# Gittel Balter (b.1911) <!-- AUTO:BEGIN — generated from GEDCOM; do not edit, overwritten on rebuild --> > 🔵 **Bernstein — Ozzy's side** · Relationship to Ozzy: **great-grandmother** ![[I500032.jpg|220]] **Born** 09/12/1911 — [[Łęczna]] **Died** 01/22/1988 **Parents** [[Szol Aron Balter (b.1874)]] · [[Sura Bina Zysman (b.1883)]] **Spouse** [[Yona Hamerman (b.1911)]] **Children** [[Sara Hamerman (b.1943)]] · [[Moshe Hamerman (b.1946)]] · [[Shaul Hamerman (b.1950)]] **Siblings** [[Josek Majlech Balter (b.1899)]] · [[Perla Hena Balter (b.1901)]] · [[Icek Balter]] · [[Chaim Shia Balter (b.1908)]] · [[Srul Balter (b.1915)]] · [[Unknown Balter (d.1943)]] · [[Itta Balter]] **📸 Media — from MyHeritage** ![[I500032_1.jpg|180]] ![[I500032_2.jpg|180]] ![[I500032_3.jpg|180]] ![[I500032_4.jpg|180]] ![[I500032_5.jpg|180]] ![[I500032_6.jpg|180]] ![[I500032_7.jpg|180]] ![[I500032_8.jpg|180]] ![[I500032_9.jpg|180]] ![[I500032_10.jpg|180]] ![[I500032_11.jpg|180]] ![[I500032_12.jpg|180]] **Documents — from MyHeritage:** [[I500032_doc0.pdf|📄 Hamerman Gitla survivor card]] *GEDCOM I500032 · Bernstein tree · synced 2026-07-01* <!-- AUTO:END --> ## Narrative Gittel — **Gitla** in her records — was born in [[Łęczna]] on **12 September 1911**.[^birth] Her birth went unregistered for a decade: only in **1921** did her father, [[Szol Aron Balter (b.1874)]], a **carpenter** (*stolarz*) of the town, come before the Łęczna registrar to record it, presenting the ten-year-old girl with two merchant witnesses.[^birth] The act sets down a detail of the family's standing: Gitla was born to Szol Aron and to "**the unmarried Sura-Bina Zysman**" — [[Sura Bina Zysman (b.1883)]] — the couple's union being a Jewish religious marriage the state did not recognise, so that in civil law the child was registered as her mother's, with the father acknowledging her.[^birth] By trade Gitla became a **seamstress** (*krawcowa*).[^survivor] She married [[Yona Hamerman (b.1911)]], a tailor of Łęczna and her exact contemporary, and their lives ran together through the catastrophe that followed. Like Yona, Gitla survived the Second World War **in the Soviet Union**, in the Kuibyshev (Samara) region, and it was there that the couple's two eldest children were born — [[Sara Hamerman (b.1943)]] (Ozzy's grandmother) at **Kinel** in 1943, and [[Moshe Hamerman (b.1946)]] at **Syzran** in 1946.[^repat] In the spring of 1946 the family was repatriated to **Lower Silesia**. On **10 April 1946** Gitla registered as a survivor with the Jewish Committee at **Rychbach** (Reichenbach), on a transport card: "Gitla Hamerman," seamstress, born Łęczna, her home in 1939 given as Łęczna, her wartime whereabouts and her means of survival both entered as **Z.S.R.R.** — the USSR.[^survivor] A third child, [[Shaul Hamerman (b.1950)]], was born in 1950. Gitla died in **1988**. [^birth]: Birth act no. 50, Łęczna civil register, dated 29 [August] 1921 (a late registration), read directly from the scan. Father **Szol-Aron Balter**, carpenter (*stolarz*), aged 40, of Łęczna, presented a female child stating she had been born in Łęczna on **12 September 1911** of "**the unmarried Sura-Bina Zysman**" (*niezamężnej Sury-Biny z Zysman*), aged **38** (→ b. ~1883). The child was named **Gitla**. Witnesses: Lejba Brand (53) and Abram-Berek Biderman (32), merchants of Łęczna; the father declared he could not write. (The MyHeritage translation gives the mother's age as 48; the scan reads 38, consistent with [[Sura Bina Zysman (b.1883)]].) Record image on this profile. [^survivor]: **Survivor information card**, *Centralny Komitet Żydów Polskich* ("Karta informacyjna o osobach ocalałych"), Committee at **Rychbach** (Transport), dated **10 April 1946** — read directly (vault document I500032_doc0.pdf). Surname **Hamerman**, given name **Gitla**, born ~1911 in Łęczna, occupation **krawcowa** (seamstress); address on 1 September 1939 **Łęczna**; later address and means of survival: **Z.S.R.R.** (the USSR); last known place **Rychbach**. [^repat]: **Repatriation list**, "List of repatriants who came from Kujbyszew to Rychbach" (CKŻP, 1946), read directly (vault document on [[Yona Hamerman (b.1911)]]'s profile, I500031_doc0.pdf), p. 23 — the family group includes "**Hamerman G.**" (b. 1911, Łęczna, seamstress/*krawcowa*) = Gitla, with her husband **Hamerman J.** (Yona), and children **Hamerman S.** (b. 1943, **Kinel**) and **Hamerman M.** (b. 1946, **Syzran/Wyzran**) — Kinel and Syzran being towns of the Kuibyshev (Samara) region, USSR. ## Research - **Birth, 1911 (registered 1921), Łęczna (birth act no. 50).** Read directly from the scan. **Gitla Balter**, born **12 September 1911**; father **Szol-Aron Balter**, carpenter (*stolarz*), 40; mother "**unmarried Sura-Bina Zysman**," aged **38** (→ b. ~1883, matching the vault; MH's "48" is a misread); witnesses Lejba Brand (53) & Abram-Berek Biderman (32), merchants; father illiterate. Late civil registration of an out-of-wedlock (in civil law) birth. (Image I500032_7.) - **Wartime survival in the USSR** — survivor card (Rychbach, 10 April 1946) gives survival = **Z.S.R.R.**; the repatriation list (Kujbyszew → Rychbach) places her with the family in the Samara region (children Sara b. Kinel 1943, Moshe b. Syzran 1946). Read directly. - **Occupation:** seamstress (*krawcowa*) — the needle trade, like her tailor husband [[Yona Hamerman (b.1911)]]. - **Family:** husband [[Yona Hamerman (b.1911)]]; children [[Sara Hamerman (b.1943)]], [[Moshe Hamerman (b.1946)]], [[Shaul Hamerman (b.1950)]]. Parents [[Szol Aron Balter (b.1874)]] (carpenter) & [[Sura Bina Zysman (b.1883)]]. - **Name form:** Gitla (records) / Gittel (vault head-form); aka "Gitla." ## Evidence - **1911/1921 birth act (Łęczna, no. 50)** — Gitla Balter, b. 12 Sept 1911; father Szol Aron Balter (carpenter), mother the unmarried Sura Bina Zysman (38). Her own (late-registered) birth record. ![[I500032_7.jpg]] *Birth act no. 50, Łęczna civil register, registered 1921 — Szol-Aron Balter, carpenter, records the 1911 birth of his daughter Gitla to "the unmarried Sura-Bina Zysman," aged 38.* - **1946 survivor card (Rychbach)** — "Gitla Hamerman," seamstress, of Łęczna; wartime whereabouts and survival = Z.S.R.R. (USSR); last known place Rychbach. Vault document: [[I500032_doc0.pdf|Survivor information card]]. ## Open questions - **Death (1988).** Place of death not recorded here; the family's post-repatriation destination (Israel is implied) would fix it. - **Parents' marriage.** The 1921 birth act records Sura Bina Zysman as "unmarried," reflecting an unregistered religious marriage to Szol Aron Balter; a religious-marriage or later civil record could confirm the union.