Names on the reverse side of this picture were written by someone, but not all are named and it appeared to be a young handwriting. Center is Ratzela and Itzak. Son Morris is to Ratzela's left, Chaja is next to her father. Sitting in front is Sam. It is possible that Necha and her husband is in back row to the left of Ratzela and in between Ratzel and Itzak is Sol. On the end may be Rivka.
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The Schnalls Lived in Wielowicz, Poland. Father Yitzchak Schnall was a very religious man. He and his wife Ratzl had 10 children.
From Ariel Garten (Chaja's grand daughter):
Chaja indicated that the small synogogue for the town was in her home.
They lived on lovely piece of property with a home farm- small animals and vegetables- which was common in Poland at that time.
From Rosalie Lazarow (Betty's daughter):
As far as stories from Poland, the only thing that my mother shared with me was that they lived on a big farm and that my mom would milk the cows and get fresh eggs from the chickens. She did mention that her sisters Necha and Rivka were both married and each had 2 beautiful children. She would often cry when she would bring up their names.
From Paul Schnall (Shalom's son):
There were 10 siblings in the family. (Not in birth order) Gert (Gittle), Neche, Golda, Moshe, Shirly (Shaindel), Betty (Bracha), Sol (Shlomo,) Sam (Shalom), Chaya, and Rivka. In 1932 Yitzchak passed away. Gert, Shirley and Betty came to America before WWII. I think that Neche, Moshe, Rivka, and Golda, were married with children before WWII started. As far asI know Neche, Moshe, Rivka, and Golda, all died with their families during the war. I think that Rivka died in Auswitz. Neche was married to a Colonel in the Polish Army and he and the whole family were shot by German soldiers on the road. Sol, Shalom, Chaya and their mother Ratza (Ratzel) traveled east in 1939 in order to cross the border from Poland into Russia.
Upon crossing into Russia they were summarily arrested and put into jail. The conditions were overcrowded without even enough room for everyone to lay down on the floor. After days in jail they jailor came and asked everyone to become Russian citizens. The Schnalls did not agree to become Russian citizens and after 18 days in jail they were put onto a train (cattle car) and sent to Siberia.
At the end of the train ride (days if not weeks) the doors to the train opened and there they found nothing in front of them but a forest. They disembarked and were told that they better start building barracks if they wanted to survive the winter. They built two barracks. Each one had a single wood burning stove in the center. Their job in Siberia was to cut trees. Every day they would go into the forest and cut down trees with hand tools, axes and saws. In the winter they would go out to cut trees and then when the spring thaw came they would see the trees they cut were all cut at different heights. This was due to the fact that there was varying depths of snow every day and by the end of winter they were cutting trees 3 meters off of the ground due to the depth of the snow laying on the ground.
After a year in Siberia the Polish citizens were told that the Polish government wanted to put together an army to try and push the Germans out of Poland. The idea was that Polish citizens would be sent to Uzbekistan and there they would form an army. All Polish citizens interested in going to Uzbekistan could get on a train and relocate. Shalom, Chaja, Sol, and Ratza got on the train with one suitcase between them containing all of their belongings. The train was filled to capacity and then some, there was no room even to find a seat and it was not possible to move between cars. Upon reaching Uzbekistan, everyone disembarked and people started searching for places to live
After a while Sol and Sam got jobs together digging trenches for underground electric lines. He and Sol lived in the city and Chaya and Ratza lived in the country. Ratza died there. After that, Chaya, Sol and Sam spent years in Uzbekistan. Eventually they made their way back to Poland(???). Chaja met up with Meyer and they married in 1946. In 1947/48 at the end of the war they were sent to a Displaced Persons camp. There the surviving siblings (?) waited for visas to go to the USA where Gert, Betty, and Shirley already lived.