The Musician
Markus Samuel (Mordechai Shmuel) Faust was born in Rohatyn to Moses Faust and Rosa Leuchtling. He was born about 1885 according to the birth record of his son which notes Markus Samuel as 26 years old at the time of the birth. Unfortunately, neither full nor index books of 1885 births for the Rohatyn Jewish community are known to exist so an exact date of birth can not be verified. He was most certainly named after his uncle, Mordechai Faust, who had passed 2 years before in 1883.
Markus Samuel was more commonly known to his family and those that remember him as Mautra Schmiel. In the famous 1912 picture of the Faust Family Klezmers, he stands, at age 27, at the far left holding his clarinet ready to play. Besides the clarinet, he was known to play other instruments as well. He was intelligent and would compose music. Like his brothers, he gave music lessons to supplement his income made performing with the band.
Apparently, Markus Samuel was also a giving person. In 1933, he contributed 2 zloty and 15 gr. to an organization named Kolel Chibas Jerusalem, which supports Jews originating from Galicia who lived in Eretz Yisrael.
Marriage
Markus Samuel Faust civilly married Feige Vogel, daughter of Samuel and Chane Vogel of Rohatyn, on April 9, 1911. This information is found in the comment section of the birth record of their child and appears in Polish as the abbreviation of wedle okazanego metryki zaślubin Tom I strona 207, pozycja 17 z dnia 9/4 1911 which translates to ‘according to the marriage certificate shown in Volume I, page 207, item 17, dated April 9, 1911.’ Unfortunately, Volume 1 of marriage records for the Rohatyn Jewish community are not known to exist.
Only Child – Izak Adolf (AKA Dolek)
On November 7, 1911, Izak Faust was born in Rohatyn to musician Markus Samuel and Feige Vogel. The Brit Milah ceremony of circumcision took place in their apartment (w mieszkaniu) on November 15th which was performed by mohel Juda Hersch Totfeld with Hersch Jozef Haber, Feige’s brother in law, as the godfather. The midwife was Esther Falk of Rohatyn. A notation in the comment column of the birth record supports the legitimacy of the child’s birth with information on the registration of the parent’s marriage which was registered seven months before.
The only child of Markus Samuel and Feige Faust was known to our family as Dolek Faust. All post war accounts that mention their child refer to him by the name ‘Dolek’ and never ‘Izak’. When I found the above birth record for Izak Faust, I assumed that perhaps Izak was a unknown sibling of Dolek’s who might have died at a young age and thus not remembered. Upon digging deep into this family for this post, I came to a couple realizations. First that ‘Dolek’ is a diminutive nickname for ‘Adolf’. This made sense to me. Dolek Faust is remembered as a fine soccer player and he played for the Makkabi Sports Club of Rohatyn. Tzvi Skolnick wrote about the Makkabi Sports Club for the publication of the Rohatyn Yizkor book and listed ‘Dolek Faust’ among notable members of the soccer team (Source: The Youth of this Town by Tzvi Skolnick, Kehilat Rohatyn v’hasviva, page 210.) Upon finding the signature of Adolf Faust, but not Dolek, in the list of soccer club members who signed the letter acknowledging their decision to dissolve the sports club in 1937, I concluded that Dolek had used his proper name of Adolf instead for signing documents (see image 4 below). A second realization occurred while searching for Dolek or Adolf Faust in school records for the town of Rohatyn. In the 1924/1925 Report for the Directorate of the Piotr Skarga State Secondary School in Rohatyn, I was excited to find “Izak Adolf Faust” listed first among students in Class 2B (see image 1 below). I surmised that Izak was given the second name of Adolf at some point between his birth in 1911 and 1924. Perhaps his parents were invoking the Jewish superstition of Shinui Shem which calls upon a rabbi to provide a prayer and to change a given name in order to protect or cure a sick child by confusing evil spirits. Students in Class 2B would have been about 12-13 years of age which aligned with the birth date of Izak in late 1911. This provided further support to my reasoning that Izak Faust and Dolek Faust were one and the same person and in keeping with the story that Markus and Feige had only one child. During the following school year of 1925/1926, students signed the Polish Declarations of Admiration and Friendship for the United States. Dolek signed his name as Adolf Faust among the rest of the students in Class 3B (see image 2 below). Three years later in the 1928/1929 school year report for the Piotr Skarga Gymnazium, Izak Faust appears in section A of Class 5B (see image 3 below). I would have expected him to be in Class 6 for the 1928/1929 school year so he must not have completed or did not meet the requirements of passing during either the 1925/1926, 1926/1927 or the 1927/1928 school year. This means he would repeated Class 3, Class 4 or Class 5. If Dolek would have progressed in the Gymnazium without interruption after 1929, I would expect him to have graduated from the Piotr Skarga Secondary School in 1932.
Image 1: Izak Adolf Faust listed among students in Class 2B of the 1924/1925 school year at the Piotr Skarga Secondary School in Rohatyn. (Source: clip from image 27 of Sprawozdanie Dyrekcji Panstw. Gimnazjum im. Piotra Skargi w Rohatynie za rok szkolny 1924/1925)
Image 2: During the 1925/1926 school year, Izak Adolf Faust signed his name as ‘Faust Adolf’ among students in class 3B of the Piotr Skarga Secondary School in honor of the 1926 Polish Declarations of Admiration and Friendship to the United States. (Source: Panstwowe Gimnazjum im. Piotra Skargi w Rohatynie, Library of Congress, Vol. 11, image 361)
Image 3: Izak Adolf Faust listed as Izak Faust in the Piotr Skarga School Report for the 1928/1929 school year. He is in section A of Class 5B. (Source: Sprawozdanie Dyrekcji Panstw. Gimnazjum im. Piotra Skargi w Rohatynie za rok szkolny 1928/29)
Image 4: Izak Adolf Faust signing his name as Faust Adolf among members of the Makkabi Sports Club in 1937. (Source: United States Holocaust Memorial and Museum, RG-31.063M Reel 23, Image 952)
Fate of the Family
Markus Samuel, Feige, and Dolek Faust were killed in the Holocaust.
Pages of testimony were written for Dov, Feige/Fania Faust and Dolek Faust by Moshe Prinz on June 6, 1995. Moshe was a Holocaust survivor and had written pages of testimony for many of his relatives who perished in the Holocaust. Moshe was related to Feige Faust nee Vogel through his maternal grandmother, Chaya Schweller nee Vogel. Feige and Chaya were sisters, children of Samuel and Chane Vogel. The pages of testimony simply state that Dov, Feige and Dolek were killed in Rohatyn in 1942 which likely corresponds to the aktion on March 20, 1942 where 3500 Jews were shot and buried in a mass grave. I believe Moshe had a lapse of recall for Feige’s husband’s given name as Dov is incorrect although he wrote his profession correctly as musician.
