June 26, 1931. My Grandmother was in Europe with my Mother and my Uncle. She left them at the farm owned by my great grandparents in Poland while she went to Karlsbad (Karlovy Vary), Czechoslovia to take the waters and revive her health.
The doctors in the United States told her that she was going to die. She had been pregnant again in the USA. But doctors terminated the pregnancy through a very illegal abortion in an effort to save her life. But still she was sick. So she decided she would not burden my Grandfather with two young children, 5 and 2. She would take them to Europe to live with his parents and she would die there. He, then, would be free to continue his life.
I once asked my Grandfather, why he let her go. “She was a sick woman,” he told me. “I had to let her do what she thought was best.”
“Would you have left Mom and Uncle Stanley in Europe?” I asked. This was a very important question. His entire family perished. If he had left them, I would not be here.
He looked me in the eye, and said, “As soon as she died I was going to get on a boat and return with my children. I would never leave them there. “
His words made me feel a bit better. But if Grandma had died the world my Mom and Uncle lived in would have been very different. But at least I know my grandfather would not have abandoned them in Poland.
Luckily Grandma did get well. She stayed in Europe for six to eight months and then returned to the USA with my Mom and Uncle. She saw the rise of Hitler coming and now had a new purpose: get the family out. She could not save as many as she wanted. But she tried.
Grandma is sitting in the front. The date and place were added by my Mom. I think the two women are related. This is the photo we knew about.
We have several items from that trip to Europe. We have a ceramic vase that stays in her breakfront/curio cabinet in our Catskills’ home. We have stories about the trip. We have a few photos. We knew of one. Grandma is with two other women. We have no ideal who they are. But I think they are related to her, one women sort of looks like her sister-in-law. We are not sure. There is no identifications on the back.
But I recently found another.
Grandma is in back row on the left wearing a white hat.
It is a group photo. In the very back row, near the center is a woman in a white hat, that is my grandmother. She is 26 years old.
I do not know the other people. Are they family members who perished? Or are they just other people who are in Karlsbad? Sometimes I imagine that they are just other people at the resort who were pulled together for a group photo that the photographer would then sell to tourists. Other times I imagine that people in the photo look like family, especially the man in the front on the left. But I honestly do not know.
This photo is different from the others we have from that trip. There is writing in Yiddish and English. The English is easy, her name and the address where she stayed in Karlsbad. Or is it a place she visited?
The Yiddish is more exciting to me. It is the only letter I have seen that she wrote to my Grandfather. (Thank you members of the Tracing the Tribe Facebook Group for translations!)
It says: “As a souvenir from your faithful wife, who hopes, to meet you again in good health.” Another translated it as “A souvenir from your devoted wife, who hopes to return to you in good health.”
Either makes sense. She was sick. She was away from my grandfather. She wanted to be reunited with her family and be healthy.
And that all happened. She returned to the US and lived an additional 50 years. And 80 years later, I keep finding treasures in her photo album!
https://zicharonot.wordpress.com/2014/04/28/speaking-yiddish-always-brings-me-holocaust-memories/
zicharonot 
How remarkable that she returned to Europe with two young children in order to get better health care. We assume now (and I would have thought even then) that the US would have first rate health care, at least as good as what one would find in Europe. How fortunate you are that she survived and that she returned with your mother and uncle before it was too late.
She actually went to die. But my great grandparents encouraged her to go to the waters to see if it would help.
Thank goodness for that!