#birz-2:

Pioneers training program (hachshara) in Birzai in 1924.

#birz-11:

The memorial where the Jews were buried in a mass grave. My wife Riva and I are next to the memorial. This stone was put up by the ( few surviving) Jews of Birze when they returned to Birze after the war.    Basil Sandler

#birz-12:

Rueven and wife at the grave of Asna
in cemetery in Birze ( submited by Basil Sandler)

#birz-15:

Winter 1938 Birzai
View of the crowded snow-covered market-place: peasants display wares on horse-drawn sleds; people carry baskets.

#birz-16:

Winter 1938 Birzai
people walk between rows of horse-drawn sleds loaded with wares.

#birz-17:

Winter 1938 Birzai
Two peasants holding pigs on a horse-drawn sled and a crowd pose in the snow; (foreground) the blanket-covered hindquarters of the horse.

#birz-18:

Birzai
View of the market-place: horse-drawn wagons and crowds of people in a square bordered by shops and dwellings.

#birz-22:

The picture is taken sometime before the war. The building on the
right has a stone at the top dated 1912. It housed the business of my
maternal grandfather's family (Levin) - the name is legible in the
original but not in the scanned version. It appears to be exactly the
same site as the picture labelled #birz-18 on your site showing the
market scene.
The other branch of my family from Birzai (maternal grandmother) was
Zundelewitz (or Zundelowitz).
Regards
Stephen Wainer
Calgary, Canada

#birz-23:

This is a picture of the Zundelowitz family taken sometime in 1908 or 1909.

The infant is my maternal grandmother Rochel (born 1908). She is seated on the lap of her mother Rivke. Her father (with the beard) was called Zvi but in the Birzai birth records is listed as Itzik Berke.

The child at the front left we think is Mary (born 1899) – she lived in Baltimore (married name Rom). The child between Zvi and Rivke is another daughter who we knew as “Tiny” (moved to South Africa) but may have been named Tanya or Khane (sp?).

Unfortunately do not know the names of the others.

#birz-24:

My grandmother and her children made a trip from South Africa to visit the family in Lithuania just before the war.

This photo is of the Levin family (my grandmother’s in-laws) taken in Birzai sometime in 1938 (approx). The two children are my mother (Lily) and uncle (Robert). My maternal grandmother Rochel is sitting behind and between them.

The two older individuals are my grandfather’s (Chona Levin) parents: Zorach and Golda. The other individuals are unnamed unfortunately but would likely include their children: Mina, Ruska, Israel, Mendel and Rivka.

Mina went to live in the USA (Portland, Maine) – I think the others stayed behind.

#birz-31:

Family by the grave of Emuna daughter of Matot who passed away in 1925
From: Baruch Sendler

#birz-32:

Birzai Parade. Picture was sent to the Kempner family from Gershon
Shneider
Marlene Kempner Dobrin

#birz-33…

A Yad Vashem report for Schneider Elchanan who was born in Birzai,
Lithuania in 1902 to Israel and Leah ( pictured also). Elchanan
perished in 1941 in Birzai, at the age of 39. Page of Testimony
(displayed ) submitted on 04/05/1999 by his nephew; Marvin (Menachem)
Schneider he also gave a report for his grandmother; Schneider Leah
nee Winer born in Birzaiin 1868 to
Berl and Reize. A widow of Yisrael she had 5 children. Leah perished
in 1941 in Birzai,Lithuania at the age of 73.

#birz-34:

Back of postcard of a parade in Birzai
It was sent by Gershon Shneider to Bess and Dave Kempner in the U.S.
Marlene Kempner Dobrin

#birz-35:

Dr. Levin Avraham

Dr. Avraham Levin was born in Sebis in 1889 to Yitzkhak. He was a
physician and married to Sara nee Dorfan. Prior to WWII he lived in
Birzai, Lithuania. During the war he was in Birzai, Lithuania Wartime
Address VYTENBO STR
.Dr. Levin perished in June, 1941 in Birzai, Lithuania at the age of
52 ( he was shot by 2 Lithuanians who asked him to come out of his
house and give them medical care). This information is based on a Page
of Testimony submitted on 17-Apr-1999 by his daughter, Ester Steiman,
a Shoah survivor. ( Sara Bidor is her daughter)

#birz-36:

The 10th of July 1919 in Birzai. We are being photographed standing before the moat of the fortress.
Dov Aryeh PoKempner" . My dad Dave (Dov Aria PoKempner) Kempner is third from the left and my uncle Jack (Yonathon PoKempner) Kempner is third from the right.

Marlene Kempner Dobrin

#birz-42:

a picture of Moisey and Rachil Luria Ponevezh Feb 6, 1921. According
to my father Dave Kempner, Rachil was a sister-in-law to Leba Friedman
father of Chana Peer Slavin and Batia Friedman of Birzai.

Marlene Kempner

#birz-47:

Birzai, Lithuania, A drama group

#birz-48:

Birzai, Lithuania 06/ 29,/1939?, A Jewish kindergarten.

#birz-49:

Birzai, Lithuania, 1939, The pupils & staff of the Hebrew school.

#birz-50:

Birzai, Lithuania, A street, Prewar.

#birz-51:

Birzai, Lithuania, Prewar, A Jewish man.

#birz-52:

Birzai, Lithuania, Prewar, A Jewish school

#birz-53:

A kindergart?en class in 1940

#birz-54:

Birzai, A group of local youth, before the war

#birz-57:

The Friedman sisters ( Batya Koblentz, Chana Peer and the oldest sister Rachel Vesterman, Rachel perished with her family in Birzai in 1941.

#birz-58:

Fourth grade pupils in a Hebrew day school in Birzai, 1925.
In the photo: Batya Friedman.
 a memento for their teacher, Cila Senkar, who was about to emigrate to Mandate Palestine.

#birz-59:

Members of the Zionist movement He - Chaluts in Birzai.
 Batya Friedman (front row, second from the right).  A memento for Rivka (surname unknown), about to emigrate to Mandate Palestine. Photographed on Oct. 25, 1932.

#birz-60:

Pupils of the Hebrew Pro - Gymnasiya (academic middle school) in Birzai, with their teacher.
In the photo: Batya Friedman.
Photographed in August 1929.

taken in 1929, a photo of a group from the Hebrew Pro-Gymnasia, it says that Batya Friedman is in the photo. I just want to add that my mother, Rachel Vainer is also in that photo. She is on the left sitting on the floor. Do you have any other names of people in the photo. I have some similar photos but can only identify my mother.

Thanks,

Doris Winer Greenberg

<orthowife@gmail.com>

#birz-62:

Members of Hachalutz in Birzai,amongst them is Batya (nee Friedman) Koblentz (Birzai 1913- 2011 Yagur)

#birz-63:

Birzai front right away
Sonia Propis top right,19.11.1929

#birz-64:

She is the sister I would like to trace, and her brother David.

 

#birz-65:

Jewish youth summer camp. Sonia 4th from the right in
first row on the grass. Is Batya on the right end?

#birz-66:

 

 

#birz-68:

Rabbi Isaac Benzion Isaacson
Born: 1860 (Ponevezh, Lithuania)
Was the rabbi of Birzai.
Died: August 2, 1931 , Baltimore, MD
http://shmuelsteier.com/genealogy_person_2_39.html

#birz-69:

Birzai 1940 Shmuel Kaplan ( top)
below are Moshe and Nehama Kaplan.

#birz-72:

Musia Liman 1914- 1941 perished in the holocaust.

#birz-73:

?Etel Liman perished in the holocaust.

#birz-74:

Mina Liman 1910- 1942 perished in the holocaust

#birz-75:

David Liman

#birz-84:

Mendel Dorfan was born in 1865. He was an insurance agent. Prior to WWII he lived in Birzai, Lithuania.

Mendel was murdered in the Shoah. The report is by his granddaughter Dr. Esther Shteiman Levin