In This Dark House by Louise Kehoe 1995

"An extraordinary, well-told story of a brutal childhood." from a review in Publisher's Weekly 10/1995

Louise Kehoe has written a suspenseful memoir that is difficult to discuss without giving the “ending” away. The cover of the soft cover edition states that this memoir won the National Jewish Book Award, so to some extent as you read, you suspect the outcome, but it isn’t until you get to the last fifty pages that the Jewish content is revealed and discussed.

The memoir focuses on Kehoe’s immediate family, but most specifically on her brilliant, mercurial, autocratic, abusive father, Berthold Lubetkin, a forward-thinking, well-respected architect. Lubetkin and his wife abandoned London in 1939 as World War II was revving up in England, relocating to a farm in rural England where they raised their three children and kept them isolated until each went off to college. Her father, who was both an atheist and a communist, when pressed, said he was a Russian immigrant, educated in Warsaw, the son of members of the nobility who lost everything in the Russian Revolution and that Lubetkin was an assumed name. That was all he would ever say about his background and family.

Over the years the author tried to pry more information out of her father who refused to cooperate except to write a short account of his life that seemed to aim at obfuscation. It wasn’t until he died – he outlived the author’s mother – that Kehoe was eventually able to unravel his story, based on documents and photos he left behind in a yellowing envelope that she found in the back of his closet.
Suffice to say that although her father’s background and circumstances do by no means totally explain his treatment of his wife and children, when we learn his story, we realize, as did the author, that his survivor’s guilt and his shame contributed to his behavior. He insisted on keeping secrets which tormented him – they were debilitating and they scarred those around him as well. This memoir reveals the impact of the Holocaust on multiple generations.

To read an article about the children of survivors, click here.
To see a short video about Lubetkin, the architect and his politics, click here.

People
The author states that some names have been changed to protect some individuals’ privacy. It is possible that her brother and sister’s first names are not their real names. It’s also possible that the author has changed the first name of her father’s cousin, Mira Aaronovna Lubetkin.

Roman and Fenya Lubetkin
     Berthold Lubetkin – son of Roman and Fenya
          Victoria Lubetkin – daughter of Berthold
           Louise Lubetkin Kehoe – daughter of Berthold
           Robert Lubetkin – son of Berthold
     Zivia Lubetkin – cousin of Berthold
Aaron Lubetkin – brother of Roman
    Mira Aaronovna Lubetkin – daughter of Aaron

Places
St. Petersburg, Russia
Warsaw, Poland
England
Brooklyn, NY
Massachusetts

 

UNorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots by Deborah Feldman 2012

"'Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots' by 25-year-old Deborah Feldman ... is painfully good. Through a narrative voice that is almost hypnotic, she puts you immediately in the center of her chaotic world." from a review by Elaine Margolin in JewishJournal.com 2/10/2012

A number of negative comments can be made about this memoir, starting with the title which sensationalizes the “scandalous” nature of the author’s narrative. But to focus on the negative is to miss the larger, quite compelling, story about the author’s childhood and adolescence and her struggle to leave the Satmar Hasidic community in which she was raised.

For those interested in the Satmar Hasidic community this memoir has a lot to offer, keeping in mind that it’s written by a disenchanted young woman who I think would say feels traumatized by her upbringing. Drawing from her own experiences, Feldman discusses how women are raised and treated within the Satmar religious community. The restrictions and expectations are limiting, and Feldman, a questioning child, found herself frequently in trouble at school. At 17 she entered into an arranged marriage and  she describes the highly ritualized process of meeting her future husband’s mother, then the occasion of meeting her future husband, then the tradition of gift-giving, then the role of the mikvah, then the wedding itself, then the marriage.

Her marriage was hollow. There was no place in her marriage or in the community for her to satisfy her hunger to explore and experience the world, especially the world of the mind, because the needs of the community took precedence over the needs of any individual. So, after five years of marriage and one child, she left. Beyond her own needs, she felt strongly that she provide her son with opportunities he would not have had if he had grown up a Satmar Hasid.

Feldman includes a disclaimer at the beginning of the memoir that states that all identifying names and characteristics have been changed and some events conflated and transposed to honor people’s privacy, but she also includes many family photos which probably are only identifiable within the Satmar community. Despite the disclaimer, she has been called to task by members of the Satmar community who have pointed out inaccuracies and who call her motives into question, emphasizing that the picture she paints of the community is one-sided and, therefore, distorted. But Feldman calls it as she sees it, and it’s understandable that she would ruffle many feathers.

Although the author is critical of much of the beliefs and behavior within the community, she tries to understand her grandparents who raised her, and she agrees with those who feel that the contemporary Hasidic way of life is, to some degree, a reaction to the heavy losses in their community during World War II. Satmars take to heart the belief promulgated within the community that the Holocaust was a punishment from God because so many Jews had strayed from a devout religious life. It is clear that the author feels that this belief, often repeated by teachers in schools, has the effect of further insolating and isolating its adherents.

To read an article in the New York Times about Hasidic Jews and clothing traditions, click here.

To watch a three-part of a video of a Satmar wedding when the Grand Rebbe engages in a ritualized dance with the bride - his youngest daughter , click here for part 1.  Click here for part 2. Click here for part 3. The three together add up to less than a half an hour.

People
There are no names to list as all names, except the author’s, have been changed.

Places
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
Kiryas Joel, New York

Great House by Nicole Krauss 2010 (fiction)

"Great House is a smart, serious, sharply written novel of great care and yearning." from a review by Patrick Ness in The Guardian 2/19/2011

Nicole Krauss’s latest novel is a profoundly Jewish book. One way to interpret Krauss’s Great House is to see it as a novel whose subject is how history, but most specifically Jewish history, shaped the lives of her characters.  This is not an easy novel. Krauss constructs four distinct but interconnected stories. Each story is divided into two chapters, but the two chapters of each story are not placed side by side. She adds to the reader’s difficulty in following each strand by introducing characters with similar names. One of her narrators is named Arthur; another narrator is named Aaron. There’s an important character named Lotte in one strand and another named Leah in a separate strand. There is a Dov and a Daniel in two different strands.  But these confusions serve a purpose: They help blur the distinctions of plot and character and force us to ask the question: Why did she make these choices?

By making it difficult to keep track of various characters and plots we’re more likely to see them less as distinct individuals, but more as just slight permutations - threads in the strands that make up the tapestry of a traumatizing Jewish history. They all live “now” but their stories range over time and they all have been formed and scarred by historical events, most especially events of Jewish history. The narrator of one of the threads talks about his growing up in Budapest and being routed out by the Nazis in 1944. His father died on a death march. Another character in a different strand tries to puzzle out his wife’s behavior in light of her having been born in Nurenberg and of her having been part of the kindertransport to England. She never saw her parents again. In a third story that takes place in Israel the narrator’s sons go off to fight in Israel’s Yom Kippur war. In another, the narrator tells us about her involvement with a Chilean Jewish poet who went back to Chile and died under Pinochet’s regime fighting the dictatorship.

Characters are haunted by the past. Ghosts appear in dreams and float into everyday life. Krauss's narrators make allusions to people and events in Jewish history that stretch all the way back to Biblical history and forward into recent Israeli history. For example, there are mentions of Molech, Bar Kochba, the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, Moshe Dayan. Readers who are interested in an exploration through the medium of fiction of the psychic burden that a history of loss has exacted and continues to exact on the Jewish people are urged to read Nicole Krauss’s Great House.

To read an interview with Nicole Krauss discussing Great House, click here.

Memories of Survival by Esther Nisenthal Krinitz and Bernice Steinhardt 2005

Winner of the Sydney Taylor Honor Award for Older Readers in 2006, awarded by The Sydney Taylor Book Award Committee of the Association of Jewish Libraries

Memories of Survival is a book of fascinating artwork and narration created by the Holocaust survivor Esther Nisenthal Krinitz (b. 1927) to present to viewers and readers scenes from her life between the years 1937 to 1949. In the Introduction, her daughter Bernice Steinhardt writes that her mother felt compelled to tell the stories of what happened to her family repeatedly, even trying to write them out in English and Yiddish. But it wasn’t until she turned to art at the age of 50 that she was really able to convey what happened in a way that is suitably dramatic and emotionally engaging.

Bernice Steinhardt writes that her mother learned how to sew at the age of eight and was expected to become a seamstress. Because of her training and talent, she brought to her artwork a skill in needlework that she exploited to the fullest, using the techniques of embroidery and fabric collage to create each intricately detailed panel.

The panels narrate the story of the round-up of the Jews in the small town of Mniszek in Poland and how she, at the age of 13, and her younger sister fled into the forest and disguised themselves as Christian peasants. When they were liberated by the Russians, they lived in a displaced person’s camp where each of the two sisters, the only survivors in their family, married survivors. Esther Nisenthal Krinitz and her family came to America in 1949 and settled in New York where she died in 2001 at the age of 74.

This book is published under the imprint of Hyperion Books for Children. The School Library Journal has classified it as a Young Adult book suitable for grade 6-9, and on one level this is a picture book with limited text which makes it easy for children to read. Esther Nisenthal Krinitz hand-stitched a date and a few sentences to describe each panel and the book reproduces those captions for each panel in larger print  with commentary written by her daughter that fleshes out some of the details. However, like in all books for young readers, you do not get the larger complex historical picture.

The art work is also accessible to young readers, even though the panels are sophisticated works of art and would appeal to viewers of all ages. Though intricate in their construction, they have a primitive quality that recalls the Eden-like innocence of childhood. Early scenes from before the war recreate the bucolic setting of her childhood - family and community immersed in farm activities and seasonal Jewish holiday celebrations. But even as the evil of Nazism takes over, the vibrancy of the country setting is ever present. The Nazis were agents of death and destruction. They destroyed the Jewish community and tainted the landscape with their concentration camps (the panel that depicts the Maidenek concentration camp has almost no vegetation), but they did not destroy the artist’s memory of the vibrancy of the natural surroundings and the nature-centered human activity that stand in opposition to the unnatural, monstrous acts of the Nazis.

The family has set up an organization that circulates the artwork for educational purposes. To read about the goals of the organization and more about Esther Nisenthal Krinitz as well as to see all of the panels, click here.

People
Chaim  – author/artist’s  grandfather (It’s not clear whether maternal or paternal)
    Hersh Nisenthal – married Rachel Prizant
        Esther – Hersh and Rachel’s daughter; married Max Krinitz; author/artist
            Bernice – daughter of Esther and Max; married to Bruce Steinhardt; author/writer
                Rachel and Simon – children of Bernice and Bruce   
            Helene – daughter; of Esther and Max; married Jack McQuade
                John Henry – son of Helene and Jack
        Mania  – Hersh and Rachel’s daughter; married Lipa
            Harry and Rachel - children of Mania
        Ruven Nisenthal – Hersh and Rachel’s son
        Chana Nisenthal – Hersh and Rachel’s daughter
        Leah Nisenthal – Hersh and Rachel’s daughter

Places
The following places are all in Poland:
Mniszek
Rachow
Goscieradow
Krasnik
Dombrowa
Ksiezomierz
Grabowka
Janiszow prison camp
Maidenek concentration camp

In My Brother’s Image: Twin Brothers separated by Faith after the Holocaust by Eugene L. Pogany, 2000

 "Pogany's haunting memoir of his Jewish father and Catholic priest uncle, the twins of the title, presents an intimate perspective on Jewish-Catholic relations over nearly a century in his family's native Hungary." from a review in Crosscurrents by Sally Walters, 2001

Eugene Pogany (born in 1951) has a fascinating family story to tell and this memoir reads like a novel. After World War I in Hungary Pogany’s Jewish paternal grandparents both converted to Catholicism and their children, identical twin boys and their younger sister, were raised as practicing Catholics. Their father, Bela, had converted to make it easier to get a civil service position, but the church became the focus of their mother Gabriella’s life. One twin, Gyorgy, grew up and became a priest; the other, Miklos, married a distant cousin who identified as a Jew. Miklos is the father of the author.

Pogany sets up this story in great detail to prepare the reader for what happened next: when World War II broke out the priest managed to get to Italy where he was protected by the church. Miklos, the author’s father, was originally forced to work in a labor detail made up of converts but was eventually transported to Bergen-Belsen where his wife was also a prisoner. The twins’ father, Bela, died before the war. Their mother, Gabriella was gassed at Auschwitz. Several witnesses said she was transported to Auschwitz clutching her crucifix.

The author’s parents miraculously survived the camp and eventually they moved to New Jersey in the 1950’s as did Gyorgy where he became a parish priest. By then the author’s father had reclaimed his Jewish religion, and the rest of the memoir deals with the tense relationship between the two adult brothers because of their opposing views on religion and their different experiences during the war. Neither understood the other. Miklos was bitter because he felt Gyorgy had been sheltered from the war in convenient ignorance of what was happening to the Jews and there was minimal outcry from the Church. At the same time Gyorgy could not get past the fact that his twin’s soul was in jeopardy because he no longer believed in Jesus as his savior.

The author, a practicing psychotherapist, makes insightful observations about the uneasy relationship between his father and his uncle. Their relationship fascinated him. He was especially troubled by what they did not talk about, the sorrow and tension that mysteriously hung in the air. This ties in to a discussion of aspects of his relationship with his father. Like the children of many Holocaust survivors, Pogany grew up in a house with many silences; he knew that certain subjects – like what happened to his grandmother - were off-limits.
Pogany concludes by delving into the subject of grief. He travels to Hungary first with his family and then just with his father, locating the site of his father’s grief in Svarzas, the small town where his father had last lived with his parents before the war.

Earlier in the story, to bring the characters to life, Pogany re-creates conversations and imagined motivations between ancestors he had never met (his grandparents, for example) that often seem self-consciously novelistic. He explains his motivation in his introduction, stating that though he was obviously not privy to the private moments of their lives, he felt comfortable re-creating them since he knew that the circumstances surrounding these conversations and private musings were not fiction. However, in these last chapters when Pogany becomes a character in the story, when, as an adult, he tries to get to know both his uncle and his father, the language flows, the emotions and conversations ring true.

Pogany has woven a lot of the history of the Jewish population in Hungary leading up to and during World War II seamlessly into his memoir as well as research on the role of the Catholic Church during World War II. He includes explanatory notes for each chapter and also includes photos.

To read an interesting article about Raoul Wallenberg and his mission to save Jews in Budapest click here.

People
Regina Pogany – Bela’s mother
    Bela Pogany (former Popper); married Gabriella Groszman; had grandfather named Adolph
        Gyorgy (Gyuri, George) Pogany – son of Bela and Gabriella;  twin of Miklos
        Miklos Pogany–son of Bela and Gabriella; twin Gyorgy; marries cousin Margit, daughter of Elizabeth
            Peter Pogany - son of Bela and Gabriella
            Eugene Pogany – son of Bela and Gabriella; married Judy; author
                    Ben and Elias Pogany - sons of Eugene and Judy
            Klari (Ellen) Pogany-daughter of Bela and Gabriella; married Max
    Laura Pogany –daughter of Regina; married to Karoly (Karl) Schneider
    Louie Pogany - son of Regina
    Koroli (Karcsi , Eddie) Pogany – son of Regina
Bertha – Regina’s sister; married to Henrik
    Elizabeth (Elza) – daughter of Bertha and Henrik; married to Laszlo (Lester) Deutsch
        Margit (Muci)- daughter of Elizabeth and Laszlo; marries cousin Miklos Pogany
    Rosi- daughter of Bertha and Henrik
    Josi – son of Bertha and Henrik; married to Mariska
        Laszlo (Laci) and Kroly (Kari) – sons of Josi and Mariska
    Charles – son of Bertha and Henrik; married Helen
   
Gyorgy Szanto – cousin of Miklos Pogany
Sigmund Popper – uncle from Vienna
Sigmund Berenyi - uncle
Robert Buday - relative

Morris Groszman –  married to Rosa (his second wife); Gabriella’s step-mother
David Deutsch – grandfather of Margit
    Laszlo – his son; husband of Elizabeth
   Alexander – his son; married to Munci
   Arpad – his son

Bela Kun
Tibor Szamuely
Miki Maier
Agi Gelb

Places
Budapest, Hungary
Galgocz, Slovakian region of Austro- Hungarian Empire
Barand, Hungary
Kondoros, Hungary
Szarvas, Hungary
Szeged, Hungary
Kormocz
Esztergom
Hosszupalyi
Vac, Hungary
Bor, Czech Republic
Szolnok, Hungary
Szentkiralyszabadja, Hungary
Bergen-Belsen, Germany
Auschwitz, Poland
Raguhn, Germany
Theresienstadt, Czech Republic
Neu-Hillersleben, Germany
Dresden, Germany
Gothenburg, Sweden
East Orange, New Jersey
Newark, New Jersey
Irvington, New Jersey
Sydney, Australia

The Net of Dreams: A Family's Search for a Rightful Place by Julie Salamon 1996

 New York Times Notable Book and winner of Ohioana Book Award 1997

In this engaging memoir written by a journalist who is the child of Holocaust survivors, the author seeks to understand more about her parents who she felt she never really knew. Like the children of many survivors, Julie Salamon grew up in an environment of silence. Her father never talked to her about his experiences and her mother never went below the surface in telling abbreviated versions of what happened to her. What confused Salamon in particular was her mother’s cheerfulness in the face of having been a prisoner in Auschwitz where she had lost both of her parents as well as having lost other relatives in the war.

The memoir opens with Julie Salamon and her now-widowed mother and her mother’s second husband, also a survivor, making a trip to Auschwitz and to her mother’s childhood home in Huzst, formerly in Czechoslovakia, coincidently when Steven Spielberg was filming Schindler’s List. Salamon is concerned the entire time that the trip would be too traumatic for her mother, that her mother will be sorry she came, but the trip does prove to be a catalyst for conversation and the author taped her mother as she narrated in bits and pieces the story of her life, both while they were in Europe and once they were home.

Her mother’s story includes her father’s story. She had known him before the war in Huzst when he already was a doctor and married to another Huzst girl. He lost his first wife and young daughter in the war, a fact that Julie Salamon found out by accident when she was a child. Throughout his life his father never mentioned it. Her mother described their stay in post-war Prague and then their trip to America, only made possible because an uncle was already established in New York. Her mother explained how they ended up in Seaman, Ohio, south of  Cincinnati near the Kentucky border where they were the only Jews in town and where Salamon was born and lived for the first eighteen years of her life. There her father had a rewarding career as a small town doctor. Her mother liked small-town living as well; they felt safe. They felt they had a future.

It’s clear that through learning more about her parents’ lives the author has gained a better understanding of what they had been through. This in turn helped her to better understand her upbringing and seems to have brought her closer to her widowed mother.

For information about the Jewish history in Khust click here.

To read a 2/18/11 New York Times article on current thoughts about the need for new kinds of exhibitions at Auschwitz written by Michael Kimmelman, click here.

 

People
Author’s mother’s family
Julia Weiss – author’s great-grandmother
    Berthe Weiss – Julia’s daughter; married Nathan Rapaport; author’s grandmother
    ? Weiss – Julia’s daughter; married ? Frischmann
    Herman Weiss – Julia’s son
    Matyi (Marty) Weiss – Julia’s son; married Anna
Gedalya Rapaport – Nathan’s father; author’s maternal great-grandfather
        Erzsi Rapaport – Berthe and Nathan’s daughter; married Laci
        Rozsi Rapaport – Berthe and Nathan’s daughter; married Franz Winkelsberg
            Ilana Siman-Tov– Rozsi and Franz's  daughter
        Gyula Rapaport – Berthe and Nathan’s son
        Lilly “Szimi” Rapaport – Berthe and Nathan’s daughter; author’s mother;
        Alexander (Sanyi) Salamon – Lilly’s first husband
            Julia Marlene – Lilly and Alexander’s daughter; married Bill Abrams; author
                Roxie and Eli – their children
            Suzanne Eva – Lilly and Sanyi’s daughter; married Alan Einhorn
                Alexandra and David – their children
        Joseph (Hilu) Rapaport – Lilly’s brother
    Arthur Salcmon – second husband of Lilly Rappaport; author’s step-father
    Zhoffka Salcmon – Arthur’s sister; author’s step-aunt
        Otto –her son; married to Marcella
Olga Krofta – a cousin

Author’s father’s family
Marcus Salamon – married Sally Salamon; author’s grandparents
    Louis Salamon– Marcus and Sally's son
        Pityu Salaway (formerly Salamon)– Louis’ son
    Jani Salamon – Marcus and Sally's son
    Bela Salamon–  Marcus and Sally's son
        Mark Salamon - Bela's son
    Fanci Salamon – Marcus and Sally's daughter
        Erzsika – Fanci’s daughter
    Alexander (Sanyi) Salamon – married Anna Lazarovics (1st wife)
            Eva – their daughter
    Lilly Rapaport – married Alexander Salamon; author’s parents (see above)
        Aliska – Alexander Salamon’s niece
            Marsha – Aliska’s daughter
        Miki Hermel – Alexander’s nephew; married Erzsi
        Baba Feierstein– Alexander’s niece (daughter of a sister); married to Michael Schlanger
            David and Tommy–their sons

Bernie Adler – Steven Spielberg’s step-father
Arnold Spielberg – Steven Spielberg’s father
    Steven Spielberg – married and divorced Amy Irving; married Kate Capshaw
        Max – son of Steven Spielberg and Amy Irving
        Sasha, Sawyer, Theo (adopted) - children of Spielberg and Kate Capshaw
Leopold Schragge
Miri Fabian
Branko Lustig
Bozsi Landau
Olga, Tibor, and Otto Mermelstein - siblings
Willie Schwartz
Nadia Heinrich
Zeldi, Baszi, and Jossi Schafar – siblings
Pityu Klein
Sam Gendelman

Places
Auschwitz, Poland
Dachau, Poland
Mauthausen, Austria
Bergen-Belsen, Germany
Buchenwald, Germany
Birkenau, Germany
Huszt (Khust), now in Ukraine
Bratislava, Slovak Republic
Podkarpatska Rus, former Czechoslovakia
Skarzysko, Poland
Lager Novaky, former Czechoslovakia
Topolcany, former Czechoslovakia
Volove, Ukraine
Satu-Mare, Romania
Uzhhorod, Ukrain
Brno, former Czechoslovakia
Beregszaz, Ukraine
Prague, former Czechoslovakia
Kiskoros, Hungary
Kamenets-Podolski, Ukraine
Kassa, (now Kolice), former Czechoslovakia
Zittau, Germany
Szigetvar, Hungary
Homok, Hungary
Kis Begany, Hungary
Nagy Begany, Hungary
Long Beach, New York
Miami Beach, Florida
The Milky Way, Hollywood, California
Seaman, Ohio
Manchester, Ohio
Avondale, Cincinnati, Ohio
Lima, Peru

Displaced Persons: Growing Up American After the Holocaust by Joseph Berger 2001

"This absorbing, deeply moving memoir artfully dramatizes how children of survivors are pulled back by a powerful undertow of sorrow toward their parents, toward the past, toward questions of Jewish identity, even as they paddle out gratefully into the American mainstream." From a review in the New York Times by Jonathan Rosen in April, 2001

Joseph Berger, a journalist with the New York Times, writes an engrossing memoir about immigrating to America with his family in 1950 from a DP camp, and what it was like growing up the child of Holocaust survivors steeped in a refugee/survivor community in New York City: the loving but overprotective parents, the insular community. We see the author and his friends who are the sons of immigrants helping their parents negotiate the geography and culture of America as they find their way in a new country and city, try to adapt to a new way of life, learn English, and scramble to feed hungry mouths.

In writing his memoir, Berger was especially lucky to have a memoir his mother wrote to draw from in which she detailed what it was like growing up in pre-war Poland, what it was like surviving the Holocaust, living through the war, living in a DP camp, and then immigrating to America.

The author quotes extensively from her memoir, so, as a result, two generations have their say: parent and child.  The immediacy of his mother’s prose has a far greater effect on the reader than if Berger had merely used it as background material, or had summarized or paraphrased what he learned from reading her memoir.


This memoir contains many photos.

To learn more about Otwock, Poland, click here.

Names
Author’s mother’s mother’s family:
Israel Zelig Olszewski – the author's maternal great grandfather
    Chana Leah - his daughter
    Sheindele Oszewski – his daughter
    Peseh Tutel Olszewski -  his daughter; married Joshua Galant; author's grandmother
        Rachel  – their daughter; author’s mother; married Marcus Berger
            Joseph (Israel) - author; married Brenda     
                Annie- their daughter
            Joshua Solomon  – author’s brother; married Fay
            Evelyn – author’s sister; married to James Hartman
                Jacob Solomon and Alisa– children of Evelyn and James
            Ivor Shapiro – brother-in-law of author (Fay’s brother?)

        Simcha  Warszawiak– Peseh Tutel’s son from 1st marriage; Rachel’s half-brother
        Freyda Leah  – Peseh Tutel’s daughter from 1st marriage; Rachel’s half sister; husband Leo
        Yasha Golant– son of Peseh Tutel and Joshua Golant; Rachel’s brother; wife Anne
             Benny,Joey,  and Esther – Yasha and Anne’s children
        Yossie (Yosef) – son of Joshua Golant’s 1st marriage; Rachel’s half brother

Author’s mother’s father’s family
Binyomin Golant – author’s  paternal great grandfather
    Joshua Golant – author’s grandfather; married 3 times (see above)
    Bluma Golant – Joshua Golant’s 3rd wife; cousin of his late wife Peseh Tutel
        Esther – daughter of Joshua and Bluma; author’s mother’s half sister
        Chana Leah – daughter of Joshua and Bluma; author’s mother’s half sister
        Shimon – son of Joshua and Bluma; author’s mother’s half brother
    Noma – widow of Bluma’s brother; 
     Deborah Golant – Joshua’s sister; married to Shmuel
    Sarah Golant – Joshua’s sister
    Jonah Feigenbaum – married to Sarah Golant; 2nd marriage to Kyla
        Samuel, Abraham, and Rachelke – their children
    Yossel Golant – Joshua’s brother – married Fredzia
    Yudel Golant – Joshua’s brother; married to Fela,
         Schmeil and Blima (Barbara) – their children

        Marcus Berger – author’s father; married Rachel Golant
    Morris Eisman – author’s father’s maternal uncle; married to Tessie
    Fanny Lessen – Tessie Eisman’s sister; married to Sydney Lessen

Friends and Acquaintances
Mordchale Weinberg –  married to Saba
    David Weinberg – their son
Moishe Granas
    Clara and Jackie – his daughters   
Simon Cooperman and Norma Cooperman
    Sol and Charlie – their sons
Moishe Erlich and Shayve Erlich
Sam and Fela Herling
    Simon Herling – son of Sam and Fela
Fred and Gerta Levy .
    Susan Levy – their daughter
Dickie Hochstein
Marvin Schencker
Howard Moses
Jay Zimmern
Rabbi Samson Brodsky
Rabbi Macy Gordon
Henry Laufer
City College friends: Clyde Haberman, Sue Solet, Ralph Blumenthal, Ralph Dannheiser
(all future journalists)


Places and Institutions
Borinya, Galacia
Otwock, Poland
Mordy, Poland
Siemiatycze,Poland
Brest Litovsk, Poland
Lutsk,Ukraine
Lvov, Ukraine
Lys’va Russia
Nalewki St, Warsaw
Schlactensee DP canp in Berlin
Ponary outside Vilna
The Upper West Side of Manhattan in the 50’s:
The South Bronx, 62 102nd St.
Alabama Ave., Brownsville section of Brooklyn
HIAS
NYANA
Manhattan Day School
Loeb Home, Rockland County, NY
Ohab Zedek, W 95th St, NYC
Tifereth Beth Jacob, the Bronx
YMHA day camp, 165th St
Cejwin Camps of Port Jervis
Bronx High School of Science
Yeshiva Univ. School for Boys
Catskill bungalow colonies
City College CUNY
Treblinka

My Father's Roses: A Family's Journey from World War I to Treblinka by Nancy Kohner 2006

"[A]n evocative story of three generations, a portrait of a lost age, and a loving tribute to her father and her grandparents, Heinrich and Valerie." From a review by Micheline Wander in the Jewish Chronicle, July, 2008

Nancy Kohner, born in 1950, grew up in Bradford, a city in Northern England, the daughter of a Protestant English mother and a Jewish central European immigrant father. Kohner was always fascinated by her father’s background. When she was young she did not know he was Jewish, but eventually she learned that he was and that he and his brother were refugees from Czechoslovakia who arrived in 1939. She also learned that her grandmother had died in a concentration camp.

After her father died Kohner methodically went through a treasure trove of documents left behind. Besides legal and business documents, her father Rudi and his brother Franz kept all the family letters they had received as well as copies of the letters they had sent. In addition, Kohner was lucky to have family diaries and family photos. In preparation for writing this book she also traveled with her daughter to her father’s hometown of Podersam, Czechoslovakia.

Kohner uses the letters sent back and forth between members of the family to tell their story. And she includes her own commentary which is a combination of her own feelings about and reactions to the material, her suppositions and her analysis.  Kohner’s grandparents had sent their children off to school outside of their small town, so she has letters to draw on from the time the children were barely in their teens. The first letter she includes is one from 1909 to Franz who has just gone away at school. The last letter she includes is from her grandmother to her sons Franz and Rudi in England, written July 12, 1942. She was transported to Theresienstadt on July 16. She was gassed in Treblinka.

Reading the letters provides us with a very intimate portrait of a family who were well-educated, cultured, German-speaking Podersam merchants. It is a valuable social history of the times. A fascinating section of the story is devoted to Franz’s service in World War I. Through the letters we get a glimpse of what it was like in the trenches and at the Italian front, and what provisions his parents were sending him. In his letters he sought to allay their fears. We read in detail about happy times too: Rudi’s bar mitzvah and Franz’s engagement. And many letters are about the business – and business problems during both wars having to do with limited merchandise and, during World War II, restrictive laws imposed on Jewish residents.

This book includes a very interesting prologue by Nancy Kohner’s daughter Bridget McGing who is a historian who became totally absorbed in this family material her mother shared with her. She explains that her mother lived with this material for many years and finally managed to finish the last chapter one month before she died of breast cancer in 2006.

To read a short history of the Jews of Czechoslovakia, click here.

People
Author's family on paternal grandfather's side
Moises – author’s paternal great great grandfather
    Abraham Kohner –his son; married Marie; author’s great grandparents
    Mann – Marie’s brother; lived in Nachod
        Heinrich Kohner -  Abraham and Marie's son;  married Valerie Herrmann; author's grandparents
            Franz Kohner – their son; author’s uncle
            Rudolph Kohner – their son; author’s father
        Eduard – son of Abraham and Marie; married Luisa
        Anna – daughter of Abraham and Marie; married to Max
            Hans and Victor – their sons
        Emma – daughter of Abraham and Marie
        Julie - daughter of Abraham and Marie

Family on author's paternal grandmother's side
    Jakob Herrmann – married Berte; author's great grandparents
           Valerie (Walli) – daughter or Jakob and Berte; marries Heinrich Kohner; author’s grandmother
                 Franz Joseph Kohner – oldest son of Heinrich and Valerie; married Edith Geduldiger
                       Dinah, Ruth, William - children of Franz and Edith
                 Berta Elise – daughter of Henreich and Valerie; married Adolf Girschick
                       Elsbeth Maria Valerie - their daughter
                 Rudolph  Oscar (Rudi) – son of Heinrich and Valerie; married Olive Britton ; author’s parents
                       Nancy – author
                           Daniel, Bridget McGing, Grace - author's children
           Oscar - son of Jakob and Berte
           Kamill –  son of Jakob and Berte; married to Friederike
                Heinrich and Elizabeth – the children of Kamill and Friederike
          Adele – daughter of Jakob and Berte; married Herrmann Mandl
          Franz - son of Jakob and Berte
          Anna - daughter of Jakob and Berte
          Karl –son of Jakob and Berte; married Else
          Ida – daughter of Jakob and Berte; married Otto Robitschek
    Anna Ehrlich – Berte’s sister
          Hugo - her son

Olga Krafft – Valerie Herrrmann Kohner’s cousin; married to Rudolf  
 Klara – Valerie’s Herrmann Kohner’s cousin; married to Alfred Kraus
Karolina – grandmother of Edith Geduldiger, wife of Franz Kohner
Marketa and Zdenka – aunts of Edith Geduldiger, wife of Franz Kohner
      

Friends and Acquaintances
Karl Kussi
Rabbi Rudolf Rychnovsky – married Marie
    Ernst – their son
Annie Wiener
Walter Mulstein
Friedrich Lowy
Rabbi Ignatz and Charlota Duschak
Rabbi Deutsch
Moritz Bandler
Victor Gruenwald
Anna Pick
    Hansi  and Suse – her daughters
Gustav Hirsch
Ida Hirsch
Alois and Emilie Kohn
Adolf Kohn
Wilhelmine Pollak
    Alice and Edita – her daughters
Moritz Popper
Hugo and Alice Muhlstein
Anna Stein

Places
Libotschan, Bohemia
Podersam, Bohemia (Czechoslovakia)
Saaz, Czechoslovakia
Prague, Czechoslovakia

Teutschenrust, Czechoslovakia
Bad Gastein, Austria
Habrovan, Czechoslovakia
Kolpenice, Czechoslovakia
Koldichev, Belarus
Baranovichi, Belarus
Tachau, Czechoslovakia
Bilin, Czechoslovakia
Brux, Czechoslovakia
Grafenberg, Germany
Piwana, Czechoslovakia
Pilsen, Czechoslovakia
Nachod, Czechoslovakia
Trautenau, Czechoslovakia
Bela, Czechoslovakia