SAT is my family name. It is a Hebrew acronym, representing the initials of "Pure Spaniard". According to our family's history, the name commemorates the family's origin in the Jewish community in Spain in the Middle Ages. Documents show that, at least from the 18th century, our family lived in Poland.

In documents, our family name appears in three main forms: SAD, SAT, and SATT. So, how does one know that the name in Hebrew is an acronym? In the Jewish cemetery in Zduńska Wola, eleven graves of our family members have been identified so far. All the inscriptions on the headstones are in Hebrew; amongst them is the headstone of my grandmother: Beila-Rachel SAT (née also SAT, 1863-1927), on which the family name appears twice, clearly as an acronym, with apostrophes.

A major part of the SAT family in Poland lived in the region of Łódź. Being literate and proficient in Jewish tradition, they made their living by serving the needs of the Jewish community such as kosher-butchering and melameds (elementary school teachers), but mostly they were famous as headstone-makers (for this, they also had to know the ancient language of the Bible - Hebrew). 

The profession was passed on from father to son; when the son grew up, he started his own family nest, settling in a nearby town where there was no Jewish headstone-maker.

The origin of our family, in Poland, is probably in the village of Działoszyn. From there, the headstone-makers of our family spread, in central Poland, including Zduńska-Wola. 

On the map, in every town whose name is in Hebrew (in blue), there was a branch of the SAT family.

Documents tell the story of our family in Poland, highlighting the 100 years in Zdunska Wola, from 1839 until the Holocaust. One document that particularly moves me is the marriage record of my great-grandmother, Ester SAT (née Reich, 1830-1874), to my great-grandfather Nissan-Avraham "Abba" SAT (1820c*-1891). They got married in Szczerców, on Wednesday, December 19, 1849.

* (The letter "c" indicates that his year was around 1820).

The document reveals many facts, but, in my opinion, the signatures at the bottom are the most exciting: the signature of the rabbi of the town, Moshe-Avraham Kepinski; the signature of the witness, Tsvi "Hirsh" Buginski, who signed in Hebrew; the magnificent signature of the groom, Abba SAT (my great-grandfather); yet, the most significant for me, is the signature of the groom's father, Yaakov (Jacob) SAT, who was born toward the end of the 18th century; he is the first SAT about whom we have documents.

I would like to share a few words about documentation in Poland, in the 19th and 20th centuries. Every large municipality had a residents registration office. With a birth, a marriage, or a death in the city, a family representative had to come to the office, accompanied by two witnesses, to officially report.

For each type of event: birth, marriage, or death, there was a separate booklet, in which the registration clerk wrote the testimony, in a fixed style, assigning it a serial number of that type of event for that year. At the end, the clerk and the others signed.

The languages used in the documents were Polish, Russian, or German, depending on the country that ruled the area at the time. After 100 years at the municipal registry, documents were moved to district archives.

See, for example, birth registration No. 367, for the year 1907, in Zduńska Wola, which is the birth registration of my father, Shmuel-Yosef SAT (1901-1942).

Here is the English translation of the document:

367.  It happened in Zduńska Wola, November 5, 1907. At 10 o'clock in the morning, the widow Beila-Rochelle SAT, 40 years old, from Zduńska Wola, arrived with witnesses Peretz Glicksman, a 40-year-old student, and Israel-Melech Sushak, a 38-year-old weaver, from Zduńska Wola, and presented us a male baby, and stated that he was born in this city on 5.12.1901, at 4 o'clock in the morning.  Her husband, Berek SAT, had died. The baby was named Shmuel-Yosef. The delay in registration was due to her husband's death. 

In fact, my father was born in 1901, but the registration itself took place in 1907. This reflects that the reporting obligation was not fully fulfilled, which is the reason why not every event does have documentation.  

The first wave

Returning to the chronological order of events, the first known member of the SAT family to come to Zduńska Wola (Z-Wola hereafter) was Rivka-Hinda SAT (1819c-1866); she was the daughter of Yaakov SAT (the first known SAT) and his first wife, Gittel. Rivka-Hinda moved to Z-Wola in 1839, from her native village, Działoszyn, to marry a local teacher named Izik Deitch. Soon they fulfilled the Jewish mitzvah Pru Urvu (be fruitful and multiply) and children from our family grew up in Z-Wala, but they were called Deitch, their father's name.

Almost another generation passed. Only in the first half of the 1860s the name SAT heard in the streets of Z-Wola. Ester-Gittel Deitch (1840-1910), the eldest daughter of Rivka-Hinda (née SAT) and Izik Deitch, reached the age at which Jewish girls get married.

On January 28, 1863, in Z-Wola, Rabbi Mendel Lipmanowic conducted the marriage ceremony of Rivka-Hinda to Zussman-Michael SAT (1843-1899) from Szczerców.

In fact, Ester-Gittel, who was the granddaughter of Yaakov SAT and his first wife, Gittel, got married to the son of the same Yaacov SAT and his second wife, Freida-Chana (née Shilis, 1800c-1881c). In those days, marriage within a family was a common practice. 

This wedding was, possibly, the first for one of SAT family in Z-Wola.

Ester-Gittel lived to the age of 70. Her headstone is among 11 members of our family that have been identified so far in the Jewish cemetery in Z-Wola (JCZW hereafter). According to the records, her husband Zussman- Michael died in Z-Wola in 1899, yet no proof has been found that he was buried in the JCZW.

Ester-Gittel (née Deitch) and Zussman-Michael SAT had 9 children, of whom we have information only about two:

1. A daughter, Chana-Freida (1875-194ש*). She married Itzik-Meir Kloshiner (1880-194ש). They lived in Z-Wola, at 7 Lask St. Both were murdered in the Holocaust.

* (194ש indicates that the person was murdered in the Holocaust, on an unknown date).

Descendants of the Kloshiners (the Shin-ar, Ullman, Gilboa, and Gelbard families) live in Israel.

 2. A son, Avraham-Abba SAT (1872-1936), who built his home with Pessia-Freida (née Ahronovich, 1875-19??), in Sieradz. Their descendants are living in Israel, mainly in Haifa and its surroundings, including the SAT tribe at Kibbutz Yagur, to whom we will return, because their ancestor, Akiva-Azriel SAT (1874-1903), was born and lived most of his short life in Z-Wola. 

The expansion of the family

(The second and third generations in Z-Wola)   

In 1865, the SAT family in Z-Wola grew significantly, with the arrival of (previously mentioned) Nissan-Abba SAT (1820-1891), his (second) wife Ester (née Reich, 1830-1874), and their six children: Bluma-Golda (about 13 years old), Chaya (about 12), Sara-Rivka "Riva" (about 10), Eliezer-David (about 6), Chana "Handil" (about 4), and Israel-Dov "Berek" (a one-year-old baby; he is my grandfather!), With them was Perla (about 16 years old), the daughter of Nissan-Abba SAT and his first wife, Hinda (née Zeigler, 1819-1849), who had died in their home, at Działoszyn, following Perla's birth.

We know that they arrived in Z-Wola in 1865 according to the place of birth of their children in the documents: Bluma-Golda (b. 1852), was born in the city of Szczerców, where her parents got married; their next five children were born in the village of Widawa: Chaya (b. 1853), Sarah-Rivka "Riva" (b. 1855), Eliezer-David (b. 1859), Chana "Hendil" (b. 1861), and Israel-Dov "Berek" (b. 1864). The last three children were already born in Z-Wola: Rachel (b. 1866), Chanoch-Shmuel "Heinich" (b. 1870), and Akiva-Azriel “Kiwe” (b. 1874).

The family resided at 7 Julius St., in the city center, near the market, and made their livings as makers of headstones and carving wood furniture.

In those days, giving birth was a life-risk. In 1874, as a consequence of the birth of Akiva-Azriel "Kiwe", Ester (née Reich), the (second) wife of Nissan-Abba SAT, died. She was only 44, but this was her eighth giving birth.

Ester's was the first identified headstone belonging to our family in the JCZW.

When Ester died, Nissan-Abba was about 55 years old. After a couple of years, he got married again. His third wife was a 28-year-old woman from Z-Wola, Ester "Rozeptcha" (née Ziskinovich, 1852-19??). After about a year, their first daughter was born, Leah (1881-1915); the following year, their second daughter, Freida-Chana (1882-1929).

The years passed.  Some of Nissan-Abba's children chose to live in other cities.

Perla (1849-1931), the daughter of his first wife, Hinda (née Zeigler), married Hillel-Leib Knobelski in 1870, in Z-Wola, but the couple moved to Sieradz.

Four of the children of his second wife, Ester (née Reich), also left Z-Wola:

1.    Chaya (1853-1927) got married in Z-Wola, in 1875, to Yosef Reich (1849-1909c), a relative from Działoszyn. The couple moved to Radomsko, where they resided at 31 Kalishka St. Chaya's tombstone is in the Jewish cemetery of the town. The family did not survive the Holocaust.

2.    Eliezer-David (1859-c1930) got married in Z-Wola, in 1879, to Rivka-Leah (née Kalishka, 1859-1930c) from Kalisz, where they established their home. In Israel, their descendants are Sonia Rosenberg and the Shaked family in Petah-Tikva, as well as the SAT family at Kibbutz Ruchama.

3.    Rachel (1866-19??) got married, in Z-Wola, in 1893, to Avraham-Mordechai Edelstein. They probably moved to Kalisz.

4.    Akiva-Azriel "Kiwe" (1874-1903), got married in 1898, in Pabianice, to Chana (née Hershlikovich). Their only daughter, Ester SAT, (1898-1958), is the mother of the SAT tribe from Kibbutz Yagur.  When Akiva-Azriel suddenly died, he was buried in Z-Wola.

Freida-Chana (1882-1929), the daughter of Nissan-Abba SAT, and his third wife, Ester "Rozeptcha" (née Ziskinovich), married in 1906 to Nusen Krol (1880-19??) from Z-Wola. They moved to Łódź, and lived at 7 Zielony St.  

Freida-Chana's grave is in the Jewish Cemetery of Łódź.

Nissan-Abba SAT passed away in 1891. From his second home at his headstone's workshop, he moved to a burial plot.

Five of Nissan-Abba SAT's children got married and established their families in Z-Wola:

1. Leah Liber (née SAT, 1881-192?), daughter of Nissan-Abba SAT and his third wife, Ester "Rozeptcha", (née Ziskinovich), got married in 1903 to Natan-Mordechai "Nosen" Liber, (1877-19??), from Złoczew. They lived in Z-Wola, where their children were born: Nissan-Abba, Aharon-Dov "Berish", Primat, (b. 1911), Ester, (b. 1914), and Chaya. 

Later the family moved to Wieruszów.  

Nissan-Abba Liber immigrated to Israel and lived in Ramat-Gan. His descendants in Israel are the ISRAEL family and the TSUBERI family.

Aharon-Dov "Berish" Liber immigrated to Israel and lived in Jerusalem.

Four of the children of Nissan-Abba SAT and his second wife, Ester (née Reich), also chose to live in Z-Wola: 

2. Chanoch-Shmuel "Heinich" (1870-1916) got married in Z-Wola, in 1894, to a local young woman, Tova "Dobra" (née Dobronski, 1874-19??). They resided at 29 Sheiradzka St. (today the building is an art school). After he passed away, Chanoch-Shmuel was buried in JCZW.

Five of the eight children of Hanoch-Shmuel and Dobra SAT reached adulthood. 

2.1   Their firstborn, Freida-Chana "Hanka" SAT (1898-194ש), was murdered in the Holocaust.

2.2    Levi-Yitzhak "Itzik" SAT (1903-194ש) got married in 1932 to Sheina-Leah née Shirer (1901-1939), from Z.Wola. They lived in Z-Wola and had three children: Chana-Ester SAT, (b. 1933), Chaya-Rachel SAT (b. 1934), and Perla SAT (b. 1936).

2.3   Yaakov-Mendel SAT (1903-194ש) got married in 1924 to Rachel née Goldberg, from Łódź (1907c -194ש); they established their home in Z-Wola, where their daughters Bracha SAT (1925-2007) and Chana SAT (1928-1986) were born.

During the Holocaust, Yaakov-Mendel SAT and his daughters were transferred to the Ghetto of Łódź, where they lived at 47/20 Malinarska St.

Bracha and Hana survived the Holocaust and settled in Israel.

Chana got married in 1948 to Moshe "Marian" Vakshlak (1920-2007); they lived in Ramla.

Bracha got married in 1950 to, Eliezer Riva (1920-1980), from Z-Wola; they lived in Tel-Chanan, near Haifa.

Descendants of the Riva family and the Vakshlak family are living in Israel.

2.4   Yosef-Leib SAT (1907-194ש) got married in 1932, in Z-Wola, to Riba "Liba" (née Klein, 1908-19??), from Z-Wola; they lived in Z-Wola and had two children: Hinda (b. 1933) and Shmuel-Heinich (b. 1934). There is no additional information about them.

2.5   Ester Gitel SAT (1911-2001), the youngest of the children of Shmuel-Chanoch and Dobra SAT, married Fishel Gad (1912-1971), from Z-Wola. They moved to Russia, then to Malmö, Sweden. Their descendants, the Kraisiak family, are still living there.

Back to the children of Nissan-Abba SAT and his second wife, Ester (née Reich).  

3. Sara-Rivka "Riva" SAT (1855-1936) got married in 1886 to David-Elisha Kempinski (1862-1927), from Szczerków. They established their home in Z-Wola, where their three children were born: Ester-Chana Kempinski (b. 1891), Nissan-Abba Kempinski (b. 1893) and Eli-Mandel (b. 1896). We have no information about the children. The graves of Sara Riva (née SAT) and David-Elisha Kempinski are in the JCZW.
 

4. Chana "Hendil" SAT (1861-1899) got married in 1892, in Z-Wola, to Itche-Mayer SAT (1866-1929), who was her cousin from Szczerków; he was the son of Dreizel (née Beech) and Yoske SAT (Nissan-Abba's brother). Chana and Itche-Mayer established their home in Z-Wola. After years of childless marriage, Chana “Hendil” died while giving birth in 1899. She was buried in the JCZW.

5.  Israel-Dov "Bear" SAT (my grandfather, 1863-1902) got married in 1886, in Z-Wola, to his cousin Beila-Rachel SAT (1864-1927), from Działoszyn, daughter of Leah (née Stern) and Tuvia-Bear SAT, who was a brother of Nissan-Abba SAT.

Israel-Dov and Beila-Rachel SAT started their journey as a family in Łódź, where their eldest sons Yaakov-Tuvia (b. 1887) and Eliyahu (b. 1889) were born. They moved to Z-Wola around 1890 and settled in the family house at 7 Julius St. They had five more children there: Nissan-Abba Jr. (b. 1892), Ester-Ita (b. 1894), Leah (b. 1896), Shmuel-Yosef (my father, b. 1901), and Yechiel-Leib "Mechel" (b. 1903), who, unfortunately, was born an orphan.  

7 Julius St., The twilight 

In 1902, Israel-Dov "Bear" SAT, the father of the family, passed away at a young age of less than 40. He was laid to rest in the JCZW. His oldest son Yaakov-Tuvia, who was about 15 years old, and his second son Eliyahu who was around 13, participated in the creation of their father's headstone, on the back side of which is the prayer "El malle rachamim" (God, full of mercy). 

In 1909, My uncle, Eliyahu SAT (1889-1937), for whom I was named, was in the first little group which was called Chovevei-Tzion (Lovers of Zion) that migrated from Z-Wola to the Land of Israel, fulfilling the long-held Jewish dream: "Next year in Jerusalem".

In 1911, Yaakov-Tuvia SAT (1887-1918), who was now the family's breadwinner, got married to Sheindel, (née Dobrzynski 1886-19??) from Kalisz. Sadly, in 1918, he passed away and was buried in the JCZW.

We are still unsure if Yaakov-Tuvia had any children, and what happened to his widow, Sheindel SAT.

In 1914, Nissan-Abba Jr. SAT (1892-1914) joined the Red-army in the First World War and his whereabouts became unknown. 

In 1921, Shmuel-Yosef SAT (my father) got married to his first wife, Sara (née Liverant, 1894-1963). They resided in her family's home, at 18 Piłsudski St.  In 1922, their daughter, Rivka-Leah “Rivche”, (1922-2002) was born.  In 1924, they migrated to the Land of Israel, and resided in Haifa. 

Later on, In Israel, Rivche, married David Lerner. Their descendants live in Israel.

Around 1925, Yechiel-Leib ("Mechel", 1903-1976) married Hinda-Leah (née Abovitch, 1897-1974), from Wieluń. They fixed their home at the family house on 7 Julius St., where their three children (my cousins) were born: Sara-Gittel Adir (née SAT, 1926-1992), Israel-Dov SAT (2007-1928) and Yitzchak-Tuvia "Itche" SAT (1930-1984).

In 1927, Beila-Rachel SAT (my grandmother, who I didn't have the chance to get a hug from) passed away and was buried in the JCZW. The exact location is unknown; her tombstone is intact, next to the fence.

In 1929, Ester-Ita SAT (1894-194ש), who, in the last years, lived in Łódź, got married there to Michael Shmerlovsky (1894-194ש). In 1931, their daughter (my cousin) was born, she was named after our grandmother, Beila-Rachel Shmerlowski (1931-194ש). All three were murdered in the Holocaust.

In the early 1930s, Yechiel-Leib "Mechel", his wife, Hinda-Leah, and their children - Sarah, Dov, and Itche - left Z-Wola, immigrated to Israel, and settled in Haifa.

Their descendants live in Israel.

Only Leah SAT (1896-194ש) remained at 7 Julius St. She began to spend a significant part of her time with her sister's family in Łódź.

The SAT family home, at 7 Julius St. in Zduńska-Wola, remained empty.

Not long after that was the Holocaust.

---- 

In Israel, Shmuel-Yosef Sat (my father) and his first wife, Sara (née Liverant), chose different ways. In 1934, he married my mother, Sara (née Fuxman, 1906-1983). In 1935, my older brother Eitan was born, and, in 1939, I was born. 

Eitan has five children, eleven grandchildren and one great-grandson; I have four sons and eleven grandchildren. We all are proud SATniks.

---- 

I want to express my deep gratitude to the City of Zduńska-Wola, especially to its mayor, Mr. Konrad Pokora, for respecting and protecting the resting place of my ancestors. I am also grateful to the to the Municipal Museum of Zdonska-Wola as well as to Dr. Kamila Klauzińska for helping me discover where my precious ancestors are resting. Without her, I would never have known.

Eli Sat, Kibbutz Gadot, ISRAEL, March 2024