Bassya Maltzer, my second cousin once removed, was born 17 January 1908, in Kopaigorod, Ukraine,the daughter of Ben Tzeon Maltzer and Meriam Spector. She had brown hair and black eyes. It looks like the family was from Kopaigorod, but at some point moved to Valea lui Vlad, a Jewish Agricultural Colony in Moldova. She claimed this as her birthplace on her naturalization papers but in her oral history she said she was born in Kopaigorod. She emigrated to the US at the age of 12, arriving under the name Basca Maltzer on June 2, 1921 on the Steamship Zeeland. The ship sailed from Antwerp to Ellis Island. She traveled with her mother Mariam and her brother Haim. Unfortunately Haim died less than 2 weeks after arrival. Also on board were her uncle Sy or Shaica Maltzer, and his wife Dina. Prior to leaving, Bassya had lost her father in 1920, an infant sister, Fanya, in 1912, and a 3 year old brother, Sucher-Ber, in 1916. Then, 2 months after arrival, her grandfather Itzak Maltzer died, in San Francisco, on August 4, 1921.
She married Sol Friedman in 1926. They had a daughter Lila. When she was 7 months pregnant with Lila, she fell in love with another man, Philip Bibel. They eventually married, in 1932.
She married Philip Bibel on 24 May, 1932 in Alameda, CA.
This is the oral history of Sol Friedman, Bassya’s first husband and father of Lila (Bassya’s daughter), and an additional daughter and son from his second marriage to Feiga Calic. Sol Friedman (SF) is not to be confused with my grandfather Sol Friedman (LA)—they are not related, except by marriage. Sol’s brother, Morris, was married to Clara Friedman, Sol Friedman’s (LA) sister.
