On his bar mitzvah day, November 12, 1939, Abraham Cyzner had no idea what happened to his father, Usher.
The Nazis invaded Poland on September 1, and within a week, they were in Abe’s hometown of Chrzanow. Abe’s family and other Jews fled to Krakow. About 35 men left Krakow to see if it was safe to go back to their hometown when the Nazis shot them dead. “No one knew at first what had happened to them,” said Abe’s daughter, Brenda Weitzberg. Abe’s mother bribed the Germans months later to get his body back but also had to sign a document saying her husband was a war criminal.
Abraham Cyzner, a pillar of the Forest Hills community, recently passed at age 97. The day of his funeral, February 22, was also the anniversary of the Nazis declaring Abe’s hometown of Chrzanow, Poland, as “Judenrein,” cleared of Jews, in 1943.
Chrzanow’s population was more than half Jewish by 1880. More than 6,000 Jews lived there before World War II. Only a few hundred Jews would survive, according to Jewishgen.com.
Before World War II, Abe’s “life was similar to that of other Polish-Jewish boys: public school, cheder, and too few times to play with friends on the cobblestone streets,” said his wife, Bette. “His family ran a thriving textile business,” said Abe’s daughter, Brenda.
Abe’s mother and three sisters “were forced out of their large, airy apartment into a small room in the newly created ghetto,” said Bette. Abe had his bar mitzvah “in a drab, sad ceremony” inside that small room because all the shuls had been closed by the Nazis.
Soon after Abe’s bar mitzvah, the family was deported to concentration camps. Auschwitz was just 11 miles from Abe’s hometown. Abe’s mother and three sisters were killed.
Abe “experienced starvation, beatings, hard labor, and the gruesome necessity of sleeping on the corpses of other inmates” to avoid the freezing concrete floors, said Bette.
Early in the war, the Nazis forced Abe and other Jews to change the direction of the river in his hometown. Later, Abe was a slave laborer in a stone quarry “where many inmates fell to their deaths. From there, “he developed a fear of heights,” said Brenda. Abe worked constructing buildings, and then for the Krupp Corporation.
Abe was in five concentration camps and taken on a death march by the time he was liberated by the US Army on April 11, 1945, at the Nordhausen concentration camp in Germany. Future New York State Governor Hugh Carey was part of the Army division that liberated the camp. At liberation, Abe weighed just 80 pounds.
None of Abe’s family, including dozens of cousins, survived the Holocaust. A first cousin with tuberculosis was sent to Sweden but Abe was never able to find him after the war.
After the war, Abe yearned to move to America. The hot weather in then-Palestine was not something Abe could get used to.
Abe lived in Regensburg, Germany, attending university while waiting to come to America. “He also skillfully forged documents to allow survivors to be admitted to Palestine,” said Bette. Abe never charged for those services, unlike others.
Abe’s dream to live in America came true in 1952. He worked menial jobs as a laundry worker, pocketbook cutter, and a stockboy. “After a hard day of physical labor,” said Bette, Abe would attend business school. Abe eventually became a stockbroker and vice president of a large investment firm.
Abe’s religious knowledge and skills soon surfaced, said Bette. Abe was a skilled handyman, gardener, and prolific artist of almost 100 professional-quality paintings.
Abe led the Chrzanow Society in America for the survivors from his town, planning memorials and speakers, and producing newsletters.
Abe went back to Chrzanow, Poland, with his family in 1995. He met the granddaughter of the Polish woman who pointed out where Abe’s family was hiding from the Nazis. Abe “didn’t have hatred toward her at all,” said Brenda. She was not responsible for her grandmother. The granddaughter showed them around the town and pictures.
For the past 38 years, Abe and his second wife, Bette, have been a mainstay of Congregation Machane Chodosh in Forest Hills, a synagogue founded by World War II refugees and Holocaust survivors. Abe “enjoyed meeting other survivors and bonding with (German-born) Rabbi Manfred Gans and later Rabbi Yossi Mendelson,” said Bette.
Rabbi Mendelson noted how “Abe Cyzner had a remarkable sense of humor, always with a twinkle in his eye. He had a delight for Yiddishkeit; you could see that it was sweet for him.”
Abe reminded Rabbi Mendelson to learn from history. “He pointed out how political movements can be manipulative and destructive, and how vulnerable the Jewish people are.” Abe’s presence and conduct reminded Rabbi Mendelson “how resilient am Yisrael is.”
“Abe had an outgoing personality enhanced by a sparkling sense of humor,” said Bette. But the horrors he experienced meant nightmares and night terrors throughout his life.
However, Abe was never bitter or cynical with other people, said Bette. Abe was “generous with advice, money, and kind to people and animals – a real mentch!”
Abe’s daughter Brenda said her father had every right to be angry and bitter but wasn’t. “He was, overall, optimistic, funny, very smart.” Brenda’s friends always “found him hugely charismatic and charming.”
Abe’s curiosity brought him to painting late in life and “to build a life out of the ashes and the ruins.” “He never lost faith. To continue to believe. It’s just unbelievable,” concluded Brenda.
By David Schneier
