MetaMaus: A Look Inside a Modern Classic by Art Spiegelman 2011

"The three longest chapters [of MetaMaus] provide nuanced and richly illustrated answers to the questions every reader has probably asked: 'Why the Holocaust?' 'Why mice?' and 'Why comics?'" from a review by Patricia Hagen in the Star Tribune, 11/19/2011

Art Spiegelman, author of the award-winning Maus, has written a memoir that looks back at the making of Maus and elaborates on its many themes. The body of the commentary comes in the form of conversations with the professor/scholar Hillary Chute, wherein she poses a question or states an observation and Spiegelman responds. Spiegelman provides background information about himself and his Holocaust survivor parents and carefully reasoned artistic explanations for many of the decisions he made as he was working on Maus. Also, Spiegelman gave her access to his files, and the book includes many early sketches, notes, and panels as well as related material which had been published elsewhere.

Spiegelman talked to Chute about what fueled his growing interest in trying to draw and write about the Holocaust. He never had any intention of using it in his art but he found himself inevitably moving in that direction, partly as a way to try to connect to his father with whom he’d had a difficult relationship, but also because the Holocaust was what had enveloped him his whole life. When he decided to tell his father’s story he had to wrestle with the issue of making art out of Holocaust experiences. He was intent in doing so without sentimentalizing his father’s story, branding all stories by and about survivors that rely on excessive sentiment “Holokitsch.”

Some of the most interesting material is the author’s discussions about memory and accuracy. Once he knew he needed to tell this story, he needed to immerse himself in history, worrying all the time about getting it right. He had dual concerns: getting his father’s story right and also being accurate about the larger story of the Holocaust. He needed to constantly prod his father for more details and check them against historical material whenever possible. He needed to visit Auschwitz.

Much of the book is taken up with discussions about Spiegelman’s use of the comic book form to tell his family’s story and his metaphoric use of animals to represent the characters. Spiegelman discusses what was innovative and the various forms of resistance Maus received, both before publication and after. He also discusses who his influences were in the world of alternative comic book art and how the fame Maus has brought him has affected him as a person and as an artist. There is an interesting discussion of the difficulty of translating Maus into other languages and the reception Maus had in various countries.

In addition to the discussions listed above, this volume also includes ancillary material:

After Maus was published Art Spiegelman learned of an extensive Spiegelman family tree created by a second cousin, Simon Spiegelman, which is included along with a two-page narrative history of the family written by his cousin. There is also a Zylberberg family tree. Both trees are reproduced below in list form without birth and death dates which can be found on the trees reproduced in the book.

The book also includes many more family photos than in the original Maus, a transcript of Spiegelman’s interviews with his father, a short chapter that includes interviews with women who knew his mother, a chronology - 1906-2010, and an index.

MetaMaus also includes a DVD. Part I is a digitally reproduced version of the complete Maus where you can also click to hear Spiegelman’s father’s voice and see digitally reproduced versions of sketches and drafts. Part II includes some of the same ancillary material found in the paper version of MetaMaus discussed above, but also additional material which forms a digital archive: sketches and drawings by the author, a collection called Anja’s Bookshelf which includes postwar Polish pamphlets on the war and the camps, a home movie of Spiegelman’s trip to Auschwitz, and essays by Spiegelman and others written about Maus and originally published elsewhere.

For a short history of Auschwitz through photos and text, click here.
For the earlier post on this blog of a review of Maus click here.

Family
Author’s father’s family
Majer Szpigelman – married Zysla
Chaim Lajb Szpigelman – son of Majer and Zysla; married Fajgla Szpringer
        Moszek Moshe Szpigelman –  son of Chaim and Fajgla; married Chana Zysla Rajsfeld   
            Icek Wolf Szpigelman – son of Moszek and Chana
            Hendla Szpigelman – daughter of Moszek and Chana
            Maria Laja Szpigelman – daughter of Moszek and Chana
            Rajza Szpigelman – daughter of Moszek and Chana
            Majer Jozef Szpigelman – son of Moszek and Chana
            Jakob Szymon Szpigelman – son of Moszek and Chana
Menachem Mendl Szpigelman – son of Chaim and Fajga; married Chaja Majerczik; married Chaja Sura Lauber (2nd wife)
        Majer Jozef Szpigelman – son of Menachem and Chaja Majerczik
        Andzua Hendla Szpigelman – daughter of Menachem and Chaja Majerczik
        Berek Szpigelman – son of Menachem and Chaja Majerczik
        Rywka Zysla Szpigelman – daughter of Menachem and Chaja Majerczik
        Lola Szpigelman – daughter of Menachem and Chaja Majerczik
        Regina Szpigelman – daughter of Menachem and Chaja Majerczik
        Eliash Szpigelman – son of Menachem and Chaja Majerczik
        Miloch Szpigelman – son of Menachem and Chaja Sura; married Gutcha
        Pesach Szpigelman – son of Menachem and Chaja Sura
        Haskel Szpigelman – son of Menachem and Chaja Sura
Majer Szpigelman – son of Chaim and Fajgla; married Ruchla Altman
        Ziser Szpigelman – son of Majer and Ruchla
        Mordka Hillel Szpigelman – son of Majer and Ruchla
        Abram Wolf Szpigelman – son of Majer and Ruchla
        Faigla Rywka Szpigelman – daughter of Majer and Ruchla
        Arie Szpigelman – son of Majer and Ruchla
        Zysla Szpigelman – daughter of Majer and Ruchla
        Szlama Becalel Szpigelman – son of Majer and Ruchla
Jozef Henoch Szpigelman – son of Chaim and Fajgla; married Zysla Zylbersztajn
        Jakob Szlama Szpigelman – son of Jozef and Zysla
        Fajgla Rywka Szpigelman – daughter of Jozef and Zysla
        Abram Szaja Szpigelman – son of Jozef and Zysla
        Pinkus Eli Szpigelman – son of Jozef and Zysla
        Frajda Rachela Szpigelman – daughter of Jozef and Zysla
        Chaja Sura Szpigelman – daughter of Jozef and Zysla
        Hendla Szpigelman – daughter of Jozef and Zysla
        Jacheta Szpigelman – daughter of Jozef and Zysla
        Mariem Szpigelman – daughter of Jozef and Zysla
Sara Szpigelman – daughter of Chaim and Fajgla; married Fajwel Kronenberg
            Fela (Fajgla)  Szpigelman – daughter of Sara and Fajwel
            Majer (Max) Szpigelman – son of Sara and Fajwel
            Burech Mordka Szpigelman – son of Sara and Fajwel
            Jacheta Szpigelman – daughter of Sara and Fajwel
            Chaim Lajb Szpigelman – son of Sara and Fajwel
            Jakob Josef Szpigelman – son of Sara and Fajwel
            Dawid Moszek Szpigelman – son of Sara and Fajwel
        Chana Ruchla Szpigelman – daughter of Chaim and Fajgla; married Mendel Zygrajch
            Fajgla Szpigelman – daughter of Chana and Mendel
            Ajzik Szpigelman – son of Chana and Mendel
            Fiszel Szpigelman – son of Chana and Mendel
            Majer Szpigelman – son of Chana and Mendel
            Pejsach Szpigelman – son of Chana and Mendel
            Dworja Ita Szpigelman – daughter of Chana and Mendel
            Chaim Lajb Szpigelman – son of Chana and Mendel
            Abram Jakob Szpigelman – son of Chana and Mendel
        Abram Szpigelman – son of Chaim and Fajgla; married Pesla Zylberszac; married Chaja Goldberg (2nd wife)
            Izrael Szymon Szpigelman – son of Abram and Pesla
            Fela (Faigla) Szpigelman – daughter of Abram and Chaja
            Vladek (William) Szpigelman (Spiegelman) – son of Abram and Chaja; married Anja Zylberberg; married Mala Kurland (2nd wife)
                Richieu Szpigelman – son of Vladek and Anja
                Arthur Szpigelman (Spiegelman) – son of Vladek and Anja; married to Francoise; (author)
                    Nadja and Dasheill Spiegelman – children of Arthur and Francoise   
            Marcus (Mordka) Szpigelman – son of Abram and Chaja
            Moses (Mojzesz) Szpigelman – son of Abram and Chaja
            Mendel Szpigelman – son of Abram and Chaja
            Leon (Chaim Lajb) Szpigelman – son of Abram and Chaja
            Zosha (Zysla) Szpigelman – daughter of Abram and Chaja
            Yadja (Jacheta) Szpigelman – daughter of Abram and Chaja
            Pinek (Pejsach) Szpigelman – son of Abram and Chaja
        Wolf Szpigelman – son of Chaim and Fajgla; married Sura Rywka
            Max (Majer) Szpigelman – son of Wolf and Sura
            Lorre (Zysla Laja) Szpigelman – daughter of Wolf and Sura
            Frieda (Fajgla) Szpigelman – daughter of Wolf and Sura
            Lotte (Liba) Szpigelman – daughter of Wolf and Sura
            Toni (Tauba Chana) Szpigelman – daughter of Wolf and Sura
            Helene (Chaja) Szpigelman – daughter of Wold and Sura

Author’s mother’s family
Heschl Karmiol – married Ruchla
    Malka Karmiol – daughter of Heschl and Ruchla; married Israel Itzah Zylberberg
        Herman Zylberberg – son of Malka and Israel; married Hela
            Lolek Zylberberg – son of Herman and Hela; married Lonia
                Rachel Zylberberg daughter of Lolek and Lonia
                                                Laurie Zylberberg – daughter of Lolek and Lonia
                Andrew Zylberberg – son of Lolek and Lona; married Cynthia
                    Elaine, Karen, and Allison Zylberberg – children of Andrew and Cynthia
        Levek Zylberberg – son of Malka and Israel
        Tosha Zylberberg – daughter of Malka and Israel; married Wolf Steinkeller
            Bibi Steinkeller – daughter of Tosha and Wolf
        Anja Zylberberg – daughter of Malka and Israel; married Vladek Spiegelman
            Richieu – son of Anja and Vladek
            Arthur – son of Anja and Vladek – married Francoise Mouly (see above); author
        Josef Zylberberg – son of Malka and Israel; married to Mina

            Marysia Winogron – second cousin of Anja’s (father’s were first cousins)
                Leonard and David Winogron – sons of Marysia

Friends and Acquaintances
David and Ita Kracauer
Paul Pavel
Renya Ostry
Alter Mandelbaum
Blima Mandelbaum (Blanca Thurm) – Alter’s daughter
Avraham MAndelbaum – Alter’s nephew
Liba Eibschutz – Alter’s neice
Marisha Shubert
Hanka Sucher (Hanna Heron)

Places
Dabrowa, Poland
Sosnowiec, Poland
Stara Sosnowiec, Poland
Srodula, Poland
Zawiercie, Poland
Bielsko, Poland
Dachau, Poland
Lodz, Poland
Birkenau Concentration Camp
Auschwitz Concentration Camp
Ravensbruck-Malhoff Concentration Camp
Sweden
Norristown, Pa
Fort Tryon Park, NYC
Rego Park, Queens, NYC
Soho, NYC

My Russian Grandmother and Her American Vacuum Cleaner: a family memoir by Meir Shalev 2009 in Hebrew, 2011 in English

"Shalev’s sentences deserve to be read out loud. He says he’s sticking to the facts here, even though his storytelling can be circular, with stories within stories and different versions of the same story ..." from a review by Sandee Brawarsky in the Jewish Week, 11/22/2011

The Israeli writer, Meir Shalev, has written an entertaining and enlightening memoir whose setting is Nahalal, a moshav founded in 1921 in Palestine. His maternal grandparents were early settlers, having immigrated from Ukraine. Shalev, who was born in 1948 in Nahalal, but who later moved to Jerusalem, recreates the early difficult years of the moshav. The settlement’s development and survival depended upon backbreaking labor. But Shalev relates that his grandfather, who had the temperament and interests of a writer/poet, was not really cut out for that kind of life. He writes that it was his grandmother who kept the farm functioning, relying on the help of her children: five boys and two girls.

Shalev’s grandfather’s brother left Ukraine and decided to immigrate to America, a life decision his brother in Palestine completely disdained. Shalev uses the two brothers’ different life choices as the amusing pivot of his story, writing the tale in a tone meant to entertain its readers. He describes in detail his grandmother’s obsession for keeping her house clean, constantly dusting in a setting where dust whirled all the time. He then tells us that he learned that many years ago his grandfather’s brother in California had sent his grandmother a new-fangled vacuum cleaner from America. But all he knew about the unseen vacuum cleaner was that she had locked it up and did not use it. The locked-up vacuum cleaner became a family legend and Shalev spins out various contradictory versions of its fate - stories told to him by various family members.

As the tale surrounding the mystery of the unused vacuum cleaner unwinds, we also learn about early settler ideology and day to day life on the moshav. This is a lovingly, but clear-sighted, look at the life of a large Israeli farm family whose roots in Israel go back to the difficult life of early pioneers.

Note: It's too bad that the Hebrew title of this memoir was not translated and used as its title in English. Ha'Davar Haya Kakha  means This is How It Was which conveys the importance of storytelling, both to his grandmother whose stories started with that phrase and of course to the author, a gifted storyteller, who carries on the tradition. He opens the memoir with that phrase.


To watch and listen to Meir Shalev give a talk and answer questions about this memoir at the 6th and I Historic Synagogue in Washington D.C. click here.

People
Mordechai Zvi Pekker – married ?; 2nd marriage to Batya
    Shoshanna Pekker – daughter of Mordechai Zvi and ?; married Aharon Ben-Barak (see below)
    Moshe Pekker – son of Mordechai Zvi and Batya
    Yitzhak Pekker – son of Mordechai Zvi and Batya
    Yaacov Pekker – son of Mordechai Zvi and Batya
    Tonia Pekker – daughter of Mordechai Zvi and Batya; married Aharon Ben-Barak (see below)

    Yeshayahu (Sam) (brother of Aharon)
    Aharon Ben-Barak – married  Shoshanna Pekker; married 2nd wife Tonia Pekker
        Itamar Ben-Barak – son of Aharon and Shoshanna
        Benyamin Ben-Barak – son of Aharon and Shoshanna
        Micha Ben-Barak – son of Aharon and Tonia; married to Tzafira
        Batya Ben-Barak – daughter of Aharon and Tonia
            Meir Shalev – son of Batya and Yitzhak Shalev; author
            Rafaela Shalev – daughter of Yitzhak and Batya
            Zur Shalev – son of Yitzhak and Batya
                Roni and Naomi Shalev – daughters of Zur

        Menachem Ben-Barak – son of Aharon and Tonia; married Penina
            Zohar and Gila Ben-Barak – children of Menachem and Penina
        Batsheva Ben-Barak (twin of Menachem) – daughter of Aharon and Tonia; married Arik
            Nadal – son of Batsheva and Arik
        Yair Ben-Barak – son of Aharon and Tonia; married Tzilla
    Sarah Ben-Barak – sister of Yeshayahu (Sam) and Aharon

Meir Shalev – married Zipporah
    Yitzhak Shalev – son of Meir and Zippora; married Batya Ben-Barak (see above)
        Meir Shalev – son of Yitzhak and Batya; author (see above)
    Mordechai Shalev – son of Meir and Zippora; married Rika

Friends and Acquaintances
Shmuel Pinneles
David Shahar
Penina Gary
Thelma Yellin
Ze’ev Smilansky
Haim Shorer
Motke Habinsky
Yitzhak Ben Yaakov
Nahum Sneh

Places
Makarov, Ukraine
Rokitno, Ukraine
Nahalal, Israel
Los Angeles, California
Kibbutz Ginosar, Israel
Kfar Yehoshua, Israel
Herzliya, Israel
Kibbutz Hanita, Israel
K’far Chabad, Israel
Kfar Monash, Israel
Kiryat Haim, Israel

Messages from My Father by Calvin Trillin 1996

"The book says something about all immigrant families and their aspirations in the US that's especially apparent in the way it makes clear that the senior Trillin never lost sight of the America he wanted his son to be a part of." from a review by Geoff Edgers in The Boston Phoenix, May 16-23, 1996

The writer Calvin Trillin, originally from Kansas City, Missouri, has written this lovely, moving memoir about his father who, he realizes, had far more of an effect on his life than he had thought. His father, born Abram Trilinski, came to America as a child with his parents and siblings from Ukraine and arrived in Galveston, Texas, an alternate immigration port. They originally settled in Saint Joseph, Missouri with other Eastern European Jews where the author’s grandfather, Kusel Trilinski, soon opened a grocery store.

When Abe Trilinski became an adult, following in his father’s footsteps, he too opened a grocery store. He eventually owned a group of five. He had one foot in the old world - he was fluent in Yiddish - but he worked at being American. The writer guesses that that was his motivation for his changing the family name from Trilinski to Trillin and naming his son Calvin (after Abe's father Kusel Trilinski). Intent on seeing his family succeed, he worked six days a week, getting up at four to go to the wholesale market. Calvin Trillin characterizes him as an optimist and apolitical. This behavior Trillin contrasts to the New York Jewish community he came to know when he moved to New York.

What stands out is his father’s dream that his son go to Yale so that Calvin could make more of a mark than Abe had. Many of his father’s traits and opinions Trillin, in his humorous way, characterizes as absurd and lovable at the same time. His father got the idea of Yale from a book he had read as a child and he systematically put away money in small increments for his son’s tuition way before he had any idea whether his son would apply and be admitted. Looking back, the author is moved at his father’s singlemindedness and self-sacrifice. He realizes that his father knew that on some level once his plan for his son came to fruition, he would lose him: that after four years on the east coast at Yale his son would most likely be lured permanently away from the Midwest, which is exactly what happened.

Trillin realizes that his immigrant father succeeded in this country but hated the business he was in and felt unfulfilled in the world beyond his family. He narrates the realities of his father’s life in a light vein but with great tenderness, admiration, affection, and gratitude.

To read an article written by Jacob Schiff in 1914 discussing his instigation of the Galveston project that brought Jewish immigrants through the port of Galveston, Texas, click here.


People
Kussiel (Kusel) Trilinski – married Anna   
    Abe (Abram) Trillin (Trilinski) – son of Kussiel and Anna;  married Edyth Weitzman
        Elaine Sue Trillin – daughter of Abe and Edyth
        Calvin Trillin – son of Abe and Edyth; married Alice Stewart; author
            Abigail and Sarah Stewart Trillin – daughters of Calvin and Alice
    Sadie (Scheindel) Trilinsky – daughter of Kussiel and Anna
    Maishe Trilinsky – son of Kussiel and Anna
    Hannah Trilinsky – daughter of  Kussiel and Anna; married Jerry Cushman
        Keith Cushman – son of Hannah and Jerry
    Earl (Schroelik) Trilinsky – son of Kussiel and Anna

Benny Daynovsky – Kusel’s brother-in-law (exact relationship unclear; maybe Kusel’s wife Anna was a Daynovsky)

Ben Weitzman – ? Ginsberg
    Edyth Weitzman – daughter of Ben; married to Abe Trillin (see above)

David Ginsberg – brother of Ben Weitzman’s wife

Acquaintances
Gershon Hadas

Places
Sokol’cha Ukraine
Kansas City, Missouri
St. Joseph, Missouri
Leavenworth, Kansas

Two Lives by Vikram Seth 2005

"Henny and Shanti had no children. But they did have an author for a great-nephew. And his Two Lives is a stay against their oblivion." from a review by Blake Morrison published in the Guardian on 9/16/2005

Although the writer Vikram Seth is not Jewish, a very large part of this moving story is about his Jewish great aunt Hennerle Caro who escaped to England from her home in Berlin in 1939.  Shanti Seth, the author’s great uncle, met Henny Caro, his future wife, having rented a room from her mother before the war when he came from India to attend dental school in Berlin. They reconnected in England where he had already settled because as a "foreigner" he could not practice dentistry in Germany. They did not get married until 1951. Shanti Seth practiced as a dentist despite having lost an arm during his service in World War II.

The author came to know Shanti Uncle and Aunt Henny when in 1969, at the age of 17, he left India to attend school in England. A childless couple, Aunt Henny and Seth Uncle enjoyed the author’s company a great deal, treating him like a son. His great aunt suggested he learn German when he realized he needed to master a foreign language other than English as an education requirement. She offered to tutor him, which she did. He stayed close to them through the rest of their lives, visiting frequently, and flying in as often as he could from wherever he was when, as they grew older, they underwent a number of medical crises. Aunt Henny died in 1989 and Uncle Shanti  in 1998.

The author’s original intent was to write a biography of the interesting life of his great uncle Shanti; he conducted extensive interviews with him after Aunt Henny died. But on a visit from India, in helping to clean out the attic after Aunt Henny’s death, Vikram Seth’s father found a trunk in the attic belonging to Aunt Henny  full to the brim with correspondence, documents, and a few books. Her husband knew nothing about the trunk and their contents. Most correspondence covered the years from after the war through to the early 1950’s when Hennerle Caro was trying to find out about the fate of her mother and sister who had stayed behind in Berlin. Most were from Christian friends in Berlin consoling her on her loss and providing the information that they had gathered about the last days of Hennerle’s mother and sister who, she learned, though they lived together, were separated at death. Her elderly mother was deported to Theresienstadt, her sister to Birkenau.

The very long section in this 500 page book devoted to Henny Caro quotes these letters extensively and make for very interesting reading. Henny frequently made carbon copies of her responses so we hear her voice as she conveys her anger and bitterness at the fate of her family.  What’s particularly interesting in her letters are her inquiries to friends she trusts about others of their friends who were trying to re-establish contact with her. She wanted to know exactly how they had each behaved during the war, what groups they had joined, who they had associated with. She is bitter about those who wrote to console her after she finds out from others that certain of them stayed away from visiting her mother and sister even though many of her friends had known them well. Others had put themselves at risk by visiting them and helping them out with food before they were deported.

Henny was an heir to her mother’s, her sister’s and her two maiden aunts’ estates. Henny’s closest Christian friend who still lived in Berlin offered to help her with claims against the German government to facilitate compensation for both her lost wages and all confiscated property. The letters back and forth between Henny, her friend, the German government and the American government (because she suspected her wealthy aunts had sent money to American banks) reveal a callousness on the part of the bureaucracy in both governments that still outrages so many years later.

Vikram Seth informs us that before he investigated these letters in the trunk he only had a superficial knowledge about the Holocaust. He knew no Jews growing up in India. He was shocked that he had known nothing about his great aunt’s past. When he talked to his great uncle who had known his mother-in-law and sister-in-law when he lived in Berlin, Shanti Uncle said his wife never wanted to talk about it.

For the author, writing this book  included doing research about Jewish Berlin, the Nazi edicts visited on its Jewish residents, deportations, and conditions and procedures in the Thesienstadt and Berkenau concentration camps. At one point the author visited Israel to give a talk and found himself spontaneously going to Yad Vashem where he found entries for Gabriele and Lola Caro in German documents. Reading the German, a language he loved that was part of his connection to his great aunt when she had tutored him, so sickened him that for a period he stopped reading German and listening to German Leider.

The author concludes with making some salient points about having written this book. He is troubled with the fact that he was publishing letters that were not meant for the public eye, but decides that since Shanti Uncle and Aunt Henny are long gone, their lives are now part of history. He makes the point that their lives spanned most of the twentieth century and through his research and analysis the author reveals how the major events of the 20th century shaped their lives and those around them.

To read an article about the fate of Jews in Berlin, click here.
 

People
Isaac Caro – married Gabriele (Ella) Schmelkes
    Lola Caro – daughter of Isaac and Gabriele
    Hennerle Gerda Caro – daughter of Isaac and Gabriele; married Shanti Seth
    Heinz (Hei) Caro – son of Isaac and Gabriele; married Mia stonewalling at absurdity of responses from US and Germany

Olga and Flora Glaser – Henny’s aunts ( exact relationship unclear)
Malchen and Sigfried Pawel – Henny’s aunt and uncle (exact relationship unclear)

Friends and Acquaintances
Hans Mahnert – married Wanda
Fredy Aufrichtig
Jazko Rabau – married to Rose
    Inge – daughter of Jazko
Heinrich Etzold (Henry Edwards) – married Nita
    Susan Edwards – daughter of Henry and Nita
Adolph Berliner (A.G. Belvin)
Luther Berliner – brother of Adolph
Cora Berliner
Hans Altmann
Alice and Else Pasch – sisters
Adolf Wolffsky
Frieda, Ursel, and Klaus Alexander
Margot Berlowitz Weissberg
Walter Schachtel

Tilly Reich
Paul Oppler

Places
Berlin, Germany
Charlottenburg, Berlin
London, England
Le Paz, Bolivia
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia
Auschwitz, (Berkenau) Poland
Atlanta, Georgia
Shanghai, China
Palestine
Capetown, South Africa
Australia

Sala’s Gift: My Mother’s Holocaust Story by Ann Kirschner

"This moving account illuminates a little-known aspect of the Holocaust: Organization Schmelt, in which Jewish leaders supplied slave labor to the Germans for the war effort." from a review in Publisher's Weekly 8/21/2006

In 1991 when Ann Kirschner’s mother Sala was about to enter the hospital for by-pass surgery, afraid she might die, Sala Garncarz Kirschner handed her daughter a portfolio containing what turned out to be 352 letters, documents and photos that she had saved and guarded throughout the almost five years she had been in labor camps during World War II. The portfolio was a well-kept secret. Her daughter knew her mother was a survivor, but her mother had never been willing to talk about her experience. After the surgery, the two embarked on a project to reconstruct Sala’s life through interviews and through translating and putting in sequential order Sala’s collection – a “gift” to her family and to the wider world.

Sala Garncarz was the youngest daughter born into a large family of poor observant Jews who lived in Sosnowiec in western Poland. Because Sosnowiec and other towns near it were close to the German border, the Nazis established labor camps where they enslaved Jews to work to help their war effort. Sala Garncarz reported to a labor camp in Geppersdorf in late 1940 when she was just sixteen years old, was transferred at different times to other labor camps, and was liberated in 1945 from the Schatzlar labor camp in Czechoslovakia.

In this memoir Ann Kirschner has included many of the letters her mother saved. Many were from her sister Reizel who at  first wrote from home and then from the Neusalz labor camp where she was taken along with a third sister, Blima. Another set of early letters are from Sala’s girlfriends back home who had not yet been deported to concentration camps or assigned to labor camps.  A third set is from Ala Gertner, a woman ten years older than Sala who promised Sala's mother she would take care of Sala. Although the letters were censored, it is easy to read between the lines, and we can follow the progression from cheerful and hopeful to fearful and desperate.

Ann Kirschner did a lot of research to be able to contextualize the events in her mother’s life. Kirschner, for example, gives important background information about the Sosnowiec Jewish community and what happened to that community when the Nazis invaded Poland. She describes the role of Moses Merin whom the Nazis appointed as head of the Jewish Council and his double dealing as he tried to maintain his position and hold onto his life. She also gives us a short history of labor camps, as opposed to concentration camps, explaining the role of the Nazi officer Albrecht Schmelt who created and then administered a growing web of labor camps. (Oscar Schindler is probably the most well known factory owner whose factory was served by a labor camp.)  She describes the vital role these camps played in the Nazi war effort and then their waning presence after  Hitler’s 1942  Final Solution went into effect.


Sala Garncarz was released into a changed Poland. We follow her as she makes her way home to find out who is still alive. She then meets her future husband - an American GI, marries, and starts a new life in America, burying her old life in her heart and secreting evidence of her past in her portfolio.

The author has included many photos and copies of documents as well as an index and an extensive listing of sources divided into the following categories: Prewar Life in Sosnowiec, Poland and During the Occupation; Nazi Labor Camps and Organization Schmelt; Moses Merin and the Jewish Council; August 12, 1942; Ala Gertner and the Auschwitz Uprising; Schatzlar, Neusalz, and Dyhernfurth.  She has also included a useful listing of  "Additional Sources and Inspirations" which is mostly a listing of more general works on the Holocaust.

To watch and listen to a lecture on You Tube by Ann Kirschner about her mother's story, click here.

To read a document on the website of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum about forced labor as well as to see archival footage and to have access to personal testimonies, click here.

People
Family
Abram Simcha Garncarz – married to Rachel
    Moshe Chaim Garncarz – son of Abram and Rachel; married Matel Sczydlov
    Raizel Lea Garncarz – daughter of Abram and Rachel; married Yaacov Fischel

    Josef Garncarz –nephew of Abram and Rachel; married Chana Feldman(second wife)
        Miriam Chaya Garncarz – daughter of Josef and first wife
        Moshe David Garncarz – son of Josef and Chana; married to Hendel
        Laya Dina Garncarz – daughter of Josef and Chana; married to David Krzesiwo
            Salusia and Moniek Krzesiwo – children of Laya Dina and David
        Hersh Leib Garncarz – son of Josef and Chana
        Avram Yitzhak Garncarz – son of Josef and Chana
        Chaim Pincus Garncarz – son of Josef and Chana
        Fiegele Garncarz – daughter of Josef and Chana
        Yankov Aaron – son of Josef and Chana
        Blima Garncarz – daughter of Josef and Chana; married to Jacob Goldberg
        Raizel (Rose) Garncarz – daughter of Josef and Chana; married to Ezriel Lange
        Salusia (Sala) Garncarz – daughter of Josef and Chana; married Sydney Kirschner
            Joseph Kirschner – son of Sala and Sydney
            Ann Kirschner – daughter of Sala and Sydney; married to Harold Weinberg
                  Elisabeth, Caroline and Peter Weinberg - children of Ann and Harold
            David Kirschner – son of Sala and Sydney

                      Jennie, Jeremy, Gabby, Rachel and Yael  Kirschner - children of Joseph and David Kirschner (not clear which children "belong" to Joseph and which to David)
                           
Family of Chana Feldman (author’s great-grandmother – see above)
Asher Alter Feldman – uncle of Chana; married Tobele
    Yacob Hainoch Feldman – son of Asher and Tobele
    Blima Yockevet Feldman – daughter of Asher and Tobele
    Esther Feldman – daughter of Asher and Tobele
    Miriam Feldman – daughter of Asher and Tobele
    Aaron Yosef Feldman – son of Asher and Tobele
    Leah Dina Feldman – daughter of Asher and Tobele; married Yechiel Ophir
    Moshe Leib Feldman – son of Asher and Tobele
    David Feldman – son of Asher and Tobele
    Shlomo Feldman – son of Asher and Tobele
    Melech Feldman – son of Asher and Tobele
    Mendel Wolf Feldman – son of Asher and Tobele
   
 Rozia (Rose) Grunbaum Futter (?) Danziger (?); sister of Sala and Abram; cousin of Sala Garcarz (exact relationship not clear)
 Sala Grunbaum Singer - sister to Rozia and Abram; cousin of Sala Garncarz (exact relationship not clear)
 Abram Grunbaum – brother of Rozia and Sala; cousin of Sala Garncarz (exact relationship unclear)

Friends and Acquaintances
Sarah Schenirer
Sala Rabinowicz Poznanski - sister to Frymka and Glika
Frymka Rabinowicz Zavontz- sister to Sala and Glika
Glika Rabinowicz - sister to Sala and Frymka
Moses (Moshe, Moniek, Marek) Merin
Fani Czarna
Ala Gertner and Bernard Holtz - married
Wolf Leitner
Chaim Kaufman
Hokilo Dattner
Bela Kohn
Chaim Rumkowski
Sarah Czarka Helfand
Mitzi Mehler
Gucia Gutman Ferleger
Harry Haubenstock
Zusi Ginter Bloch - sister to Itka
Itka Ginter Bloch - sister to Zusi
Bronia Altman
Fryda Lipschitz
Mordechai Anielwicz
Eva Joskowitz
Friedl Silberstein
Sara Weisman
Roza Robota
Mala Weinstein
Anna Wajcblum Heilman - sister of Estusia
Estusia Wajcblum – sister of Anna
Regina Safirsztajn
Eugene Koch
Rose Meth
Morris Frank

Places
Bais Yaakov school, Sosnowiec, Poland
Sosnowiec, Poland
Wolbrom, Poland
Oswiecim, Poland
Bedzin, Poland
Warsaw, Poland
Skladowa transit camp, Poland
Geppersdorf labor camp,Germany
Neusalz labor camp, Poland
Grosse Sarne labor camp, Germany
Brande labor camp, Germany
Laurahutte labor camp, Poland
Gross Paniow labor camp, Poland
Blechhammer labor camp, Poland
Olkusz, Poland
Srodula ghetto, Poland
Kamionka, Poland
Flossenburg concentration camp, Germany
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, Germany
Auschwitz concentration camp, Poland
Ansbach, Germany
Waldenburg, Poland
Dyhernfurth concentration camp, Poland
Frankfurt, Germany
New York City – East Harlem, Brooklyn, Queens
Palestine

The Children of Chabannes (documentary) produced, directed and edited by Lucy Gossels and Dean Wetherell , 1999

"The Children of Chabannes — who 'were happy by day and ... cried at night' — does not skirt the issue of what led these children to France in the first place, but it also sheds light on hope in the dark days of war."  from a review by Andrea Carla Michaels in JWeekly.com on 7/22/2005

From 1939 to 1943 the very small farming town of Chabannes in central France, located in the official “unoccupied zone,” became home to displaced Jewish children, mostly from Germany, Austria, Poland and France. Parents, desperate to save their children, sent them to Chabannes where the OSE (Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants), a Jewish social service and health care agency, operated several schools in the area. The Chateau Chabannes became their dormitory, their school, their home. The non-Jewish visionary head of the school, Felix Chevrier, took a leadership role and decided that the best approach was to integrate the Jewish children and local Chabannes children, so all attended school together, and in this way the community came to know and care about the refugees in their midst.

This documentary, made by the daughter of one of the former children of Chabannes, consists of interviews conducted around the time of a reunion in 1996. There are interviews with some of the surviving children and also with several surviving townspeople and former teachers. We are shown around the abandoned chateau as they reminisce. In the interviews the conversations circle around several topics. They discuss the stress they all felt at having been separated from their parents and their fears about their own safety. But they are happy to remember the positive environment created for them at the chateau by the staff and the welcoming support they got from the people in the town despite increasing hardships like scarce food and fuel supplies.

Their safety was in jeopardy once Germany invaded the “unoccupied” zone in late 1942, and Chevrier put his own life in danger many times to protect the lives of the children. As danger crept closer and closer, members of the resistance worked to smuggle the children over the border to neutral countries such as Switzerland and from there many came to the United States. Some of the older children joined the resistance.  Others were hidden by members of the community.

In the interviews we can sense the pain the adults still feel fifty years later at having been torn from their families. Most did not ever see their parents again. Their gratitude to the people of Chabonnes is boundless. Two of their outstanding teachers, the Paillassou sisters, Renee and Reine, went to Israel to accept the honor of being designated as the Righteous among Nations at Yad Vashem. Felix Chevrier, who died in 1962, received the same honor posthumously. He donated his papers to the Centre de Juivre Contemporaine in Paris which includes a book of over 170 pages made by the children and the staff in 1942. It includes children’s artwork, essays by the staff and over one hundred black and white photos.

To learn about another such school with a far different outcome, the Maison D'Izieu, now a French national memorial to the murdered Jewish children, click here.

People
    Norbert Bikales – married Gerda
    Ruth Keller – married Paul Keller
Charlotte Gossels
    Werner Gossels – son of Charlotte; married Elaine
    Peter Gossels – son of Charlotte; married Nancy
        Lucy Gossels – daughter of Peter; director
    Ernest Rosner – married Edith
    Jerry Gerard – married Betty
    Wolfgang Blumenreich – married Miriam
    Rolf Rothschild
    Arno Kascinksi
    Marjan Strum
    Berndt Warshauer
    Ernest Levy
Joseph Weill
Georges Loigner
Rachel Pendermacher

Places
Chabannes, France
Paris, France
Massachusetts
Virginia
Israel
New York



This documentary is also available as a free download from Amazon for Amazon Prime members.

Flory: A miraculous story of survival by Flory A. Van Beek 2008; a version was originally published as Flory: Survival in the Valley of Death in 1998

 "The book paints a vivid portrait of life for the Jews in the Netherlands under Nazi occupation." from a review by Dennis McLellan in the L.A. Times, 2/28/1999

This interesting memoir, written by a Jewish Holocaust survivor from the Netherlands who was in hiding during the war, gives us an inside look at the situation of Dutch Jews immediately before and during World War II. Flory Van Beek was in her teens when the war broke out. She and her future husband, a German Jew living in Holland, tried to flee Holland by booking passage to Chile on the Simon Bolivar but on the second day out, on November 18, 1939, the ship hit German mines and exploded. She and Felix, badly wounded, recovered in England for many months, but because Felix was a German national, he was not allowed to stay, so they returned to Holland and went into hiding.

Because the author’s family had lived in the Netherlands for many generations, it is clear she felt very attached to her country and her fellow countrymen. She talks at length about the Dutch character and their general resistance to the Germans. The partisans went on many dangerous missions to find safe housing for homeless Jews, to make inquiries, to pass information along, to forge false identity papers and food coupons. Van Beek and her husband’s fear is palpable while being hidden away and equipped with false papers. Because they were worried about having been detected, they had to move more than once. There were many close calls when they thought they would be caught for sure.

It’s very interesting and unsettling to experience the progress of the war through the eyes of the author, her family and their protectors because we now have the larger picture. Despite the Nazi rules against owning radios, the partisans hid crystal radio sets in their attics and they gathered around to listen to the BBC and follow in an atlas the Allies’ progress. When America entered the war they were sure it would be over soon. But as it dragged on for years, the tension became unbearable and they were often in despair.  When the Germans finally did surrender, the author describes the jubilation in the streets, but then came the hard task of taking stock and seeing who had made it through the war and who hadn’t. She makes the point that out of approximately 140,000 Dutch Jews, only about 6,000 survived.

Throughout this whole period the author clipped articles and her husband kept a diary that stretched into three volumes.Their collection, buried during the war, came with them to America, but she couldn't bear to look at it for many years. In 1984 when she did start reading it, the material helped her to write this book. The the collection is now part of the archives of the US Holocaust Museum in Washington DC.

Last names are confusing in this memoir. It is clear that Flory’s maiden name was Cohen. From a document included, it’s clear that her mother’s maiden name was van Beek. She dedicates this book to her Cohen brothers and sister and to her mother-in-law Jette Aufhauser. It’s likely that to avoid having the German last name of Aufhauser, or the Jewish last name of Cohen, Felix and Flory at some point (probably during the war, when they got married) adopted her mother’s maiden name of van Beek.

To read an obituary of Flory van Beek who died in 2010, click here.
To read "400 Years of Dutch Jewry" on the website of the Jewish Historical Museum in the Netherlands, click here.


People
Saam Cohen – author’s father’s oldest brother; married Sophie
    Lenie – daughter of Saam
? Cohen – married Aleida van Beek
    Jes (Ies) Cohen – son of Aleida; married to Elisabeth
    Ben Cohen – son of Aleida
    Elisabeth Cohen – daughter of Aleida; married to Abraham Coster
    Flory Cohen – daughter of Aleida; Felix Aufhauser (see note above); author
        Ralph van Beek (see note above)

Aleida van Beek – married ? Cohen (see above)
Sien van Beek – sister of Aleida; married Ephraim de Haas
    Jacob, Maurits and Simon de Haas; sons of Sien and Ephraim
Flora van Beek – sister of Aleida; married Jules Frank

Felix (Aufhauser) van Beek – married to Flory Cohen (see above)
Hugo Aufhauser – brother of Felix
Sam Aufhauser – brother of Felix
Theo Aufhauser – brother of Felix
Nellie Aufhauser – sister of Felix; married Kurt
    Eric – son of Nellie and Kurt

Isse and Sierien van Zuiden – uncle and aunt of author; exact relationship unclear

Below are relatives of the author whose relationship to her is not clear:
Carolina Salzer- Erle
Bernhard Salzer
Trude Hofman-Blum
Gunther Hoffmann
Hertha Mannheimer

Places
Amersfoort, Holland
Amsterdam, Holland
Rotterdam, Holland
Blijdorp, Holland
Newport Beach, California
New York City, NY

Smuggled in Potato Sacks: Fifty Stories of the Hidden Children of the Kaunas Ghetto edited by Solomon Abramovich and Yakov Zilberg 2011

"Each story is told by the survivor and feels as if you are listening to him/her recount this part of his/her life." from a review by Yael Weinstock Mashbaum in The International School for Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem
 
This anthology of moving personal narratives, edited by Solomon Abramovich and Yakov Zilberg, is comprised of fifty entries. Most entries were written by one survivor. A few were written by married couples, siblings, and close friends. They are of varying lengths, from about two to twenty  pages. Many include family photos and photos of interesting documents. A number of photos include unidentified ghetto neighbors and some are of Lithuanian rescuers.

Although not written by experienced writers, the stories have an immediacy that is captivating in their horror. Each story is grounded in the specificity of an individual’s unique set of circumstances, but as a group it’s easy to generalize about their collective trauma: The writers, children born in the 1930’s and 40’s, were smuggled out of the ghetto and went to live with Lithuanians their families knew or others contacted on their behalf. All children had to take on new identities. Their caretakers had to recite fictitious stories about who the parents of these children were to neighbors and inquiring officials. Those children who spoke Yiddish  had to be trained not to,  and they also had to be taught to be wary of prying neighbors and men in uniform. Many were moved from one home to another when their caretakers became concerned that they had been or might be identified as Jewish.

Jewish children who were blonde and blue-eyed, and boys who were not circumcised were easier to place. Siblings were often split up. Parents or other close relatives often made dangerous, tearful, clandestine visits. At the end of the war, sometimes a few years afterwards, when parents were released from concentration camps and hospitals, a parent or another relative returning to retrieve a hidden child was sometimes met with stonewalling by the caretaker or by the thoroughly confused child.  Many waited for parents who never returned and were brought up in orphanages, or if they were lucky, were adopted by relatives. Some of the children were hard to trace because they had false identities and they didn’t know what their real names were. Some were re-connected to relatives when they were adults.

A number of the writers discuss how they felt when asked to write a piece for this anthology. Some had repressed their memories and thought they remembered little or nothing. Others had very vivid, terrifying memories but had never talked about them. Because of a concerted effort not to look backward but to look forward, there was a tendency to bury the painful past, and some of the survivors did not even know that some of their friends and professional colleagues had also been hidden children in the Kaunas ghetto. 

It seems that each writer was given guidelines because most entries cover many of the same topics. They each give a brief family history including the countries and towns where their families were from, they detail what they know about how their family members and friends were killed, they give credit to those relatives and friends who helped them survive in the ghetto and to those who helped them escape. Some mention that they were sorry that they hadn’t asked more questions of relatives now deceased. Toward the end of the entries they summarize their post-Holocaust life: where they settled, and what they did professionally and personally. They also write about their rescuers and whether or not they kept in touch with them.  They cite which ones were honored by Yad VaShem or the Lithuanian government for putting their own lives at risk to hide Jewish children.  Most of the writers in this volume eventually immigrated to Israel.

This anthology includes a short forward that explains how this collection came to be. It also includes a very readable, informative thirty-six page history called “Origins of Jewish Lithuania” written by the two editors that has photographs  and maps and end notes citing sources. At the end of the volume there is a Bibliography and an Index.

Below is a listing of the names that appear in the fifty entries as well as the places that are mentioned that are where family lived outside of Lithuania before, after and during the war. Some names appear in more than one entry. For example, the writer of one entry might mention a friend or a relative who also has written an entry. Most Jews in the Kovna ghetto had lived in the suburb of Slobodka (Vilijampole). According to the book's forward only 250 to 300 children of the Kovna Ghetto survived out of approximately 5000. In general, the women who survived were deported to Stutthof, the men to Dachau. Towns in Lithuania as well as the concentration camps are not listed in each separate entry.

People
1. Ariela Abramovich Sef

Family
Shlomo-Icik Abramovich – married to Sira
    Yakov Abramovich – son of Shlomo-Icik and Sira; married to Bronia (Bracha) Maizel
        Ariela Abramovich – daughter of Yakov and Bronia; married Roman Sef (2nd husband); (author)
        Solomon Abramovich – son of Yakov and Bronia
    Beno Abramovich – son of Shlomo-Icik and Sira
    Ruvim Abramovich – son of Shlomo-Icik and Sira; married to Basia
        Borya and Myriam Abramovich – children of Ruvim and Basia
    Max Abramovich – son of Schlomo-Icik and Sira
        Rivotchka and Boris Abramovich – children of Max
    Rebeca Abramovich Griliches – daughter of Shlomo-Icik and Sira
    Nyonya Abramovich – son of Shlomo-Icik and Sira; married Lily
        Anya Abramovich – daughter of Nyonya and Lily

Berta Maizel
    Bronia (Bracha Maizel) – married to Yakov Abramovich (see above)

Josef – cousin of Ariela Abramovich Sef (exact relationship not clear)

Friends and Acquaintances
Jacob Rabinovich
Beba and Veva Mintz – brothers
Shimon Ratner
B. Zacherin
A. Zilberg
Elena Hackelis


Places
Canada
Israel
England

2. Ilana Kamber-Ash

People Family
Marcus Kamber – married Judith Moses
    Ilana Kamber – daughter of Marcus and Judith; married Pavel Ash; (author)
        Aaron (Arik) and Judish (Dita) Ash – children of Ilana and Pavel

Eliezer Moses – brother of Judith  (see above)

Friends and Acquaintances
Maxim and Erica Levin
Elkhanan Elkes
    Yoel and Sara Elkes


Places
Israel
London, England
Moscow, Russia

3. Rona Rozental-Zinger
People
Family
    Schmuel Rozental – married Rone Schmuilove
        Leo Rozental – son of Schmuel and Rone
        Rona Rozental Zinger – daughter of Rone and Schmuel; (author)

Oscher Schmuilov – married Gitel
        Eli Schmuilov – son of Oscher and Gitel; married Chaja Glushakaite
            Lusi Schmuilov – daughter of Eli and Chaja
        Rone Schmuilove – daughter of Oscher and Gitel; married Schmuel Rozental (see above)

Friends and Acquaintances
Pese Karnauskaite Musel

Places
Melbourne, Australia
Israel

4. Yakov Zoreff (Goldshmidt)
People
Family
Haim-Shimon Goldschmidt – married Sara Poger
    Hirsh  Goldshmidt – son of Haim-Shimon and Sara   
    Malka Goldshmidt – daughter of Haim-Shimon and Sara; married to Berl Zinger
        Cilia Zinger- daughter of Malka and Berl
    Icale  Goldschmidt – daughter (?) of Haim-Shimon and Sara
    Bella Goldschmidt – daughter of Haim-Simon and Sara
    Gita Goldschmidt – daughter of Haim-Simon and Sara
    Meir-Lev (Leib) Goldschmidt – son of Haim-Shimon and Sara; married Sonia Burko; second wife was Yocheved Burko
        Yakov Zoreff (Goldschmidt) – son of Meir-Lev and Sonia (author)
    Asia (Osnat) Goldschmidt – son of Haim-Shimon and Sara
    Abraam Goldschmidt – son of Haim-Simon and Sara

Gershon Burko – married Roza
    Sonia Burko – daughter of Gershon and Roza; married Meir-Lev Goldschmidt (see above)
    Yulia (Judith) Burko – daughter of Gershon and Roza
    Yocheved Burko – daughter of Gershon and Roza (see above)   

Friends and Acquaintances
Juda (Judke) Zupovich
Izia Rabinowich
Schmuel and Rone Rosental
Sarale Katz
Alia Ranzuk

Places
Holon Bat Yam, Israel

5. Yakov Zilberg
People
Family
Abram (Abrasha) Zilberg – married Sonia Elitzur
    Mina Zilberg – daughter of Abram and Sonia
    Yakov Zilberg – son of Abram and Sonia (author)
        Dalia and Yael Zilberg – daughters of Yakov

Solomon Elitzur
    Sonia Elitzur – daughter of Solomon; wife of Abram Zilberg (see above); common-law relationship with Naom Shafransky
    Anuita Elitzur  – daughter of Solomon
        Mirale – daughter of Anuita

    Naom Shafransky – married to Genia; second common law marriage to Sonia Zilberg (see above)
        Rouven (Ruvik) Shafransky – son of Naom and Genia
        Salomea (Saly) Shaftransky – daughter of Naom and Sonia

Friends and Acquaintances
S. Zaidelson
B. Preis
Yulia Yoffe
    Lyda Yoffe – daughter of Yulia

Places
Kibbutz Sde Nachum
Kfar Sava
Israel

6. Benya Chaitas
People
Family
Leibe Chaitas – married Genia Saitovich
    Benya Chaitas – son of Leibe and Genia; married Sara Zaczepinski; author
Zalman Chaitis – brother of Leibe; married to Sara

Sarah Saitovich – sister of Genia; married to Gershon Oshri
Berl Shpak – married to Sara (cousin of Genia Saitovich (relationship not clear)
    Boris Shpak – son of Berl and Sara

Friends and Acquaintances
Shmuel Peipert

Places
Bat Yam, Israel
Haifa, Israel

7. Irena Aronovsky-Voschina-Savir
People
Family
Leon (Liola)  Aronovsky – married Gabriella (Ela) Sabovska
    Irena Arnovsky-Voschina-Savir – daughter of Leon and Gabriella (author)
Abrasha Aronovsky – brother of Leon

Baruch (Boria) Voschin – married Gabriella Sabovska (her 2nd marriage; see above)

Friends and Acquaintances
Natan Nabrisky

Places
London, England
Rehovot, Israel

8. Sara Gillman-Plamm
People
Family
Berl and Nessia Gillman
    Moshe Gillman – son of Berl and Nessie; married Sheina Codikovaite
        Sara Gillman Plamm – daughter of Moshe and Sheina; author
            Naomi and Lev Plamm children of Sara and ?
        Liuba Gillman – daughter of Moshe and Sheina
        David Gillman – son of Moshe and Sheina
    Lebale Gillman – son of Berl and Nessie

Friends and Acquaintances
Frida Glazman
Yulia Meltz
Shalom Eilati

Places
Israel
Toronto, Canada

9. Michael (Misha) Langevich
People
Family
Misha Langevich – married Haviva (Hinda) Korabelnik; author
    Michael (Misha) Langevich – son of Misha and Haviva; married Polina
        Arnon Langevich – son of Michael and Polina
Shijus Langevich – brother of Misha; married Sarra
Juda Langevich – brother of Misha and Shijus

Fivel Korabelnik – father of Hinda (see above)
   
Friends and Acquaintances
Shmuel and Hava Shilkiner
Keila Kudrika

Places
Kiriat Ono, Israel

10.Yulia Meltz-Beilinson
People
Family
Meir Meltz – married Henya Krubelnik
    Yulia Meltz – daughter of Meir and Henya; author

Friends and Acquaintances
Tanchum Arnstam
Orchik Keltz
Sara Libmanaite
Aaron Barak (Brik)
Yankel Lipavski


Places
Israel
Tel Aviv, Israel

11. Aviva Tkatsch (Thatch)-Sandler
People
Family
Leib and Rhoda Tkatsch
    Isaac Tkatsch – son of Leib and Rhoda
    Moshe Tkatsch – son of Leib and Rhoda
        Peshele (Polina) Tkatsch-Davidson – daughter of Moshe
    Sara Tkatsch – daughter of Leib and Rhoda
    Benesh Tkatsch – son of Leib and Rhoda; married Riva Makielevich
        Aviva Tkatsch –daughter of Benesh and Riva; married Robert Sandler (author)
        Rhoda Tkatsch – daughter of Benesh and Riva
        Leonard (Leib) Tkatsch – son of Benesh and Riva
    Pesach Tkatsch – son of Leib and Rhoda

Isaac Makielevich – married Emma Efron
    Riva Makielevich – daughter of Isaac and Emma; married Benesh Tkatsch (see above)
    Shmuel Makielevich – son of Isaac and Emma

Places
Mexico
Munich, Germany
Detroit, Michigan

12. Ruth Bass-Glikman
People
Family
Chaim Bass
    Leiba Bass – son of Chaim; married Tirca Galperin
        Eliezer Bass – son of Leiba and Tirca
        Ruth Bass – daughter of Leiba and Tirca; married Leon Glikman; author
    Judith Bass – daughter of Chaim
    Sonia Bass – daughter of Chaim

Miriam Borovsky  Galperin
    Tirca Galperin (see above)

David and Chaya Markovsky (Markauskiene) – adoptive parents of Ruth Bass
    Rosa and Dalia Markovsky – daughters of David and Chaya

Friends and Acquaintances
Natan Nabrisky
Grisha Mendelbraut
Eta and Mitia Ginkas

Places
Israel
Tel Aviv, Israel

13. Sara Levin-Burmenko
People
Family
Shmuel Kriger – married Sarah
    Sonia Kriger – daughter of Shmuel and Sarah; married Leibl Levin; 2nd husband Saul Burstein
        Sara Levin – daughter of Sonia and Leibl; married Mark Burmenko; author
        Moshe – son of Sonia and Saul
    Lena Kriger – daughter of Shmuel and Sarah; married Kolya Stonys
        Ruta, Saulius, and Meta Stonys – children of Lena and Kolya

Isaac Levin – married Fruma
    Leibl Levin – son of Isaac and Fruma (see above)
       
Places
Odessa, Russian Empire
Kiev, Russian Empire
Israel
New York

14. Rieta Volpert-Lesokhin
People
Family
David Volpert – married Ida Gurvich
    Rieta Volpert – daughter of David and Ida; married Yuri Lesokhin; author
Misha Volpert – brother of David; married Mira
    Lionia and Zhenia – twin children of Misha and Mira

Izya Rosenblum – uncle of author (exact relationship not clear)
    Liolik – son of Izya
Sasha and Vera Rosenblum – relatives of author (exact relationship not clear)
    Ela – daughter of Sasha and Vera
Aleksander (Vava) Rosenblum – cousin of author (exact relationship not clear)
Anna (Niuta) Beilinson – aunt of author (exact relationship not clear)
    Yakov and Pavel Beilinson – sons of Niuta

Friends and Acquaintances
Misha Kopelman
Alik Pertzikovitz
Masha Gocaite
Alik Peretz (possibly the same as Alik Pertzikovitz?)

Places
USA
Siberia
Haifa, Israel
Soviet Union

15. Rivka Feller-Milner
People
Family
Leib Feller – married Sara
    Aaron Feller – married Berta Neiman
        Rivka Feller – daughter of Aaron and Berta; author
        Aviva Feller – daughter of Aaron and Berta
    Dvora Feller – married Yehuda Kaufman
        Altala Kaufman – daughter of Dvora and Yehuda   

Noah Neiman – brother of Berta (see above)

Friends and Acquaintances
Henale Kuchinka 
Mirka Kuchinka – sister of Henale
Fira Gurfinkel   


Places
Netanya, Israel

16. Polina Tkatsch-Davidson
People
Family
Moshe Tkatsch – married Dora Levinsky
    Polina Tkatsch – daughter of Moshe and Dora; author
Pesach Tkatsch – brother of Moshe
Benesh Tkatsch – brother of Moshe
    Aviva Tkatsch – daughter of Benesh


Places
Palestine
Netanya, Israel

17. Rachel (Lialia) Blumenthal
People
Family
Theodor (Teddy) Blumenthal married Ester (Esia) Sandler
    Rachel (Liala) Blumenthal – daughter of Theodor and Ester; author
Adolph Blumenthal – brother of Theodor
    Kolya – son of Adolph
Boris Blumenthal – brother of Theodor

Rafoel Sandler – married Cerne-Beile Sandler
    Ester (Esia) Sandler – married Theodor Blumenthal (see above)
        Rachel (Liala) Blumenthal – daughter of Ester and Theodor (author)
    Gita Sandler – daughter of Rafoel and Cerne-Beile; married Grisha Karnovsky
        Mika (Mitchka) Karnovsky – daughter of Gita and Grisha
    Lyka (Lea) Sandler – daughter of Rafoel and Cerne-Beile

Samuel Kapit – author’s uncle (exact relationship unclear)

Friends and Acquaintances
Carmela Heibron and her sister Renata
Liola Aronovsky
Judith (Judica) Kamber
Marcus (Mendke) Kamber

Places
Israel
Switzerland

18. Bluma Alkanovich (Tolochkiene), Alik Abramovich, and Frida Glazman Abramovich
People
Family
Mendel Alkanovich – married Risa Melamed
    Bluma Alkanovich – daughter of Mendel and Risa (author)
    Frida Alkanovich – daughter of Mendel and Risa

Mina Melamed – sister of Risa (see above); married Cvaina Beider
    Chaim Olef (Alek) and David Melamed – sons of Mina and Cvaina

Shlomo Abramovich – married Feige Kulbak
    Alik Abramovich – son of Shlomo and Feige (see above); married Frida Glazman (author)
        Shlomo (Solomon) Abramovich – son of Alik and Frida
Feige Abramovich – 2nd marriage (common law?)  to Naum Meriesh (see above; cousin of Mendel Alkanovich exact relationship not clear)       

Shlomo Glazman – married Katia (Kuna) Kranik
    Frida Glazman – daughter of Shlomo and Katia; married Alik Abramovich (see above)

Friends and Acquaintances
Yakov, Matias and Riva Taft (siblings)
Chaim Elin
Yankale Levy
Ilana Kamber
Mike Karnovsky
Sara Levin
Lyusya Borstaite
Aaron Frank

Places
Ramat Gan, Israel

19. Pesah (Petya) Joselevich
People
Family
Shimon Joselevich – married Lea Shames
    Chana Joselevish – daughter of Shimon and Lea
    Pesah Joselevich – son of Shimon and Lea; married Via Israelyte; author
David Joselevich – brother of Shimon
Masha Joselevich – sister of Shimon; married Bentsel Garunas
    Hirsch Garunas – son of Masha and Bentsel; married to Lyuba
        Masha Garunas Brener – daughter of Hirsch and Lyuba
    Meir (Meika) Joselevich – son of Masha and Bentsel
Moshe Joselevich – brother of Shimon

Yehuda Edelman – distant relative of Lea Shames; nephew of Rabbi Soleveichik in US

Friends and Acquaintances
Faige and Pranas Vocelka


Places
Israel
Kiryat Sefer, Israel
Hulon, Israel

20. Yaakov Taft
People

Family
Leib and Hanna Taft
    Yaakov Taft – son of Leib and Hanna; married Shulamith; author

    Matetiahu (Matias) and Riva Taft – children of Leib’s brother and Hanna’s sister

Friends and Acquaintances
Moshe Parasonis – married to Rina Joels
Gidon Sheftel

Places
Canada
Israel
Jerusalem, Israel

21. Rosian Bagriansky-Zerner
People
Family
 Solomon and Amalia Bagriansky
    Paul Bagriansky – son of Solomon and Amalia; married Gerta Chason
        Rosian Bagriansky Zerner – daughter of Paul and Gerta; author

Julius (Judel) and Anna Chason
    Bella Chason – daughter of Julius and Anna
    Henia Chason – daughter of Julius and Anna
    Fredy Chason – son of Julius and Anna
    Gerta Chason – daughter of Julius and Anna (see above)

Friends and Acquaintances
Rivka Shmukler Oshorovich
Jacob Gens

Places
Latvia
Konigsberg, Germany
Palestine
Milan, Italy
Newton, Massachusetts, USA 

22. Liuba (Lyusya) Borstaite
People
Family
Friedrich Borst – married Lea Nemanuncaite
    Ida Borst – daughter of Friedrich and Lea; married Benya Zhemaitis
    Leon (Arie) Borst – son of Friedrich and Lea
    Frida Borst – daughter of Friedrich and Lea
    Lyusya Borst (Borstaite) – daughter of Friedrich and Lea; author

Chaya Rachoviciene – aunt of author (exact relationship unclear)
    Rachel and Riva Rachoviciene – daughters of Chaya

Places
Israel

23. Estera Elinaite
People
Family
Leiseris Elinas
    Mejeris Elinas – son of Leiseris; married Busia Kormanaite
        Estera Elinaite (Esther Yellin); author
            Ilana Yellin – daughter of Estera; married Valery Panov
                Tslil Meir Panov – son of Ilana and Valery
    Chaim Elinas (Yellin) – son of Leiseris

Benjaminas Kormanas
    Busia Kormanaite – daughter of Benjaminas

Places
Moscow
Israel

24. Hasia Aronaite-Gitlin and Volodia Katz
People

Family
Chaim Aronas – married to Michle Katz; 2nd wife Malka
    Hasia Aronaite – daughter of Chaim and Michle; married Jakov Gitlin; author
    Motele Aronas – son of Chaim and Michle
Moshe Aronas – brother of Chaim

Yosef Katz – brother of Michle (see above); married to Hanah
    Cilia Katz – daughter of Michle and Hanah
    Volodia Katz – son of Michle and Hanah

Sonia and Riva – aunts of author (exact relationship not clear)

Ida Shapiriene – aunt of Volodia Katz (see above)
    Folia Shapiris – son of Ida

Places
Israel
Ashdod, Israel

25. Ilya Levy and Tamara Ratneryte-Kadishaite-Levy
People
Family
Shmuel-Yaakov (Yankele) Levy – married to Sheina Baron
    Ilya Levy – son of Shmuel-Yaakov and Sheina; married to Tamara Ratneryte-Kadishaite (authors)
        Rafael and Asia – children of Ilya and Tamara

Yakov Bloch – 2nd husband of Sheina Baron
    Masha – daughter of Yakov and Sheina; half-sister to Ilya Levy
   
Shimon Ratner – married Judesa Zeigarnik
    Rut Ratner – daughter of Shimon and Judesa
    Tamara Ratneryte – daughter of Shimon and Judesa; married Ilya Levy (see above)

Dov Alroy (Zeigarnik) – maternal cousin of author; exact relationship unclear

Friends and Acquaintances
Israella Blat
Liba – sister of Israella
Ida Shatereine
Ruth Ben David
Malka Pogotsky
Dora and Abraham Kadishas – adopted Tamara Ratneryte (author)
Liolia Aizinbud
Shlomo Abramovich


Places
Palestine
Kibbutz Masarik
Kfar Sava, Israel

26. Ada Feldstein-Levner
People
Family
 Tzemach Feldstein
    Lev Feldstein – son of Tzemach; married Sara Aronovsky
        Ada Feldstein – daughter of Lev; married Hertz (Edik) Levner; author
            Lev(Ari) and Daniel Levner – sons of Ada and Hertz

Esther Aronovsky
    Liolia Aronvsky – son of Esther
    Sara Aronovsky – daughter of Esther (see above)

Meir Levner – married Frida Melnikaite
    Hertz Levner – son of Meir and Frida (see above)

Places
Netanya, Israel
Toronto, Canada

27. Ahuva (Liuva) Peres-Gold and Shalom Peres
People
Family
Eliezer (Lazer) Peres – married Shulia Budnik
    Shalom Peres – son of Eliezer and Shulia; married Alexandra; author
        Amos and Belinda Peres – children of Shalom and Alexandra
    Ahuva Peres – daughter of Eliezer and Shulia; married Shmuel Gold; author
        Ziv Gold – son of Ahuva and Shmuel

Nesia (Nehmod) Peres – sister of Shulia

Places
Poland
Montreal, Canada
Haifa, Israel

28. Rivka Shlapobersky-Strichman
People
Family
Eliyahu Meir Feivelson
    Feige Feivelson – daughter of Eliyahu; married Eliyahu Shlapobersky
        Rivka Shlapobersky – daughter of Feige and Eliyahu; marriedYakov Strichman; author
            Liora and Eliran Strichman – children of Rivka and Yakov

    Eliyahu Shlapobersky – married Feige Feivelson (see above)
    Harry Shlapobersky – brother of Eliyahu
    Rachel Shlapobersky Levin – sister of Eliyahu; married Jermiyahu Ratner

Friends and Acquiantances
Shmuel Peipert
Sara Weis
Yehuda and Chaim Ronder - brothers


Places
Poland
South Africa
Haifa, Israel

29. Dan Vaintraub
People

Family
Haim Vaintraub – married Helena Girshovich
    Dan Vaintraub – son of Haim and Helena; author
            Idan and Karin – grandchildren of Dan   
    Itimar and Abigail – cousins of Dan Vaintraub (exact relationship unclear); adopted by Haim and Helena


Places
Tel Aviv, Israel

30. Maya Shochataite-Davidow
People

Family
Moshe and Golda Shohat
    Yitzhak Shohat – son of Moshe and Golda
    Nachum (Naum) Shohat – son of Moshe and Golda; married Masha Balin
        Maya Shochataite – daughter of Nachum and Masha; married Kalman Davidov; author

Eliahu Balin
    Masha Balin – daughter of Eliahu (see above)
    Faivele Balin – son of Eliahu
    Rachel Balin – daughter of Eliahu; married David Rubenstein

Places
New York, New York
Tel Aviv, Israel
Haifa, Israel
Israel

31, Mina Stein-Wulf
People

Family
Hirsch Stein
    Raya Stein –daughter of Hirsch; married Max Stein
        Izana Stein Levit – daughter of Raya and Max
        Mina (Manuela) Stein Wulf – daughter to Ray and Max; author
                Noa – granddaughter of Mina
    Adela Stein – daughter of Hirsh
    Leolia Stein – son of Hirsch; married to Bunya
        Mina Stein – daughter of Leolia; married Filip Kotkes
    Max Stein – son of Hirsch; married Lea
        Arie (Arik) Stein – son of Max and Lea
    David Stein – son of Hirsch

    Vera Stein - married Vulia (Wolf) Peper; aunt of author (exact relationship unclear)
    Anya Langleben Koc – aunt of author (exact relationship unclear)

Rebecca Stein – sister of Max Stein (author’s father)

Friends and Acquaintances
Anya Levinson
Tanchum Arnstam
Nosen and Musya Levit


Places
Moscow, Soviet Union
Raanana, Israel
Israel   

32. Lilit (Lyda) Yoffe-Davidson
People

Family
Leiser Yoffe – married Yulia Segal
    Lyda (Lilit) Yoffe Davidson – daughter of Leiser and Yulia; author


Place
Palestine
Jerusalem, Israel
Poland

33. Boris Dvogovsky
People

Family
Baruch and Chaya Kweskin
    Riva Kweskin – daughter of Baruch and Chaya; married Moshe Dvogovsky
        Boris Dvogovsky – son of Riva and Moshe; author
        Fruma Dvogovsky – daughter of Riva and Moshe
    Benishke Kweskin – son of Baruch and Chaya

Places
Bat Yam, Israel
Israel

35. Julius Neumark
People

Family
Leon (Leib) Neumark – married Pauline (Pesa) Grossman (2nd wife)
    Philipp (Shraga) Neumark – son of Leib and Pesa; married Gisela (Gittel) Neumann
        Julius Neumark – son of Shraga and Gittel; author

Places
Vienna, Austria

35. Moisejus (Mika) Rosenblum
People

Family
Moisei Rosenblum – married Raya Kenigsberg
    Anatolij Rosenblum – son of Moisei and Raya
        Moisejus (Mika) Rosenblum – son of Anatolij; author

Friends and Acquaintances
Avraham Tory
Mikhail Kopelman – married Evgeniya Gidoni


Places
Ashdod, Israel

36. Mika (Michka) Karnovsky-Ash
People
Family
Anna Osipovna Karnovsky
    Grigorij Karnovsky – son of Anna; married Gita Sandler
        Mika (Michka) Karnovsky – daughter of Grigorij and Gita; married Josef Ash; author
            Viki, Bela, Uri, and Giora Ash – children of Mika and Josef
    Nina Karnovsky – daughter of Anna; married to Yakov (Kuba) Gudinsky
        Rina Gudinsky – daughter of Nina and Yakov
    Otto Karnovsky – adopted son of Anna

Rafoel Sandler – married to Cerna-Beile
    Ester Sandler – married to and divorced from Teddy Blumenthal
        Rachel Blumenthal Josef – daughter of Ester and Teddy
    Gita Sandler – married Grigorij Karnovsky (see above)

    Lea and Yehuda – maternal aunt and uncle of author (exact relationships unclear)
   
Friends and Acquaintance
Muki Rabinovich
Mendel Kamber
    Ilana Kamber – Mendel’s daughter

Places
Siberia
Riga, Latvia
Australia
Kiron, Israel

37. Josef and Aviva Gilis
People

Family
Pesiah Gilis
    Girsh Gilis – son of Pesiah;  married Chana Levner
        Pesia Gilis – son of Girsh and Chana
        Izya Gilis – son of Girsh and Chana
        Josef Gilis – son of Girsh and Chana; married Aviva Feller; authors
            Simona Gilis – daughter of Josef and Aviva

Moshe Levner – married to Simha
    Chana Levner – daughter of Moshe and Simha (see above)
    Meir Levner – son of Moshe and Simha
        Edik Levner – son of Meir
    Henekh Levner – son of Moshe and Simha
    Riva Levner – married to Zalman Baikovich
        Shulamith Baikovich – daughter of Riva and Zalman
    Haim Levner – son of Moshe and Simha

Places
Netanya, Israel

38. Rina Joels Parason
People

Family
Shlomo Joels
    Malka Joels – daughter of Shlomo
Shmuel Joels – brother of Shlomo; married Hanah
    Riva Joels Knobel
Benjamin Joels – brother of Shlomo: married Malka Kaplan
    Bella Joels Tal – daughter of Benjamin and Malka
    Rina Joels – daughter of Benjamin and Malka; married Moshe Parason; author

Reuven and Berta Kaplan – siblings (?) of Malka Kaplan (unclear if they are siblings or a couple; (see above)

Friends and Acquaintances
Shlomo Yarmovski
George (Hirsh) Kadushin


Places
Zurich, Switerland
Soviet Union
Israel
Haifa, Israel

39. Maxim Broyeris, Alik (Peretz) Dvoretz, Genia Kaltinovsky-Zalishansky, and Masha Muller-Hathskelson
People

Family
Leiser and Beila Ring
    Reizel Ring – daughter of Leiser and Beila; married Sleime Broyeris
        Ilya Broyeris – son of Reizel and Sleime
        Maxim Broyeris – son of Reizel and Sleime; married Salia Bychovsky; author

Yosef Dvoretz
    Shimon Dvoretz – son of Yosef; married Chaya Pen
        Peretz (Alik) Dvoretz – son of Shimon and Chaya; married Guta Vinnickaya; author

Michael Kaltinovsky – married Feiga Yoffe
    Genia Kaltinovsky – daughter of Michael and Feige; married Josef Zalishansky; author
        David and Daniel Zalishansky – sons of Genia and Josef
Rachael Kaltinovsky – sister of Michael

Lea Yoffe – sister of Feiga (see above)

Aaron Muller – married Hannah Fisher
    Masha Muller – daughter of Aaron and Hannah; married Lev Hathskelzon; author

Friends and Acquaintances
Moshe Dvogovsky
    Boris Dvogovsky – son of Moshe
Reiza Galah-Zisman
   
Places
Or Yehuda, Israel
Nes Ziona, Israel
Beer Sheva, Israel
Israel
Denmark
Russia

40. Dalia Hofmekler-Ginsburg
People

Family
Motl (Mordekhai) Hofmekler – married Berta Blinder Stupel
    Michail Hofmekler – son of Motl and Berta; married Perele Radjunski
        Dalia Hofmekler – daughter of Michail and Perele; married Dova Ginzburg; author
            Einat Ginzburg – daughter of Dalia and Dova
    Ruven Hofmekler – son of Motl and Berta

Leib (Arie) Radjunski – married Zelda Arulianski
    Perele Radjunski – married Michail Hofmekler (see above)

Katia Segalson – cousin of author; exact relationship unclear
Sima and Lyuba Verzhbovsky – cousins of author’s mother (exact relationship unclear)

Friends and Family
Chana Brava
Shalom Kaplan (Eilati) - see separate entry for Shalom Eilati memoir

Places
Germany
The United States
Ashdod, Israel

41. Kata Segalson-Rosen
People

Family
Leib Segalson – married Chaya Svojatitzki
    Moses (Misha) Segalson – son of Leib and Chaya; married Chaya (Raya) Arulianski; 2nd marriage to Jenia Ginsberg Segal
        Liusik Sagalson – son of Misha and Chaya
        Katia (Kelly, Carmela) Segalson – daughter of Misha and Chaya; married Dan Rosen; author
            Osnat and Raya Rosen – daughters of Katia and Dan
                   
                Maya – granddaughter of author (exact relationship unclear)
    Jacob Segalson - son Leib and Chaya; married Liuba
        Liova, Genia, and Vova Segalson – children of Jacob and Liuba
    Samuel Sagelson – son of Misha and Chaya; married to Raya
    Altochke Segalson Maliacki – daughter of Leib and Chaya
        Lialia Maliacki – daughter of Altochke

        Liusik and Chone – nephews of Misha Segalson (exact relationship unclear)
    Iliusha Segalson – cousin of Misha Segalson (exact relationship unclear)

Ovadia Jochelson – cousin of Misha Sagelson (exact relationship not clear)

Kopel Arulianski – married Taibe Shachnovitz
    Chaya Arulianski – daughter of Kopel and Taibe; married Misha Segalson (see above)
    Frida Arulianski – daughter of Kopel and Taibe
    Luba Arulianski – daughter of Kopel and Taibe
    Dokik Arulianski – son of Kopel and Taibe; married Ira Gurwitz

    Misha and Perale Hofmekler - Perele was cousin of author’s mother ( exact relationship unclear)
        Dalia Hofmekler – daughter of Misha and Perale

Friends and Acquaintances
Aharon and Raya Pertzikovitz
    Alik Pertzikovitz (Peretz) – son of Aharon and Raya
Enta Berger – sister-in-law to Aharon and Ray Perzikovitz (exact relationship unclear)
    Davik and Zina Berger – children of Enta
Aya Sauberblat
    Miron – son of Aya
Anna Rosenbaum Millner
    Bubi and Lilly Rosenbaum – children of Anna
Fruma Vitkin Kuchinskiene
Chone and Katia Lipshitz   
Helene Holzman
Hanna Brava
Abraham Klausner


Places
South Africa
Helsinki, Finland
Lodz, Poland
Munich, Germany
USA
Soviet Union

42. Ariana and Rut Jed
People

Family
Aaron Jed
    Motl Jud – son of Aaron
    Meir Jud – son of Aaron; married Edna Fuks;  married Asya (2nd wife)
        Rut (Ruth) Jed – daughter of Meir and Edna; author
        Ariana Jed – daughter of Meir and Edna; author
    Ester Jud – daughter of Aaron

    Gerta Fuks – sister of Edna Fuks (see above)

Places
Germany
Israel
Petah-Tikvah, Israel

43. Gidon Sheftel
People

Family
Aharon Dambe – married Chaviva Libaite
    Gidon Dambe Sheftel – son of Aharon and Chaviva; married Shulamith Levin; author
        Arik, Alon, and Miri Sheftel – children of Gidon and Shalamith
Yakov Sheftel – married Chaviva Libaite (her 2nd marriage)
    Sarah Sheftel – daughter of Yakov and Chaviva


Friends and Acquaintances
Yakov Levin

Places
Russia
Kfar Sava, Israel
Israel

44. Aharon Avidonis
People

Family
Rouven and Malka Avidonis
    Aharon Avidonis – adopted son of Rouven and Malka; author

Places
Haifa, Israel

45. Rina Badesh
People
Family
Ishak Badesh – married Sonya Kalmansky
    Izya Badesh – son of Ishak and Sonya
    Rina Badesh – son of Ishak and Sonya; married Wolf (Zeev) Sharas; author
Hiena Badesh – sister of Ishak; married Simha Labensky

Yankele Kalmansky – brother of Sonya

Friends and Acquaintances
Dvorale Murin

Ema Shtok – aunt of author (exact relationship unclear)

Places
Germany
Kiryat Ono

46. Gita German-Gordon-Frances
People
Family
Yona German – married Fruma Lonshtein
    Gita German – daughter of Yona and Frum; author
Rivkah German – sister of Yona; married Pesach Gordon
    Sheinaleh Gordon – daughter of Rivkah and Pesach; married 2nd husband Judel Gerberajevsky
    Sarah Gerberajevsky – daughter of Rikvkah and Judel

Friends and Acquaintances
Chaim Yellen

Places
Poland
Ramat Gan, Israel

47. Rut Latzman-Peer
People

Family
Jehoshua Latzman – married Frida Peleryte (his 2nd wife); married Lina (his 3rd wife)
    Lili and Daniel  Latzman – children Jehoshua and his 1st wife (not named)
    Rut Latzman – daughter of Jehoshua and Frida; author
        Gil – son of Rut
    Lev (Leopold) Latzman – son of Jehoshua and Lina
Rochale Latzman – sister of Jehoshua
Henia Latzman – sister of Jehoshua
David Latzman – brother of Jehoshua

Friends and Acquaintances
Rocha Zacharovich
Meir and Busia Elin
Chaim Elin – brother to Meir

Places
Kazakhstan
Israel
Tel Aviv, Israel

48. Rina Gilde-Rubinstein
People
Family
Max Gilde – married Eida Judelvich
    Rina Gilde – daughter of Max and Eida; married Reuven Rubenstein; author
Fruma Gurvich – sister of Max

Fruma Hasman – sister of Eida Judelvich

Friends and Acquaintances
Pesah (Pisinka) and Chanale Joselevich - siblings

Places
Siberia, Soviet Union
Palestine
Haifa, Israel

49. Rina Zupovich-Kaplan-Wolbe and Simon Wolbe
People
Family
Chaya Hinde Strashuner –
    Mira Strashuner – daughter of Chaya; married Meir Zupovich
        Rina Zupovich (Kaplan) – married Simon Wolbe; authors
    Frida Strashuner – daughter of Chaya (twin of Mira); married Yakov Kaplan
        Mark and Daniel Kaplan – sons of Frida and Yakov
        Rina Zupovich – adopted by Frida and Yakov (see above)
    Rosa Strashuner – daughter of Chaya
    Leibke Strashuner – son of Chaya

    Meir Zupovich – married Mira Strashuner (see above)
    Moshe Zupovich – brother of Meir
    Yehuda (Juda) Zupovich – brother of Meir; married Dita (Judith)

    Dita (Judith) Zupovich became Shperling when she re-married (see above)

Haim Wolbe – married Frida Epstein; married Zlate Mashkantz (2nd wife)
    Haya Wolbe – daughter of Haim and Frida
    Moshe Wolbe – son of Haim and Frida
    Simon Wolbe – son of Haim and Frida; married Rina Zupovich (see above);
    Itzhak Wolbe – son of Haim and Zlate

    Riva and Israel – children of Zlate

Places
Israel
K’far Sava, Israel

50. Kama Ginkas
People

Family
Avraam Gink
    Miron Ginkas – son of Avraam; married Manya Zingman
        Kama Ginkas – son of Miron and Manya; married Henrietta Yanovskaya; author
        Zhenya Ginkas – son of Miron and Manya
        Alisa Ginkas – daughter of Miron and Manya
    Lyolya (Lev) Gink – son of Avraam
   
Liza Zingman
    Khesya Zingman – son of Liza
    Manya Zingman – daughter of Liza (see above)

Places
Moscow, Russia

To go to the informative website of Dovid Katz who has made Jewish Lithuania, including the Holocaust,  his area of research and publication, click here.

Half the Way Home: A Memoir of Father and Son by Adam Hochschild 1986

"Mr. Hochschild illuminates, with a rare tact, the situations of fathers and sons, and he avoids the traps of sentimentality and rancor both." From a review by Mary Gordon in the New York Times June 15, 1986

In this engaging memoir, journalist and writer Adam Hochschild (b. 1942) explores the relationship he had with his father, Harold Hochschild, who was the child of German Jewish immigrants. The author’s grandfather, Berthold, who came from a small village near Frankfurt, arrived in America in 1886 traveling first class, sent by his metal trading company to establish an affiliate in the states.

Hochschild writes that his grandfather spoke German and celebrated Christmas. He felt he had nothing in common with the masses of Yiddish-speaking Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe and wanted nothing to do with them. His like-minded son Harold did what he could to suppress his Jewish origins. He married a socially prominent Protestant and moved from the Upper West Side enclave of German Jewish immigrants to Park Avenue on the East Side.

Hochschild’s father became the Director of his father’s company, by now a global metal trading company with interests in mines worldwide. A socially ambitious man, Harold Hochschild lived his life purposefully, acquiring all the trappings of success. The author, his only child, had a governess, he was chauffeured to private school, then went away to boarding school, and he traveled all over the world with his parents. Summer months were spent at Eagle Nest, a compound in the Adirondack mountains where the family, aided by a large assortment of cooks, maids, butlers, and groundsmen, entertained large groups constantly.

Harold Hochschild had expectations that his son, Adam, would follow in his footsteps, but Adam Hochschild resisted the pressure he felt his father always applied to keep him on the track he was expected to follow. Because of his father's expectations and because his father was emotionally repressed, he felt tense in his father's presence from as early as he can remember.

After his father’s death, in cleaning out his study, Hochschild came across a memo his father had written in 1940 when Hitler was marching across Europe that helped him to see that many of his father’s behaviors were reactions to his suppressed Jewish identity. His father's memo was about antisemitism and he wrote that Jews should conduct themselves so as to be not singled out as Jews;  they should not call attention to themselves. Harold Hochschild, the son of a successful German Jewish immigrant, did what he could to assimilate into the larger culture, convinced that this strategy was in the best interests of his family.

To read an interesting article about American Jews and assimilation, click here.

People
Berthold Hochschild
    Harold Hochschild – son of Berthold; married Mary Marquand
        Adam Hochschild – son of Harold and Mary; married to Arlie Russell; author
            David and Gabriel Hochschild – sons of Adam and Arlie
    Walter Hochschild – son of Berhold;
    Gertrude Hochschild – daughter of Berthold; married Boris Sergievsky
        Kira Sergievsky – daughter of Gertrude and Boris
Hannah Blumenthal – cousin (exact relationship unexplained)

Places
New York City
Germany
Eagle Nest, Adirondacks, NY
Princeton, NJ
San Fransisco, California