Every resource is important that may lead a
family researcher to learn more about their own family who once
might have lived in some town or city in pre-war Europe.
One such resource are old images, whether they are old vintage
photographs or even films. The above photograph illustrates
three such possibilities:
First is the delicatessen or butcher shop of M. Hodorowsky, also known as M.
Chodorowski, the sign displaying the name of the proprietor in
two different languages.
On the far right is a beer and wine store; note the Hebrew
translation of the larger letters at the bottom of the sign.
This is not to say that the store owner was Jewish, though this
is quite possible. The store to the left of this store is the
shoe workshop of Yitzhak Baran (c. 1920-c. 1943). I recently was contacted by a Baran
family member who was very interested in seeing a similar image
containing the Baran shop photo used within one of the films of
Bialystok filmmaker Tomek Wisniewski, thus illustrating the
point that one needs to explore all possibilities when doing
family or genealogical research. |