Pinkas (Paweł) Rothenberg
My Great-Grandfather

The Elusive Pinkas Rothenberg

Once I began to search in earnest for mums family my ultimate goal was to connect with people who were living and breathing. Family I could communicate with in my own generation. One question led to another, and slowly, I began piecing together fragments of context. One of the biggest mysteries was the identity of Helena’s father - my great-grandfather. Who was he?

All that is known about Pinkas has been gleaned from lines in records and several passing mentions. Helena had listed her father as “Paweł” on her official wartime military record, but the first real clue to his identity surfaced on her 1951 marriage certificate to Baron Jan Konopka which I discovered in June 2014. There she recorded her father as “Paweł Rothenberg-Solomirecka,” landowner - deceased.

Glasgow based Jewish Genealogist Michael Tobias was the first to trace records revealing he was a member of the Jewish community the following August. Helena had listed her birthplace as Stryj, and named her mother as Franciszka Probst, allowing Michael to locate the records:

MT: You state that your mother’s [grand]parents were Pawel Rotenburgh-Solomirecka (Polish Landowner, deceased) and Franciszka Probst.  Jews would not have used the names Pawel and Franciszka in everyday life – they would have used Yiddish or Hebrew names. Only for civil purposes (and where possibly trying to hide their Jewishness) would they have used such names.  In many cases, their ‘Jewish’ names would have started with the same letter… So Pawel would be P…. and Franciszka would be F……. 

Here we have a father called Pinkas (=Pawel) ROTHENBERG and a mother called Feiga Dwora (=Franciszka) PROBST, having daughters Roza and Malie in 1900 and 1902. Pinkas was from the town of Klodno. I can’t find a marriage record – perhaps they married elsewhere…. Pinkas is described as a director of a sawmill (so was relatively well-to-do).

‘Helena was fully Jewish. The 1900 and 1902 births I sent you were from the Stryj JEWISH REGISTRATION BOOKS. There is no doubt. 

You do realise this actually makes you Jewish? Judaism passes down the mother’s line (you are never sure who the father is, but you always know who the mother is). Your grandmother Helena was Jewish and so therefore your mother was Jewish and hence you are Jewish...... and your children are Jewish! 

Her family was 100% Jewish. Both the ROTHENBERGs and PROBST/PROPSTs were Jewish. These Jewish registers were only for 100% Jewish families. They would not be recognised as Jewish by the community if one of the parents was not Jewish.’ 

A few months after this fantastic breakthrough, I was able to trace Helena’s great nieces in the USA; they sent me their father, James Russocki’s memoirs. Pinkas, James grandfather, was mentioned, although not by name

“During the summer, I spent time with my maternal grandparents. I liked my grandfather a lot. I could not stand my step-grandmother. My real grandmother (Franciszka Probst) died of cancer when my mother was very young. My grandfather owned an estate and a lumber mill in the same part of Poland as we did. I found it interesting to go with him to the mill in the morning. He used to have the workers build me toys.

Every morning, thinking no one could see him, my grandfather took a shot of vodka just before breakfast. I knew, and probably all the servants knew it too. One day, after he left, I tried a shot of vodka myself. It burned all the way down to my toes, and I thought I was going to choke to death. I swore I would never drink alcohol again. So much for promises. I wonder if my grandfather knew I tried to imitate him—I think he probably did. He was a really very wise person.”

Reading this for the first time, I thought of my mum. How she would have loved to know her grandfather, maybe he would have taken a similar interest and had his workers make toys for her too… as far as we know, he only had two grandchildren. It also made me a little sad that James never knew the truth about his Jewish grandparents. His mothers silence however, almost certainly saved his life.

When Helena met my mother in a cafe in 1965, she confided in her daughter that her brother had been murdered by a Gestapo firing quad during the war. Despite sharing this with my new found American cousins, they had no knowledge their father had lost an Uncle. His mother, Irena had never mentioned she had a brother.

Amazingly, when new records from the community in Stryj were translated, Helena and Irena’s brother ‘Henryk’s’ birth record was found.

Henryk Rothenberg (translation)

• Born: 21 March 1912, Stryj

• Father: Pinkas Rothenberg, sawmill manager in Klodno (District of Żółkiew)

• Mother: Feige Rothenberg (née Probst), daughter of Gerschon and Frymeta Probst of Stryj

Born in wedlock.
Parents married in Żmigród on 8 April 1903. Marriage certificate issued 18 September 1911 by Reichman, Registrar of the Jewish Metryka in Żmigród.

Pinkas was still managing the Klodno sawmill.

Despite these promising discoveries, three years passed, and we found nothing more to identify Pinkas’ Rothenberg family. I kept searching. I kept praying. I wondered—why couldn’t we get through this Rothenberg brick wall?

Michael Tobias kindly kept his ear to the ground. Polish researcher Maciej Kolski from Polish Ancestors hunted through tax records and civic archives. Even Janusz, my helpful neighbourhood Polish historian, joined the effort. Yet the result was always the same: silence. Pinkas - or Paweł - remained stubbornly elusive.

Historical Context

The Rothenberg Brothers and the Timber Trade in Galicia

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the timber industry was one of the most vital sectors in Galicia, a region then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and later inter-war Poland. Towns like Stryj, Dobrohostów, and Żółkiew sat amid vast forests filled with pine, fir, oak, and beech, and along railways, making them hubs for wood processing and export, and supported an expansive network of sawmills, timber yards, and export routes. Timber from Galicia was in high demand across Europe for railway ties, mine props, construction, and paper pulp.

Jewish families played a central role in this trade. Although often restricted in land ownership, Jews operated as forest leaseholders, sawmill managers, timber exporters, and agents. Their work was supported by close community and family ties, often stretching across towns and generations. Jewish-run mills were especially active in regions like Stryj, Skole, Drohobycz, and Borysław, where wood could be floated down rivers or loaded onto new railways heading west.

Ownership of a sawmill was a sign of moderate to substantial prosperity. Some operations employed dozens of workers and included their own rail sidings or flume systems. Jewish families involved in such businesses often belonged to the urban middle class: educated, multilingual, and engaged in both religious life and the broader civic world. However, because many Jews lacked legal land ownership rights under imperial restrictions, they were often vulnerable to economic shifts or nationalisation efforts.

Records show that Pinkas, also known as Pawel, managed a sawmill in Klodno, in the district of Żółkiew, whilst it was eventually established through records and a DNA match with Leon’s grandson Alan, that Pawel’s brother Leon, also known as Leiser, co-owned a sawmill in Dobrohostów with two partners, Scheinfeld and Armbruster. The Rothenberg family's involvement in this industry reflects a common occupational pattern among Jewish families in Eastern Galicia, often owning or managing sawmills, lumberyards, and transportation routes.