I vividly remember when the movie version of “Fiddler on The Roof” was released. It was the first Broadway show I had seen in person as a child. So seeing it again in the movie theater reminded me of the special trip into New York City with my parents and the delight I felt while listening to the songs and learning about Anatevka. One of my favorite scenes occurs in a tavern where the Polish and the Jewish citizens end up in riotous dance!
The tavern scene has so much more meaning to me now. I was with my maternal grandfather the first time he saw the movie. Grandpa was from a small town in Austria/Poland called Trzciana. When he watched the tavern scene, he turned to me and said, “My family had a tavern just like that. It looked just like that.” Anatevka/Tzrciana taverns were interchangeable in my grandfather’s eyes. He said the movie brought back memories of his childhood.
Grandpa did not often speak freely about his family. Stories came in bits and pieces of memories. But it was not something you asked about. It was something that he had to offer because Grandpa’s family all perished in the Shoah. His parents, his siblings, his aunts and uncles, his cousins, everyone who was in Europe died, except for three. (See blogs below.)
But that tavern memory has so much more meaning because now I know more about it thanks to the research of Izabela Sekulska who started the Mayn Shtetele Mielec Facebook group. Izabela has been helping me find out information about my family for about a year now. The documents she finds make the stories I was told by Grandpa come to life.
Izabela recently found a document from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry that brings the family tavern to life.
My great grandfather Gimple Feuer applied to open a tavern on April 10, 1912, when my grandfather was just over 12 years old. My Grandpa did grow up with a tavern in his life. This document from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry states that the location was in Trzciana, Galicia, which was then part of Austria as Poland. Throughout his life Grandpa said he was Austrian as that part of Galicia became part of Poland after the war.
At my family’s tavern they sold beer, wine, other alcoholic beverages and tobacco according to this document. I knew my great grandfather had a farm that included a crop of grains and grain silos to store the grain. So having a tavern makes sense, he had the grain to brew the beer.
Grandpa told us stories about cleaning out grain silos and how one time he and his cousin became intoxicated on the fumes from the silo. They actually became sick and ran to a nearby stream/creek to drink the water and wash the fumes away. He said they almost drowned, they were so drunk.
As I remembered this story, I looked for a map of current day Trzciana online and saw where the Cichawka stream goes through the town.
Thanks to Izabela, I know that there were no street names in Tzrciana, the homes and buildings were just numbered during the time my grandfather lived there.. And the number of the tavern was 129.
On the map that I found online all the buildings are numbered. There is one numbered 129 close to the creek. Could this be when my great grandfather had his tavern? I am not sure, but it perhaps the numbers remain the same.
Now there are addresses and streets. So perhaps with this information we can one day find out exactly where the tavern was located in the town. Perhaps this address is where the family lived, and the tavern was located on their farmland?
Izabela has asked for help in finding out where this location is now in Trzciana in the Facebook group. That would make this amazing find so much more amazing. And it might be that the number 129 is in the same place. And the numbers around it are the places where the other members of my family lived before the war.
Knowing my great grandparents had a tavern, perhaps explains to me why there was actually a trial after the war concerning the murder of my great grandmother during the Shoah. Perhaps their standing in the community created lasting friendships that existed after the war and lead to people actually testifying about her death. (See blog below.)
No matter what I find about where the tavern actually stood in Trzciana, I do know that from now on whenever I see the story of Anatevka and see the tavern scene, I will think of my grandfather and his family that perished, but I will also remember how they lived.
Renewing A Family Connection: My Mother’s Day Gift
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