, Lublin county	Registered on the marriage act issued by the civil registry in Lublin, 23 I 1922, no. 187, and a Bełżyce certificate of 11 II 1924, no. 1889; Łódź, 7 VI 1924.
3	Chaja-Małka Hepner	Symcha-Binem and Ryfka née Frydman	9 February 1922	Lublin	unmarried, with parents
4	Hendla Hepner	Symcha-Binem and Ryfka née Frydman	20 September 1923	Lublin	unmarried, with parents
5	Aron-Hersz Hepner	Symcha-Binem and Ryfka née Frydman	4 January 1926	Lublin	bachelor, with parents
6	Abram-Ber Hepner	Symcha-Binem and Ryfka née Frydman	31 July 1929	Lublin	bachelor, with parents

The earlier ledger, pages 143–144

Earlier ledger, page 143 — the family's first Łódź entry, house 754

The circuit III ledger for houses 741–794, on Polish-language forms of the 1860s with Russian entries. The family was written in on the resettlement permit of 19 September 1891; each row was later stamped „записано въ новую книгу № 754 стр. 138” — entered in the new book, house 754, page 138.

№	Name	Parents	Born	Place	Status	Remarks
7	Сруль Давидъ Гепнеръ — Srul Dawid	Abram and Sura	1854, „according to the birth act”	Żelechów, Garwolin district	married, townsman, Jewish, weaver; previous residence Żelechów	Permit of 19 IX 1891, no. 12428 (see also no. 5090 of 1891). Entered in the new book, 754 p. 138.
8	Гендля Гепнеръ ур. Готгельдъ — Hendla née Gottheld	Moszek and Liba	17 May 1858	Żelechów	married, with her husband	Entered in the new book, 754 p. 138.
9	Мошекъ Берекъ Гепнеръ — Moszek Berek	Srul Dawid and Hendla Gottheld	18 June 1878	Żelechów	bachelor, with parents	Transferred out on 24 May 1896, no. 16984 (destination partly legible). He is the Mojżesz Hepner, son of Izrael, born 1877 Żelechów, of the 1916–1921 card — Avraham Yitzhak's elder brother.
10	Сура Сима — Sura Sima	Srul Dawid and Hendla Gottheld	18 January 1881	Żelechów	unmarried, with parents	Entered in the new book, 754 p. 138.

Earlier ledger, page 144 — house 754, continued

The three younger children of the 1880s. Note that Gitla was born in Żelechów in 1888, between two Łódź births — the family kept moving between the two towns.

№	Name	Parents	Born	Place	Status	Remarks
1	Гитля — Gitla	Srul Dawid and Hendla Gottheld	16 February 1888	Żelechów	unmarried, with parents	Entered in the new book, 754 p. 138.
2	Абрамъ Ицекъ Гепнеръ — Abram Icek	Srul Dawid and Hendla Gottheld	18 / 30 August 1885	Łódź	bachelor, with parents	Entered in the new book, 754 p. 138.
3	Эстера — Estera	Srul Dawid and Hendla Gottheld	2 / 14 July 1890	Łódź	unmarried, with parents	Entered in the new book, 754 p. 138.

Transcribed from the scans on 8 September 2026. Russian-era names are given in the ledger's Cyrillic with a Polish equivalent; a few remarks are only partly legible and are marked as such. The ledger writes the surname Гепнеръ in Russian and Hepner in Polish for the same people.

The 1897–1902 book, page 568

Page 568 — Symcha Binem and Chawa, house 754

A supplementary sheet for house 754 in the 1897–1902 book, shared with two Lutheran families, Ludwig and Hinz. The two Gepner rows carry the red stamp „Записано въ новую книгу № 754, стр. 138” — entered in the new book, house 754, page 138 — which is exactly where they reappear. A red note at the foot records that the sheet was checked against the new book in 1903. Symcha Binem's row also carries a red cross-reference „532-108” that has not been resolved.

№	Name	Parents	Born	Place	Status	Remarks
1	Симха Бинемъ Гепнеръ — Symcha Binem	Srul Dawid and Hendla Gottheld	6 / 18 July 1896	Łódź	bachelor, townsman (мѣщанское), Jewish, with parents	Red cross-reference „532-108”. Stamp: entered in the new book, house 754, page 138.
6	Хава Гепнеръ — Chawa	Srul Dawid and Hendla Gottheld	2 / 14 January 1894	Łódź	unmarried, townswoman, Jewish, with parents	Stamp: entered in the new book, house 754, page 138.

The other 569 scans of the book were read name by name on 8 September 2026: no other Hepner or Gepner. Moszek Berek, whose transfer out of Łódź on 24 May 1896 is still unexplained, is not in it either — so the 1896 move took him outside these houses, and probably outside the city.

The 1906 call-up

Row 4 of ledger page 138 carries three lines in red Russian script. They look administrative, and one of them has been read as though Avraham Yitzhak had served in the tsar's army — which would sit oddly with a Hasidic family. He did not serve. The line records the opposite: at his call-up he was let off altogether.

Пасспортн. 30/4 903 по 15/10 906

Passport booklet, 30 April 1903 to 15 October 1906 — a short-term internal passport, the kind issued to a man still liable for the draft.

въ 1906. уволенъ вовсе отъ военн. службы

In 1906, released altogether from military service — the statutory formula for a permanent exemption.

пас. кн. 30/1 1907

Passport book, 30 January 1907 — a fresh passport once the matter was settled.

• The reading is from the full-resolution scan, reproduced above; the earlier ledger, closed before 1906, carries no military note for him, which is what one expects.
• The statute is the Устав о воинской повинности of 1 January 1874, articles 11, 32, 45 and 154.
• No conscription board records for Łódź survive in the state archives: the district boards described online are Kielce, Olkusz and Stopnica, not Łódź. If his examination file exists it would be in the Piotrków Governorate papers, which are not indexed by name.

What would add to this: the Piotrków Governorate military files (fonds 39/2, Rząd Gubernialny Piotrkowski, 1867–1918), which are unindexed and would have to be read by hand, and the Łódź call-up lists of 1906 if any survive outside the destroyed board records.

Identity cards, Łódź 1936–1939

In the 1930s the Łódź city administration kept a running register of the identity cards it issued: name, birth date and place, date of issue, address and card number. The two surviving volumes for surnames Ch–Ł, 1936–1939 — 438 pages — were read page by page on 8 September 2026. Four rows carry the family name together with a birth date or place that can be checked; three more Hepners are set aside below.

• Hepner, Majer-Chil. Birth date and place agree with ledger page 140 to the day. The card was issued fourteen weeks before the war, when Majer was twenty-one.
• Hepner, Moszek. Same address as his brother a year later: the two were living together in Łódź, five years after their father's death.
• Hepner, Motek-Aron. A Żelechów-born Hepner of Izrael Dawid's generation, in Łódź like him. He may be the Aron who fathered Fela (card A1, scan 111); no record yet joins him to the family.
• Hepner, Symcha. Symcha Binem was born on 18 July 1896, so this is another Symcha Hepner of Łódź — perhaps a cousin. Set aside until a father's name is found.

Set aside

• Juda Hepner, born 2 March 1893 in Łódź — card 1627 of the 1937 run, issued 12 November 1937, Lotnicza 4: the son of Wolf already set aside above. A5·scan 175·unit 9645124
• Josel-Mojżesz Hepner, born 4 December 1919 in Łódź — card 1161 of the 1937 run, 10 August 1937, Główna 62; the row was first written for a Jaśkiewicz and corrected. Not one of Abram Icek's children. A5·scan 152·unit 9645124
• Antonina Hepner, born 19 January 1908 at Gibów, Kozienice county — card 38 of the 1937 run, 13 January 1937, Śródmiejska 12: a Christian family of the same name. A5·scan 95·unit 9645124
• Maksymilian (card 1692) and Frymeta (card 2409) Hepner in the 1938 run, and a Złata Hepner (card 1293) — nothing in the rows connects them. A6·scan 88·unit 9645125

What this says about addresses

• Gdańska 131 is the first street address we hold for Majer's generation in Łódź. Family memory has Majer working for his elder sister's husband after both parents were gone; if that household was in Łódź, Gdańska 131 is its likeliest address — a hypothesis until the sister's married name is found.
• Zysla (born 1914) is not in either volume under Hepner. She was twenty-two to twenty-five in these years and, if already married, would be registered under her husband's name. Her Łódź address is still unknown.
• Chendla — Henia (born 1916) is attached by the archive's name index to the 1936–1937 volume, but no row for her was found on its 188 pages. Either the index points at a page misread here, or the index entry is wrong; it is listed under Still open.
• Szyja (born 1923) would have come of age for a card in 1939–1940; the volumes end in 1939 and he is not in them. The 1934–1935 volume (unit 9645117), tagged with a Srul Szyja Hepner, has not been read.
• For Warsaw the registers say nothing: the only Warsaw address remains the unverified 1930 directory entry „Hepner Abr., handl., Dzika 38”.

Where is Izrael Dawid buried?

• The Łódź cemetery's own database (Bracka Street, about half the burials) lists ten Hepner and twenty-five Gepner burials but no Izrael or Srul Dawid under either spelling. Two of the Hepners are probably ours: Hendla, quarter K on the left side — Srul Dawid's wife, who died in Łódź in 1914 — and Motel Aron, quarter C on the right side, the Żelechów-born card holder of 1936.
• Warsaw, Okopowa Street: the Foundation for Documentation of Jewish Cemeteries database lists 17 Hepner / Hefner / Gepner graves and every Israel David regardless of surname; none is him. The database covers the stones inventoried in 2006–2010, not the burial register.
• Warsaw, Bródno: no Hepner-type grave in the database.
• Żelechów: the 51 inventoried stones (1848–1936) include no Hepner and no Israel David; most of the cemetery's stones were destroyed.
• Łódź, Bracka Street: the burial index (about 180,000 burials) is searchable only through JRI-Poland / JOWBR, which need a login. Hendla, who died in Łódź on 8 August 1914, should be there — and the 1927 identity-card stamp on Izrael Dawid's ledger row means he may have died in Łódź after 1927 rather than in Warsaw.
• Any stone of Izrael Dawid's must carry the priestly hands or „הכהן”: his son's stone proves the family were Kohanim, and the status passes from father to son. None of the Israel David stones at Okopowa or Bródno has a Kohen marking or a father Avraham.
• Open lead: Lea Gitel Hefner, daughter of Eliezer, wife of Natan, died 2 December 1933 aged 58 (Okopowa 4a/7/3). Her stone spells the name העפנער exactly as Avraham Yitzhak's does, and she died a week before him. Her husband was Natan, so she is not Majer's mother; whether Natan Hefner was a brother or cousin of Avraham Yitzhak is unknown.

Searched in the gravestone database D1·record 20517 — Avraham Yitzhak Hepner, Okopowa 73/30/30

Checked and set aside

• Icek Hepner (scan 115), born 1886 in Radogoszcz, and his brother Juda (scan 123) — sons of Wolf, a separate Łódź family; Icek's address card is headed „Gepner Hepner”, a useful witness to the spelling but nothing more.
• Izaak Gäpner (scan 117), son of Abram, born 1852 in Rawa, Rawa county — a servant; father's name matches but the birthplace does not.
• Mendel Göpner (scan 130), son of Abram, born 6 VI 1872 in Góry-Malenieckie, Końskie county — same objection.
• Gustaw, Gotfryd, Ludwik, Alfred, Paulina and Juliusz Hepner — Evangelical Łódź families; not related.
• Chaim, Chil and Chaja Gepner of Radom, and the Gepners of Odrzywół — separate families.

The family holds Majer Gepner's original postwar Polish passport. The photographs below are the family's own; the transcriptions are read directly from the pages.

The pages

Select any page to view it at full size. Three photographs were taken sideways and are shown rotated; the originals are kept unaltered in the archive.

Gitla Hepner, née Hamer, is the least documented person on the main line and the one the family most wants to find. The Łódź ledger gives her birth, her parents, her marriage and her children, and then stops. After her husband's death in December 1933 no record of her has been found anywhere — and that is not for want of looking. What follows is every place she has been searched for, including a stone-by-stone sweep of the whole Warsaw cemetery, so that whoever picks this up next does not repeat it.

What the records say

Her parents

The ledger names her parents as Majer-Chil Hamer and Liba-Ruchla née Goldberg. Majer-Chil is the name Majer himself was given in 1918 — a child is named for a dead relative, so Gitla's father had died by March 1918; and if the family's memory of a first-born Chil who died in infancy is right, that boy carried the same name first. The Warsaw cemetery database then supplies the mother.

Liba Rachel Hamer, wife of Meir Yechiel — Okopowa, sector 79, row 3, grave 29

Probably Gitla's mother

Hebrew name on the stone

Liba Rachel

Father

Dov

Husband

Meir Yechiel — Majer Chil

Died

26 January 1916

Additional note

„z Błędów” — from Błędów

פ״נ

אשה צנועה חשובה

יראה ד׳ עשתה צדקה

מרת ליבא רחל

בת דוב

אשת ר׳ מאיר יחיאל

האמער מב[לענדאוו]

נפ׳ [כ״א שבט תרע״ו]

Here lies a modest and worthy woman, God-fearing, who gave charity: Mrs Liba Rachel, daughter of Dov, wife of R. Meir Yechiel Hamer of Błędów; died 21 Shevat 5676 — 26 January 1916.

Both names match the ledger: Liba-Ruchla is Liba Rachel, and Majer-Chil is Meir Yechiel. The surname is carved האמער, the Yiddish spelling of Hamer. Błędów lies 20 km east of Biała Rawska, in the same corner of Mazovia, so the family had moved once between Gitla's birth in 1880 and 1916, when they were in Warsaw. Her husband is not buried beside her, and now we know why: every one of the sixty-one graves in sector 79, row 3 belongs to a woman. Okopowa buried the sexes in separate rows, so Majer-Chil must be looked for among the men of the same years, not among his wife's neighbours.

D1·cemetery.jewish.org.pl, record 79387

Hamer stones checked and set aside

• Gitla Hammer, née Eliasberg, daughter of Yaakov, from Minsk, died 23 June 1926 aged 62 (sector 12b) — a different woman.
• Chaim Meir Hamer, son of Tzvi Yehuda, died 1920; Golda, Shifra, Vita Yochet and Rachel Lea Hamer or Hammer, all married to Halevi husbands (sectors 74–76) — a Levite Hamer family, not Gitla's, whose husband was a Kohen and whose father was Meir Yechiel.
• Kalonimos Kalman Hammer, died 1917, son of Menachem Yosef — not Majer-Chil.
• Lea Hamerstein, daughter of Shimshon Dov and wife of a Meir Yechiel, died 30 January 1918 (sector 86, row 25, grave 32). The husband's name and the date both fall where Majer-Chil's do, but Hamerstein is a different surname and a widow would be buried under her husband's, so this is a coincidence, not a second marriage.

Where she was looked for

What the searches leave

Put together, the searches rule out a great deal and leave two possibilities standing.

What would settle it

Two records would settle her fate, and two archives hold her parents' generation.

1. 01

   The Warsaw death act of 9 December 1933

   Its widow line names her as alive or dead and gives the address. Warsaw Jewish civil records from 1933 are past the 80-year rule and belong in the Archiwum Państwowe w Warszawie; the fonds on Szukaj w Archiwach ends in 1925, so the later books must be asked for by letter.

   Akta stanu cywilnego wyznania mojżeszowego w Warszawie, 1858–1925

2. 02

   Warsaw Jewish deaths 1934–1939 and the Okopowa burial books

   If she died in Warsaw before the war she is in these; the stone database covers only what still stands. The Jewish Historical Institute holds the community's burial registers.

   D1·record 20517 — Avraham Yitzhak Hepner, Okopowa 73/30/30

3. 03

   Majer-Chil Hamer's grave, in the men's rows at Okopowa

   He is not among the surviving stones, and his wife's row is women only, so the burial books rather than the stones are the way to him: a man who died in Warsaw between January 1916 and March 1918. The Jewish Historical Institute holds the community's registers.

   record 79387

4. 04

   Biała Rawska Jewish civil records — her parents' marriage and her siblings

   Two fonds survive. In Grodzisk Mazowiecki: marriages 1870–1882 and 1884–1899, deaths 1868–1910, births 1899–1907 — not digitised. In Łódź, online: 1826–1874 and 1885–1886, so a sibling born in 1885–86 would appear with the parents' names. Her own 1880 birth falls in a gap in both.

   A8·AP Łódź fonds 39/1407/0 on Szukaj w Archiwach

5. 05

   Błędów

   The stone says the family came from Błędów, Grójec county. Its Jewish records (Geneteka: Błędów mojżeszowe) may hold Majer-Chil and Liba-Ruchla's marriage or a child's birth after 1880.

   Geneteka, Mazovia, Hamer marriages

6. 06

   The Gdańska street inventory book

   Tagged „Hamer, Gitla” by the archive's index; 296 scans, 1929–1949. If a Gitla Hamer owned or rented at Gdańska, and the number is 131, the brothers' 1938–39 address becomes her family's — a strong lead, unread.

   A7·unit 17669833

The same family name appears in four scripts across the records, and each system spelled it its own way. Every form has to be searched separately.

The alternation between H and G was already normal in Polish records: the Łódź population register of 1916–1921 interfiles Gepner and Hepner cards and, on Icek's address card, writes both spellings for one person. That makes it entirely plausible that an older Hepner line reappears after Soviet documentation as Gepner, although a document tying Majer's own Gepner to a Hepner parent has not yet been found.

Żelechów, a small town in Garwolin county south-east of Warsaw, is currently the strongest geographic hypothesis for Avraham Yitzhak's birth. The reasons are cumulative rather than conclusive.

• Żelechów is where the documented line begins: Srul Dawid (1854), his wife Hendla Gottheld (1858) and their daughter Sura Sima (1881) were all born there, and the family remained legally domiciled there after moving to Łódź.
• The move to Łódź happened between January 1881 and August 1885, and was regularised by a resettlement permit from the head of Garwolin district on 19 September 1891. Avraham Yitzhak and every later child were born in Łódź.
• Mojżesz Hepner, son of Izrael, born 1877 in Żelechów, is probably the eldest son; a Fela Hepner, daughter of Aron, born there in 1896, reached Łódź in 1921 — Hepners were still in the town a generation later.
• A Pejsach Gepner, son of Israel, born in Żelechów in 1893, appears in Soviet repression records. He cannot be Izrael Dawid's son — the family was in Łódź by then — but may be a relative.
• The Łazy on the map is the one the ledger names: gmina Falenty, Warsaw county, about 15 km south-west of the city, in today's gmina Lesznowola.

Żelechów Yizkor material: JewishGen Żelechów Yizkor Book

What the family remembers, written down as told. None of it is treated as fact until a record confirms it — but each memory points at a document, and one of them has already been matched by the gravestone.

1. Majer was born in a village called Łazy, not far from Warsaw, where Avraham Yitzhak had a farm or was a partner in one. The family visited the village on its trip to Poland.

   Confirmed by the Łódź ledger

   Amir Gafner, from family stories

   In the records

   Page 140 of the Łódź ledger gives every child's birthplace as wieś Łazy, gmina Falenty, powiat warszawski — Zysla 1914, Chendla 1916, Majer 14 March 1918, Moszek 1921, Szyja 1923. That Łazy lies about 15 km south-west of Warsaw, in today's gmina Lesznowola. The passport's „Łódź” was the family's registration town, not the birthplace.

   What would settle it

   The birth act itself, in the Jewish registry that served gmina Falenty, would fix the day (14 March against the passport's 5 May). Land or lease records for Łazy would show the farm.

2. Avraham Yitzhak grew and traded vegetables.

   Open

   Amir Gafner, from family stories

   In the records

   A 1930 Warsaw address directory lists „Hepner Abr., handl., Dzika 38” — a trader (handlarz) of that name. Whether this is our Avraham Yitzhak is not yet proven.

   What would settle it

   The 1933 Warsaw death act (occupation and address); Warsaw trade registers; the directory entry's telephone subscriber file.

3. He moved the family to Warsaw so that Majer, his eldest son, could study in a cheder with a bigger rabbi.

   Open

   Amir Gafner, from family stories

   In the records

   Dzika 38 — the address in the 1930 directory — housed three cheders with about 133 boys in the 1930/31 school year, according to the research notes. The move would fall between Majer's birth in 1918 and 1930. Izrael Dawid, the probable grandfather, had gone to Warsaw in June 1920.

   What would settle it

   Warsaw registration or kehilla school records for Dzika 38; the death act's address line.

4. Avraham Yitzhak died when Majer was about fourteen.

   Matches the gravestone

   Amir Gafner, from family stories

   In the records

   The stone and the cemetery record give 9 December 1933; Majer, born 14 March 1918, was fifteen and three-quarters. Memory and record agree within two years.

   What would settle it

   Already settled by the gravestone.

5. Majer's mother is a mystery. Her name may have been Gitla. After her husband's death she was left alone with many children and „left” — perhaps she was hospitalised.

   Her name is confirmed

   Amir Gafner, from family stories

   In the records

   Page 140 of the Łódź ledger: Gitla Hepner née Hamer, born 23 July 1880 in Biała, Rawa county, daughter of Majer-Chil Hamer and Liba-Ruchla Goldberg, registered on the marriage act of 25 December 1913. Her mother is probably the Liba Rachel Hamer buried at Okopowa in January 1916; her father, after whom Majer was named, had died by 1918. What became of her after 1933 is still unknown — section 05 lists every place she was looked for.

   What would settle it

   The widow line of the 1933 death act; Warsaw and Łódź death records and hospital admission books after 1933; the 1913 marriage act.

6. Majer had an older sister, Henia, who survived Auschwitz, reached Sweden and then Israel, where she reunited with her brothers: Majer, Moshe — who went to Israel and later to Brazil — and the youngest, Shea (Yehoshua), who lived in Haifa.

   Confirmed by the Łódź ledger

   Amir Gafner, from family stories

   In the records

   Page 140: Chendla born 10 September 1916 — Henia, named after her grandmother Hendla who had died on 8 August 1914 — Moszek born 16 April 1921 and Szyja born 9 March 1923, all at Łazy. Four names remembered, four rows in the book.

   What would settle it

   Henia's Auschwitz, Swedish and Israeli records; Moshe's Brazilian and Yehoshua's Israeli records, to carry the line forward.

7. Henia was older than Majer but not the eldest: another sister — her name may have been Chana — was already married and living in Łódź with a family of her own. After the parents died, her husband took Majer to work for him installing radios: climbing onto rooftops to fit the aerials for the sets in the flats below.

   Probable — she is Zysla

   Amir Gafner, from Majer's own stories

   In the records

   Page 140 names the eldest child: Zysla, born 8 July 1914 at Łazy — four years older than Majer, the sister the story places in Łódź with a family of her own; the remembered name „Chana” belongs to an aunt, Chana Fajga, born 1902. „After the parents died” implies Gitla also died, in or after 1933. The Łódź identity-card registers of the 1930s are tagged with Majer Chil, Moszek, Symcha and Chendla Hepner — the family back in Łódź, as the story says.

   What would settle it

   Zysla's marriage record in Łódź (1930s); the ID-card register entries (units 9645124 and 9645125), which give birth date, address and occupation; Gitla's death record.

8. Before Majer there was a first-born son, Chil — Yechiel — who died very young, perhaps within his first year.

   Open — consistent with the ledger

   Amir Gafner, from family stories

   In the records

   The Łódź ledger's 1923 entry lists only living children, so an infant who died before 1923 would not appear; Zysla (1914) is the first child written. The name fits: Gitla's father was Moszek-Chil Hamer, and Majer was registered as Majer-Chil — the lost brother's name carried forward, as custom required.

   What would settle it

   Jewish birth and death registers for gmina Falenty, about 1912–1918; the grave would have been in the district's Jewish cemetery.

9. Henia introduced her best friend from Auschwitz, Rachel Guttman of Warsaw, to her brother Majer. They married; Rachel is the writer's grandmother.

   Family knowledge

   Amir Gafner, direct family knowledge

   In the records

   Majer's 1948 passport still shows him unmarried, so the marriage came after the emigration passport was issued.

   What would settle it

   Not a research question; noted so the Guttman line can be added later.

10. The family were Hasidim. A paternal relative remembers that an ancestor — roughly „grandfather's grandfather” — was connected to Kotzk.

    Open — geography fits

    Eli Gafner (Majer's son); the exact rebbe the family followed is not remembered

    In the records

    Kock (Kotzk) lies 42 km from Żelechów, inside the same Przysucha family of courts as the town's own mid-century rebbe. See the next section.

    What would settle it

    Obituary notices in the Warsaw Yiddish press, 10–13 December 1933, which often name the shtibl; the Żelechów yizkor book's chapter on the town's Hasidic circles; Okopowa burial-society records.

11. Majer was in the USSR during the war, and there the surname was written and pronounced Gepner.

    Plausible

    Family memory; the 1948 passport already reads Gepner

    In the records

    Russian regularly renders a foreign H as Г, and the Łódź register shows Gepner and Hepner used for the same people before the war.

    What would settle it

    Soviet wartime records under Гепнер / Гефнер, Майер / Меер; postwar Dzierżoniów and Central Committee of Polish Jews registers.

The family knows it was Hasidic and remembers Kotzk, but not the rebbe it followed. The town itself gives the strongest hints: Żelechów sat inside one particular family of Hasidic courts, and every one of them was a day's journey away.

Żelechów was a Hasidic town from the movement's first generation. Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev (1740–1809), a disciple of the Maggid of Mezritch, served as its rabbi in the early 1770s after Ryczywół and before Pinsk and Berdichev, and met fierce opposition there from the Mitnagdim — the town was contested ground before it was Hasidic ground.

In the middle of the nineteenth century Żelechów had a rebbe of its own: Yehoshua Asher Rabinowicz (1798–1862), son of the Holy Jew of Przysucha, held court in the town before moving it to Parysów, 24 km away. The Przysucha school is the one from which Kotzk grew — Menachem Mendel Morgenstern was the Holy Jew's and Simcha Bunim's disciple — so a Żelechów family of the 1840s and 1850s lived inside the same family of courts whether it prayed with the town's rebbe or travelled to Kock.

Kock is 42 km to the south-east. The Kotzker settled there in 1829 and died in 1859; most of his followers then went to Yitzchak Meir Alter, the Chiddushei HaRim, whose court at Góra Kalwaria (Ger), 51 km to the west, became the largest in Poland. A smaller Kotzk line continued under the Kotzker's son David in Kock and later at Puławy (Pilov) and Sokołów, and his son-in-law Avraham Bornsztain founded Sochaczew. A family that remembers „Kotzk” could, by the 1920s, have belonged to any of these — or to a Kotzk-minded shtibl in Warsaw.

The Żelechów yizkor book (1953) has a chapter, in Yiddish, on the town's Hasidic circles, and another on „the rebbe's yard”. It is the natural place to learn which shtiblekh existed in the town in the years Izrael Dawid and his children lived there, and it has not yet been read for this research.

The courts around Żelechów

1. 24 kmParysówYehoshua Asher Rabinowicz moved his court here from Żelechów; d. 1862
2. 35 kmKozieniceThe Maggid of Kozhnitz, d. 1814, and his line
3. 42 kmKock (Kotzk)Menachem Mendel Morgenstern, 1829–1859; son David continued
4. 44 kmPuławy (Pilov)Kotzk line under R. Chaim Yisrael Morgenstern
5. 51 kmGóra Kalwaria (Ger)Chiddushei HaRim from 1859; most Kotzker Hasidim followed him
6. 52 kmRadzyń PodlaskiIzbica–Radzyn line, Gershon Henoch Leiner
7. 71 kmSokołów PodlaskiKotzk line in the interwar years
8. 77 kmWarsawHundreds of shtiblekh; Dzika 38 held three cheders in 1930/31

Four ways to read „Kotzk”

„Rabbi”, „rebbe” and „shtibl” are not the same thing. A rabbi was a halakhic authority with a communal appointment; a rebbe was a Hasidic leader accepted by followers, usually by descent by the late nineteenth century; a shtibl was a prayer room of one court's followers. Interwar Warsaw had hundreds of shtiblekh, and many small courts had only a few. The family's memory could attach to any of the three levels.

Sources for this section

• Żelechów yizkor book, JewishGen translation — table of contents — „The Hasidic Circles in Żelechów”, I. Wajnberg, p. 141 (Yiddish); „The Rebbe's Yard”, M. Wancjer, p. 41.
• Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev — Wikipedia — Rabbi of Ryczywół, Żelechów, Pinsk and Berdichev.
• Parysów — International Jewish Cemetery Project — Yehoshua Asher Rabinowicz of Żelechów, son of the Holy Jew, brought his Hasidim to Parysów.

What the Łódź ledgers did not answer. These questions stay open here until a record closes them; the sources most likely to do so follow, in priority order, each checked against what the archives actually hold. Three of the first four sit in one place, the Grodzisk Mazowiecki branch of the Warsaw state archive, so a single letter would start most of this.

1. The Warsaw death act of 9 December 1933, and what became of Gitla after it — section 05 lists every place she was looked for on 8 September 2026.
2. Which synagogue district registered the five children born at Łazy. Raszyn and Falenty had none of their own, and no neighbouring register covers the whole span.
3. Majer-Chil Hamer's grave. No Hamer man survives at Okopowa and his wife's row is women only, so the community's burial books, not the stones, are the way to him.
4. The marriage act of Abram Icek Hepner and Gitla Hamer, 25 December 1913.
5. Izrael Dawid's grave. He was alive in 1927, so Łódź after 1927 is as likely as Warsaw.
6. Moszek Berek's transfer out of Łódź on 24 May 1896 — where to, and where he was until 1916. He is not in the 1897–1902 book either, and 1896 was his own call-up year, which may or may not be a coincidence.
7. Zysla's married name and her Łódź address. She is not in the 1936–1939 identity-card registers under Hepner; her brothers were at Gdańska 131.
8. Chendla's identity card: the archive's index attaches her name to the 1936–1937 register, but no row for her was found on its pages.
9. The Warsaw address. Only the unverified 1930 directory entry, „Hepner Abr., handl., Dzika 38”.
10. Who Motek-Aron Hepner (born 1870 in Żelechów; Zawadzka 22 in 1936) and Symcha Hepner (born 1898 in Łódź; Lutomierska 28 in 1938) are to the family.
11. The red cross-reference „532-108” beside Symcha Binem on page 568 of the 1897–1902 book.
12. What happened to the family in the Łódź ghetto, and to those who did not come out of it.
13. The family's Hasidic affiliation, for which the Warsaw Yiddish obituaries of 10–13 December 1933 remain the best route.

Where to look

1. 01

   The records of gmina Falenty itself

   Akta gminy Falenty, 73/1358/0 · 1909–1954 · 28 files, 15 inventoried, 2 linear metres · Archiwum Państwowe w Warszawie, Oddział w Grodzisku Mazowieckim · not digitised, no file list online

   The gmina's own papers survive, and the description names „księgi ludności stałej i rejestry mieszkańców” — permanent population books and resident registers. The family lived in this gmina, at Łazy, from 1914 to 1923. This is the local twin of the Łódź ledger that gave us nearly everything we know, and nobody has opened it. Twenty-eight files is an afternoon's work, but the inventory exists only on paper at the branch, so it starts with a letter. That same branch holds the Nadarzyn and Biała Rawska registers below, so one letter covers three of these targets.

   Fonds 73/1358/0 on Szukaj w Archiwach

2. 02

   The five births at Łazy, 1914–1923

   Nadarzyn, 73/180/0 — births to 1916 · Grodzisk Mazowiecki, 73/280/0 — to 1922 · Piaseczno, 73/1398/0 — births stop in 1911 · Warsaw, 72/200/0 — online but fragmentary after 1915

   Zysla 1914, Chendla 1916, Majer 1918, Moszek 1921 and Szyja 1923 were all born in the village, and Raszyn and Falenty had no synagogue district of their own. Checking each neighbour's surviving years narrows it sharply: Nadarzyn's births run to 1916 and so could hold Zysla and Chendla; Piaseczno's stop in 1911 and resume only in 1940, so it cannot hold any of them; Grodzisk reaches 1922. For Majer, Moszek and Szyja the books may never have reached an archive at all — under the hundred-year rule they would still sit with the civil registry office covering Łazy, today in gmina Lesznowola. Majer's act would settle his birthday, 14 March by the ledger against 5 May on the passport.

   Nadarzyn, fonds 73/180/0

3. 03

   Warsaw civil death act, 9 December 1933

   Should give the address, occupation, the widow's name and the informants — and settle where the family lived in Warsaw, whether Dzika 38 is right, and what Gitla did next. Records of that date are past the hundred-year rule and belong in the state archive rather than the registry office.

4. 04

   The marriage of Abram Icek Hepner and Gitla Hamer, 25 December 1913

   Jewish civil registry of Biała Rawska, or of Łódź · JRI-Poland

   The act would give the witnesses, the rabbi and the couple's addresses — the last a clue to the Łazy farm — and name Gitla's parents in full. It is not in the Łódź index, and 1913 falls in a gap in both Biała Rawska fonds, so a retained registry-office copy may be the only one.

5. 05

   Gitla Hepner after 1933

   The family remembers that she „left”, perhaps to a hospital, and Majer's story of working for his sister's husband implies both parents had died. Warsaw and Łódź Jewish death registers 1933–1939, hospital admission books, and the Warsaw community's burial registers at the Jewish Historical Institute are the sources.

6. 06

   The Łódź ghetto

   Przełożony Starszeństwa Żydów w Getcie Łódzkim, fonds 28211, Archiwum Państwowe w Łodzi, 1939–1944 · the Lodz-Names register of about 200,000 ghetto inhabitants

   The ghetto administration's own archive survives almost complete, and its register of inhabitants gives each person's birth date, occupation and address inside the ghetto. Majer and Moszek were at Gdańska 131 in 1938 and 1939. Whoever of the family was still in the city in 1940 was moved into the ghetto and is in that register; so, probably, are the aunts and the cousins from Pańska 45. This is the largest untouched body of records bearing on the family.

   Fonds 28211 on Szukaj w Archiwach

7. 07

   The survivor registration cards, 1945–1946

   Centralny Komitet Żydów Polskich, Wydział Ewidencji i Statystyki, 303/V, Żydowski Instytut Historyczny

   Survivors registered with the Jewish committees after the war, giving their birth date, birthplace, wartime path and surviving relatives. The provincial committee for Lower Silesia sat at Dzierżoniów — the town on Majer's 1948 passport. This is the likeliest place to find him described in his own words, and possibly Henia and Moshe beside him.

   Jewish Historical Institute — genealogy

8. 08

   The four who lived, followed abroad

   Arolsen Archives · Auschwitz Museum prisoner database · Riksarkivet, Statens utlänningskommission · FamilySearch, Brazil immigration cards · Israeli immigration records · JDC archive

   Henia went from Auschwitz to Sweden in 1945, and the Swedish alien commission files hold a long personal interview with each arrival. Moshe went to Brazil, whose immigration cards are indexed. Majer passed through Italy in 1948, which the Joint Distribution Committee documented. Szyja reached Haifa. Arolsen covers all four and has still not been searched properly.

   Arolsen Archives — Hepner

9. 09

   The Łazy farm on paper: notarial deeds and mortgage books

   If Avraham Yitzhak bought or leased land at Łazy, a notary drew up the deed, with the sum, the terms, the other party and the witnesses; and any property carried a mortgage book. The notarial records for the district and the land books for powiat warszawski would show whether he owned the farm, rented it, or worked someone else's. For a rural household these are often the richest surviving papers, and none has been looked at.

10. 10

    Zysla's marriage, and the 1934–1935 identity-card register

    Łódź Jewish marriages 1932–1939 (Geneteka, JRI-Poland) · Szukaj w Archiwach unit 9645117

    The 1936–1939 registers have been read: Majer and Moszek are there, Zysla and Chendla are not. Zysla's marriage act would give her married name and address — probably the Gdańska 131 household. The 1934–1935 volume, tagged with a Srul Szyja Hepner, is still unread.

    Unit 9645117

11. 11

    Obituaries in the Warsaw Yiddish press, 10–13 December 1933

    Haynt · Der Moment · Dos Yidishe Togblat · Nasz Przegląd — Polona and the CBJ digital libraries

    Death notices often name the deceased's shtibl or rebbe, his children and his address — the most direct route to the Hasidic affiliation the family no longer remembers, and a second witness for the Warsaw address.

12. 12

    The Jewish community's own books, Łódź and Warsaw

    Community membership rolls, the tax each household paid, burial payments and charity lists. These name people the vital records miss, and a payment to a particular prayer house is the kind of entry that would finally answer the question of which Hasidic court the family belonged to.

13. 13

    Trade licences, tax files and the directories

    Świadectwa przemysłowe · Izba Skarbowa · Warsaw and Łódź address and trade directories, 1926–1939, indexed by Genealogy Indexer

    A trader needed a licence and paid a patent tax, and both left files. Read together with the directories these would test the „Hepner Abr., handl.” of 1930, say what he actually dealt in, and give the years on either side of it.

    Genealogy Indexer

14. 14

    Izrael Dawid's grave, and Hendla's

    JRI-Poland / JOWBR — Bracka Street, Łódź (login) · Warsaw Jewish community burial books

    Hendla died in Łódź on 8 August 1914 and a Hendla Hepner stands in quarter K of the Łódź cemetery. Izrael Dawid was alive in 1927; the Warsaw, Bródno, Żelechów and Łódź stone databases have all been searched without him, so the burial registers are next. Any stone of his carries the priestly hands.

15. 15

    Żelechów Jewish records, 1854–1881

    JRI-Poland · Żelechów births and marriages

    Srul Dawid's birth (1854, parents Abram and Sura), Hendla Gottheld's (1858, parents Moszek and Liba), their marriage (about 1876–1880), Moszek Berek's birth (1878) and Sura Sima's (1881) would carry the line back another generation and name the Gottheld family.

16. 16

    Motek-Aron and Fela: the other Żelechów Hepners in Łódź

    JRI-Poland · Żelechów births 1870 and 1896 · Łódź death registers

    Motek-Aron Hepner, born 19 July 1870 in Żelechów, took an identity card in Łódź in 1936 and is probably the Motel Aron in quarter C of the Łódź cemetery; Fela Hepner, daughter of Aron, born there in 1896, reached Łódź in 1921. If Motek-Aron is Fela's father, his own birth act would say whether he and Izrael Dawid were brothers.

17. 17

    The Hamer family of Biała Rawska and Błędów

    AP Warszawa Oddział w Grodzisku Mazowieckim, 73/1122/0 (1853–1923, not digitised) · AP Łódź 39/1407/0 (1826–1874, 1885–1886, online) · Geneteka, Błędów mojżeszowe

    Gitla's parents Majer-Chil Hamer and Liba-Ruchla Goldberg — their marriage (Biała marriages 1870–1882, 1884–1899), her siblings (births 1885–1886 online; 1899–1907 in Grodzisk) and his death (Biała deaths to 1910, or Warsaw 1916–1918). The maternal line of Majer's generation, and the same branch as targets 1 and 2.

    AP Łódź, 39/1407/0 — 584 scans

18. 18

    The Żelechów yizkor book's Hasidic chapter, and Warsaw shtibl lists

    „Di khsidishe krayzn in Zshelekhov”, I. Wajnberg, p. 141 (Yiddish)

    Which shtiblekh existed in Żelechów in the 1850s–1880s, when Srul Dawid and Hendla grew up there, and which Hasidic houses of prayer stood near Dzika 38 in the 1930s. Błędów, the town Gitla's mother came from, was itself a Hasidic court seat, which ties the two ends of the family together.

    JewishGen yizkor translation, table of contents

Every person named in this archive: who they are, how they connect, what we hold on them and where to look next. Links open the archival unit, the record, or a search already filled in where the database allows it. Open a name to see its leads.

Open the family treeFive generations on one page, each name linked to its card.

Every claim on this page, with the reason for its status and the records it rests on. The source codes link to section 13, where each record has its archive reference and scan links.

Every record this page relies on. The codes appear next to each finding and in the evidence table; the scan links open the exact page in the archive's own viewer.

1. A1

   Archival unit

   [Spis ludności Łodzi] Henkel – Herc — census cards, 1916–1921

   Archiwum Państwowe w Łodzi · Akta miasta Łodzi · 39/221/0/4.12/24657 · 1916–1921

   Szukaj w Archiwach, unit 6209045

   Cited scans111118133

   314 scans, read in full on 7 September 2026. Scan 118 is Izrael Dawid's card; 133 is Mojżesz's; 111 is Fela's.

2. A2

   Archival unit

   Księga ludności stałej m. Łodzi guberni piotrkowskiej, nr domu 752–759 — permanent-population ledger

   Archiwum Państwowe w Łodzi · Akta miasta Łodzi · 39/221/0/3.2.3/10109 · 1903–1931

   Szukaj w Archiwach, unit 6208176

   Cited scans787980

   288 scans, read in full on 8 September 2026. Scans 78–80 are ledger pages 138–140, the family at house 754.

3. A3

   Archival unit

   Księga ludności stałej Łódź – cyrkuł III nr 741–794 — the earlier ledger for the same houses

   Archiwum Państwowe w Łodzi · Akta miasta Łodzi · 39/221/0/3.2.3/9905 · 1864–1902

   Szukaj w Archiwach, unit 6207971

   Cited scans141142

   624 scans. Scans 141–142 are ledger pages 143–144: the family's first Łódź entry, 1891.

4. A4

   Archival unit

   Kniga postoânnago narodonaselenìâ — Russian-era permanent-population book, supplementary pages

   Archiwum Państwowe w Łodzi · Akta miasta Łodzi · 39/221/0/3.2.3/9920 · 1897–1902

   Szukaj w Archiwach, unit 6207986

   Cited scans349

   570 scans, read in full on 8 September 2026. The family appears once, on page 568 (scan 349): Symcha Binem and Chawa at house 754.

5. A5

   Archival unit

   Ewidencja dowodów osobistych wydanych przez Zarząd Miejski w Łodzi, zespół nr 3 — surnames Ch, H, I, J, L, Ł — identity cards issued 1936–1937

   Archiwum Państwowe w Łodzi · Akta miasta Łodzi · 39/221/0/4.12/86615 · 1936–1937

   Szukaj w Archiwach, unit 9645124

   Cited scans695152175

   188 scans, read page by page on 8 September 2026. Two numbering runs: 1936 (from scan 4) and 1937 (from scan 94).

6. A6

   Archival unit

   Ewidencja dowodów osobistych wydanych przez Zarząd Miejski w Łodzi, zespół nr 3 — surnames Ch, H, I, J, L, Ł — identity cards issued 1938–1939

   Archiwum Państwowe w Łodzi · Akta miasta Łodzi · 39/221/0/4.12/86616 · 1938–1939

   Szukaj w Archiwach, unit 9645125

   Cited scans737988128205

   250 scans, read page by page on 8 September 2026. Two numbering runs: 1938 (from scan 4) and 1939 (from scan 138).

7. A7

   Archival unit

   Księga inwentarzowa nieruchomości m. Łodzi, ul. Gdańska — property inventory book

   Archiwum Państwowe w Łodzi · Akta miasta Łodzi · 39/221/0/4.4/15644 · 1929–1949

   Szukaj w Archiwach, unit 17669833

   296 scans, not yet read. The archive's name index attaches „Hamer, Gitla” to it; Gdańska 131 was Majer and Moszek's address in 1938–39.

8. A8

   Archival unit

   Akta stanu cywilnego Okręgu Bożniczego w Białej — Jewish civil records of Biała Rawska

   Archiwum Państwowe w Warszawie, Oddział w Grodzisku Mazowieckim (73/1122/0) and Archiwum Państwowe w Łodzi (39/1407/0) · 73/1122/0 · 39/1407/0 · 1826–1874, 1885–1886 (Łódź, 584 scans online) · 1853–1923 with gaps (Grodzisk, not digitised)

   AP Łódź fonds 39/1407/0 on Szukaj w Archiwach

   Gitla's birth year, 1880, and her marriage year, 1913, fall in the gaps of both fonds. Marriages 1870–1899 and deaths 1868–1910 are in Grodzisk.

9. D1

   Database

   Cmentarze żydowskie w Polsce — gravestone database

   Fundacja Dokumentacji Cmentarzy Żydowskich

   record 20517 — Avraham Yitzhak Hepner, Okopowa 73/30/30

   All fifty cemeteries were searched under eight spellings, and the whole Okopowa list — about 82,000 stones, the only name index that exists for that cemetery — was read sector by sector twice: on 8 September 2026 for Majer-Chil Hamer, and on 9 September for Gitla, by husband's name, father's name and the name Gitel. No stone for Izrael Dawid, for Gitla or for Majer-Chil. Record 79387 is Liba Rachel Hamer, wife of Meir Yechiel, probably Gitla's mother.

10. D2

    Database

    Warsaw address directory, 1930 — „Hepner Abr., handl., Dzika 38”

    Digitised directory, indexed by Genealogy Indexer

    search Genealogy Indexer

    The entry is consistent with Avraham Yitzhak but has not been tied to him by any other record.

11. D3

    Database

    Szukaj w Archiwach — name index attached to the Łódź units

    Naczelna Dyrekcja Archiwów Państwowych

    tag search „Hepner, Chendla”

    The index is how the units above were found. It also attaches „Hepner, Chendla” to the 1936–1937 register, where no row for her was found on the pages.

12. D4

    Database

    Geneteka — index of Jewish civil records, Polskie Towarzystwo Genealogiczne

    genealodzy.pl

    Hepner, Łódź province

    Checked for the 1913 marriage and the Lublin records; not indexed there yet.

13. D5

    Database

    Yad Vashem — Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names

    Yad Vashem, Jerusalem

    Hepner, all places — 207 victims

    Searched 8–9 September 2026 for Hepner and Hamer, by name and by family. Nobody in the database is recorded as the child of a Gitla née Hamer. It did yield two of the family: Chana Fajga (record 14370948, indexed „Harner”) and, through the Łódź ghetto register of some 200,000 inhabitants, Moszek Hepner born 1877 with his sons (record 4530600). Zosia Hepner, born 1916, Warsaw, and Chana Hepner, born 24 X 1918, Bergen-Belsen, are still to be checked against Zysla and Chendla.

14. D6

    Database

    Cmentarz żydowski w Łodzi, ul. Bracka — burial database

    Fundacja Monumentum Iudaicum Lodzense

    search Hepner

    About 90,000 of some 180,000 burials. Hepner: Hendla (quarter K), Motel Aron (C), Moszek (G-V), Wolf, Icek, Aron, Szlama, Rywka, Kajla, Liwcia. Gepner: 25 burials, among them a Gitla in quarter G. No Izrael or Srul Dawid.

15. D7

    Database

    Arolsen Archives — online archive

    Arolsen Archives, Bad Arolsen

    search Hepner

    The search page could not be driven from here on 8 September 2026; to be run by hand for Gitla, Zysla and Chendla (Bergen-Belsen registry).

16. F1

    Family collection

    Photographs of the gravestone at Okopowa, sector 73, row 30, grave 30

    Family collection

    Reproduced in section 02.

17. F2

    Family collection

    Majer Gepner's Polish emigration passport, 1948

    Family collection

    Reproduced in section 04.

18. F3

    Family collection

    Family memory — Amir Gafner and Eli Gafner, September 2026

    Oral tradition, recorded as told

    Section 08 lists each memory with its status.

19. P1

    Printed work

    Sefer Zhelekhov — the Żelechów yizkor book (1953)

    JewishGen Yizkor Book Project translation

    table of contents

1. 1854

   Srul (Izrael) Dawid Gepner is born in Żelechów, son of Abram and Sura (ledger; the 1916 card says 1855).

2. 17 May 1858

   Hendla Gottheld, his wife, is born in Żelechów, daughter of Moszek and Liba.

3. 1877

   Mojżesz Hepner, son of Izrael, is born in Żelechów — probably Izrael Dawid's eldest son.

4. 18 January 1881

   Sura Sima is born in Żelechów, the last child born there.

5. 30 August 1885

   Abram Icek — Avraham Yitzhak — is born in Łódź. The family has moved from Żelechów.

6. 16 February 1888

   Gitla, his sister, is born; then Estera (1890), Chawa (1894), Symcha Binem (1896) and Chana Fajga (1902), all in Łódź.

7. 1906

   Abram Icek goes before the conscription board in his call-up year and is „уволенъ вовсе отъ военной службы” — released altogether from military service. He never served.

8. 25 December 1913

   Abram Icek marries Gitla Hamer, born 1880 in Biała, Rawa county.

9. 8 July 1914

   Zysla, their first child, is born at Łazy, gmina Falenty, near Warsaw.

10. 8 August 1914

    Hendla Hepner dies in Łódź.

11. 26 January 1916

    Liba Rachel Hamer, wife of Meir Yechiel, from Błędów — probably Gitla's mother — dies in Warsaw and is buried at Okopowa, sector 79.

12. 10 September 1916

    Chendla — Henia — is born at Łazy and named after her grandmother.

13. 1916–1918

    Majer-Chil Hamer, Gitla's father, dies: his grandson is given his name in March 1918.

14. 14 March 1918

    Majer-Chil is born at Łazy (ledger), named after his mother's father. The 1948 passport gives 5 May 1918, Łódź.

15. June 1920

    A pencil note on Izrael Dawid's Łódź card records his departure for Warsaw.

16. 16 April 1921

    Moszek — Moshe — is born at Łazy.

17. 23 January 1922

    Symcha Binem marries Ryfka Frydman in Lublin; their four children are born there, 1922–1929.

18. 9 March 1923

    Szyja — Yehoshua — is born at Łazy.

19. 22 November – 27 December 1923

    Abram Icek receives an identity card from the Warsaw county Starostwo and re-registers the family in Łódź at house 754.

20. 1920s

    Family memory: the family moves to Warsaw so that Majer can study in a cheder with a bigger rabbi.

21. 1927

    An identity-card extract is issued for Srul Dawid (ledger stamp) — he is alive at 72 or 73.

22. 1930

    A Warsaw address directory lists „Hepner Abr., handl., Dzika 38”, an address that housed three cheders — if this is Avraham Yitzhak.

23. 9 December 1933

    Avraham Yitzhak Hepner dies in Warsaw aged 48 and is buried at Okopowa.

24. 10 January 1936

    Motek-Aron Hepner, born 1870 in Żelechów, takes a Łódź identity card at Zawadzka 22 — a Hepner of Izrael Dawid's generation, kinship not yet shown.

25. 8 July 1938

    Moszek — Moshe — takes a Łódź identity card; address Gdańska 131.

26. 30 May 1939

    Majer-Chil takes his Łódź identity card at the same address, Gdańska 131, fourteen weeks before the war.

27. June 1948

    Majer's Polish emigration passport is stamped in Warsaw: resident of Dzierżoniów, valid for Italy.