The Birnbaum Family Business

Sorry for taking so long to reply to Etty’s question.

I checked with my mother who was a bit shaky on the Avrum’s occupation but here it is to the best of her knowledge.

Avrum was involved in commodities trading. He would purchase grain from farmers, arrange its transportation to the local mill and then sell the flour.

My mother pointed out that the Birnbaum family was very wealthy during the 19^th and early part of the 20^th century. She’s not sure if was Jacob or Jacob’s father Scharia-Leib who was given land by the king but one of the two was. The land encompassed much of what was the nearby town of Stolowa Vola (now Rozwadow is a neighbourhood of that city). Some time up to and possibly during WWI, the family was forced to sell off their properties and large portions of it were mostly likely expropriated by the government as well. So that by the end of WWI, the family had lost much of its wealth, but still maintained a certain aristocratic position within the community.

This is all based on what my mother remembers hearing from her father. I have no evidence to confirm it.