Simferopol's
Families I

THE ARSHENOV (ADLER) FAMILY

submitted by Kenneth Ryesky

Aron Arshenov was a passenger on the SS Amerika leaving Hamburg on 2 January 1906 and arriving in New York on 14 January 1906; he gives his last residence as Simferopol.

He changed his name to Harry Adler after he came to Philadelphia. At least two of his siblings, including my great-great-grandmother, also took the surname Adler.

On Aron’s Declaration of Intention to become a US citizen, he gives his birthplace as Melitopol and his last residence abroad as Evpatoria (my grandmother and her full siblings were born in Yevpatoriya); his Naturalization Petition declares that he had a daughter born in September 1905 in Yevpatoriya.

As you may know, Yevpatoriya and Simferopol are locales in the Crimea, and Simferopol is approximately 65 kilometers or 40 miles (as the crow flies) from Yevpatoriya.

There are some inconsistencies here, but if you come across an Arshenov in Simferopol, please apprise me; it may help me break through some brick walls.

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THE BULWAR FAMILY

submitted by Miriam Bulwar David-Hay

My late father and his parents were Polish Jews who, like many others, fled into the Soviet Union after Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, and, as I learned only recently, found themselves at one point in Simferopol.

My father, Tolek (Teofil) BULWAR, was born in Krakow in August 1936, the first and ultimately the only child of Abram Itzhak BULWAR, a tailor originally from Łódź, and Maria (Mariem) née FRENKIEL, originally from Bełz (then in Poland, now in Ukraine). We always knew that during the war they had escaped into the Soviet Union and that, after Germany attacked the Soviet Union in mid-1941, my grandfather joined the Red Army as a volunteer (like many other Polish Jewish men) and was apparently killed in one of the first battles.

However, with all three members of my father’s family long deceased, we never knew anything more than that, until I began conducting research several years ago and received a number of documents from the Polish archives, including some filled out after my grandmother and father returned to Poland after the war. One of my grandmother’s documents stated that in early 1940 they were in a town called Kizel in the Ural Mountains – the first information we ever got about where they had been in the Soviet Union. Another document, from the TOZ/OSE* health organization about my father’s state of health in early 1946, gave us further clues. That document stated that my father was initially in the Urals, then in Simferopol, Crimea, and then in Urgench (Urgencz), Uzbekistan. The document also stated that my grandfather’s last place of residence was Simferopol and that there had been “no messages” from him. I can only assume that my grandfather enlisted in the Red Army from Simferopol and was sent somewhere near to where the German army was approaching. But although I have spent a great deal of time and effort trying to find out more, I have been unable to discover anything further about my family’s movements in the Soviet Union or about where or when exactly my grandfather enlisted, fought, and was killed.

I would be most eager to learn anything else I can about events in Simferopol during the war, and specifically if there is any information about Jewish families who fled Poland and ended up there as mine did.

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*TOZ/OSE are the Polish and French acronyms for the organization known in English as “Society for Safeguarding the Health of the Jewish Populace.” OSE still exists today.

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THE GIRS FAMILY

submitted by Saul Issroff

My great-grandparents were exiled to G(H)enitschek during the First World War. Genitschick is 147 kilometers notheast of Simferopol. They were part of a group from Linkuva, northeast Lithuania, that was sent there. My great-grandfather was Noach Girs. The family name became Hersman when most of their children migrated to South Africa between 1900 and 1905. My grandmother was Chana Dvorah Hersman, m. Yudel Issroff.

The Girs family is also connected to Ner, Galun, Vainer, Segal, and Lipschitz from the Linkuva area.

Noach Girs died of starvation during the war. Grunja died a few years later after returning to Linkua.

There is a small Jewish Community in G(H)enitschek. I have tried to contact them, but they have never responded to my emails.

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Created: 11 March 2021

Last Modified: 03-29-2021

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