While in Isarel, I finally renewed a family connection which started 50 years ago. When I was 20, I met two survivors of the Shoah. They were married to sisters before the war. The sisters perished in the Shoah, but the two men remained connected for the rest of their lives.
I have written about both of these men before, (Lieb) Zissel Feuer and Shalom Hollander. Both were distant cousins of my grandfather. But their wives were his first cousins. I wrote about meeting Zissel and Shalom and what happened to them during and after the war, and a bit about my contact with them in Israel between 1974-76. (See blogs below.). Over the years my perception of the two changed, as I learned more about their lives.
Now I have a different story to share, because I have met Shalom’s oldest son Chaim, as well as the great nephew of his first wife, who is also my third cousin, Jeff, and his daughter.
For me it was a meeting that completed a story. For them, I hope I was able to fill in stories about the family and answer question about the family before the war. As we shared our stories, I could see where my knowledge and theirs combined and differed. I spoke about meeting Zissel at the bakery in Tel Aviv across from the Shuk HaCarmel. Chaim smiled while I told my stories about meeting Zissel there each time I came to Tel Aviv. Chaim, of course, knew the bakery and even Zissel’s address. Although I had been at his apartment several times, I did not remember the address. But we had other shared memories.
I think when I talked about the bakery, Chaim knew then that I was really a relative. I really had met Zissel. I don’t think he thought I was lying , but he had never heard of me, yet there I was a family member from the USA, unknown to him. Also when I told him about meeting his father, how elegant he seemed. And Chaim agreed, his dad had that old world charm.
Chaim actually made me feel better about Zissel. I knew he did not have a family. Shalom was not related to him at all, once their wives died. Shalom. remarried. Zissel never did. But Chaim told me that Zissel was always part of Shalom’s family. He came to be with them for all the haggim, the holidays. That eased my heart. Really, I am tearing up even now. For me Zissel was such a sad soul. So to know he was not alone, helped.
We talked about the importance of what Ziseel and Shalom did after the war to help others from Mielec who survived and to keep the memory of those who were murdered. Shalom purchased the land where a mass burial of 800 Jews were buried and put up a fence and a marker. Both men also testified against those who were the murderers, as Zissel had done for the murderer of my great grandmother, his aunt by marriage. Our discussion filled in so many blanks for me.
Chaim and his wife gave me memoirs written by both Shaom and his second wife, Ita, about what happened during the war.
I in turn could tell them about those who made it to the United States before the war.
How Julius/Judah/Yidel Amsterdam, my grandfather’s uncle, came first. As other relatives came to the New York/New Jersey area, he gave them a choice. You can be a butcher or a baker. There was a cousin who was a butcher, and Uncle Yidel was a baker. My grandfather chose to be a baker. Chiam laughed as I told the story, because his uncle who went to the states became a butcher. I said he was probably helped by my great uncle Yidel as well.
With Jeff, I could talk about his great uncle Morris, who lived in Helena, Montana. My grandfather always stayed in touch with his first cousin. I knew one of this sons because when I moved to Kansas, they gave me Jack’s phone number. He lived in Denver. To my grandfather and his cousin Morris, this was close enough. We never actually met, but we spoke several times.
For me I have a feeling of completion. When I found out about these relatives, through the research of Izabela S. I knew I had to see them when I was in Israel visiting my daughter. They lived quite a distance. But my daughter said that this was my Mother’s Day gift. It was the one thing I really wanted to do. So we took the long drive from Holon to a small Kfar near Netanya.
Over the years of my research I have found out how the members of my family were murdered during the Shoah. I know how a small numbered survived. I know that they are not forgotten. I am not the only who keeps their memory alive within the family. And there are people like Izabela in Poland, who also work to keep the memory of the Jewish population alive.
I never thought I would ever want to go to Trzciana or Mielec. My grandfather never wanted to go back there after his family was murdered. But now I do want to go. I what to see where they lived. Where Shalom and Zissel created a Jewish community after the war. Where the Amsterdam group hid in the nearby forest. The town where my great grandmother was murdered. The mass grave where my great aunts are probably buried.
But most of all I am so glad that I found out what that Zissel and Shalom did after the war. I, as a young woman, saw both Zissel and Shalom as such sad people talking about Death. I did not hear the stories about what they did to give people a reason to LIVE after the war. And to create a place of memory for those murdered.
I now know that Shalom and his wife, who was also a survivor from Mielec, had four children, a girl who survived whom they adopted and three sons. Chaim and his wife have seven children, 40 grandchildren and 19 great grandchildren so far.
I know that Zissel was not alone. That Zissel and Shalom stayed connected throughout their lives. I also know that Zissel died in Holon. I think he might be buried there. So next time I am in Israel, I hope to find his grave and put place a rock of remembrance on his matzevot.
zicharonot 