Maria Goldszmit

Henryk Goldszmit’s aunt

The daughter of Hersz and Chana Goldszmit, born in 1841 in Hrubieszów; died after 1905, probably in the same place (the exact date has not been determined).

Maria Goldszmit and Rudolf Pistol marriage certificate

The only document that has survived is her marriage certificate, issued on 24 August 1860 in Tomaszów. She married Rachmil vel Rudolf Pistol. According to this document, the marriage ceremony was preceded with three rounds of banns in the Hrubieszów synagogue (on 12, 19, and 26 May) as well as in the Tomaszów synagogue (on 4, 11, and 18 August). The marriage ceremony at the synagogue took place in the presence of the bride’s parents on the evening preceding the date of the certificate, i.e. on 23 August. Additionally, the spouses declared that on 22 August, they had concluded a pre-nuptial agreement at the office of the notary public for the Tomaszów District. The detail that draws attention is the neat calligraphic signature of the bride: “Marya Goldschmidt.” Her father signed the document as “Herszko Goldszmidt.”

Little is known about the life of Maria Pistolowa. We can suspect that she did not stay long in Tomaszów. Perhaps she moved to her husband’s homeland, to Galicia. There is a birth certificate of a stillborn child of a Maria Pistol in the Rzeszów Archives. It is not certain whether the said Maria Pistol was Henryk Goldszmit’s aunt (who was around 47 years old at the time). We know that she returned from Galicia to her hometown, Hrubieszów, around 1905. In an anonymous letter published in the September issue of Izraelita (1905, No. 33), we can read that “Hrubieszów now celebrates the opening of the Goldszmits’ Jewish Old People’s Home. The project’s initiator is Mrs Maria Pistolowa, the daughter of the late Dr Goldszmit. Having returned to the country after a long-lasting absence, Mrs Pistolowa settled down in Hrubieszów to take care of her parents’ graves and to be buried next to them.”