The Family: Three Journeys into the Heart of the Twentieth Century by David Laskin 2013

The unspeakable tragedies and improbable triumphs of the European Jewish diaspora in the 20th century have been told many times but rarely quite so compellingly as in David Laskin's "The Family." from a review by Edward Kosner in the Wall Street Journal 10/13/2013

David Laskin (b.1953) has woven together a tapestry of engrossing stories about his large extended family, starting with his great-great grandfather Shimon Dov HaKohen, a torah scribe, and his wife Beyle Shapiro who lived and raised their six children in Volozhin in Belarus. In the course of the book, Laskin follows their descendents along three geographical paths: Eastern Europe, America, and Israel.

Even though Laskin grew up in the New York City suburbs near his immigrant grandfather and some of his grandfather’s siblings, he knew nothing about their early lives, neither in Eastern Europe nor in America where they immigrated over the course of the first decade of the 20th century. When he got old enough to make decisions for himself, he distanced himself from his Jewish heritage and the world represented by his immigrant relatives. A call to Israel at the suggestion of his mother to ask a cousin to verify the accuracy of a family "legend"  piqued his interest in his family’s history and started him on a quest to learn everything he could.

What’s truly satisfying about reading The Family is being able to follow Laskin’s highly readable prose where he integrates history from many sources and places his relatives in the context of history. In the metropolitan New York area, where the bulk of Laskin's family originally settled, we read about the businesses they established and how they lived out versions of the American Dream. For example, he gives us many interesting details about the oldest sibling, his great aunt Itel Rosenthal, who founded and ran the Maidenform Bra company along with her husband. But before we learn about her great successes as a capitalist, he fills in details about her early life in Eastern Europe, sketching in the political climate, the growing restrictions on Jews, and her risky, active membership in the Bund.
 
The most moving sections are those having to do with his relatives who were killed in the Holocaust. He is shocked to find out he had relatives who had been murdered and wondered why no one had ever talked about it. He is aided in researching their stories because the cousin he had originally contacted in Israel had in his possession almost three hundred letters in Yiddish sent to his mother, Sonia, who had immigrated to Palestine in 1932. Many of the letters, some of which are reproduced, were from Sonia's two sisters who were stranded with their families and their mother in Eastern Europe. To learn as much as he could about their end, Laskin embarked on a multi-year project which involved two trips to Israel to meet with Sonia’s surviving children, and a “roots” trip to Belarus and Lithuania with some of those relative as well as others. He also did archival research, trying to track down whatever he could find about those who had been murdered.

One of the strengths of this book is that Laskin’s family members are fleshed-out individuals, but they are also stand-ins for many others: the waves of Eastern European immigrants who, like them, settled on the overcrowded Lower East Side of New York and worked their way “up” to other parts of the city and the suburbs. In narrating Sonia and her husband Chaim’s life as early pioneers in Palestine, he provides historical background about the British Mandate as well as the physical conditions of early settlements to help readers understand what it was like to be an early pioneer.

And in investigating the murders of his relatives during the Holocaust he sketches in the geography and politics of World War II as it impacted on his relatives in Volozhin, Rakov and Vilna, including in great detail the Nazi plan for wiping out the Jewish population in Vilna where one of Sonia’s sisters and her family lived. He describes in detail the Vilna ghetto, the forest at Ponar, the Einsatzgruppen, and the slave labor camp at Klooga.

The Family: Three Journeys into the heart of the Twentieth Century has much to offer. Laskin has recreated his family in a way that is both intellectually and emotionally satisfying.

This book contains a family tree with dates of birth and death, many family photos, a two-page glossary of "foreign" words, extensive notes which include sources he consulted keyed to text pages and an index.

To read about the history of the Jewish Lower East Side, click here.
To look at interesting photos from the Jewish cemetery in Seduva, click here.

People
Author’s mother’s paternal line
Chaim HaKohen
    Shimon Dov Hakohen, - son of Chaim; married Beyle Shapiro
         Avram Akiva Kaganovich (Abraham Cohen) – son of Simon Dov and Beyle; married Gishe Sore (Sarah); married
             Itel Kaganovich (Ida Cohen) – daughter of Avram and Gishe Sore; married Wolf (William) Rosenthal
                  Lewis and Beatrice Rosenthal – children of Ida and William
             Ettal Kaganovich (Ethel Cohen) – daughter of Avram and Gishe Sore; married Samuel Epstein
                 Bernard, and David Epstein – sons of Ethel and Samuel
                 Inda Epstein – daughter of Ethel and Samuel; married Irving Goldfarb
                        Gail Goldfarb – daughter of Inda and Irving; married Richard Cohen
             Hersch Kaganovich (Harry Cohen) – son of Avram and Gishe Sore; married Sallie Bodker
                 Melvin Cohen – son of Harry and Sallie
             Shmuel Kaganovich (Sam Cohen) –son of Avram and Gishe Sore; married Celia Zimmerman; 2nd marriage to Gisri Sore Galpierjn (Gladys Helperin)
                 Dorothy and Sidney Cohen– twin children of Sam and Celia
                 Lester Cohen – son of Sam and Celia
                 Marvin Cohen – son of Sam and Celia
                        Gary Cohen – son of Marvin; married to Lori
                 Leona Cohen – daughter of Sam and Gladys; married Meyer Laskin
                        Robert Laskin – son of Leona and Meyer; married to Sue
                               Isaac and Gabriel Laskin – sons of Robert and Sue
                        Daniel Laskin – son of Leona and Meyer
                        David Laskin – son of Leona and Meyer; married to Kate O’Neill; author Emily, Sarah, and Alice Laskin; daughters of David and Kate
                        Jonathan Laskin – son of Leon and Meyer
           Chaim Yasef  Kaganovich (Hyman Cohen) – son of Avram and Gishe Sore; married Anna Raskin
                Barbara Cohen – daughter of Hyman and Anna; married Morton Weisenfeld
           Chana Kaganovich – daughter of Avram and Gishe Sore
            Leie Kaganovich (Lillie Cohen) – daughter of Avram and Gishe Sore; married Joseph Salwitz
   Yasef Bear Kaganovich (Joseph Cohn) – son of Shimon and Beyle; married
to Ethel
                       Devorah Bayer – great-great granddaughter of Yasef Bear and Ethel
            Shalom Tvi Kaganovich (Sholom Kahanowicz) – son of Shimon Dov and Beyle; married Beyle Botwinik
                Shula Kaganovich – daughter of Shalom and Beyle
                Doba Kaganovich – daughter of Shalom and Beyle; married to Shabtai Senitski     Shimon and Wolf Kaganovich – sons of Doba and Shabtai
                Etl Kaganovich – daughter of Shalom and Beyle; married to Khost Goldstein
                      Mirile and Doba – daughters of Etl and Khost
               Sonia Kaganovich – daughter of Shalom and Beyle; married to Chaim Kaganovich
                      Leah Kaganovich – daughter of Sonia and Chaim; married to Avi
                            Galit Kaganovich Weise – daughter of Leah and Avi
                     Arie Kaganovich – son of Sonia and Chaim
                     Shimon Kaganovich – son of Sonia and Chaim; married to Riki
                     Amir Kaganovich – son of Shimon and Riki
                     Benny Kaganovich – son of Sonia and Chaim; married to Orna
                             Rotem Kaganovich – son of Benny and Orna
               Feige Kaganovich – daughter of Shalom and Beyle
     Arie Kaganovich – son of Shimon and Beyle; married Leah
          Chana Kaganovich – daughter of Arie and Leah; married Meir Finger
          Yishayahu Kaganovich – son of Arie and Leah; married Henia
                     Leah Kaganovich – daughter of Yishayahu and Henia
          Chaim Kaganovich – son of Arie and Leah; married Sonia Kaganovich (first cousin; see above
                     Shlomo – son of Leah and second husband
     Leah Golda Kaganovich – daughter of Shimon and Beyle; married Shmuel Rubenstein
          Rose Rubenstein Einziger – daughter of Leah Golda and Shmuel
                     Laurie Einziger Bellet – daughter of Rose
                     Betty Rubenstein – daughter of Leah Golda and Shmuel
                     Sol Rubenstein – son of Leah Golda and Shmuel
                            Susan Rubenstein Schechet – daughter of Sol
          Louis Rubenstein – son of Leah Golda and Shmuel
    Herman Kaganovich (Cohn) – son of Shimon Dov and Beyle; married Libbie
          Leonard and Seymour Cohn – sons of Herman and Libbie

   Zelig Kost – nephew of Gishe Sore Kagan (see above); 2nd marriage to Shoshanna Buckerman
     Esther Kost – daughter of Zelig and first wife
     Estelle Kost – daughter of Zelig and Shoshanna
Moses (Moe) Rosenthal – brother of William Rosenthal(see above)
Masha Rosenthal Hammer – sister of William Rosenthal (see above)
Harry Raskin – brother of Anna Raskin (see above)
Tsipora Alperovich – a relative of Beyle Botwinik (see above)
Hayim Yehoshua Botwinik – brother of Beyle Botwinik; married to Esther
Yitzchak Senitski – brother of Shabtai Senitsky (see above)
Cousins of author – exact connection not clear: Sallie Cohen, married to Michael; Lenore Cohen, married to Marvin Sleisenger; Jeff Cohen; Dick Salwitz, married to Kathryn; Jay Epstein; Adrian Epstein; Rochelle Rogart; Chuck Cohen and son Laurence; Bert Cohen

Friends and Acquaintances
Jack Zizmor
George Horn
Harry Miller
Joe Feller
Al Siegel
Yitzhak and Leah Cohen
Israel Helprin
Jacob Gens          

Places
Voloztin
Rakov
Smargon
Krasnicki
Vilna
The forest at Ponar
Foehrenwald Displaced Persons Camp
Hoboken, NJ
NYC
Brooklyn
The Bronx
Lower East Side
Bayville
Kvutza Har Kinneret
Moshava Kinneret
Hertzliya
Kfar Vitkin
Tel Aviv
Stamford, Conn.
New Haven, Conn.
Seattle
Portland
Palm Beach, Florida

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

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

A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz 2005

" His memoir, in a translation that preserves the author’s gorgeous, discursive style and his love of wordplay, is a social history embedded within an autobiography." From a review in the New York Times by Boris Katchka

This panoramic memoir is a must-read for anyone interested in the daily life of Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe who settled in Palestine before statehood and lived there during the early years of Israel. Amos Oz, one of Israel’s greatest writers, uses the various configurations of his family to reveal their preoccupations, their interests, and their political arguments. The scenes he paints of them and their friends serve to introduce us to an important group of settlers, but the scenes also help to explain the world out of which Amos Oz, the child, the Israeli, and the writer emerge.

Having escaped Eastern Europe before WWII, Oz’s father’s family, the Klausners settled in Jerusalem; they were highly educated Zionists as well as scholars and poets. His mother’s family, the Mussmans, who arrived about the same time, chose to live in Haifa and Tel Aviv. They valued education as well (his mother and one of her sisters went to the University in Prague) but they had a different sense of themselves; they identified more as members of the proletariat and their Zionist politics were to the left of the Klausners. The two sides barely mixed.

Oz is a family historian, retelling many of the stories about his ancestors that he heard from family members on both sides. And then he tells his own stories: what it was like growing up as an only child in a family and community of multi-lingual refugee intellectuals. He describes what he remembers about both sets of grandparents and aunts and uncles. He gives us details of his education and his teachers, and what it was like to live amongst Arab residents.  He pays careful attention to his surroundings, describing in detail the streets and neighborhoods of the Jerusalem of his youth. And of course he details the political scene, including the drama surrounding statehood.

In the last part of the memoir he introduces us to Kibbutz Hulda where he persuaded his father to let him live after his mother died. That coincided with his changing his name from Klausner to Oz. Both contributed to his perceived need to break with the European refugee past that had defined his early upbringing and helped to redefine his identity as an Israeli.

Oz is a gifted writer. In this memoir he relies on photographs (not published except for one) to re-create scenes, and he quotes letters and journal entries. The memoir has an encyclopedic feel that is breathtaking. It has its comic moments as well as those that are deeply tragic. Amos Oz, observer and participant, provides many insights and pleasures for the reader in his skillful recreation of a world long gone.

To hear an interview with Amos Oz discussing his memoir click here.

People
Father’s Great grandmother’s Braz family
Rabbi Alexander Ziskind – author’s gggg  grandfather
    Rav Yossele Braz – his son; author’s ggg grandfather
        Alexander Ziskind Braz – his son; author’s gg grandfather
        Menahem Mendel Braz – his son; author’s gg uncle; wife Perla
            Rasha-Keila Braz – their daughter; author’s g grandmother

Author’s Klausner  family
Rav Gedaliah Klausner-Olkienicki
    Rav Kadish – his son
        Ezekiel Klausner – his son
                Yehuda Leib; his grandson– wife Rasha-Keila Braz;
                    Joseph – their son; author’s g uncle
                    Aunt Zippora  (Fanni Wernick)– Joseph’s wife
                        Haya Elitsedek – Joseph’s sister-in-law
                            Ariel – her son
                    Alexander-their son; author’s grandfather;
                    Shlomit Levin, Alexander’s wife; his 1st cousin
                    they had 6 children:
                        David (Zyuzia) –wife Malke (Macia)
                            Daniel (Danush) , their son
                            Yehudah Arieh (Lonia)– author’s father
                                Amos – author; his children:
                                    Fania
                                    Daniel Yehuda Arieh
                            Marganita –author’s half-sister
                            David – author’s half-brother
                        Bezalel
                        Sofia
                        Anna
                        Daria (Dvora) – husband Misha
                        Yvetta Radovskaya
                                Marina – her daughter
                                    Nikita – her son
        .
Mother’s father’s family
Herz and Sarah Mussman, author’s gg grandparents
    Ephraim – married Haya Duba; author’s g grandparents
        (Naphtali) Hertz (Gertz Yefremovich)– author’s grandfather
        Fania (Rivka, Zippora, Feiga, ) Mussman – author’s mother
        Haya (Nyusya)– married Tsvi Shapiro– author’s aunt and uncle
            Yigal – their son
        Sonia (Sarah) - married to Avraham (Buma) Gendelberg
        Jenny – married to Yasha
        Mikhail (Michael) – married Rakhil

Mother’s mother’s family
    Gedalia Shuster married Pearl Gibor – author’s great grandparents
        Itta Gedalyevna – author’s grandmother; married Naphtali Herz Mussman

Not relatives, but play a part in the story Oz tells
Mala and Staszek Rudnicki
Dr. Krumholtz
Dr. Issachar Reiss
Menahem Gelehrter
Zelda Schneersohn – married Chayim Mishkowsky
Matya and Gita Miudovnik
    Grisha - their son
Yakov-David and Zerta Abramski
    Yoni - their son
Israel and Esther Zarchi
    Nurit – their daughter
Hertz Meir Pisiuk
    Arie Leib- their son; married Rucha
        Hemi (Nechemia) – their son
Samuel Hugo Bergman
Oizer Huldai

Places
Olkieniki, Lithuania
Odessa
Trakai, Lithuania
Popishuk (Papishki), Lithuania
Rudnik, Poland
Trope, Ukraine
Rovno, Ukraine
Tachkemoni  school, Israel