Central Database of Shoah Victims Names - Part II

Whenever looking at a document, it is important to consider how and why the document was made. This helps to figure out which parts of the document are more likely to be reliable.

For example: on a death certificate, the date, time, and cause of death are all likely to be reliable. Or at least as reliable as the medical profession was at the time. The reliability of the date and place of birth, or information such as the names of the deceased's parents, depends entirely on the informant.

The Central Database of Shoah Victims Names draws its names from three sources:

1.Pages of Testimony. These are one-page forms, submitted to Yad Vashem by survivors, remaining family members or friends in commemoration of people who perished in the Holocaust. The first 800,000 of them were collected in the 1950s, and the rest since. There are currently some 2,600,000 names on Pages of Testimony, written in about thirty languages and four alphabets.


2.Historical documentation from the archives, such as the correspondence of the Nazi bureaucrats and their counterparts throughout Europe; personal documents of the Jews such as letters, passports, diaries and memoirs, as well as the documentation of the Jewish organs and institutions; lists detailing confiscation of assets, deportation lists or lists of victims; legal documentation from proceedings against Nazi criminals and collaborators, and much more. The documentation is in all European languages.


3. Local commemoration projects: There are dozens of local initiatives to record the names of the Jews from a specific region, country, or camp. Yad Vashem has joined efforts with these projects, and their results are integrated into the central database. 

In my searches, most of the results appear to come from pages of testimony.  How reliable are these? Well, consider the circumstances. You are a survivor of the Holocaust. A decade, two, three, or four afterwards you feel compelled to memorialize the names of your relatives and fellow members of your community who perished. The names you are likely to remember well.  Names of parents? If its for a sibling, you will likely get that right. But for a cousin? It might depend upon how old you were at the time. Dates and Places of birth?

In some cases, all the record really provides for certainty is a name. But that is a name you can take to other websites such as JewishGen and see if you can find records to confirm the other pieces of information.

After looking at the records of Almasu/Varalmas I decided to do a search on some paternal ancestors. In particular, the Cantkerts (pronounced: Tsantkerts).

My second great grandparents Samuel and Rose (Cantkert) Newmark lived in Warka, Poland - on the outskirts of Warsaw.  They left Poland in 1893 and after spending 15 years in England, finally settled in America.  All I know for certain about Rose's parents are the names that appear on her death certificate: Hirsch and Bryna.  How well did her son recall the names of his grandparents?  He didn't get Rose's maiden name correct - he wrote it down as Sundberg. Luckily, the London birth records of his younger siblings led me to Cantkert. Are the first names correct?

I conducted a search at the Central Database for anyone with the name Cantkert.  There were only slightly over 60 results, and I created an Excel spreadsheet of information from the records. Here's a table:

Surname	First Name	Maiden	Father	Mother	DOB	POB	Spouse	Submitter	Relationship
Cantker	Feiga	Holtzman	Nisan	Pesa	1913	Siedlce Poland	Mendel	Yeshayahu Holtzman	Brother
Cantker	Noakh		Menashe	Braindel	1910	Warka, Poland	None	Yekhiel Vafel	Cousin
Cantkert	Fayga				1895	Warsaw, Poland		Deportation List
Cantkert	Frida				1939	Paris, France		Deportation List
Cantkert	Ita				1927	Paris, France		Deportation List
Cantkert	Paul				1933	Paris, France		Deportation List
Cantkert	Suzanne				1935	Paris, France		Deportation List
Cantkier	Yankiel		Meir	Hudes	1905	Warka, Poland	Tauba	George Cantkier	Son
Cantkier	Symcha				1919	Wolomin, Poland	Teiblum	Yerakhmiel Zholt	Cousin
Cantkier	Leja	Teblum	Leib	Ester	1919	Wegrow, Poland	Simkha	Yerakhmiel Zhulti	Cousin
Cantkier	Unknown		Symcha	Leja	1939	Wolomin, Poland		Yerakhmiel Zholt	Cousin
Feder	Reizl	Tzantker	Hersh	Breina	1885	Warka, Poland	Mordekhai	Tzipora Haus	Niece
Tantker	Josif		Shmuel	Riza	1921	Warsaw, Poland		Tzipora Haus	Cousin
Tantker	Sara		Hersh	Breina	1918	Warsaw, Poland		Tzipora Haus	Cousin
Tantker	Bronia		Khaim	Reizil	1913	Warsaw, Poland		Tzipora Haus	Cousin
Tantker	Khaim		Hersh	Breina	1892	Warsaw, Poland	Khaia	Tzipora Haus	Cousin
Tantker	Tzipora		Hersh	Breina	1920	Warsaw, Poland		Tzipora Haus	Cousin
Tantker	Neha		Khaim Shmuel	Khaia	1917	Warsaw, Poland		Tzipora Haus	Cousin
Tantker	Sofia		Khaim Shmuel	Khaia Roza	1915	Warsaw, Poland		Tzipora Haus	Cousin
Tantker	Yokheved				1910	Warsaw, Poland	Yaakov	Tzipora Haus	Cousin
Tantker	Yitzhak		Hersh	Breina	1914	Warsaw, Poland		Tzafrir	Cousin
Tantker	Yaakov		Hersh	Breina	1875	Warsaw, Poland		Tzipora Haus	Cousin
Tantker	Yaakov		Hersh	Breina	1910	Warsaw, Poland	Yokheved	Tzipora Haus	Cousin
Tantker	Reizl		Hersh	Breina	1923	Warsaw, Poland		Tzipora Haus	Cousin
Tantker	Zelig		Khaim Shmuel	Khaia Roza	1919	Warsaw, Poland		Tzipora Haus	Cousin
Tantker	Khaia Reizl				1897	Warsaw, Poland	Khaim Shmuel	Tzipora Haus	Cousin
Tantker	Zelda		Khaim Shmuel	Khaia Roza	1912	Warsaw, Poland		Tzipora Haus	Cousin
Zantker	Frida		Khaim Shmuel	Khaia	1918	Warsaw, Poland		Tzipora Haus	Cousin
Zantker	Sara	Lange	Khaim Barukh	Tzina		Bialobrzegi, Poland		Efraim Shafranski	Nephew
Zantker	Wolf					Bialobrzegi, Poland	Sara Lange	Efraim Shafranski	Relative
Zantker	Abraham					Warka, Poland		Efraim Shafranski	Acquaintance
Zantker	Nukha		Wolf	Sara	1930	Bialobrzegi, Poland		Efraim Shafranski
Tzandker	Yisrael		Yosef	Miriam	1907	Stanislawow, Poland		Hendel Ishlakh	Brother
Tzandker	Ester		Beniamin	Khava	1906	Stanislawow, Poland		Hendel Ishlakh
Tzandker	Khaia Sara		Yosef	Miriam	1908	Wolomin, Poland		Hendel Ishlakh
Tzandker	Dvora		Yosef	Miriam	1923	Stanislawow, Poland		Hendel Ishlakh
Tzandker	Asher		Yosef	Miriam	1920	Stanislawow, Poland		Hendel Ishlakh
Tzandker	Meier		Yosef	Miriam	1900	Stanislawow, Poland		Hendel Ishlakh	Sister
Tzandker	Tzipora		Yosef	Miriam	1900	Stanislawow, Poland		Hendel Ishlakh	Sister
Tzandker	Sabina				1915	Warsaw, Poland		Hendel Ishlakh	Sister-in-Law
Tzandker	Simkha		Yosef	Miriam	1923	Stanislawow, Poland		Hendel Ishlakh
Tzandker	Miriam		Khaim David	Rivka Matilda	1880	Stanislawow, Poland		Hendel Ishlakh	Daughter
Tzandker	Khana		Asher		14			Hendel Ishlakh
Tzandker	David			Tzipora	15			Hendel Ishlakh
Tzandker	Yoel			Tzipora	13			Hendel Ishlakh
Tzandker	Khaia			Tzipora	10			Hendel Ishlakh
Tzantker	Malka				30	Poland	Shalom	Beniamin Tzantker	Son
Tzantker	Shalom					Poland	Malka	Beniamin Tzantker	Son
Tzantker	Sara Khaia		Asher	Feiga	1927	Wyszkow, Poland		Ester Shmit	Sister
Tzantker	Miriam Doba		Yosef		60	Wyszkow, Poland		Ester Shmit	Granddaughter
Tzantker	Yisrael		Yosef Leib	Miriam Doba	50	Warsaw, Poland		Ester Shmit	Niece
Tzantker	Dvora		Yosef Leib	Miriam Doba		Warsaw, Poland		Ester Shmit	Niece
Tzantker	Asher		Yosef Leib	Miriam Doba	1890	Wyszkow, Poland	Feiga Vengosh	Ester Shmit	Daughter
Tzantker	Beila		Shalom	Malka	7	Poland		Beniamin Tzantker	Brother
Tzantker	Sara Khaia		Yosef Leib	Marise Doba		Warsaw, Poland		Ester Shmit	Aunt
Tzantker	Meir Yekhiel		Yosef	Miriam Doba		Wolomin, Poland		Ester Shmit	Niece
Tzantker	Simkha		Yosef Leib	Miriam Doba		Warsaw, Poland		Ester Shmit	Niece
Tzantker	Khana Lea		Asher	Feiga	1920	Vishkov, Poland		Ester Shmit	Sister
Tzantker	Levi				1907	Otwock, Poland	Tzipora Zilbershtein	Ofra Shaltiel	Daughter
Tzantker					1890	Otwock, Poland		Ofra Shaltiel	Granddaughter
Tzantker	Asher		Yosef	Miriam	1897	Stanislawow, Poland	Feiga Vengosh	Ester Shmit	Daughter
Tzantker	Sara Khaia		Asher	Feiga	1921	Wyszkow, Poland		Shmuel Shmit	Sister
Tzantker	Khana Lea		Asher	Feiga	1918	Wyszkow, Poland		Ester Shmit	Sister

Survivor, Tzipora Haus, remembered several cousins with parents named Hersh and Breina. However, the birth years ranged from 1875 to 1923.  This is unlikely, unless there were at least two couples with the same names.  This isn't impossible. My second great grandmother is thought to have been born in 1865, so only Yaakov (1875) is a likely sibling. [And Tzipora submitted two pages of testimony for a Yaakov son of Hersh and Breina. The other had him born in 1910. Which recollection of hers was correct, or were there two Yaakovs?]

One thing this search revealed is that most of the names don't have a final 't'.  Even though I conducted the search on "Cantkert" the database was smart enough to realize that "Cantker" and its phonetic variants were synonyms.

When I checked at JewishGen I learned their search engine wasn't that flexible, and a search on Cantker revealed a few more entries my earlier searches missed.  Including a Rajzla (Rose?) Cantker born in Warka in 1870.  If my second great grandmother was actually born in 1870, she would only have been 13 when her eldest child was said to have been born in 1883. That borders on the unlikely, but we don't have a birth certificate for her eldest child. Her second child is supposed to have been born three years later in 1886, and her third child is supposed to have been born in 1889. There is certainly some flexibility here to allow for an 1870 birth.  [Especially if that's just an 1870 registration of birth, and the family waited to register her, as was sometimes the case.] So this is a record I am definitely going to try to obtain.