My name is Elhanan Pinner from Beit Yitzhak, Israel. I first heard the name Trzemeszno, Poland (previously known under the German name Tremessen) when Agnieszka Kostuch contacted me in March this year. She wrote that my grandmother Gertrud Debora Wiener (nee Wreszynski) was born in Trzemeszno and that she was looking for more information about our family for an article about the Jewish community in the town.
This piece of information made me return to the memories of my mother Hanna Pinner (born in Breslau; currently Wrocław, in 1923, passed away in Israel in 2019). In her memoir she provided a detailed description of her mother's family. They came to Breslau from Pleschen where her mother and siblings grew up. Later I found in her 'Yad Vashem' (Israel's official memorial and museum to the victims of the Holocaust) that indeed my grandmother was born in Tremessen. Then I heard the name again from a remote relative writing to me about the Wreszynskis.
I deeply appreciate the initiative that Agnieszka took upon herself to organize the renovation of the local Jewish cemetery and to return the stolen Matzevot to the place where they belong. Also the task of writing about the local Jewish community and its members, in order to preserve their memory, which is very important.
I don’t know until what year my grandmother's family lived in Tremessen. The sad thing is that almost the entire family eventually perished in the Holocaust. This included my grandmother Gertrud and my uncle Refael Menachem, my mother's grandmother Sara Wreszynski, my mother's aunts Roza Wreszynski and Herta Sgaller and her uncles Erich Wreszynski, Leo Wiener and all their family members.
My great-grandfather George Gustav Bley was born in Tremessen, the son of Epraim and Johanna Elkan Bley. He left Tremessen in 1891 at age 14 to travel with his 11 year old brother Jacob to be with their uncle Sol Elkan and brothers Felix and Isadore in Demopolis, Alabama. His mother joined them in 1893 with Grete, age 9; Selma, age 8, and Henrich, age 4. I am thankful for the work in restoring what remains of the cemetery and in telling the stories of this place of our ancestors.