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.
zicharonot 