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An Unexpected ‘Grave’ Mystery

With the uptick in anti-Semitic events, with masked college students attacking Jewish students at colleges, with a Hamas murderous pogrom in Israel, I am still amazed when events from the Shoah are revealed in present day. I feel like I am in a time warp. Reading about the events at the UC Berkley campus and at the same time reading an email from a distant cousin telling me about a mass grave found in Poland that contains members of my extended family. Don’t college students learn anything about history?

My newest journey started with a email from a distant cousin concerning the Holocaust and my family. I get unusual requests now and then because I have been the family historian, trying to document all the family who were murdered during the Shoah. A task I realize is virtually impossible with all large number of people in my family who were murdered.

My distant cousin received a letter through JewishGen’s Family Finder. Her great aunt, who I keep in contact with, suggested she send the email to me.

Her email contained a series of emails between two people in Europe that forced my brain back in time to all that my maternal family had suffered so many decades ago during the horrors of the Shoah.

The first was from a retired baker in London who had been contacted by a researcher who wanted information about a family named Brenner who were murdered by the Nazis and whose bones were recently found in a mass grave and in accordance with state law were re-interred in a Catholic cemetery.

His mother was born Kornbluth and her father was born in Mielec, Poland, where many Kornbluth’s were living when the Nazis invaded. They believed the bones were those of a woman whose maiden name was Kornbluth; her married name was Brenner.

My family was from Mielec and its surrounding small towns. I have written about the destruction of the Jewish population in this city and its surrounding in other blogs. Brenner is one of the names in my family. Which made me think that I could have a connection with this grave. Although the last name Kornbluth is familiar, I wasn’t entirely sure of the connection to us. But I kept reading.

The baker then include emails from a representative of the Zapomniane Foundation that deals with locating and commemorating the graves of the Holocaust victims. He found the baker through JewishGen Family Finder.

“I represent the Zapomniane Foundation that deals with locating and commemorating the graves of the Holocaust victims (zapomniane.org or our profile on FB). I’m currently researching the case of the Brenner family murdered in 1942 and buried in a mass grave near Mielec. According to what I have learned so far among the victims probably were Lazar and Sara Brenner. Her maiden name was Kornbluth. Before the war they lived in a village called Hyki (today it is called Sarnow). They were killed together with their children and Sara’s brother. Would you happen to know this story and/or have any information about Sara Brenner nee Kornbluth?

Sincerely
A N”

Then came more information from the Zapomniane Foundation:
“ Here is the story of how I have learned about the Brenner family:

Two years ago I went to Czajkowa (a village near Mielec) to see the location of a place where the Brenner family (seven people) was killed and buried in August 1942.My guide was Robert P. who told me the story of his aunt Anna P. Anna’s real name was Ryfka Amsterdam she was Jewish, converted to catholicism before the war and married Andrzej P, Robert’s relative and became Anna P. The Brenner family were the relatives of Anna/Ryfka: perhaps Ryfka’s sister with husband and children and possibly Ryfka’s (and Sara’s?)brother. There are no names, only the last name of the father of the family i.e Brenner.”

Well now we are getting closer to my family, since Amsterdam is my grandfather’s last name. I know that any one named Amsterdam is definitely somehow related to me. This is the first time ever that I have heard about a family member who converted to Catholicism before the war. But to be honest, if someone left the family to marry outside of the faith, it was probably not discussed.

What the email says next really touched my soul! I could not image how this young man would have felt when he dug up the grave.

“The gravesite of the Brenner family was partially destroyed in 2003 by an excavator. Obviously the grave itself has never been marked, it was just a hole in the ground. As a result the bones from this grave were taken by the police and buried in an anonymous grave in Tuszów Narodowy catholic cemetery. Ironically the guy who worked with the excavator and dug out the bones was the grandson of Ryfka Amsterdam/Anna P. He was interrogated by the police in 2003. Anna/Ryfka had three children, her son born in 1950 is still living in Mielec.”

Next shock! A non-Jewish descendant of Rikva/Anna born just a few years before me, still lives in Mielec. They stayed there even after all her Jewish relatives were murdered. I cannot understand that reality. Could you comfortably walk the streets of a city, see the houses of your relatives, know that they were murdered and that others were living in their homes? Would you ever feel safe?

Not only that, it was Anna’s grandson who accidentally dug up the grave of people who might be his great aunt and uncle and their children, his cousins. I could almost see this as a movie. Could this truly be happening? But yes, it was and it is. So now he has not only dug up a grave 80 years after they were buried, but it is his family buried there. I really have no words.

The researcher continued:

“I found the information about Chaim Brenner via the Holocaust Survivor Program. Thus I knew the names of his parents and their fate that fits the story I know from the Polish archives:

Czajkowa
Aug. 15, 1942
Captured and shot by German police, beginning w/ oldest family member; gendarme Franiszek Wojtas identified as likely shooter; family did not report to ghetto and remained in hiding for approx. 3 mos.; hid in forest and empty home of Kamuda; group consisted of two families; relatives of prewar converts to Christianity, Amsterdams, who survived war in same village

So my big questions are who was buried in the grave destroyed by the excavator 20 years ago and how can we commemorate them.”

The retired baker then tells my cousin that he contacted her because she has a Nathan Amsterdam in her family tree who told Yad VaShem about the death of a niece with the maiden name of Kornbluth. Could she help? Which is how I became part of this Nazi murder/grave mystery.

I knew I really could not help, but I felt like I had to say something I emailed both the baker and the Zapomniane Foundation. Here is a shortened version of the email I sent.

Your question about the grave and the Brenner/Amsterdam/Kornbluth murders, was sent to me as I have become an Amsterdam family researcher for a while now.

She knew I would be interested in this question.

Unfortunately, I do not know who was buried in the unmarked grave. Not much help I know. But I can tell you that there are many named Nathan Amsterdam in our family. My cousin’s great grandfather and my grandfather were both were named Nathan Amsterdam and they were cousins who were born in Austria/Poland in the Mielec area.

The family in Meilec and the surrounding area had four main family names: Amsterdam, Feuer, Brenner and Hollander. The family is Cohanim. Hence the names Feuer/ FIre and Brenner/ Burner. The other names came because the family did go from Spain to Portugal to Amsterdam and then a group moved to Austria/Poland. There was much intermarriage between people with these four surnames.

Almost the entire family who remained in Europe died during the Shoah. Mielec was one of the first areas that the Nazis made judenfrei. Only a few cousins survived. They are all gone now. One moved to the USA, two went to England and two moved to Israel.

Here is the info on the family that survived and moved to England. Perhaps you might find a descendant. I met them in the early 1960s when they came to the USA to visit the family here.

Zacheriah and Elka had seven children. Only three survived the Shoah. Gimple Feuer married and moved to England. They had four children. (I then named the four children who they might be able to reach. I am not publishing their names here as they might still be alive.)

Lazar Feuer also lived in England after the war, I never met him. He had three children: (I named these three as well.)

I am sorry I cannot tell you or the researcher there who exactly is buried in that grave. But I can tell you that several hundred members of the family were murdered in the Shoah in many different places and methods. But as the names were Brenner and Amsterdam, I can tell you that they are my distant relatives and that the men were probably Cohanim.”

Because I think finding a way to commemoriate these people is important, I am posting this on Tracing the Tribe Facebook page to see if anyone else has a connection that could help.

Tags: Amsterdam family, genealogy, history, Holocaust, Mielec, Tracing the Tribe, yad-vashem, Zapomniane Foundation

Comments 13 Comments
Categories Anti-semitism, Family, Genealogy, Holocaust, Szenk Feuer Blogs

Seeing Grandma In Poland before 1922

26 Dec

While in Israel, my daughter and I went to visit my cousin and her family. Sara and I are just one month a part in age, but she is actually my mother’s first cousin. Sara was the child of my grandmother’s youngest brother. My two uncles and their wives, two sisters, escaped Poland by running to Russia. Probably not the best choice. But since they were tailors, they were able to survive. In any case, they did not have any children till the war was over and they were out of Europe.

Sara and I became pen pals when we were 11. Sara grew up in Australia, and then moved with her family to Israel in 1966. That is when we started writing to each other and we have been in touch ever since.

During this visit, when the young people were visiting, Sara pulled out some old photo albums. Most of the photos I had seen before. But some from Europe and Australia I had not seen. One in particular caught my attention because I noticed my grandmother as a girl. And I realized that this was the only photo I had ever seen of my grandmother in Europe before she came to the USA at age 16.

There are two other girls in the photo. The back of the photo says “Isaac’s three sisters.” And there were three sisters. My grandmother Tova/Taube/Thelma was the oldest. Esther was the middle child and Malcha was the baby. Esther was about six years younger than my grandmother, who was able to bring her to America along with my great grandfather in 1936. (See blog below.)

But the question is: are these really the three sisters? The notation was made by my great aunt, not my great uncle. Sara doesn’t know for sure. I got in touch with my mother’s other first cousin, who is 15 years older than us. I thought she might know.

She agrees that the girl on the right is my grandmother. That is not in doubt. My grandmother never changed! But although the girl on the left looks like my Tante Esther, she seems too close in age to my grandmother in this picture. Grandma was born in 1906, Tante Esther in 1912. These two girls seem to be the same age. The girl in the middle could be Malcha. But supposedly Esther is only three years older than Malcha. Oy Vey.

Then we thought, this is my grandmother on the right, so perhaps it is her best friend and first cousin, Tova Malcha on the left. They were the same age. We then think, sitting on the ground is grandma’s sister, my great aunt Malcha. Then Esther is not in the picture.

The caption could be wrong?

We do not know. And I doubt that we will ever know, because everyone who might know has passed away.

In the meantime, I am just excited about finding a photo of my grandmother when she was a girl in Poland. As my cousin said, no matter what, it is great treasure.

The Rosh Hashannah Card Has A Story

This Jacket is a Survivor!

Comments 3 Comments
Categories Family, Genealogy, Israel, Szenk Feuer Blogs

The Importance of My Grandma’s Illegal 1931 Abortion

16 Jun

In 1931 a 25-year-old mother of two young children was pregnant with her third pregnancy. It was twins. But whereas her other pregnancies went fine this one was not going well at all. In fact, her kidneys were failing, probably due to eclampsia. If nothing was done, she and the fetuses she carried would all die. Abortion was not legal in 1931. But someone saved her. Someone, I am told a doctor, provided her an illegal abortion.

That woman was my grandmother. She lived.

“Preeclampsia may lead to kidney disease by causing acute kidney injury, endothelial damage, and podocyte loss. Preeclampsia may be an important sex-specific risk factor for chronic kidney disease,” according to an NIH website. Although my grandmother did not die in 1931, she was left with failing kidneys. In fact, she had kidney disease for the next 52 years of her life.

Grandma decided to go back to Europe with her two children, my Mom and my Uncle, so that when she died they would be raised by their grandmother, as she was sure that she was still going to die. Someone traveled with my grandmother for this trip. In fact, one night she was so sick, they took her up on the deck because she wanted to see the stars one more time before she died.

The doctor who saved her life actually impacted the lives of many people. Because my grandmother lived, my mother and uncle were not left without a mother. Also, as the story continues, because my grandmother lived, others lived as well.

When my Grandmother got to Europe she traveled through Germany to Carlsbad, to take the waters, and then around Poland visiting family for over six months. During these travels her opinion about life in Europe changed drastically. By the end she was much healthier and concerned about taking her children back to the United States to safety.

Why do I say saving her life saved others? She had been traveling through Germany in 1931. She had seen the evil that was taking over Europe with the rise of Hitler.

This is where her surviving preeclampsia and a life saving abortion takes on even more meaning. First, everywhere she went in Poland, she told family and friends to “Get Out! Bad times are coming.” We do not know how many heeded her warning! But we know her story and what she tried to do.

When Grandma came home she had one goal, to get her family and the family of my Grandfather out of Europe! My grandparents worked to bring family members over from Poland and Austria. In the end, they only were able to bring my Grandmother’s father and sister. My Tante was very small for her age, so they changed her age and made her under 21 so she could travel to America on my great grandfather’s papers and visa.

My Tante lived. She married and had one daughter. Her daughter married and had three children. Her children married and among them had 11 children.

All because my grandmother had an abortion, all because she lived, two people survived and avoided the horrors of the Shoah and 15 descendants were born. Who knows how many more will be born in the future.

Abortions save lives! The mother’s lives. To me these lives are extremely important. Currently, in this time of legal abortions another relative of mine had eclampsia putting her life and the life of her much wanted fetus at risk. They were both dying in the hospital. The only choice to save one life was an abortion. My cousin lived. Amazingly a year later she was again pregnant and gave birth to a healthy child.

I do not believe anyone, a legislator or a member of the voting public, has the right to tell a woman how to handle her private medical issues. We have HIPAA laws that are supposed to keep our medical history private. What a woman decides, with input from her medical professional, for her own health is her personal business. HIPAA laws are not just for men. They are for everyone.

In the meantime, I support women’s health rights. I support women who make the difficult decision to end a pregnancy. I support their choice and decisions concerning their personal medical health. I know that the right to chose an abortion must remain legal, because I know that saving a mother’s life is vital.

Tags: abortion rights, good deeds, grandma, Holocaust, Shoah

Comments 2 Comments
Categories Family, Szenk Feuer Blogs, Uncategorized

Another Quest Completed!

29 May

Great Grandpa Abraham Shlomo Grave

One of my genealogy goals is to find the graves of all my great grandparents who are buried in the United States. Five are buried in the USA with four for sure in the New York, New Jersey metro area. Three of my great grandparents died in Europe, two during the Shoah, so finding their burial sites is impossible.

Since I live in the middle of the country it is difficult to search cemeteries on the east coast. But luckily for me I have willing helpers! I truly appreciate my family who understand my quest.

Last year during Covid, one of my first cousins went to Washington Cemetery in New York and took photos of my Goldman great grandparents. (See blog below.). In my mind he was the ideal person to search for the graves, since is named for our great grandfather, with the Hebrew name, Baruch Lev. It was perfectly apropos that he went to find the graves.

Now it was my brother’s turn. My brother’s Hebrew name is Avraham Sholmo for my Szenk/Shenk/Schenk great grandfather. Our great grandfather was born with the name Shlomo/Solomon. But when he was a child he became very ill. His parents gave him a second name, Avraham, to keep the Angel of Death from finding him.

Usually, the names given to fool the Angel of Death were names like Chaim and Chaya, which mean life. The idea was to confuse the Angel of Death because he would not be able to find a child with a different name. This superstition said changing the child’s name would save him/her.

In any case my great grandfather’s Hebrew name was changed, but his legal name remained Solomon, or Szlama, as he was known in Poland. His birthdate was September 1874 and he died in 1942. My great grandfather came to the USA in 1936 along with my great aunt. It was the work of my grandparents to get as many people out of Europe that they could. Unfortunately, it was only these two that they were able to actually bring over.

At first my great grandfather lived with my grandparents. But, although they had a kosher bakery and kept kosher, my grandmother did not cover her hair, and they did not follow the rules as they did in Europe. So my great grandfather moved into a Hebrew Home for the Aged

We did have the name of the cemetery where he was supposedly buried. I think my mother’s first cousin told us. My brother took over the job of finding the grave. He contacted the King Solomon Memorial Park in Passaic asking about our grandfather. (I do find it interesting and coincidental that Solomon was buried in the King Solomon Cemetery.) The response was positive, our great grandfather was buried in the Tuber Section through a gate that says Welloner Benevolent Assn.

The grave had the correct date of death. There is no date for his birth, probably because no one knew it. We thought he was born in 1870, but his Visa paperwork said 1874. However, the age on the stone matches what his age would have been when he died, 68 years old.

The staff at the cemetery even emailed my brother a map to the grave, which was exactly where my brother was told to look. Not only that, the cemetery and the gravesite were in excellent condition. So many old cemeteries are not kept up. Thank you to the King Solomon Memorial Park for keeping these graves in excellent shape.

My brother took photos of the entrance to the cemetery, the gate to the section and the grave itself. He also looked for other family members, but did not find them. Then he left three stones on the grave. This is the way to show that we remember and honor his memory.

https://yivo.org/Folklore-of-Ashkenaz?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI0NL84bX59wIVfW1vBB1sGgIMEAMYASAAEgKhzfD_BwE

A Quest Completed! Thanks to My Cousin!

Tags: King Solomon Cemetery

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Categories Family, Genealogy, Szenk Feuer Blogs, Uncategorized

The Murder of Chava Feuer 1942

22 Apr

It is not every day that you find out exactly how your great grandmother was murdered in the Shoah. But it just happened to me, and I am in shock.

I was taking a webinar called “The Case of The Missing Ancestors: Genealogy Tips from Nancy Drew,” that I signed up for from the Erie Community Library. The speaker was Ellen Shindelman Kowitt. I am still searching for my grandfather’s three siblings. After hitting dead end after dead end, I thought maybe this workshop would help.

The speaker mentioned looking up the name of the town instead of the name of the person. So while I was listening on one device, I entered the name of my grandfather’s birthplace, Trzciana, Poland, on another device.

At first I just found a short Wikipedia entry telling me that Trzciana was a small village in Buchnia County, the seat of the administration office, and so was called Gmina Trzciana. It was just outside Mielec, which I knew. It currently has a population of 1462. No mention of the Shoah.

Then I entered “Trzciana and the Holocaust.” A book popped up:
The Holocaust and European Societies: Social Processes and Social Dynamics edited by Frank Bajohr and Andrea Low. There were also some sample pages that I could read, including a section on an event that happened in Trzciana.

I knew my great grandmother, Chava, was murdered in her town. I knew she had been hidden. And that saved her when the rest of her family was taken. I thought she was murdered at the end, after the war was over. But that is not the case. She was murdered in 1942. There is an entire paragraph about the murder of my great grandmother Chava, the wife of Gimple. MY Great Grandmother.

I can imagine the fear she had when she knew the Nazis were searching for all the Jewish people in the area. When she knew that the Polish people were afraid and turning the Jews in. How in fear she must have been when she went to a family that had hid her before. But I am sure she knew there was no hope. No hope, no help. Just death. And did it really matter when everyone else was already gone? Her husband, her four children. Her extended family.

Yes, I am crying. Yes, I think I am in shock. This I never expected. I did not find my great aunts and great uncle. But I found this.

I have ordered the book. I need to see it and touch it. To really believe it.

But read for yourself the murder of Chava Feuer, my great grandmother, for whom I carry her name. May her name and memory always be a blessing. (Yes, I know it says Chana, but believe me it is Chava.)

She says “Do with me as you please.” This touches my heart. I was an obstinate child. I would often say to my parents and grandparents, “Do what you want, I am not moving.” My grandfather would shake his head and laugh, while my grandmother would say, “You are just like her.” The “her” being Chava, whose name I carry.

Tags: Ellen Shindelman Kowitt, Erie Community Library, Great Grandmother, Shoah, The Case of the Missing ANcestors, The Holocaust and European Societies: Social Processes and Social Dynamics

Comments 12 Comments
Categories Anti-semitism, Family, Genealogy, Holocaust, Szenk Feuer Blogs

What Happened to Grandpa’s Twin Sisters?

16 Apr

My great aunt Tova, my great Grandparents Gimple and Chava. The man driving is an Uncle. And the horses and cart they bought with the money my grandparents sent. They all perished.

Would it be horrible to say that I am disappointed to find that my grandfather’s two sisters were not the victims of Josef Mengele? It sounds horrible even to me. But I have been searching to find out what happened to them for over a decade. And I thought I finally found a glimmer of hope. I remembered that they were twins. Perhaps they made it to the right concentration camp and were separated out. I could at least have some closure.

But no. Another dead end, I write without a pun. I had already searched through Yad V Shem, where I found my grandfather’s parents and one brother. I have found my great grandparents, Gimple/Mordechai who died in Auschwitz and Chava who died in the town. My great uncle, Shimon died in Belzec. All three testimonies were put in Yad VShem by a cousin, Shalom Hollander. Although he entered many other testimonies, there are none for the other three siblings.

I have searched through the Jewish Gen files. I have found many, many, well hundreds of family members who perished in the Shoah. But I cannot find my grandfather’s two sisters and their families and his other brother. It is what I have been searching for since I started my genealogy searches.

I tried the place that usually helps, Tracing the Tribe Facebook Group. From one member, I found out about the the Arolsen Archives, International Center on Nazi Persecution, in Bad Arolsen in Germany. And I had great hope. I filled out three forms with all the information I had on my great aunts, Tova and Tzelia, and great uncle Nachum. I admit it was not much. Just their names and town of birth, parents and approximate date of birth.

I was sure to add that Tova and Tzelia were twins. I have a photo of Tova. I knew she was married. She probably had children. But by the time I spoke to my grandfather about her and his other siblings in the 1970s, he had forgotten the names of her husband and children. So my search was based on somewhat limited information.

Unfortunately, the Arolsen Archives could not help. For each of my requests, I received the same message. “We can inform you today that we – based on the data you provided – have made an extensive check of the documentation available to us.
To our regret, it has not proved possible for us to ascertain any information.”

Another dead end. But I was not totally surprised. I know that Mielec and Grandpa’s home town of Trzciana, were among the first cities that the Nazis chose to kill all the Jews. Only 100 Jewish residents from the area survived the war. Some were killed at the Denbica/Dembitz Murder site. Others went to the Lodz Ghetto and then Belzec Some died in Auschwitz. But some died in their community, like my great grandmother. Some were burned in the synagogue. Some were burned in the mikve. Some were shot.

I have discovered many people with similar names, but not these three.

I assume they died nameless, not a number in the Nazi machine.

So perhaps not finding them is a good thing. Perhaps they died quickly. They did not have to suffer the indignity of being a victim of Mengele. They did not make it to the Concentration Camps. But what is so sad is that no family member was able to write their testimonies. No one could enter their names in to Yad VShem data base. And I cannot either, because I do not know what happened.

Perhaps my quest to find out the names of their children will never be achieved. I will never find out what happened. Each time I have found out what happened to a family member. I have had another little stab in my heart. Perhaps it is time to let this search end.

Murdered In Belzec

The Yad VaShem Shoah Database: Each Name Becomes A Memory

Tags: Arolsen Archives, Auschwitz, Belzec, Denbica/Dembitz Murder Site, Lodz Ghetto, Mielic, Shoah, Tracing the Tribe, Tracing the Tribe group, Trzciana, Yad VShem

Comments 11 Comments
Categories Anti-semitism, Family, Genealogy, Holocaust, Szenk Feuer Blogs, Uncategorized

A Ketubah Mystery

7 Dec

My maternal grandparent’s ketubah has presented a mystery!

I know for a fact that my great grandfather’s name was Gimple. That name is what was used in the Yad V’shem testimony that describes his death in the Shoah. That is the name my grandfather always used when discussing his father. That is the Hebrew name that was given to my cousin when he was born in 1949 in memory of him.

So why does it say my grandfather’s Hebrew name is Nisan ben Mordechai haCohen, Nisan the son of Mordechai the Cohan?

I was stunned. I immediately put the Ketubah up on Tracing the Tribe Facebook page for help. And yes, the name is Mordechai. Was my grandfather hiding something from us all these years? I don’t think so. His parents were his parents. But this seemed odd!

Then I thought could this possible be one of the many paired names, but one I had not heard of before? For example, my paternal grandfather’s Hebrew name was Hirsch Zvi. This is a common paired name as one is Yiddish and other Hebrew for deer. But I had never heard that Gimple was a pairing for Mordechai.

Thanks to the Tracing the Tribe group, I have since learned that it is. But a bit different. It does not mean the same thing, but rather they were paired together. It seems Gimple started first as a surname and then eventually became a first name. I started searching. And I found response to someone else asking the same question. It seems in Poland, where my grandfather was from (when it was Poland, sometimes it was Austria), there was a double name for Mordechai Gumpel, Mordechai Gumplein, Mordechai Gumplin and Mordechai Gumprecht, accorded to a Professor G. L. Esterson in Israel. He supposes that since Gimple is so close to Gumple, that Gimple is also a double name with Mordechai!!!

Then another member of Tracing the Tribe sent me the link below to the Jewish People’s Museum in Israel. It had an entire page dedicated to the name Gimple and its relationship to Mordechai! The names were paired together, as stated by above by Esterson! Confirmation!

To be honest, this makes so much sense, in my family because my great grandfather was the only man I have found named Gimple. However, there are many men named Mordechai over the generations before the Shoah. I wonder if his mother was trying to help end confusion by calling him Gimple, but giving him the Hebrew name Mordechai? I will never know!

However, I now have to come to my son’s generation. My son is named for my grandfather, Nisan. He is also named for my husband’s uncle, Mordechai. Thus, by happenstance, my son is also named for two generations at the same time, both his great and great, great grandfathers! Is that not a weird coincidence!!

Sometimes looking back at old documents can improve our knowledge of our family. I knew I had the ketubah. I had looked at it before. But because it was in such a bad shape, I just kept it put away and did not really examine it. Today I decided to take a photo to keep its information safe as it continues to deteriorate. Then I enlarged it on my phone, and there was the information that I had not noticed!

Another Mystery solved thanks to Tracing the Tribe.

(In an addendum, I asked for help from Tracing the Tribe in deciphering the names of the witnesses, even though I knew they were not relatives. So just so my family knows. Their names were Benjamin son of either Yehoshua or Yehuda, the Levi. And Shlomo the son of Mendel.)

https://dbs.anumuseum.org.il/skn/en/c6/e241754/Family_Name/GOMPERTZ?fbclid=IwAR2UmU_uU4aKv-jbqxoVD6K16LRsd-dnbTHfZlkn4CegeS5xCbv8LPt5iDE

Tags: Gimple/Mordechai, Jewish People's Museum, ketubah, paired names, Researching names, Tracing the Tribe

Comments 7 Comments
Categories Family, Genealogy, Szenk Feuer Blogs

I Know These Names

17 Dec

As the snow continues to fall outside and I have a snow day from my job, I decided to continue searching in my Grandma’s Photo Album. Since my last photo once again lead me to the Yad V’Shem data base and to another story of death during the Shoah, I searched for perhaps some happier photos. I was successful.

I found three photos from the 1940s. The first two were taken on November 25, 1945. Perhaps the photo with the three people is a wedding photo for Felix and Martha, along with Martha’s sister, Rosa. They are celebrating something, as Felix and Martha are wearing flowers. The two women look so much alike. They have the same exact smile. I know that they must be sisters.

The third photo, from July 14, 1947, is inscribed: “To you, dear cousin, from Rosel.” I am sure the ‘dear cousin’ is my grandmother. It surprised me because this photo was taken a few days before my grandmother’s 41 birthday.

These two girls are much younger than my grandma. Closer in age to my mother, who would have been 18 in 1947. So perhaps they are the surviving children of one of my Grandma’s first cousins. There were so many of them. Her mother had seven siblings and her father three or four. Although my grandmother’s siblings survived, many of her cousins perished in the Shoah.

Martha, the girl who I think married, looks so much like my mother. Not her smile, but the shape of her face. I can see that they are somehow related.

Now I am on a search to see where they settled after the war. I have emailed cousins and my siblings in this search. Mainly because I remember these names. I have heard together. I have heard my grandmother say them. One of my mother’s first cousins has no memory of these people. But since I spent so much time in Israel and traveled there with my grandmother, I am hoping these are among the people that I met so many years ago. (See blog below.)

I know my grandparents sent money to relatives after the war. Were these people among those who they helped? I do not know. My grandfather once said that he was always helping grandma’s family. But I know he did not mind. It was something that had to be done.

I wish these photos included a last name as that would make my search so much easier. But in the long run, perhaps it does not matter. At least I know they survived and that alone gives me joy.

https://zicharonot.com/2014/08/19/old-photographs-bring-memories-to-life/

https://zicharonot.com/2019/09/26/another-photo-another-trip-to-the-yad-vshem-database/

https://zicharonot.com/2019/06/17/my-obsession-with-grandmas-album-leads-to-the-shoah/

https://zicharonot.com/2018/07/20/viroshov-wieruszow-a-jewish-community-destroyed/

https://zicharonot.com/2014/04/28/speaking-yiddish-always-brings-me-holocaust-memories/

Tags: photos

Comments 5 Comments
Categories Family, Genealogy, Grandma's Photo Album, Holocaust, Israel, Szenk Feuer Blogs, Uncategorized

Survival of Shalom (Szulim) Hollander

25 Nov

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/2014/09/13/my-familys-holocaust-history-impacts-my-observance-of-rosh-hashannah/

https://zicharonot.com/2014/04/28/speaking-yiddish-always-brings-me-holocaust-memories/

Tags: cousins, family search, family stories, Israel, Schindler's List, Shoah, Tracing the Tribe

Comments 6 Comments
Categories Anti-semitism, Family, Genealogy, Holocaust, Israel, New Jersey, Szenk Feuer Blogs, Uncategorized

The Gift of a Photo Becomes a Gift of Genealogy

23 Nov

When my paternal grandmother died, my dad and his siblings divvied up the photos in her albums. It made sense at the time, as it was before the internet and the scanning of photos. But it left each of the families with an incomplete overall picture of whose photos exist.

I have been going through family photos for a number of years. One of my paternal first cousins has been going through the photos her father had from my grandparents over the two years or so, and when she finds something interesting, she emails the photos to me. Last week was special. She found a photo of our paternal grandfather’s mother. I have written several blogs based on these photos. (See list below.)

But I had NO photos of my grandfather’s parents. ZIP. It was a hole in my genealogy puzzle. In July, I wrote a blog about my grandfather’s family and its many mysteries. And last week, my cousin sent a photo of our great grandmother with my uncle that she discovered. WOW. I was struck my how much my grandfather looked like his mother! I immediately put the photo into the blog. (See below.).

But I think the acquisition of this photo needs its own blog, as now I have photos of seven of my great grandparents and four of my great great grandparents. That is amazing! I think of my children and my cousins’ children and grandchildren, and I realize that to have these photos labeled is an important gift I can give them all. For my future grandchildren as well, they can now look back and see some of their four times great grandparents. That to me is quite wonderful!

I did know one great grandmother, Rae/Ray. I have vague memories of how she looked. But I remember seeing her when we went to my paternal grandparents’ home. She lived with them always. We have the most photos of her as she lived until 1957. I have photos at different stages of her life and her husband, my great grandfather who passed away in the late 1930s. (See blog about him below.)

Because of this great new photo, I thought it would be great for my family to see all of these photos in one place: my grandparents, my great grandparents and the two sets of great great grandparents. I also used both their Yiddish/Hebrew names and their English names when they were different, so that everyone knows these names as well. Also you will notice my great great grandfather Jacob Zev Litwack. This is not the last name that my great grandfather used when he moved to the United States.

This is my Thanksgiving gift. The gift of identified photos! Happy Holidays to all.

MATERNAL Family