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

Europa, Europa by Solomon Perel, published in English in 1997

 "Perel's continuing struggle with identity was indirectly reflected in the various titles of his memoirs, which have been published in French, German and ... Hebrew." from an article written by Daniel Williams in the Los Angeles Times 3/30/92

Solomon Perel, born in Germany in 1925 to a Russian-Jewish family who settled in Pleine, Germany after the Russian revolution, has a powerful story to tell about his experience masquerading as a young German, hiding in their very midst. In 1935 when he was ten, his family fled to Lodz in Poland, expecting that they would be safer there than in Hitler’s Germany. The author, a very good student, learned Polish quickly and settled into life in Poland only to be uprooted again when Hitler invaded Poland in September of 1939.

His parents, fearing for the safety of their children, urged Solomon to cross the border into the Soviet Union with his brother Isaac. The two brothers soon become separated and here begins a tale that reveals the deep determination of the author to survive. He tells his tale in order to describe the incredible stress he endured and to dramatize his responses to events that threatened his survival. He is not trying to portray himself as heroic. He is trying to plumb the depths of his psyche and explain as best he can to himself and to his readers how he could assume a German identity complete with a name and a background he invented and maintain it until the war was over. He became two separate people – Solly inside, and Jupp on the outside.

His fears were many. For example, he did not have papers identifying him as German (he told the Germans they were destroyed in a bombing), he had to keep his background story straight every time he told it, he was afraid he’d be identified as being a Jew if someone saw that he was circumcised, and he had to learn not to react “inappropriately” when being subjected to Nazi propaganda  which was a constant condition of his life.

But he was smart and he was lucky. The fact that he was alone and spoke German made it possible to pose as a non-Jewish orphaned German. He put his ability to speak Russian to good use by acting as a translator for the Germans as they interviewed wounded Russian soldiers. Because his intelligence impressed the Nazis, tthey sent him to Germany where he was enrolled in an elite Hitler Youth school where he was fed, clothed and safe. And his feigned enthusiasm also helped in his interactions with various Germans and Nazi officials.

When the war was over and he was on his own again, having inhabited the psyche for three years of a young German being groomed for an elite position in the Nazi power structure, it was difficult for him to feel free and to tell anyone that he was a Jew. When he finally felt liberated enough to live outwardly as a Jew, having seen and heard about the suffering of concentration camp survivors, it was then difficult for him to claim to be a survivor.

To see the trailer for the award-winning movie made based on Perel's memoir, click here.
To read an interview with the author in the New York Times, click here.

People
Eliahu bar Halperin – grandfather of author;
    Rebecca – daughter of Eliahu; married Azriel Perel
         Isaac Perel –son of Rebecca and Azriel;  married Mira Rabinowitz
              Naomi Perel – daughter of Isaac and Mira
        David Perel – son of Rebecca and Azriel; married Pola Rosner
              Azriel Perel – son of David and Pola
        Bertha Perel – son of Rebecca and Azriel
        Solomon Perel – son of Rebecca and Azriel; author
   Clara Wachsmann  - daughter of Eliahu

Friends and Acquaintances
Jerzyk  Rappoport
Jakob Lublinski
Hans Marburger
Binem Koppelmann
Manfred Frenkel
Lotte Friedenthal
Eliahu Beth Josef

Places
Peine, Germany
Lodz, Poland
Smorgon, Lithuania?
Stutthof  Concentration Camp, Poland
Munich, Germany
Tel Aviv, Israel

Hannah Senesh: Her Life and Diary, The First Complete Edition 2004

"For those unfamiliar with the story of Hannah's exceptional courage, this is a moving collection." from a review in Publisher's Weekly 10/25/2004

Hanna Senesh (Szenes), born in Hungary in 1921 and executed in 1943, was a thoughtful, soul-searching writer whose diary is the centerpiece of this volume. Other writings by Senesh
included are letters she sent, mostly to her mother in Budapest, Hungary from her new home in Palestine, and poetry, some of it translated from Hungarian, some of it translated from Hebrew. In this volume the diary is introduced by a foreword written by the American poet/novelist Marge Piercy, a preface by Eitan Senesh, son of Hannah Senesh’s brother, a translator’s preface by Marta Cohn, and a short essay entitled “Memories of Hannah’s Childhood” by Catherine Senesh, Hannah Senesh’s mother.

The diary published in this volume starts with an entry written when Hannah Senesh was thirteen in 1934 where she writes about having just visited her father’s grave. It ends in 1943, five years after she had immigrated to Palestine and was about to embark on a secret mission to help Hungarian Jews escape from what was, at the time it was being planned, not yet Nazi-occupied Hungary. Reading from start to finish, we embark on a journey along with the writer as she formulates goals and makes deliberate choices to help achieve those goals. She is constantly going back and reflecting on past wishes and choices, analyzing her doubts and deciding what her next steps might be.

Early in her story, like many teenagers, Senesh is preoccupied with her place academically, writing about her studies and her teachers, but she is also concerned, as many teenagers are, about her social status, evaluating the boys in her social circle, wondering which one was right for her, despairing that she’ll ever find the perfect match. She is from a wealthy, assimilated Jewish family and is not particularly religious, but in her diary, every year at Yom Kippur she looks back over the past year and makes a serious attempt to analyze what she has done wrong and how she can improve. 

Overt anti-Semitism rears its ugly head during her years at the Protestant girls’ school where her mother has to pay double to secure her Jewish daughter’s education and where Senesh, because she is Jewish, is eventually denied the opportunity to be an officer in the Literary Society. In addition, overt anti-Semitism is more and more prevalent in day-to-day Hungarian life. Her response is to embrace Zionism and to plan to immigrate to Palestine when she graduates high school in Budapest. She applies to attend a two-year agricultural school in Nahalal. Accepted by the school, she leaves Hungary in the early fall of 1939 right after war is declared by the French and British.

The entries written in Palestine are very interesting. Partly it is because she was maturing and her thinking and writing are more complex. And partly it is because she is a careful observer of the geography of the land, its settlers – their personalities and their politics - and its structures, especially of Kibbutz S’dot Yam where she decided to settle after she finished the two-year agricultural program. At first she is excited to be in Palestine. It feels liberating to her to be in what feels to her to be a Jewish country where there is important work to be done, far away from the oppression of Jews in Europe. But a theme that runs throughout this part of the diary and becomes stronger toward the end, is her constant analysis of her status in Palestine. She believed totally in the socialist principles of kibbutz life, but often found the drudgery of kitchen and garden work mind-numbing and not the best use of her talents. She is constantly questioning her decisions. Is she sorry she immigrated to Palestine? No. Is life here harder and less gratifying than she expected? Yes. Is there something she could be doing in Palestine to take advantage of her previous education and talents? She continued to hope so.

Another topic she returns to frequently is her loneliness and the guilt she feels at leaving her mother behind. She suffers from more and more anxiety as the war engulfs more countries, so when the opportunity to go on a secret mission is offered her, she sees it as the big moment she has been waiting for.

At the end of the diary and letters is a section called “The Mission” which picks up from where the diary ends and narrates the end of Hannah Senesh’s short life up to her execution in November of 1943. "The Mission" includes two pieces by fellow parachutists, Reuven Dafne and Yoel Palgi, and an extended piece by Catherine Senesh entitled, “Meeting in Budapest,” which is about the months she spent with her daughter once Hannah Senesh had been captured and returned to Budapest to jail. The last essay is a short historical note written by Professor Judith Taylor Baumel of Bar-Ilan University in Israel.

This volume also contains endnotes keyed to entries in the diary and other writings, and it also includes photos. A note on the title page indicates that parts of this book were published as “Hannah Senesh: Her Life and Diary by Shocken Books in 1972.

If you would like to read more about the parachutists from Palestine, including photos, click here.

Note: The documentary Blessed Is the Match, directed by Roberta Grossman, released in 2008 and available on DVD, is the story of Hannah Senesh's life based on the same material that is in the memoir. Voice-overs read excerpts from Hannah Senesh's diaries and from her mother's essay which is included in the memoir.  The film is most valuable for its many photos of the family, interviews with her brother's two sons, a short archival interview with her mother, and with contemporaries who knew Hannah Senesh. It also has archival footage of wartime Europe and of pioneers working the land in Palestine. Least satisfying are the dramatic reenactments, mostly in the last third of the film, deemed visually necessary because there is no footage and there are no photos of Hannah Senesh once she leaves Palestine and goes on her mission.

The film starts and ends with the moving ceremony of Senesh's coffin being taken from the ship in the harbor in Haifa that brought it from where her body had been buried in Hungary. The film shows the coffin being transported throughout Israel so its citizens can pay their respects, and then the ceremony where it is received in Jerusalem to be reburied with the bodies of other parachutists who had lost their lives.

The context provided in interviews by contemporary historians and in archival footage is useful. Having a voice off-camera recite several of Senesh's poems is affecting. But the diary itself reveals the life of this unusual young woman in a way the film can only hint at.

People (from the book and the film)
Family
Bela Szenes – married Catherine Salzberger
    Gyuri Senesh – son of Bela and Catherine
        Eitan Senesh – son of Gyuri
        David Senesh - son of Gyuri
    Hannah Senesh – daughter of Bela and Catherine; author

Elizabeth Salzberger – sister of Catherine; married to Steve Sas
    Evi Sas – daughter of Elizabeth and Steve

Friends
Eva Beregi
Surika Braverman
Magda Csecsy
Reuven Dafne
Mihaly Fekete
Peretz Goldstein
Avigdor Hameiri
Judit Kiss
Ilona Krausz
Aharon Megged
Marta Ozary
Yoel Palgi
Gyuri Revesz
Dina Schechman
Enzo (Hayim) Sereni

Places
Budapest, Hungary
Dombovar, Hungary
Janoshaza, Hungary
Nahalal, Israel
Sdot Yam, Israel
Haifa, Israel

Rutka’s Notebook: A Voice from the Holocaust by Rutka Laskier 2008

"More than 60 years after the teenager wrote it, the diary vividly describes the world crumbling around her as she came of age in a Jewish ghetto." from an article by the Associated Press published in the New York Times on 5/5/07

Rutka Laskier, a teenager growing up in Bedzin, Poland during World War II, kept a journal for a very short time - from January 19 to April 24, 1943. At that point her family was forced to move to the ghetto in Kamionka, so she hid her journal under the floor boards and told a Polish friend to retrieve it if she didn’t return. Her friend found it two years later and kept it hidden until 2006. Its tragic brevity mirrors Rutka’s life which ended in Auschwitz to where she was deported in August, 1943. (Note: Though often called a “diary,” the more correct term in English is journal – writing used not just to record dates and events, but to reflect on perceptions, feelings, and daily events.)

In her writing Rutka records events and reflects on her past, her present, and her future. One minute she is full of life and excitement, discussing her friends, both boys and girls, and, like many teenagers everywhere, she critically evaluates her physical appearance. The next minute, with no transition at all, she describes her terror at witnessing beatings and murders. She recalls in vivid detail the horrifying sequence of events that had taken place during the Aktion of August 12, 1942, called the Hakoah after the sports field in the neighboring town of Sosnowiec where the Jews were forced to congregate. Her family, sent to the sports field, managed a reprieve. She also writes about her job working in one of the factories owned by Alfred Rossner who tried to protect his Jewish workers. She is tormented by day-to-day waiting for she knows not what. One minute she’s convinced the war will be over soon. The next, she despairs and expects to die.

This volume of the English translation called Rutka’s Notebook which was co-published by Yad Vashem, includes very interesting short essays. Much attention has been paid to illustrate the journal and the essays with historical photographs both of public scenes and of Rutka and family members.

Rutka’s half-sister, Zahava Laskier Scherz, is the author of two of the supplemental essays. The first one is an introduction in which she describes how she came to learn that her father had had a previous family before he married her mother and that they had been killed in the Holocaust. She then writes about how she came to learn, many years later, that her half-sister Rutka had kept a journal and that it had survived.

In her second essay, called “The Three Lives of Yaacov Laskier,” she describes her father’s early years as a Zionist member of D’ror, an early trip he made to Palestine, and a return to Poland when he became ill. Resettling in Bedzin, he became a banker and was raising a family when the Germans invaded Poland.  She describes how when he was deported with his family to Auschwitz he learned that the Germans were looking for people with experience working with money. He volunteered and was transferred to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp where he became a member of Operation Bernhard, which was set up to make counterfeit money. (Recently Operation Bernhard has been the subject of books and of the Austrian movie, The Counterfeiters.) She then describes his post-war life when he remarried and settled in Israel.

Another essay, written by Menachem Lior, a former Bedzin resident now living in Israel, details the search for Rutka’s surviving family once the the journal was made public. The next essay provides information about Bedzin and the Holocaust, and the last essay discusses journals by other teenagers who wrote about their lives during the Holocaust. The volume also includes an annotated bibliography of a selected list of teenage journals.

To read the memorial (yizkor)  book written to commemorate Bedzin's Jewish community pre-World War II, click here.

People
Family
David Laskier- married to Golda Zisman
    Yehezkel-Yosef – son of David and Golda
    Ester Laskier-Rodel – daughter of David and Golda
        Lily Rodel – daughter of Ester
    Zila Laskier – daughter of David and Golda; married to Josef Abramson
        Lipman Laskier – son of Zila and Josef
    Yisrael Laskier – son of David and Golda; married to Sara Prawer
        Yehoshua Laskier – son of Yisrael and Sara
    Gutsha (Gustawa) Laskier-Rottner – daughter of David and Golda
        Yosef Rottner – son of Gutsha
    Mania Laskier – daughter of David and Golda; married to Yitzhak Zilberscaz
    Emanuel (Moniek) Laskier – son of David and Golda; married to Bronia Oppenheim
        David Laskier – son of Emanuel and Bronia
    Yaacov Laskier – son of David and Golda; married to Dvorah (Dorka) Hampel; 2nd marriage to Hanna Weiner
        Rutka Laskier – daughter of Yaacov and Dvorah; author
        Joachim-Henius Laskier – son of Yaacov and Dvorah
        Zahava Laskier – daughter of Yaacov and Hanna; married Avigdor Scherz
            Yishai and Ruth – children of Zahava and Avigdor

Emanuel Laskier – relative, relationship unclear
Jonathan Laskier – brother of Emanuel; married to Else Lasker-Schuler

    Mordechai Hampel – sister of Dvorah
        Dalia Hampel Mercazi– daughter of Mordechai

Friends and Acquaintances
Natek Aleksandrowicz
Herko Brukner
Paulinka Gold Kleinlehrer
Hanka Granek
Menachem Lior
Luba Prawer
    Genia Prawer – daughter of Luba
Heniek Lewin
Salek Goldzweig
Niania Potocka
Haka Zelinger
Rozka Rechnic
Salek Saper
Heini Wajnsztok
Dasha Rittenberg   

Places
Bedzin, Poland
Kamionka, Poland
Zaglembie, Poland
Auschwitz, Poland
Sachsenhausen concentration camp, Germany
Givatayim, Israel
Migdal settlement, Israel
Magdiel, Israel
Rishon LeZion, Israel

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

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.

The Boy: A Holocaust Story by Dan Porat 2010

"[The Boy] is a gripping, harrowing Holocaust story," from a review entitled, 'The Ghetto, the Nazis, and One Small Boy,' by Joseph Berger on Lens, a New York Times blog 10/12/2010

Dan Porat, whose parents fled Germany before the war, is a professor at Hebrew University. Because his specialty is visual representations of the Holocaust, he became especially interested in the iconic photo of a young Jewish boy being rounded up by the Nazis in the Warsaw ghetto.This photo is on the cover of this book.

This book is not a memoir, but Porat read many memoirs as part of his research.  His original intention was to try to uncover the identity of the young boy, a task others have attempted as well, but he states in his introduction that after completing all the research, he has no definite answers to the boy’s identity. But he uses this picture to examine some of the history of the Warsaw ghetto through the lives of five people: three Nazi agents and two Jewish ghetto residents.

The most important of the three Nazi agents he focuses on is SS General Jergen Stroop who was sent by the Nazis to deal with the ghetto uprising. After leveling the ghetto, he wrote what came to be known as the Stroop Report for which Stroop provided the title: “The Warsaw Ghetto Is No More.” The report included many photos to document Stroop’s accomplishments, including the one of the little boy. The report was sent to Himmler, and Stroop was awarded the Iron Cross which he coveted.

Porat also tells the story of Austrian SS officer Franz Konrad who was in charge of the appropriation of Jewish property in the ghetto and instrumental in its liquidation. And he tells the story of the only one of the three who actually appears in the photo: SS soldier Josef Blosche can be seen in the background aiming his gun at the little boy who has his hands raised.

The two Jewish residents whose stories he tells are Rivkah Trapkovits Farber and Tsvi Nussbaum. Rivkah Trapkovits Farber’s connection to the photo is tenuous. She wrote a memoir which has been published in Israel that suggests to the author that she might have been a witness to the roundup documented in the photo. Rivkah Trapkovits Farber’s story is one version of many such lives lived in the ghetto and in hiding. Her story is remarkable, starting with her active membership in Kibbutz Lodz-Borochov. When Lodz was invaded, she and other members fled to a similar Kibbutz in the Warsaw ghetto, but before long those who congregated in the ghetto kibbutz were living a precarious life which included hiding from Nazis who were searching for resisters and violators of ghetto rules. Their hiding place eventually exposed, she and others were herded onto cattle cars destined for the Majdanek concentration camp. But Rivkah jumped off the train and lived by her wits, posing as a peasant woman until the war was over.

There has been much debate over the years about whether Tsvi Nussbaum, now living in New York City, is the boy in the photo. Porat tells the story of the Nussbaum family, how Tsvi came to be orphaned when his parents were sent to death camps, how he went with an aunt to the Hotel Polski on the Aryan side of Warsaw where they were promised exit visas, how the Nazis had tricked them, rounded them up and carted them away, how he managed to survive the rest of the war, how after the war he was one of 186 orphans who sailed to Palestine on the Mataroa.

In Porat’s slim, well documented, book he gives a textured account of the convergence of a number of disparate people in the Warsaw ghetto. The significance of the photo is that the unidentified Jewish boy represents all of the innocent victims of Hitler’s Final Solution.

This memoir includes A Glossary of Terms, A Prologue, and an essay called On Photographs, History, and Narrative Style, It also includes a lot of documentation which appear in endnotes which list many memoirs, especially in Hebrew that Porat consulted. There is also a very helpful Index.

To watch a discussion with Dan Porat about his book that took place in Skokie, Illinois, click here.
To read an interesting article that researches the various possibilities surrounding the identity of the boy, click here.

To view the photos of the Warsaw ghetto included in the Stroop report, click here.

People
Hannah Blumenthal Porat – author’s mother
Dan Porat – son of Hannah; author

Erna Hamlet
Felix Fechenbach – married to Irma
Shmuel Trapkovits – married Devorah; second wife Sheindal
Dina Trapkovits – daughter of Samuel and Devorah
Nissan Trapkovits – son of Samuel and Devorah
Baruch Trapkovits – son of Samuel and Devorah
Rivkah Trapkovits – daughter of Samuel and Devorah; married to Fischel Farber
Haim and Jacob Farber – sons of Rivkah and Fischel
Zelda and Ephraim Trapkovits – children of Samuel and Sheindal
Haim Farber
Fischel Farber – Haim’s son; husband of Rivkah Trapkovits (see above)
Itzhak Katzenelson
Peshka Harman
Shmuel Greenberg
Moshe Rubenchik
Tsvi Kutzer
Chaim Kaplan
Emmanuel Ringelblum
Antek (Itshak) Zuckerman
Lunka Kozibrodzka
Aron Schultz
Jozio Schultz – son of Aron
Jacob and Ziporah Nussbaum
Yosef Nussbaum – son of Jacob and Ziporah; married to Chana
Tsvi Nussbaum – son of Yosef and Chana
Ilan Nussbaum – son of Yosef and Chana
Chana Nussbaum – daughter of Jacob and Ziporah; married to Shulim (Ziporah’s brother)
Tsivyah Lubetkin
Antek Zucherman
Zacharia Artstein
Malka Hornstein
Bluma Wiszogrodski
Rukhele Lauschvits
Thaddeus Stabholz
Helik Birenbaum
Halina Birenbaurm – sister of Helik
Lolek Skosowski
Adam Zurawin
David Guzik
Jan Rolnik – married to Ella Sendowska
Artur Rolnik – son of Jan and Ella
Danusia Rolnik – daughter of Jan and Ella
Helena Goldberg
David and Sophie Goetzel-Leviathan
Micky
Heinz Schenk
Heinz Galinski
Mark Berkowitz
David Margolick
Lucjan Dobroszycki
Sue Fishkoff
Aron Glanz-Leyeles

Places
Frankfurt, Germany
Israel
New York City, NY
Hamburg, Germany
Berlin, Germany
Hillersleben, Germany
Kibbutz Lodz-Borochov, Lodz, Poland
Lomza, Poland
Grochow, Poland
Sandomierz, Poland
Warsaw Ghetto, Poland
Hotel Polski, Warsaw, Poland

Walbrzych, Poland
Kibbutz Mishmar ha-Sharon, Israel

A Film Unfinished: The Warsaw Ghetto as Seen Through Nazi Eyes written and directed by Yael Hersonski 2010 (documentary)

In “A Film Unfinished,” the Israeli director Yael Hersonski embarks on a critical analysis of “Das Ghetto” that is remarkable as much for its speculative restraint as for its philosophical reach.  from a review in the New York Times by Jeannette Catsoulis 8/17/2010

Most of this documentary, by the Israeli writer/director Yael Hersonski, is archival footage shot in the Warsaw Ghetto  filmed by photographers working for the Nazis but never released.  Discovered in a warehouse in 1954, various clips have circulated and been incorporated into other documentaries. There are scenes of the Jewish head of the ghetto Adam Czerniakow receiving Orthodox Jews in his office, and scenes of an elaborate dinner held in his home. There is a segment that shows a circumcision. Also included are street shots of impoverished, emaciated Jewish children and adults begging, while well-dressed residents of the ghetto walk by seemingly ignoring them. And there are shots of corpses lying unclaimed in front of shops and in gutters as ghetto residents go about their business.

It was clear that many scenes, especially the indoor ones, were staged. Adam Czerniakow took part in the staged scenes but kept diaries which are quoted in the documentary explaining the fraud that that was being filmed. In 1998 more definitive evidence that confirmed the staging was found on a reel languishing in a warehouse that shows multiple takes of some scenes, demonstrating that some were rearranged and re-shot so that the Nazis could maximize the effect they were after.

At the same time that we are watching the film and the outtakes, five Warsaw ghetto survivors who now live in Israel are also watching. The archival film is stopped occasionally to get their reaction to what they are seeing. Some add details that they remember.

Although the film was shot for propaganda purposes and much of its contents cannot be trusted, the roving camera allows you to get see many of its residents in close-ups and in crowd scenes and it's possible to get a sense of what parts of the ghetto looked like.

To watch a very interesting Public Broadcasting Interview with the writer/director, Yael Hersonski, who discusses the making of her film, click here.

People
Hanna Avrutzki
Luba Gewisser
Aliza Vitis-Shomron
Jurek Plonski
Shula Zeder
Adam Czerniakow
Emanuel Ringelblum
Chaim Kaplan
Abraham Lewin
Rachel Auerbach
Jonas Turkow
Ben Shem
Hersh Waser

Places
Warsaw Ghetto
Israel

The Seamstress: A Memoir of Survival by Sara Tuvel Bernstein 1997

"A striking Holocaust memoir, posthumously published, by a Romanian Jew with an unusual story to tell." from Kirkus Reviews August, 15, 1997

Introductory chapters in this memoir about Seren (Sara) Tuvel’s early years set the scene for what is to come. Seren was the seventh of her father’s eleven children. Her mother, who was the widower Abraham Tuvel’s second wife, raised his six children and the two of them had five more. Their home was a gathering place for all of the children and grandchildren.

Seren was a good student who won a scholarship to continue on at the gymnasium in Bucharest but her father, a traditional observant Jew, said no. She defied him and moved to Bucharest but she was not happy in school and quit, apprenticing herself to a dressmaker where she learned how to sew intricate high-end fashion bought by the nobility. This skill, as well as her intelligence, foresight and resourcefulness, served her well as she fought to stay alive both in the years before and during World War II. 

With the steady march of Hitler into neighboring countries, the bucolic setting of Valea Uzului in Romania, the site of her father’s job managing a mill, soon became a memory. Jews living near the border were accused of spying and while Seren was home she and her father were arrested and jailed in Bucharest. When she was eventually freed, she made her way to Budapest, Hungary where she and other relatives thought they’d be safer. However in March of 1944 she and her sister were captured and forced to join a labor detail. The author eventually ended up in Ravensbruck, amongst the first group of Jewish women in this camp that the Nazis had set aside for common criminals, gypsies, Communists, and others who they saw as political agitators. She was 26 years old.

Four months later she and the small group of women who still survived the punishing conditions of Ravensbruck were moved to Turkheim, a division of Dachau, then to Bergau where they were eventually rescued by the Red Cross. She describes the terrible conditions she worked under when she was a member of a forced labor detail. The conditions got only worse as she was transported from camp to camp. She was sent to recuperate at St Ottelein Convent which had been turned into a post-war hospital and then volunteered to teach sewing to displaced women at an ORT school in the next town. There she met her future husband who was teaching tailoring.

She concludes with their unsuccessful search for surviving family members, but then describes a joyous reunion with relatives who were living in Israel after she had assumed they had all been killed. By this time she and her husband were living in Montreal. A final chapter by her daughter, Marlene Bernstein Samuels, provides information about the later years of her mother’s life including the writing of her memoir.

To read an article about Romania and the Holocaust, click here.

People
Abraham Tuvel
    Herman Tuvel – son of Abraham and first wife; married to Tamara
        Miksha Tuvel – son of Herman and Tamara
            Herman Tuvel – son of Miksha
        Ernie Tuvel – son of Herman and Tamara
        Joseph Tuvel – son of Herman and Tamara
    Meyer Tuvel – son of Abraham and first wife; married to Lottie
    Mendel Tuvel – son of Abraham and first wife
    Berta Tuvel – daughter of Abraham and first wife; married Morris
        Yosef – son of Berta
    Louise Tuvel – daughter of Abraham and first wife; married Bela
    Rose Tuvel – daughter of Abraham and first wife, married Eugene
        Emma, Alfred (Yakov), Magda, Elena, Estelle – children of Rose and Eugene
    Shlomo Tuvel – son of Abraham and Miriam; second wife Zella
    Eliezer Tuvel – son of Abraham and Miriam; married to Sylvia
        Judith and Rivkah Tuvel – daughters of Eliezer and Sylvia
    Seren (Sara) Tuvel – daughter of Abraham and Miriam; married Meyer Bernstein; author
        Jacob Bernstein – son of Seren (Sara) and Meyer; married Linda
            Rebecca Bernstein
        Marlene Bernstein Samuels – daughter of Seren (Sara) and Meyer
           
    Zipporah Tuvel - daughter of Abraham and Miriam
    Esther Tuvel – daughter of Abraham and Miriam; married Sidney (Sigmund)

Friends
Ira Bergman
    Ruth Bergman
Reuben Handler
    Leah Handler – daughter of Reuben
Samuel Stein
Joshua Stein – Samuel’s brother
Ellen (Helen) Weise
Lily Cohen
Zora Cohen – Lily’s sister

Places
Fulehaza,Romania
Lunca de Mijloc, Romania
Bucharest, Romania
Galati,Romania
Valea Uzului, Romania
Reghinal-Sasesc, Romania
Brasov, Romania
Miercurea-Cuic, Romania
Satu-Mare, Romania
Ravensbruck Concentration Camp, Germany
Turkheim, Dachau, Germany
Bergau, Austria
St. Ottelein Abbey, Emming, Germany
Feldafing, Germany
Schwabhausen, Germany