A modest family Genealogy website . . . Baleston.org

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FELSHTIN - My Grandmother's Shtetl

Felshtin was the name (up until 1920) of a town in Ukraine that was half Jewish & half Ukrainian.
While people mixed on market day, the Jewish population was cautious as a result of occasional waves of violent attacks against them prompted by irrational bigotry, misinformation and anti-Semitism. Though some might think that last statement to be an exaggeration, it actually is mild in the face of historical records of looting, beatings, rape and pillaging the Jewish community endured. Certainly there were many in the non-Jewish community who were favorable to Jewish neighbors, yet the overall history is bleak.

The town was named Felshtin, in recent decades of Ukraine independence the name is Hvardiiske, 25 km south-west of Khmelnytsky.

- The years 1903 to 1906 in the Ukraine were particularly severe, with newspaper accounts in Berlin, London & New York reporting the bloody slaughters. In 1908 those waves of persecution influenced a Jewish family in that 'Shtetl' village to put their teenage daughter, Sarah Siegel, my Grandmother, on a steamship crossing the Atlantic to live with her brother in New York. My other grandparents have similar stories. In New York Sarah would marry Isidore Baleston, a young Jewish man from Poland, and together launch their new life in the New World.
- In February 1919 came the horrible news that a militia of Ukrainian Nationalists had come and rampaged thru the Jewish side of Felshtin, pulling entire families out of their homes into the streets where they were hacked to death. The reports of dismemberment and the slaughter of children are horrifying.
- In all, of the 1,800 Jewish people in Felshtin, over 650 were murdered over a 2 day killing spree.
- Before long, word reached New York and the Siegel family that four members of the extended family still back in Felshtin had been murdered.

Many of the Felshtin survivors came to New York where they were helped by Felshtiners who had come to America before the pogrom. In 1937 a Yizkor (memorial) book was issued, with many of these photos and illustrations found there.
May the memory of the 'Kedushim', the martyrs of Felshtin be preserved.


Abraham Siegel, the first emigrant from Felshtin to Argentina, he started a furniture business there
Velvel Siegel, the first emigrant from Felshtin to America, he helped many of his 'Landsmen' in their first weeks in "Der Goldener Land"

Handed down from Sarah Siegel, born in Felshtin 1892, our family copy of the original 1937 Yizkor Memorial book from which the graphics above are taken.
My paternal Grandmother, Sarah Siegel, was born in Felshtin, Ukraine c. 1892. She had four brothers, all born in Felshtin: Isaac, Samuel, Joseph & Motti Siegel.  Sam, Joe & Sarah came to America by 1910. In 1916 she married Isidore Baleston. In 1919 there was a horrific pogrom in Felshtin, just years after they left. The youngest brother, Motti Siegel, was murdered during the pogrom. Isaac and his family barely escaped, coming to America by 1921. At various times the Siegel family in America owned and operated a variety of business's including M & S Steam Cleaning Laundries in Brooklyn, NY and Liberty, Sullivan Co. NY, and a small jewelry store in Brooklyn. I've begun talking with one descendant, and am seeking others.

Some second generation Felshtiners have revived the Felshtin Society and put together
an excellent website of documents & memories:  www.Felshtin.org - They deserve your support!

This page is dedicated to:

The memory of Motti/Mottel Siegel,
one of two people for whom I am named. He was my Grandmother's youngest brother and was murdered by Ukrainian Nationalists during the 1919 pogrom of violent anti-Semitism.

The memory of
Sarah (Siegel) & Isidore Baleston
(my Grandparents),
parents of Etta, Joseph & Samuel.

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