Over my years of researching my family, especially my family who remained behind in Europe, I have found relatives who perished in both Belzec and Auschwitz Death Camps. Those who died in the Lodz Ghetto. Those who were probably burned to death in their community synagogue or mikveh. Those who were murdered after the war ended. They died in so many places, that I no longer am shocked, even though after each discovery, I feel a pain in my soul. A pain that makes me stop searching for a month or so as I recover from the finality of my search.
I have a great grandmother who survived the war years hidden by a righteous Christian friend, but who could not save her from the final indignity: murdered when she returned to her family property by the people who had squatted on their land. I am named for her. I keep her photo near my computer so she is watching my search.
There is at times a happier outcome. I have also found those who survived. My grandmother’s first cousin who survived the Shoah and the Kielce Pogram, and even wrote a testimony about her experience. I have two distant cousins, the children of another of my grandmother’s first cousin, who survived the war after being put on the KinderTransport. Their parents did not survive. I have relatives who made their way to France, the United States, Australia, England and Israel. Where once my families were in a small area of Poland, Austria and Russia before the war, now they are on four continents.
Now I add another story of survival through an extraordinary circumstance. A relative, perhaps two, who survived the Shoah thanks to being one of almost 1100 names who were on Schindler’s List.
To be honest, I am a bit stunned. I wrote about Shalom Hollander several times, in most detail in a blog that I published in June 2018. This week Shalom’s story changed.
I was contacted by a distant cousin who read my blog. She just recently has been researching her family and by goggling family names found my blog, “The Sorrow of Shalom Hollanders” (see below.). She sent me a message: “I must be an extended family member of yours. I am related to Tova Hollander, Mordechai/Marcus Amsterdam, Szulim (Shalom) Hollander, and all the people on this story. I found this while googling names and have been looking into ancestry.com. I would love to connect if you are willing.”
Of course, I was willing to connect. I emailed her immediately. I was delighted to find out that her great grandfather was Shalom’s brother. He had come to the United States before the war, and so survived much like my grandparents.
The words that caught at my heart were these: My great grandpa’s brother was Shalom Hollander who you wrote about in your blog (not sure if you are aware but he is listed on Schindler’s List under the name Szulim Hollander).
I had to look, and there he was:
Holocaust Survivors and Victims Database: Schindler’s Lists: Electronic data regarding Oscar Schindler’s inmates, complied from two separate lists.
Szulim Hollander : Date of birth: 8 Feb 1906 Persecution Category: Ju. [Jew] ; Occupation: ang. Tischler (carpenter) Nationality: Po. [Polish] ; Prisoner Number: 69073
He survived because he was on Schindler’s List, but was it a good survival? This knowledge hurt my heart. While he was surviving, he lost his wife, his children, his parents, his sister. So many relatives murdered. I wish when I met him in 1976, I would have listened and learned more. But then, no one knew about Schindler or his list. I am not even sure he spoke to my grandmother about how he survived. Wait, I take that back. Everyone we met with that trip told my grandmother their Holocaust story. (see blog below.)
In the same email, she mentioned her Aunt Susan also told her about me. I remember Susan, I connected with her through Tracing the Tribe. We met about five years ago and exchanged information. We knew that her husband must be related to my family. But I did not know of the connection with Shalom.
Now that I know Shalom had a brother in New Jersey, where my grandparents had a kosher bakery, many little pieces came into place. I had an ‘aha’ moment. My grandparents definitely knew this family. We knew many Amsterdam families in New Jersey. I never connected them because Shalom’s brother in New Jersey used the last name Amsterdam, which is their father’s last name, while Shalom used Hollander, which was their mother’s last name.
My grandparents and parents could not have known Shalom and not his brother in New Jersey. They were probably some of the many relatives I met as a child, who just blurred together in my grandparent’s European connections.
One other bit of good news about Shalom. He did remarry after the war and started another family. What strength! He truly was a survivor. My grandmother and I only met with him that day in Israel. I rejoice in knowing this news. I wish I could meet his family.
I must add that there is another Hollander on Schindler’s List: Rachela Hollander was born on March 23, 1917. She was just a young woman when the war began. She is listed as a metal worker. I will assume that some way she is related to us as well.
KinderTransport, Schindler’s List, Kielce, Belzec, Auschwitz, Lodz Ghetto: My family went through the worst of the Shoah. But it comforting to know that some connected with people who had a bit of goodness left in their souls and somehow they survived.
https://zicharonot.com/2018/08/12/discovering-karolas-kielce-pogrom-testimony/
https://zicharonot.com/2018/11/05/how-the-kindertransport-touched-my-family/
https://zicharonot.com/2018/06/07/the-sorrow-of-shalom-hollander/
https://zicharonot.com/2018/06/05/murdered-in-belzec/
https://zicharonot.com/2018/09/06/one-more-family-destroyed/
https://zicharonot.com/2014/04/28/speaking-yiddish-always-brings-me-holocaust-memories/
zicharonot 
Your family’s story is the story of the Holocaust—persecuted, destroyed, escaped, survived—in so many of the places—the whole spectrum of what the Nazis did to the Jews of Europe.
I find it so unbelievable that among the two branches of my family that suffer during the Shoah, they were involved in so many of the well known and documented events.
I know. Just heartbreaking.
As always, now I take a break from searching.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Happy thanksgiving!