The Galicians

Leon Seneft and his wife, Mindel (Minnie) Hilinger, lived in the country of Galicia in Eastern Europe, a region that is now part of Southern Poland and Western Ukraine. They had 5 children that we know of. When the children were still young, they moved the family to London, England. We know little of their life there, only that Mindel, died March 20th, 1913. We also believe Leon served as a Rabbi while in London.

Leon Seneft and Mindel's children were:

Alex (Alec) Seneft. Alec's Hebrew name was Elias. He was born on June 2nd, 1883.
Jack Seneft was born on September 13th, 1891.
Jennie Seneft was born in 1893.
Annie Seneft was born on May 18th, 1893.
The last child was a son, but we unfortunately have no identifying information about him. We do know that he married and had 4 sons and a daughter named Kitty. Kitty Seneft married a man named Solomon, and they had two children.


Alec Seneft at Camp Douglas.

Because the Seneft family came from an area that was part of the German Republic, and because they still had German citizenship, at the beginning of World War I, Alec and possibly one or both of his brothers were sent to a camp for enemy aliens, known as Camp Douglas. In this photo, we can see Alec in the center, we believe the gentleman on the far right may be his brother. The Jewish population of the camp was kept in a separate location from the rest of the populace and treated less well then the other enemy aliens. Since they were in the camp, they also could not become citizens, and once the war was over, they were expelled from England and sent back "home" to Germany.

Alec Seneft and friends at Camp Douglas.

Feiga Golda Reich married Benzion Kresch. They lived in a village named Czudek in Galicia. This village is now located in Southern Poland. They had six kids. We know that Benzion died sometime between 1907 and 1919, and we also know that there was a Pogrom on Czudek, and believe that it is likely he was either injured or killed in that attack. After Benzion's death, the family began to move away.

Naftali Mendel Kresch was born September 2nd, 1890, he married Rosa Lowenbraun and they had 2 daughters. They left from Antwerp in 1941 and immigrated to South America along with their daughter, Sabina, her husband, and their child. Dora Kresch was born on January 15th, 1892. In 1919, she and her sister, Minna immigrated to Frankfurt together. For more information about her family, visit this post. Minna Kresch was born between 1892 and 1902. After immigrating to Frankfurt with Dora, we know she married and escaped from Germany before Hitler's full rise. Haim Kresch was born before in 1902. Haim disappeared shortly after the WWI, and no one in the family knows what happened to him. Erna Esther Kresch was born in 1902. She married a man named Ginter, and he and their three children escaped the Nazis, but she did not. She died in 1943, there is a record of her in Yad Vashem. She is the only one in our line that we know of who was killed by the Nazis. Aharon Kresch was born in 1904. He left for Luxembourg before 1930, and moved to Israel in 1934 with his wife. Many of Aharon and Erna's descendants live in Israel today.