Pistiner family papers

Aron Pistiner (aka Adolf Pistiner, 1892-1954) was born on 1 December, 1892 in Wiznitz, Bukovina (Vyzhnytsia, Ukraine) to Jakob and Lea (nee Wiener) Pistiner, originally from from Kamnitz. Taube Pistiner (nee Rosenberg, 1894-1968) was born 19 May 1894 in Krzyworownia (near Kosiv), Galicia to Jacob Majer and Sara Rosenberg. Aron worked as a furrier in Berlin, and Taube as a seamstress. Aron began his apprenticeship in Wiznitz in 1908, and moved to Berlin to continue his training in 1916, eventually earning the rank of master in 1927. The two were married Berlin on 29 March 1917. They had two sons, Max (1917-2006) and Josef (1922-2010). In 1934, Max moved to Palestine, and spent the remainder of his life in Israel. He was a soccer player and British police officer briefly before apprenticing to become a diamond cutter. He married Nehama Bloom (b. 1920) in 1940. While apprenticing to be diamond cutter, he and his wife lived in the United States from around 1947-1961. He later owned a diamond cutting factory in Netanya, Israel. They had one son, Amikam Jacob (b. 1948) The Pistiners left Berlin in June 1939, bound for Shanghai where they met up with Aron’s cousin, Mendel Pistiner. Shortly after arriving there, however, they decided to relocate to Harbin, Manchuria, where there was a large number of Russian and Eastern European emigres. Aron pursued his work there as a furrier, while the family made further plans to immigrate to the United States by way of Japan. In 1940, Taube and Josef were able to leave Manchuria, stopping first in Japan before sailing from there in July 1940 for San Francisco. Aron was unable to join them due to a denial of his visa, but when that was granted the following year, he joined them, sailing from Japan in July 1941. Upon arrival in the United States, the family settled in New York, where Aron re-established his career as a furrier. Aron died from lung cancer in 1954. Taube died from a stroke while in Netanya, Israel in 1968. Joseph attended New Utrecht Evening High School in 1941-1942, in order to obtain a high school diploma, while working during the day for a switchboard manufacturing company. He then began taking evening classes at City College of New York, until he was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1943. After basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey, and training in engineering at Alfred University in New York, he was sent to the European Theatre. He was initially assigned to the 273rd Infantry, 69th Division as an automobile mechanic, but later transferred to the Intelligence Section where he worked as an interpreter and translator. After returning to the United States and discharge from the service in 1946, he resumed his education at City College, earning a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 1949, and a master’s degree in engineering from Harvard University in 1950. He subsequently did further graduate work in electrical engineering at Johns Hopkins University (1951-1953) and in applied mathematics at the University of Colorado (1959-1960). From 1950 onward, he worked as an engineer in the aerospace industry, and patented several inventions that were used in spacecraft. He married Norma Greenstein (b. 1930) in 1950, and they had two children, Barry (b. 1952) and Arona (b. 1957). Joseph died on 8 June 2010 in Delray Beach, Florida.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Arona Pistiner

Gift of Arona Pistiner, 2016.