Falik Family History
Very few details are known of Liza Falik's life in Zurawno. Liza was born in Zurawno on April 28, 1913. She was the youngest child in her family. She spoke of skiing to school in the winter. Around 1930, at the age of 17, she started working as a dressmaker.
During World War II she spent time with her Laufer cousins, including Yosef Laufer, and she slept on a neighbor's stove. She was sent to Russia by the Russian Army before the Germans invaded Zurawno in June 1941.
While she was in Russia she stayed with a group of five or six doctors. She didn't drink liquor, so the vodka that was used for anesthesia purposes was stored under her bed to keep it safe. She also worked on a hashish farm.
After the war, she was sent to the Feldafing Displaced Person's (DP) Camp near Munich, Germany. She worked for a time as a secretary for the camp. One day she was looking at a camp list and saw another person with the same surname of Falik. Curious to find out if there was a connection, she arranged to meet him. Majer Falik was from the town of Kolomyya in the Stanislawów Voivodship of Poland/Ukraine. It turned out that they were not related, and after a brief courtship they were married in a wedding ceremony in Feldafing in 1946.
On October 7, 1948 Majer and Liza had a son, Wolf Mendel Falik. Liza's students and colleagues at the Wetzlar Assembly Center presented Liza with a letter of appreciation to celebrate the birth. Wolf was given the Yiddish name of Velvle.
The Wetzlar DP Camp closed on March 3, 1949 and the Feldafing DP Camp closed in late 1951. Fortunately, Harold ("Harry") Laufer, Liza's cousin, had emigrated to the U.S. with his sister, Chana Laufer, before WWII. Harold sponsored the Faliks, and in 1951 the family emigrated to the U.S. Harold helped Majer get a job at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on Fifth Avenue in New York City. (Harold's son Morris Laufer currently lives in Florida with his family.)
The Faliks first lived in the Bronx at 931 Faile Street. Wolf (Velvle), now called Willy, attended first and second grade at a Bronx Yeshiva. In 1957 Willy was in the third grade when the family moved to Jackson Heights, in Queens, New York.
Liza worked in the textile industry in New York and was a member of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU). Majer worked in the banquet department of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
In 1975, Majer and Liza retired to North Miami Beach, Florida, where they lived until they passed away within two months of each other in early 1987. Willy, his daughter, Janina Falik Blue, her husband Robert and their son Zev live in Denver, Colorado.
Photo: Majer Falik, Liza Falik, David (?) Schmidt, Walter Schmidt, wife of Walter Schmidt (left to right) at the Feldafing DP Camp.
Falik Family Photo Album
Click here to view photographs of Liza and Mejer Falik and their family.
