Through the Lens of History
Mini Exhibits from the Yad Vashem Collections

The Pitel Family

Twenty-six members of the Pitel family of Parczev, Poland, gathered for a photo in 1938.
Yerachmiel Yosef (Josef) Pitel moved to Israel shortly after this photo was taken.
In 1943 the entire family was murdered in Treblinka. Yerachmiel Yosef was the only survivor.

Yerachmiel Yosef Pitel, (first on the right), one of ten children (six sons and four daughters) left his home town of Parcew, Poland in 1938 and went to Israel. Before his departure, the Pitel family got together for a family photograph.  The photograph portrays the parents Chaim and Ester, their ten children, three daughters-in-law, one son-in-law and eight grandchildren, as well as Yosef’s 95 year-old paternal grandfather Leibish Pitel, and his 70 year-old maternal grandmother Sarah Eidelman.

Yosef Pitel kept the photograph during his lifetime, and it was given to Yad Vashem after his death.

Pages of Testimony were submitted to Yad Vashem by Yosef and another relative in memory of each member of the Pitel family. 

The Pages and a brief biography can be seen by clicking on the image of each person appearing in the photo. The family name is spelled two ways here - reflecting how it was spelled by the submitter of the Page of Testimony.

Photograph taken by Kielecki in Parcew, 1938.

The photo was donated to Yad Vashem by Yosef Pitel’s children, Yisrael and Ashira Pitel, Esther (Pitel) and Tommy Lamm, and Meir and Tzipi Pitel.