David Joshua Pieniek

David and Chana Pieniek at Ladell Wedding (sitting in foreground)

• General Notes
  • Author of "Pieniek Roots".
    
    "David Joshua Pieniek was born in Alexandrowa, Poland, a city in a country of Russian domination...  Before the outbreak of the war he lived in the city of Danzig, in the corridor between Poland and Germany.  It was then a Free City...David was arrested and imprisoned on the infamous Crystal Night Massacre of the Jews by the Nazis in Danzig.  He ws fortunate to get away alive.  Ten days before the war started, he and his famiily boarded a ship to Bolivia, South America.  In may 1945 they migrated to the U.S.A." - (writing about himself in The Pieniek Roots.)
    
    "Our sojourn (to use a term from the Haggada) to La Paz, Bolivia is a tale unto itself.  The very short version is, that although we had visas to come to the US, sponsored by our cousin, Rabbi Morris Skop and the help of his friend, then Florida Senator Claude Pepper, there was a 5-year waiting quota.  Thus, my father by sheer perseverance and luck managed to get papers to go to Bolivia (although we almost ended up going to Shanghai). During the war years we lived in La Paz where my father built his tailoring business to a point of designing and manufacturing children's coats.   It is noteworthy also, that my father stayed in close contact with the family in the USA during the war.  After we emigrated to America in 1945 he constantly searched for family survivors and ultimately found his brothers Moishe and Heinech, his sister Mania and half-sister Esther, the sole survivors of his immediate family.  With his help and the help of friends in Bolivia, my father arranged for Heinech and his second wife to emigrate to Cochabamba, Bolivia and for Esther and her husband Salek Morgenstern to emigrate to La Paz Bolivia." (Toby Pieniek, writing about his father.)
    
    David Joshua Pieniek was captured on Kritalnacht, later returned to Dobzyn.  1938 escaped to Buenos Aires, Argentina, and finally got an exit permit to Bolivia 9/9/39.  Later he emmigrated to USA, May 1945.
    
    Ancestry.com New Orleans Passenger Lists, 1820-1945:
    David Szyja Pieniek
    Arrival Date: 14 May 1945
    Age: 35 
    Gender: Male 
    Ethnic Background: White 
    Port of Departure: Buenos Aires, Argentina 
    Ship Name: Rio Parana 
    Port of Arrival: New Orleans, Louisiana 
    Friend's Name: Raboi Morris
    Last Residence: Argentina 
    National Archives' Series Number: T905_188