Trust and experience
are the most important factors
when hiring a Realtor.

Five local Rabbis
have trusted us with
their real estate transactions.

Woods and Shelly of Ann
Arbor.

ABOVE:
Ruth Webber,
nee Muszkies, at
her liberation
from Auschwitz
in 1945 — she
is highlighted
by a circle.

PHOTOS REDISCOVERED
Many years later, Wojtek
Mazan, a young man
interested in the his-
tory of his hometown of
Ostrowiec, found some old
photos stamped on the back with
“Rembrandt,” the name of Muszkies’
studio. He never knew the name of
the man behind the photos until a few
years ago.
In January 2015, on the 70th anni-
versary of the liberation of Auschwitz,
Mazan found a photo of child pris-
oners, including three girls from
Ostrowiec. One was identified as
Ruth Webber, nee Muszkies. Mazan
remembered a small photo he had
found in an abandoned house that
was stamped on the back, “Master
Photographer’s Studio, Sz. Muszkies,
Ostrowiec, Ilzecka 16.”
He found a long interview with
Webber from the 1990s about her
Holocaust experiences, and realized
her father was the “Rembrandt” of
the photos he’d been collecting. That
small photo from the abandoned
house was the only one he found
with the photographer’s name. It had
probably been made before Muszkies
adopted “Rembrandt” for his studio.
Through a Polish colleague, Mazan
connected online with Webber’s
daughter Susan and Marcia Spilberg,
a cousin from Brazil, who were part
of a Facebook group, Descendants
of Ostrowiec. Together they began a
relationship of discovery about the
Rembrandt photographs and the
Muszkies family’s history in Ostrowiec.
Mazan later met Webber’s sister,
Helen Mueller, in Toronto, where she
lives. Through Susan Webber and
Mueller, he was able to learn more
about Muszkies and also to obtain
copies of family photographs, which
had been sent to relatives who left
Poland for Brazil before the war.
Mazan placed ads in local papers
looking for copies of photos with the
“Rembrandt” stamp, and talked to the

town’s oldest residents.
“Elderly residents remem-
ber ‘Rembrandt’ was a Jew,
but none of my interlocutors
knew the name,” said Mazan
in his introduction to the
book he created from the
photographs showing a por-
trait of Ostrowiec’s residents
in the 1930s.
He collected 150 photos, most of
which are presented in the book.
Where he’s been able to identify the
people or organizations pictured, he
also provides their stories.
There are no photos of Jews or
Jewish events, except for those Mazan
got from Muszkies’ family.
Ostrowiec held an event to launch
Mazan’s book on Oct. 29. Webber
attended with her three daughters,
two cousins from Brazil, a niece and
nephew from Israel and her sister-in-
law Rae Nachbar of Southfield.
Webber described her wartime
experiences at the book launch, speak-
ing in English with a Polish translator.
“The room was packed, and there
was dead silence when she spoke,”
said her daughter Elaine Webber. “By
the end, the audience was in tears.”
Webber has mixed feelings about
the trip. She’s happy her father’s legacy
is being preserved, but she didn’t
enjoy returning to Poland.
She didn’t want to stay in Ostrowiec,
so the group didn’t spend even one
night there. They arrived in Poland
through Krakow, where they visited
her husband’s parents’ graves and saw
the building that housed the orphan-
age where Webber lived after her lib-
eration from Auschwitz.
Elaine Webber, who teaches nursing
at the University of Detroit Mercy, said
the trip gave her mother an opportu-
nity to open up about her story, which
was helpful. She also said the publica-
tion of Mazan’s book was important
for the local residents.
“The people should know the his-
tory of the town and of the Jews who
lived there,” she said. “The photos
show what a great cross-section of
people lived there.” •

We offer two generations and
20 years of experience,
having sold over 1,000 homes.

JEFF & MATT
BARKER

Record 85 Homes Sold in 2016
Top 1% of Realtors Nationally

248.425.6000

jeff@jeffbarkerhomes.com
www.jeffbarkerhomes.com

275 S. Old Woodward Ave,
Birmingham, MI 48009

jn

January 12 • 2017

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