ZAIN FAMILY SAGA Compiled by Lillian Zahn 1976-1977 Dedicated to the memory of my dear departed mother, Esther Zahn, better known as Babshe, @ most remarkable woman of heroic stature, a true and noble “Aishes Chail”, and to the memory of my dear departed daughter, Florence (Flo) who drowned on September 11, 1976 in a flash flood in California at the age of 32. This account is based on recollections of Philip S. Zahn, better known as Pinya, who lived in Zaluz until the age of 19 and Lillian Zahn who lived in Zaluz until the age of 9. Close relatives who were raised in Zaluz were also interviewed.ZAHN FAMILY SAGA The village of Zaluz, the ancestral home of the Zahn family, was situated at the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains in the province of Galizia which was part of Austria-Hungary until WWI. After WWI Galizia became part of Poland. Galizian Jews, known as "Galizianer", spoke a Yiddish dialect different from that of the Lithuanian Jews, better known as "Litwaks". Zaluz was one mile from the town of Sanok or Sanoku. The River San divided the village from Sanok. Zaluz was the home of five Jewish families. The rest of the population consisted of three ethnic groups: Polish, Lithuanian and Ukranian peasants who spoke their respective native tongues. Polish was the official language of Zaluz and the language of instruction at the local school. In order to have a minyan for sabbath and holiday services, Jews from three nearby towns (Lynsk, Winsk and Slonym) got together with the Zaluz Jews and established a synagogue in Zaluz to serve all four communities. Two of the Jewish families in Zaluz were the Zahns, that of Shmiel (Samuel) Zahn, better known as Schmielche, and his brother, Motie (Max) Zahn. For generations the Zahns were tavern keepers. The tavern was locally known as the "kretchme". The first Zahn about whom anything is known was Dovid Ezriel Zahn who lived in Zaluz in the early 1800s. He was married to Liebe Malke who lived to the ripe old age of 96. They had many children. One of their sons was named Avrum (Abraham), better known as Avrumche, who was born in 1841. Avrumche married his first cousin, Reizel, and they had many children, five of whom sur- vived. They were Schmielche (Samuel), Motie (Max), Pesele (Pauline), Rivche (Regina) and Feije (Fannie), all of whom eventually migrated to America. Avrumche was originally a toll collector at the -1-village gate leading to the Zaluz highway. He and his family lived in a house adjacent to the toll gate. After his father, Dovid Ezriel, died, Avrumche gave up the toll collection job and moved his family into his late father's house a half mile away. He continued with his father's business, that of tavern keeper. Avrumche died August 1, 1905. His wife, Reizel, died in 1914 at the outbreak of WWI at age 84. Shmielche (Samuel) Zahn was born in 1864. At 20 he married Esther Moskowitz of Rymanov, a town in Galizia some 15 miles from Zaluz. The marriage was ar- ranged by a shadchen or marriage broker. Esther was 22, but she lied about her age and told her prospective husband that she was 20. It was not until many years later that she confessed to her true age. Her husband was furious but eventually forgave her. Esther Zahn was the daughter of Pinchas Shloime and Drezel Moskowitz of Rymanov. She had two brothers, Hersh and Shieh, both of whom were alcoholics. She also had five sisters: Marim, Sureh Perl, Sime, Zierel and Roise. All of Esther's siblings migrated to Amer- ica, with the exception of Marim. Shmielche and Esther Zahn, hereinafter known as Zeide and Babshe, lived in a wood frame ranch house on the Zaluz highway. The house was originally built by Avrumche as a wedding present for his eldest daughter Pesele and her husband Elie Brawer, who was in the lumber business. It contained four oversize rooms, a front porch, a large attic and an out house. (In those days there was no such thing as plumbing.) After Pesele and her husband emigrated to America in the early 1890s, the house was turned over to Zeide and Babshe. Zeide converted one of the front rooms into a tavern (kretch- me). He sold to the peasants all kinds of spirits, such as rum, akawit, slivovits, beer, wines and various liqueurs, as well as groceries and home baked black bread. Back of the Zahn house there was a large garden ==