May Their Memories Be For A Blessing

 

      There is a sad truth to the family histories of most Ashkenazi Jews. One or more ancestors perished in the Holocaust. Any family tree that has multiple people dying in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s in countries like Poland, Germany, Lithuania, and Hungary reflects the tragedy of man’s inhumanity to man. My family tree is no exception. 

      My father’s mother came from Eishoshok, a town in Lithuania about 45 miles south of Vilna. Eishoshok was a center of Jewish learning and many yeshivot were located there. In September of 1941 the Nazis arrived and massacred 4000 Jews and among them, several of my relatives. Some people escaped. Leon Kahn, my grandmother’s first cousin was a witness to the murders and stole away from Eishoshok with members of his family. He was the only one who survived. His experiences are chronicled in the book “No Time to Mourn.” There are pictures of some of my family members that were victimized hanging on the walls of the Eishoshok display in the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. Here is a picture of Leon Kahn with cousin Judy Baston and one other person in front of the Eishoshok exhibition. 


 

        My great grandmother, Tsiril Kaganovitch nee Kantrovich had come to the United States but decided to go back to Europe. My father told me that he remembers the argument between her and my grandfather (her son in law) and he was begging her not to go back. She did return and I’m not sure what happened to her there. I have not yet done any research on any of the sites that pertain to victims of the holocaust. I’m afraid that the sadness of what I will discover there will be overwhelming to me.      

      A cousin in Israel recently posted a story of some of my Pasternak relatives. Jacob Pasternak, the brother of my great grandfather Moishe, emigrated to Israel in 1933 with his wife Rachel. They had 6 children and sons Meir and Moshe went with them. Their son, Elimelach followed them to Israel but Jacob and Rachel returned to Poland to attend to their daughters, Golda and Pearl Blima, and their son Smuele. They were arrested by the Nazis and they all died in Treblinka. Elimelach, who was a rabbi in Petah Tikva, dedicated a plaque for them in his synagogue. 

 


Here is a list of all of the people in my tree that perished in the Holocaust. These are only the ones that I know about. I am sure there are more. 

Abel,Altke, Chasa, Eli, Leib, Meir, Moshe, Moshe, Motl, Samuel, and Sorke Bastunski.

Moshe and Rachelle Kaplan Moshe Yitzchak, Perla Blima, Shmuel Yitchak, and Yankel (Jacob) Pasternak

Rivka Rudzian

Shmeil Rybak 

Gucia, Laibke Lebus, and Shmulie Wajchendler 

Rachel Wajn

 Rucha Zilbeberg 

 Pearl Blima Starkman

 May their memories be for a blessing. Never again.

Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 1, 2020 at 12:36 PM

    Beautiful, Sid...The other person in the picture with Leon Kahn and me is Leon's daughter Hodie Kahn (now Hodie Kahn Smordon).

    Judy Baston

    ReplyDelete

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