Monday, November 18, 2013

I Kiss Your Hands Many Times: Hearts, Souls, and Wars in Hungary by Marianne Szegedy-Maszak 2013

"A magnificent World War II love story and family saga--it is epic history, finely wrought and deeply  personal." from a review posted on the website of the Jewish Book Council

This memoir is about the life of Marianne Szegedy-Maszak’s large extended family. Starting with the author’s great-grandfather, Manfred Weiss, the founding industrialist of a manufacturing conglomerate in Budapest, she demonstrates how his wealth and connections catapulted the family into positions of economic and political power and prestige. Two of Manfred Weiss’s daughters married into other powerful families which enlarged the extended family’s sphere of influence: the author’s grandmother married Moric Kornfield who was from a prominent banking family, and her sister Daisy married Ferenc Chorin, a prominent industrialist who served in the Hungarian parliament.

All of those named above were Jewish. In fact, Ferenc Chorin was the great-grandson of a rabbi. But when, in the early twentieth century, nationalist anti-Semitic Hungarians started restricting admission of Jewish students to universities, many assimilated Hungarian Jews converted. In the generation following Manfred Weiss, the author’s family began converting to Catholicism and marrying non-Jews. In fact, many became more than just nominal Catholics: they attended Mass regularly and went to confession. Conversion, of course, did not save them from the terrors of Hitler’s regime. Nor did being born Christian necessarily protect Hungarian citizens. The author's father, a Christian Hungarian diplomat with a conscience, bravely took an anti-Nazi stand and ended up a political prisoner in Dachau.

The author provides the reader with much of the contemporary politics of Hungary which contextualizes her family’s situation.  Many Hungarians did not know which external threat was worse: a takeover by the approaching Soviet Union army or an invasion by the Nazis. Many Hungarians sought to punish Hungarian Jews for either their perceived Communist sympathies or what they saw as their rapacious capitalist behavior. But most of her family members, overly optimistic about the duration of the war, and not wanting to leave their business interests and property behind, decided to wait it out.

How her extended family got out of Hungary (some to Switzerland, most to the United States via Portugal) makes for very interesting reading and raises vexing questions about privilege. Yes, they had to leave some family members behind as hostages - insurance that the Nazis got what they wanted. Yes, their factories, their mining interests, and their property were nationalized. And they lost most of their fortune. But they were lucky that their prominence and their former positions of power worked in their favor: they were able to negotiate a way out.

The author ends with some chapters about their early years in America. Predictably, the generation of the author’s grandparents felt displaced; they yearned to return to Budapest, but, barring that option, they became citizens of the world and traveled constantly. Marianne Szegedy-Maszak lived within a large circle of Hungarian refugees who carried their past lives in Hungary in their hearts.

To read an article about a branch of Manfred Weiss's family's efforts to reclaim art stolen by the Nazis, click here.
To read a current New York Times article about rising anti-Semitism in Hungary click.

People
Author’s mother’s mother's family
Manfred Weiss – married Alice de Wahl
     Elsa Weiss – daughter of Manfred and Alice; married Alfred Mauthner
           Maria Alice Mauthner – daughter of Elsa and Alfred
           Ferenc Mauthner – son of Elsa and Alfred
           Annus Mauthner – son of Elsa and Alfred
           Christine Mauthner – daughter of Elsa and Alfred
           Hansi Mauthner – son of Elsa and Alfred
           Istvan Mauthner – son of Elsa and Alfred
          Gabriella Mauthner – daughter of Elsa and Alfred
    Eugene Weiss – son of Manfred and Alice; married Annie Geitler
          Alice Weiss – daughter of Eugen and Annie
          Annie Weiss – daughter of Eugen and Annie
          Gyorgy Weiss – son of Eugen and Annie
   Marianne Weiss – daughter of Manfred and Alice; married to Moric Kornfield
         Maria Kornfield – daughter of Marianne and Moric
         Hanna Kornfield – daughter of Marianne and Moric; married Aladar Szegedy-Maszak
              Aladar Szegedy-Maszak – son of Hanna and Aladar
              Andy Szegedy-Maszak – son of Hanna and Aladar
              Peter Szegedy-Maszak – son of Hanna and Aladar
              Marianne Szegedy-Maszak – daughter of Hanna and Aladar; married to Stephen N. Xanakis; author
                        Joanna LaRoche – daughter of Marianne Szegedy-Maszak
             Thomas de Kornfield – son of Marianne and Moric; married Helen
                       Thomas  and James de Kornfield – sons of Thomas and Helen
            Gyorgy (George) Kornfield – son of Marianne and Moric; married Elsie Kavalski
                       Stevie Kornfield – son of Gyorgy and Elsie
  Alfons Weiss – son of Manfred and Alice; married to Erzsebet Herczeg
      Gabor Weiss – son of Alfons and Erzsebet
      Marta Weiss – daughter of Alfons and Erzsebet
      Maria Weiss – daughter of Alfons and Erzsebet
      Janos (John) de Csepel – son of Alfons and Erzsebet
  Daisy Weiss – daughter of Manfred and Alice; married to Ferenc Chorin
      Erzsebet (Elizabeth) Chorin – daughter of Daisy and Ferenc
      Daisy Chorin von Strasser – daughter of Daisy and Ferenc
      Ferenc (Francis) Chorin – son of Daisy and Ferenc
  Edith Weiss – daughter of Manfred and Alice

Author's mother's father's family
Zsigmond Kornfeld – married Betty von Frankfurter
    Gyorgy Kornfeld – son of Zsigmond and Betty
    Mitzi Kornfeld – daughter of Zsigmond and Betty
    Moric Kornfeld – son of Zsigmond and Betty; married Marianne Weiss (see above)
    Pal Kornfeld – son of Zsigmond and Betty
    Ferenc Kornfeld – son of Zsigmond and Betty

Stefan Mauthner – cousin; relationship not clear
Vera, cousin of author’s grandmother, Marianne – married to Janos Zwack
     Peter Zwack – son of Vera and Janos

Friends and Acquaintances
Vilmos Bohm
Miklos Buk
Leo Goldberger
Vilmos Billitz
Pal Fodor
Jolie Gabor
   Magda Gabor – daughter of Jolie
   Zsa Zsa Gabor – daughter of Jolie
   Eva Gabor – daughter of Jolie
Jacques Kanitz – cousin of Farenc Chorin (husband of Daisy Weiss - see above)
Zoltan Friedman (changed to Merszei)
Bela Kuhn
Matyas Rakosi

Places
Budapest, Hungary
Ireg, Hungary
Oberlanzendorf Camp, Austria
Mauthausen Concentration Camp, Austria
Dachau Concentration Camp, Germany
Curia, Portugal
Lisbon, Portugal
Estoril, Portugal
Basel, Switzerland
Zurich, Switzerland
Rakovik, Slovakia

Monday, November 4, 2013

The Tiger in the Attic: Memories of the Kindertransport and Growing Up English by Edith Milton 2005

"In a series of vignettes, [Edith Milton] describes adolescent challenges both universal and unique to her displacement ..." from a review by Alana Newhouse in the New York Times 10-16-2005

Edith Kohn Milton, who was the daughter of a young German Jewish widow, was sent in 1939 at the age of 7 with her older sister on the Kindertransport to England. There they lived with an English Protestant family for the duration of the war. This memoir recounts those years: what it was like for seven-year-old Edith to separate from her mother and be brought up by a loving couple who became surrogate parents. And what it was like to grow up in England during World War II. The author writes about how memories of being brought up by her mother faded and how, despite feeling foreign and like an outsider, she absorbed the English way of life.

She and her sister spent seven years in England, finally reuniting with their mother who had made it to America and wrote to them regularly. The author's powers of observation are keen in her descriptions of growing up in England, a country suffering during the war. She vividly describes scenes in America as well: visits to Vineland, New Jersey where relatives had started a chicken farm, and her growing up in Great Neck, New York in a neighborhood of other German Jewish refugees. In America she also felt like an outsider, but she managed to find a place in a country of immigrants.

Milton’s discussion of her reuniting with her mother is interesting even though predictable. They are strangers to each other and had to feel their way toward a genuine mother/daughter relationship. Milton reports that it took many years. She realizes that during the years she was growing up in England, her mother had her own difficulties. The author had, in fact, created an entire fantasy about what her mother looked like and what her life in the United States was like. When she and her sister arrive in New York she was surprised to find her mother living in reduced circumstances.

This memoir does not deal with the history or the logistics of the Kindertransport. Nor does it deal in any depth with life in pre-war Germany or the Holocaust, although she does report her reactions to a trip she took back to her hometown of Karlsruhe, Germany many years after the war. She discusses her Jewish identity and how that did and did not shape her life, but this is not a large theme in her memoir. Its primary focus, as stated above, is what it was like to be plucked out of the  German Jewish culture she was nourished on for the first seven years of her life and then to be planted in an English one for the next seven, only to be displaced again and have to adjust to America and its culture.

To see a press release and film clips about a film called Nicky's Children which is about Nicholas Winton, the son of German-Jewish immigrants who was behind the rescue of so many children who took part in the Kindertransport, click here.

To read about the Kindertransport Association, click here.

People
Family on her mother’s side
Wilhelm Heidingsfeld – married Henrietta Willstatter (related to Richard Willstatter and Kurt Weill)
     Liesel Heidingsfeld – daughter of Wilhelm and Henrietta; married to Julius
         Clare – daughter of Leisel and Julius
         Kurt - son of Leisel and Julius
     Helene Heidingsfeld – daughter of Wilhelm and Henrietta; married Bruno Cohn
         Ruth Cohn – daughter of Bruno and Helene; married to Harry
                Dickie- son of Ruth and Harry
                      Max – son of Dickie
         Edith Cohn – daughter of Bruno and Helene; married to Peter Milton; author

Fred Reichenberger – distant cousin of mother – married to Andree
     Dorothy and Bernice Reichenberger – daughters of Fred and Andree

Friends and Acquaintances
Helen Westheimer
Ludi Kohn
Joe and Ellen Steinhardt
      Roger and Carol Ann – children of Joe and Ellen

Places
Karlsruhe, Germany
Swansea, Wales
Leeds, England
Kracow, Poland
Great Neck, NY
Nirvana Avenue, Great Neck, NY
Vineland, New Jersey


Monday, October 21, 2013

The Last Jew of Treblinka by Chil Rajchman translated from Yiddish by Solon Beinfeld, published in the U.S. in 2009 with a preface by Samuel Moyn

"Rajchman’s searing story, frequently narrated in the present tense, has a powerful authenticity and should not be forgotten." from a review in Kirkus Reviews 10/25/2010
Chil Rajchman’s memoir of his incarceration in Treblinka is an important eye-witness account of the workings of a deadly camp set up not as a clearing house or a labor camp, but strictly as a site for killing all Jews who were transported there. In spare prose that highlights the horror, Rajchman describes in short vignettes the geographical layout, the personnel, and the daily activities that were arranged and monitored so that the camp worked as efficiently as possible.
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That Rajchman survived is astounding because so few did. He was young, in good health when he arrived, and had his wits about him. He knew that he had the best chance to survive for some length of time if he could work, especially in a capacity that didn't involve backbreaking physical labor, so when they needed barbers, he stepped forward and said he was a barber, though he wasn’t. When they needed dentists he stepped forward and said he was a dentist, though he had no such training.

He relied on those more experienced than he to teach him what he needed to know so he could perform these tasks. But what he learned in the camp from others that was most important were general lessons about how to survive. He learned that he needed to do what he could not to anger guards and other officials, he needed to keep his head down and to work quickly,  to not make mistakes or in any other way call attention to himself. He could not let officials know if he got sick, and he needed to avoid getting beaten on his face where a visible wound would prompt someone in charge to shoot him.

Rajchman’s matter-of-fact style conveys the reality of the camp with all its terror where the abnormal was quickly normalized. His job as a barber was to cut off the hair of women who were about to be gassed. He worked as a dentist removing gold from the mouths of gassed corpses on their way to the burial pits.

The end of Rajchman’s memoir describes a revolt he and many of his co-laborers planned and carried out. Many were caught and killed, but luckily he escaped and hid in the nearby woods. He eventually made his way to Warsaw where a Polish friend provided him with Aryan identity documents.

This memoir includes an informative Preface by historian Samuel Moyn who places Treblinka in the context of concentration and extermination camps. He also discusses the importance of the memoir as the recording of an eye-witness account of Treblinka where very few lived to report about it.

This memoir also includes a map of the camp and family photos.

To watch a clip of a documentary that includes interviews with Chil Rajchman click here
To read an interview in 2012 with the two last survivors of Treblinka (Rajchman died in 2004) click here.

Family
Abraham and Java Froim
   Yekhiel (Chil) Rajchman son of Abraham and Java; author
         Jose, Andres, Daniel Rajchman – sons of Chil
Rivka – daughter of Abraham and Java
Monek – son of Abraham and Java
Ratza – daughter of Abraham and Java
Ruska – daughter of Abraham and Java
Isaac – son of Abraham and Java

Friends
Wolf Ber Rojzman
Leybl Goldfarb
Moyshe Ettinger
Zhelo Bloch
Rudolf Masarek
Yankel Wiernik

Places
Ostrow Lubelski
Treblinka, Poland

Monday, October 7, 2013

Journey to Poland by Alfred Doblin translated by Joachim Neugroschel from German, published in English in 1991

"Compelling Journey to a Vanishing World" the headline of a review by Ron Grossman in the Chicago Times 5/15/1991.

For two months in late 1924 Alfred Doblin, a noted German Jewish novelist, made a tour of major cities in Poland to see what Polish Jewish life was like. Although Doblin’s family had been from Poland, he was raised in Germany and was a highly assimilated German Jew who lived and worked amongst the intelligentsia of Berlin. He sought a more “authentic” Jewish life than he was aware of in Germany, not necessarily to embrace it, but to better understand it.

He observed Jewish life in all the cities on his itinerary: Warsaw, Vilnius, Lublin, Lvov, Cracow, Lodz, and everywhere he had experiences that deepened his knowledge of Judaism. He walked through neighborhoods, listened to people tell stories – he loved folk tales, visited schools and synagogues, and sought meetings with important rabbis.

What he saw in Warsaw, his first stop, amazed him. He was totally unfamiliar with the appearance and the customs of very observant Jews which struck him as medieval. And he was appalled by their poverty and living conditions. He describes with great vividness his experience following the crowds to the cemetery the night before Yom Kippur and how many wailed at the graves of members of their families. In Wilno (Vilnus) he learned about the Gaon of Vilna and the Ba’al Shem Tov and their adherents. In Cracow he learned about the mysticism of Cabbalah through some of its texts and was fascinated.

Doblin characterizes as soulless and anemic the intellectualizing of Western Europe and extolls what he sees as the vibrancy and cohesion of the Jewish communities in Eastern Europe. For example, he cites his own educational experience as typical of Western Europe: What he remembers is that the teachers were authoritarian and focused on discipline. In Poland he seeks out the opportunity to observe classes in Jewish schools where he finds that learning is a communal affair and teachers and students work together to interpret the text.

Throughout this memoir Doblin expresses his strong feelings about borders, and he uses the line from Schiller, “For every border wields a tyrant’s power” as its epigraph. He expresses much frustration and despair about the deleterious effects of nationalism on all people and property.  In many places he visits he still sees evidence of unrepaired destruction that occurred during World War I. But he’s also alluding to other kinds of borders – the “border” between Christianity and Judaism, which he questions, and the various “borders” that separate the sects of Judaism. He advocates universalism in politics and religion.

One last border must be mentioned. In line with the dualities mentioned above, this highly intellectual writer appended a “Bibliography” to emphasize the border between the aridity of book research hardened into “truth” and the vitality of authentic experience. His “Bibliography” has three categories (borders, you might say). The first,  he labels “I Leafed Through” and is followed by a list of nine books in German. The second category called “I Read Very Carefully,” lists only one book: Bernhard Guttmann’s Tage in Hellas. The third category is called “I Neither Read Nor Leafed Through” and is followed by the phrase: “The national libraries in Berlin, in Warsaw, in Cracow, and in Lwow.”

Besides the bibliography there is an introduction by the translator, Joachim Neugroschel, a map of Doblin’s travels, and footnotes.

To read an article about the lives of  Polish Jews between the wars, click here.

People
Max Doblin
 Alfred Doblin, son of Max , author

Friends and Acquaintances
Artur Rubenstein
Yekhiel Kestenberg
Avrom Kashe – Lublin
Rebbe Jakob Pollack


Places
Stettin (Szczecin), Poland
Posen (Poznan), Poland
Hamburg, Germany
Berlin, Germany
Warsaw
   Nalewky Street, Warsaw Jewish District
Wilno
Lublin
   Lubartowska Street
Lwow
Cracow
  Kazimierz Jewish District
  Esthera Street, Krakowski Street, Jozef Street
Podgorze
Zakopane
Lodz
 Petrikow Street
 Ballut – Alexander Street
Drohobycz
Boryslaw

Monday, September 16, 2013

The Flat (Hadira in Hebrew) written and directed by Arnon Goldfinger 2011 (documentary film) In Hebrew and English

"Borne on the generational ripples of a painful history, Arnon Goldfinger's 'The Flat' is a true-life detective story that uncovers much more than the tangled roots of its maker's family tree."
from a review by Jeannette Catsoulis in the NY Times 10/18/2012

This documentary, primarily filmed at the flat of Arnon Goldfinger’s recently deceased widowed grandmother, focuses on issues having to do with the Holocaust that he and his family only start to confront when they start emptying her apartment.

Goldfinger’s grandparents were successful German Jews who lived in Berlin, but left for Israel before the war. As Goldfinger remarks, his grandmother, who died at the age of 98, lived her life in Israel as if she were still a citizen of Germany. She visited Germany yearly and held on to many possessions from Germany, including old newspapers, letters and photos.

Those artifacts from her past open up a world that the author did not know existed, nor did his mother, who had been born in Berlin. Goldfinger wants to understand what he has learned, so he travels to Germany to interview the German daughter of former friends of his grandparents. On a second trip he brings his mother along and they also visit a cousin who lives in Berlin who fills in more of the family picture.

The movie serves to demonstrate what is now a pretty well-established point: that those traumatized by the Holocaust often did not speak of it and that the children of the second generation most often respected those boundaries. Goldfinger himself is now puzzled as to why he and his siblings asked so few questions about his grandmother’s past.

What is very interesting are the conversations in Germany with the German daughter of his grandparents’ friends. Pressing her with information he has researched about her father, he finds she has maintained a willful ignorance of her father’s past. On both sides (although for different pschological  reasons), Goldfinger found the trauma of the Holocaust buried. On both sides, a veneer of normalcy prevailed.

To read an interview with Arnon Goldfinger, click here.
To read an article about another German Jew who fled Germany and settled in Israel published in Haaretz, click here.

Family
Susanna and Heinich Lehmann
    Gerda Lehmann – married Kurt Tuchler
        Hannah Tuchler Goldfinger – daughter of Gerda and Kurt
             Arnon Goldfinger –son of Hannah; writer/director
             Noam Goldfinger – son of Hannah
             Yair Goldfinger – son of Hannah
             Gidi – of Hannah
             Orit Goldfinger-Mendel – daughter of Hannah Goldfinger
  Paula Lehmann Weinstein – sister of Heinich
     Manuel Trokes – grandson of Paula Lehmann
     Rani Eisenberg – cousin; exact relationship not clear

Places
Tel Aviv, Israel
Berlin, Germany

Monday, September 2, 2013

The Enemy at His Pleasure: A Journey Through the Jewish Pale of Settlement During World War I by S. Ansky edited and translated by Joachim Neugroschel, published in English in 2002

"Ansky balances his tale among statistics (of depleted populations, refugees and destroyed property, for instance), telegraphed stories told to him by survivors and his own experiences cast in an unflinching reportage." from a review in the Jewish Daily Forward by Alyssa Quint, 2/25/2005

In the Introduction to this compelling memoir, editor and translator Joachim Neugrsoschel writes that S. Ansky, born Shloyme Zanvel ben-Aaron Rappaport in Vitebsk, who is now best known for his play, The Dybbuk, was a Russian Jewish intellectual who became fascinated with ethnographic research. He used that interest to observe and record Jewish customs and folktales as he traveled throughout the Jewish Pale of Settlement. But he had to cut short his research when World War I broke out.

During the war he resumed travel, this time to aid Jewish communities who were adversely affected by the war. He became a driving force in alerting authorities, convening Jewish Welfare groups, requisitioning supplies, and requesting and doling out funds as he traveled back and forth between the countryside and Kiev and St. Petersburg. Ansky based this memoir on his notes from the field during the time he spent mostly in Galicia. He also reports on some locations he visited in Bukovina. He finished the memoir in 1920, the year he died.

Ansky felt deeply the tragic situation of the Jews, especially those in small shtetls with few resources. He notes that their outsider status, wherever they lived, made them vulnerable to all kinds of abuse, and it was easy for many different national and ethnic groups to scape-goat the Jews based on long-held anti-Semitism. In this case they were suspected by the Russians of aiding the Germans and Austrians, and at the same time, the Germans and Austrians suspected them of spying for the Russians. Advancing, occupying and retreating forces ravaged their businesses and set fire to their buildings, including synagogues where Ansky reported seeing desecrated torah scrolls and pages from prayer books littering the floors.

Often, when visiting a town or shtetl, Ansky noted that news of the war's progress had traveled. Aware of the approaching troops, fearing the worst, many Jews were hastily packing up what they could take with them and seeking out safer communities. But they frequently had no choice, and were expelled and resettled  with other Jews in designated locations. Ansky records in vivid detail the conditions he observed: Many displaced Jews were penniless, frequently homeless or living crammed in overcrowded rooms, wearing tattered clothing, starving, and often sick.

A master storyteller and an accomplished prose stylist, he recreates on the page conversations he had with Jews he encountered who told him graphic stories of what they had experienced and witnessed. Ansky was their tireless advocate. He then describes what he tried to do to alleviate their suffering: handing them an allotment of rubles and/or supplies and reporting their dire straights to those who were in charge. He paints vivid pictures of precarious lives lived in the midst of a war where danger was always present, and government administrators often expressed sympathy but did not or could not follow through. Ansky also spent much time and energy trying to work the system of Jewish religious groups, wealthy Jews who were potential benefactors, and Jewish social agencies.

This important memoir, as well as giving readers a window into the world of the Jews living in towns and shtetls in Galicia and Bukovina  during World War I, also provides an overview of Russian governance under the Czar during the war with its attendant bureaucracy, chaos, confusion  and violence. At the end of the memoir Ansky describes the overthrow of the Czar and the beginning of the Russian Revolution.  

To look at posts from a blog called Vanished World of a recent trip through what remains of Jewish Galicia, including artfully taken photos in its cemeteries, click here.

To read an earlier post from this blog about a priest's attempts to uncover Ukraine's Jewish past, particularly as it relates to World War II that is the subject of his memoir, The Holocaust By Bullets: A Priest's Journey to Uncover the Truth Behind the Murder of 1.5. Million Jews, click here.

People
Alexander Gintsberg
Oscar Gruzenberg
I. Nayditsh
B.Y. Ratner
Dovid Faynberg
Yekheskl Landa - Brody
Meyer Margolis - Brody
Abba Lev
M.A. Varshavsky - Petrograd
S.A. Grinberg - Kiev
Yisroel Razov
Itzik Rosenberg tells story of Yuzefov
Yekheil Litman - Yuzefov
Itzik Halberstam - Yuzefov
Itshe Fuks - Yuzefov
Leyzer-Yekhiel Englender - Yuzefov
Lippe Shenker - Yuzefov
Leybesh Cohen - Yuzefov
 Mayer Cohen – son of Leybesh - Yuzefov
Dr. Yankev Diamant – Lwow
Srulik Vaisbord - Suchostow
Aaron Savtsits – Malarito
Yitsik Nakht – Tarnopol
Lip Shvager – Khorostkov
Hirsh Rapaport - Czortkow
I.M. Perpikar
Marek Fish – Czernowitz
Yirmiye Sikopant – Czernowitz
Dovid Shekhner - Czernowitz
Shimen Sas - Czernowitz
Hersh Rimer - Czernowitz
Leo Hershman - Czernowitz
Leyb Retter – Sadagora
Aleykim Gastanter – Sadagora
Yitsik Shamatnik Sadagora
Shmuel Zagrebelsky – Sadagora
Shmuel Sender – Czernowki
Aaron Rat – Vaslutsk
H.D. Margolin – Kiev
Shaul Ginzburg - Kiev
Arnold Zaydenman - Kiev
H.B. Veynshlboym - Kiev

Places
Warsaw, Poland
Yuzefov, Poland
Bloyne, Poland
Suchostow, Galicia
Gora, Galicia
Nowomiasto, Galicia
Brody, Galicia
Lwow , Galicia
Zheshov, Poland
Tarnow, Poland
Zolkiew, Galicia
Stri, Galicia
Przemysl, Galicia
Vilna, Lithuania
Kovno, Lithuania
Petrograd, Russia
Kiev, Galicia
Janow, Galicia
Javarov, Galicia
Magerov, Galicia
Mosti-Veliki, Galicia
Kovel, Galicia
Sokal, Galicia
Kristanopol
Poretsk, Galicia
Vladimir-Volinsk, Galicia
Lutsk, Galicia
Vatin, Galicia
Tortshin, Galicia
Lokatsh, Galicia
Malarito, Galicia
Brest-Litovsk, Galicia
Kobrin, Galicia
Pinsk, Galicia
Luninets, Galicia
Homel, Galicia
Tarnopol, Galicia
Skolat, Galicia
Khorostkov, Galicia
Husiatyn, Galicia
Kopetshinyets, Galicia
Probuzhne, Galicia
Czortkow, Galicia
Yagelnitse, Galicia
Tlusti, Galicia
Bukovina
Zaleshtshik, Bukovina
Snaytin, Bukovina
Czernowitz, Bukovina
Sadagora, Bukovina
Kamenyets, Bukovina
Gora-Humara, Bukovina

Monday, August 19, 2013

Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness directed by Joseph Dorman 2011 (Documentary)

"The movie’s old photographs conjure the look and vitality of shtetl life so vividly you can almost feel yourself jostled in the crowded and dusty streets, hear the cries of peddlers and smell the pungent aromas of the cooking. The gnarly faces and hunched bodies of Jewish peasants, many dressed in rags, attest to decades of pain, hardship and stubborn endurance." from a review in the New York Times by Stephen Holden 7/11/2011

This interesting film traces the life and work of the great Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem who was born Sholem Rabinowitz in 1859 in a shtetl in Ukraine and died in 1916 in New York City.

The strength of this film is its historical context. Sholem Aleichem lived at a time of much upheaval amongst Jewish communities throughout the Pale of Settlement. This upheaval affected his life and became the subject of  his fiction. The Jews of the nineteenth century were mostly poor, insular, and religious. Laws promulgated by the czar and his government become more and more restrictive, and Russian peasants and local populations of Ukrainians were given license to perpetrate violence against the Jews. Pogroms become a threat and an actuality.

Also creating upheaval was industrialization which drove many of the children who had grown up in shtetls with their agrarian ways (thing Tevye, the milkman) to the cities where they were exposed to modernity. Many facets of this new way of life challenged the tenets of their early years. Such was the life of Sholem Aleichem who grew up in a religious family in Voronko and moved to Kiev where he was a successful writer of Yiddish tales who lived the sophisticated life of an intellectual. Like many others of his fellow Jews, he fled to America after a pogrom in 1905 seriously threatened his life and that of his family.

The film has terrific photos of life in the shtetls and in the cities, scenes of Jewish life at home, in religious school, Jews busy at work and relaxing in cafes. These photos of the elderly, married couples, school children, and babies, all of them dressed in their daily or religious or celebratory garb, bring to vivid life the world of our ancestors, a world that has vanished. The movie also includes interesting footage from Yiddish movies that recreate life in Eastern Europe.

Scholars interviewed supply the historical context. They talk about the flowering of the Yiddish language and culture. But they also talk about its demise. Despite being widely considered the beloved Jewish Mark Twain, Sholem Aleichem never hit his stride in America. Jewish strivers in America were looking forward to succeeding in the new country; they were less interested in looking back at scenes from the old country.

It is particularly interesting to hear Sholem Aleichem’s granddaughter Bel Kaufman, who is interviewed in the documentary, talk about some of what she remembers about her grandfather.

To read a recent article in the New York Time about some of the politics surrounding Yiddish click here.
To read a history of the shtetl click here.


People
Sholem Rabinowitz – married to Olga Loev
     Bel Kaufman – granddaughter of Sholom Aleichem (exact connection not clear)

Scholars interviewed
Hillel Halkin
Aaron Lansky
Dan Miron
Avrom Nowerstern
David Roskeis
Ruth Wisse

Places
Voronko, Ukraine
Kiev, Ukraine
New York City, NY

Monday, August 5, 2013

Stuffed: Adventures of a Restaurant Family by Patricia Volk 2001


“The mishpocheh that Volk celebrates here was connected to New York in all sorts of ways.” from a review by Daniel Mendelsohn in New York Magazine

The writer Patricia Volk has written an engaging memoir about her enterprising, sometimes eccentric, mostly endearing, large, extended immigrant family who lived and made their mark in New York City. The daughter of successful owners of a restaurant in New York City’s garment district, her parents “lived” at the restaurant, managing, hosting, keeping the books, and eating. She and her sister frequently joined them, and it is clear that the family business was a home-away-from-home.

Each chapter of the memoir, which is named after a particular food that has emotional resonance for the author, is a portrait of a relative who prepared or served it and who Volk recreates on the page in loving detail. These include great-grandparents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, all working to find their place in the New World as they continue to serve and enjoy foods of the Old Country, like chopped liver and sturgeon.

As a family they were amazingly successful. The author sketches in her early relatives’ savvy business moves. One restaurant spawned many others, each providing an opportunity for a family member to work hard and thrive. Jacob Volk, the author’s paternal grandfather, the family patriarch, became an entrepreneur and major presence in the commercial wrecking business. The author describes in vivid detail the homes in which these various relatives lived out their prosperous dreams. Many of them lived in large apartments on the Upper West Side of Manhattan (some in the same building) with maids who helped raise the children and helped cook and serve meals, often to four generations during holiday celebrations like Thanksgiving and Passover.

But despite their financial success, Volk describes how they followed a fairly typical immigrant pattern, complete with tension between the generations. Having arrived in this country as the children of religiously observant parents, they gradually assimilated. Some held on to the ways of the Old Country longer, but most abandoned strict religious observance and assumed the mantle of American culture. Like many others of their generation, the author’s family eventually moved to the suburbs and after giving up the restaurant, her parents  retired to Florida.

The author includes many family photos as well as a family tree. At the end of the memoir she also includes a list of extracts from New York City Directories and New York City telephone books of members of her family that gives us a window into their upward mobility. The first entry is from 1897 of her maternal great-grandfather, Louis Lieban, whose business is recorded as “furs” and whose home address is on Delancey Street. In the 1940's Louis Lieban's son is a dentist, and family addresses are on West End Avenue, Riverside Drive, and Central Park West. The last entry, dated 2001, has names of family members the author has assembled to demonstrate how far away from New York some members of this family are now: Aside from Florida, they live as far away as Canada, Arizona, and Hawaii.

To read the New York Times obituary for Sussman (Cecil) Volk, father of the author, click here.

Family
Author’s mother’s family
Louis Leiban – married Jenny Geiger
     (Elias) Al Leiban – son of Louis and Jenny; married Lillian Berger
     Jerome Leiban – son of Louis and Jenny; married Helen
      Leopold Leiban – son of Louis and Jenny
     Gertrude Leiban – daughter of Louis and Jenny; married Dike Schultz
              Wally – son of Gertrude
     Ruth Leiban – daughter of Louis and Jenny; married Albert Wolko
     Polly Leiban – daughter of Louis and Jenny; married Herman Morgen (see below)
              Robert Morgen – son of Polly and Herman; married Barbara Krass
                      Joan Morgen – daughter of Robert and Barbara
                     Marcy Morgen Dulberg – daughter of Robert and Barbara
             Audrey Morgen – daughter of Polly and Herman; married Sussman (Cecil) Volk
                     Jo Ann Volk – daughter of Audrey and Cecil; marries Alan Lederman
                                Elizabeth Lederman – daughter of Jo Ann and Alan
                                        Daniel and Matthew Lederman – sons of Elizabeth
                                John Lederman – son of Jo Ann and Alan; married to Tonya
                               Michael Lederman – son of Jo Ann and Alan; married Kelly
                     Patricia Volk – daughter of Audrey and Cecil; author
                               Peter and Polly – children of Patricia
           Lou and Fay Krass – parents of Barbara (see above)

Mark Morgenbesser – married Gertrude
          Leopold Morgenbesser – son of Mark and Gertrude
          Herman Morgen(besser) – son of Mark and Gertrude; married Polly Leiban (see above)
          Julius Morgenbesser – son of Mark and Gertrude
          Broncha Morgenbesser – daughter of Mark and Gertrude
          Helen Morgenbesser – daughter of Mark and Gertrude
Leopold Morgenbesser – married Anna (a cousin - precise relationship to author’s immediate family not clear)
         Hank Morgen(besser) – son of Leopold and Anna; married Hedy
         Mundek Morgenbesser – son of Leopold and Anna
         Josef Morgenbesser – son of Leopold and Anna
         Brunek Morgenbesser – son of Leopold and Anna
         Nella Morgenbesser – daughter of Leopold and Anna

Author’s father’s family
maternal side
Max Shure – married Anna
         Frances Shure – daughter of Max and Anna
         Alice Shure – daughter of Max and Anna
         Lily Shure – daughter of Max and Anna
         Rose Shure – daughter of Max and Anna
         Eva Shure – daughter of Max and Anna
         Ethel Edythe Shure – daughter of Max and Anna; married Jacob Volk (see below); 2nd husband – Charles Wolf
               Helen Volk – daughter of Ethel and Jacob
               Sussman (Cecil) Volk – son of Ethel and Jacob (see above)
               Harriet Volk – daughter of Ethel and Jacob

paternal side
Albert Volk – brother of Sussman (see below)
Sussman Volk – brother of Albert; married to Sarah
       Jacob Volk- son of Sussman and Sarah; married Ethel Edythe Shure (see above)
       Ettie Volk – daughter of Sussman and Sarah, married to Nathan Stavin; 2nd husband ? Weiss
             Cecil (Sussman), Maurice, and Steven Stavin – sons of Ettie and Nathan
      Hannah Volk  Fleschner – daughter of Sussman and Sarah
             Cecil (Sussman) Fleschner – son of Hannah
      Anna Volk Joseph – daughter of Sussman and Sarah Volk
             Cecil (Sussman) Joseph – son of Anna
      Albert Volk – son of Sussman and Sarah
      Leonard Volk – son of Sussman and Sarah

Friends and Acquaintances
Robert Shapera (Evans) – Ali McGraw
Alice Shapera – sister of Robert

Places
Nowy Targ, Poland
Vilnius, Lithuania
New York City, NY
Boca Raton, Florida
Kings Point, NY

Monday, July 15, 2013

The Watchmaker's Daughter by Sonia Taitz

"Though the author focuses mostly on her experiences, it is Simon and Gita’s perseverance that truly shines—the former a respected watchmaker who began life anew more than once, the latter a concert-level pianist whose dreams were thwarted by war and who rescued her own mother from the Nazis' infamous selections." from a review in Kirkus Review 7/30/2012

Sonia Taitz, the daughter of two Lithuanian Jewish Holocaust survivors, has written an engaging memoir that gets at the essence of what was for her, the challenge of growing up the daughter of survivors whose grief and refugee status defined who they were.

In many ways Taitz’s story is not different from many other memoirs written by the children of survivors. But her ability to animate for us her relationship to her parents and to describe her parents so that we feel we know them allows us to get a clear and vivid picture of their family life which, though universal in its oultine, is specific in its detail.

Much of Taitz’s story focuses on the relationship she had with each of her parents. Her father, an accomplished watchmaker whose skills helped him survive Dachau, admired her independent spirit and her academic abilities and he pushed her to succeed.  Her mother, an accomplished pianist whose potential career was destroyed by the Holocaust, struggled with her rebellious daughter whose personality and interests she often did not understand.

The young Sonia felt very different from the children who were growing up alongside her in post-World War II America, and she was embarrassed by her circumstances. Her parents spoke Yiddish at home and lived in a two-bedroom apartment in Washington Heights in upper Manhattan where her brother slept in the living room. Her mother wore floral housedresses, shopped for bargain merchandise and cooked the foods she knew from Europe. When it came time for the author to go to college her parents insisted she stay close to home and go to Barnard, not to Radcliffe where she had also been accepted.

The end of the memoir deals with the death of each of her parents. At this point the author is a mother of three children and as an adult has come to terms with how the Holocaust had shaped their lives. She has come to understand them in ways she couldn’t possibly when she was a child, teenager and young adult, trying to establish her own identity, free of their burdens. Now, more than ever, she has become their parents - taking care of them, trying to hold on to them as they each succumb to cancer, despairing that after the early experiences they had suffered through, they each had to suffer so horribly again.

To read an article about the effects of Holocaust trauma on subsequent generations click here.
To read an article about the psychological profile of Holocaust survivors click here.


People
Father’s family
Sonia Taitz
    Aaron Taitz - son of Sonia
    PaulaTaitz - daughter of Sonia
    Simon Taitz – son of Sonia; married Gita Wery-Bey
          Emmanuel Taitz – son of Simon and Gita
                Jennifer and Michelle Taitz – daughters of Emmanuel
         Sonia Taitz – son of Simon and Gita; married Paul; author
                Emma, Gabriel, Phoebe – children on Paul and Sonia

Mother’s family
Menachem Mendel Wery-Bey- married Liba Davidow
       Gita – daughter of Menachem Mendel and Liba; married Simon Taitz (see above)
David Wery-Bey – brother of Menachem Mendel

Places
Kaunas, Lithuania
New York City, NY
Washington Heights, NY
Stutthof Concentration Camp, Poland
Dachau Concentration Camp, Germany