#6 Grandfather Peretz GARBER
- derek4440
- Sep 10, 2022
- 6 min read
Updated: Dec 21, 2024
3) GARBER, PERETZ
Roy Orbison - Oh, Pretty Woman live with an all-star line-up, Roy was a great loss to the music scene when he died so young.
We’ll now look at my Mothers Parents, who were
Peretz GARBER Born 20/FB/1867 POLANIEC, RUSSIA Died 8/MAR/1955 LEEDS Age 88 years old Married abt 1895 LAGOW, RUSSIA Rywka KATZ Born 16/OCT/1870 LAGOW, RUSSIA Died 21/JAN/1959 LEEDS UK Age 88 years old They had 6 Children my Mother Rose being the second eldest
In the POLISH records the GARBER Family are recorded as GERBER & the KATZ Family as KAC. The reason for this is that the records which are available are the Polish State Records, which include people of all religions, or no religion at all, as most of the Jewish Records were destroyed in WWII.
My Bobbie & Zaide
Both my Bobbie & Zaide were Born in SHTETLS which were quite close to each other, about 50 kilometres apart. This area which today is in the South East POLAND, but when they lived there it was part of RUSSIA.
My Bobbie & Zaide
My Zaide was Born in POLANIEC, whereas my Bobbie was Born in a the smaller Shtetl of LAGOW, which is where they were Married . They lived in LAGOW & their first three children Edith, Rose (my Mother), & Leslie were all Born there. It was from LAGOW that they left RUSSIA with 3 young children age between 1 to 5 years old.
We should just think what this meant. What drove these people & millions like them to leave their homes & everything they knew & what was familiar to them, & travel into the unknown. They only spoke YIDDISH, couldn't read Latin or Cyrillic script. they certainly had no knowledge of English, nor had they, or anyone they knew travelled beyond the area they lived in. What was it that drove them to leave, were things so bad where they lived that they were prepared to risk everything to leave. They were prepared to risk not only their lives but the lives of their 3 children to make a journey into the unknown of several thousand miles. This must give us an idea of how bad things were for Jewish people in the Pale of Settlement, that they were prepared to risk everything to leave, & yet they were the lucky ones, as the ones that didn't leave years later became the victims of the SHOAH.
Map showing Shtetls where Family Lived.
The word SHTETL refers to a “small town with large Ashkenazi Jewish population”. A large city like LVIV was called a SHTOT, & a village was called a DORF. SHTETL is a diminutive of SHTOT meaning “little town”. All these were in an area called the “Pale of Settlement”, which roughly ran North to South of the Western Border of RUSSIA, what today is mainly POLAND, BELARUS, UKRAINE, LITHUANIA & WESTERN RUSSIA. The film “Fiddler on the Roof” is a glamourised depiction of what life was like. This was instituted by Catherine the Great, who was GERMAN, not RUSSIAN, & the Jews had to live there, & nowhere else. This meant that the Jews were the first to suffer any invasion of RUSSIAN territory, right up to & including the SHOAH. There are virtually no Jews now living in the area of what was the PALE OF SETTLEMENT. See our earlier BLOG, “Voyage of Discovery”
Map, Pale of Settlement
There were periodic POGROMS, (an organised massacre of helpless people: specifically, Jews) which resulted in Jews desperately wanting to find a way to get away, which only happened from about 1881 after the assassination of Tsar Alexander II when Jews started to emigrate in large numbers to AMERICA. These POGROMS continued through the next years reaching a zenith by 1906 by which time my my Bobbie & Zaide & their Children had left thinking they were going to AMERICA, & had quite a shock when they found themselves on the East Coast of ENGLAND, as they had been duped by the agent who sold them the Steamship tickets.
When Jewish immigrants arrived in a new town of a foreign country, they were invariably met by a relative or friend who had made the journey before them, & knew the way round their new found home. Failing this if there wasn’t a relative or friend then they were usually met by a Landsleiter (a person from the same SHTETL) however in my Bobbie & Zaide’s case this is unlikely as most Jews in LEEDS were LITVAKS, who came from a different area altogether, so they probably had to make their own way.
They arrived in LEEDS around 1903 & originally lived at 5 Back Benson Street. Benson Street, which still exists today, runs from North Street to Roseville Road, close to Sheepscar, in the northern edge of the LEYLANDS. They still lived there until about 1918, when they moved further up Roseville Road to the through terrace house at 19 Roseville Terrace on one side & Rosebud Walk on the other. They lived there for the rest of their lives. My Fathers Parents eventually lived in Bexley Grove all shown on a map of this area of LEEDS in 2022
Map Benson St. Rosebud Walk & Bexley Gr
Census 1911
Telegram from Paul in PARIS
On the Death of Peretz GARBER
CofM Edith & Mendel GERTLER
I remember the house very well, as I went there at least twice a week with my Mother, though I never remember my Father going there. We used to catch the tram from the KINGSWAY CINEMA on Harrogate Road, which many years later became the New Vilna Shul.
Photo Kingsway Cinema
New Vilna Shul
We get off the tram at Barrack Road & walked through to Roundhay Road, crossed over & walked along Grant Avenue, crossed over Roseville Road, & walked up Rosebud Walk. We never used the front entrance on Roseville Terrace, nor for that matter did we ever go in the “front room” which faced onto Roseville Terrace. As far as I know that room which was fully furnished was never used.
Painting Commissioned of Rosebud Walk by Stuart WALTON
The door from the outside opened directly into the main room, which had a large window on the same side as the entrance door. At a right angle was a wall with a sink & an oven with the fireplace heating it. At the end of this wall, where the opposite wall to the window was, was the entrance door to the cellar, which was white washed. Hymie’s bed was against this wall, & in front of him was the very large table which occupied the whole of the centre of the room, & around which all the family sat to eat. Under the window was a smaller size table which you could sit at to pluck the chickens. We all used to sit round the main table eating chickens that only an hour before had been alive, & which I plucked the feathers from on the opposite table. The door to the corridor that led to the main entrance was opposite the outside door, & off this corridor was the steps to go upstairs. Outside was the lavatory, which was absolutely spotless & instead of toilet paper there was newspaper cut into squares.
I remember when I was very young being put to bed in my Bobbie & Ziades bed, & this was the first time I saw a duvet, which was with striped ticking, & was very warm, & lovely to snuggle up in. On the opposite side of what was a very narrow road was my Zaides “chicken run” where he used to take me, & let me find the newly laid eggs from under the chickens. All the rest of that side of the road until close to the bottom of the street was a disused slate quarry, with a narrow-gauge railway line & small metal trucks for moving the slate, which I used to go & play in when I got a bit older.
Read the following link if you want to learn more about Rosebud Walk & the surrounding area
https://chrisnickson.co.uk/2021/07/14/the-tale-of-rosebud-walk/
The building at the bottom of the street was BERWINS tailoring factory, which is still there, but no longer owned by the same family, their suits are now manufactured by them in HUNGARY & VIETNAM
Photo N.M. KOTIA what was BERWINS Tailoring Factory
Photo Street Sign Rosebud Walk
I always remember the love & affection I felt from my Bobbie & Zaide, which was in sharp contrast to the coldness I felt from my Fathers Parents. These feelings extended to the other members of each family, so my Aunts & Uncles were the same as their parents, hence I was always closer to my Mothers Family than my Fathers.
My Ziades Family were called GERBER in POLAND, & his name there was Perec or Peret, & he was also known as Percy in ENGLAND. His Hebrew Name was Peretz Ben Moishe, but always known to me as Peretz GARBER: My Zaide.
I never met any other Member of my Zaides Family as none came to ENGLAND.
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