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I'm honoring the memory of my great-grandparents and their family who lived in Karlovy Vary, Czechoslovakia.  My great-grandfather died from consequences of diabetes when he could not get access to insulin in the early days of the war (1940).  My great-grandmother was deported to an unknown concentration camp in 1942.  Their daughter Elsa and her husband Robert and sons Kurt and Rudolf were deported to Terezín and Maly Trostenets in 1942. Their daughter Frieda and her husband Leo Schwager and sons Werner and Fritz were deported in 1942 to an unknown destination. Their daughter Hilda and her husband Jindřich Lampl and daughter Edith were deported (details unknown). Their son Ernst and his wife Paula Benesch were deported (details unknown).

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I'm honouring the memory of my great-grandparents Mordke/Markus and Klara Kreindl/Chaja Süß, originally from Poland, who moved with their young family to Vienna, from where they were deported.

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Mitzi Šchenk and Helga Šchenk from Czechoslovakia

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Mitzi Šchenk and Helga Šchenk from Czechoslovakia

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I'm remembering my grandfather's first wife and daughter who lived in Czechoslovakia and perished at Auschwitz via Terezin.  I don't know anything about them as I was forbidden to speak of them.

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Gittel Linsk Fuchs, 3 of her 4 children, and her sister Zelda Linsk; Zelda's husband Chas (Kahat) Katz,

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Gittel Linsk Fuchs, 3 of her 4 children, and her sister Zelda Linsk; Zelda's husband Chas (Kahat) Katz,

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Demidovka (Demydivka), Ukraine, USSR

Killed in Nazi massacre of our hometown Demidovka (Demydivka), Ukraine. Gittel and Zelda were sisters of my maternal great-great-grandmother Fanny Ethel (Feiga Eta) Linsk Himelfarb, born in Demidovka and died in Baltimore 1949. In all, 10 persons from my mother's family (through her mother) were killed. Did not learn this part of my family history until I was in my 30s.

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My great great grandmother who died at Auschwitz with four daughters

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After the war she spent time in Sweden.

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Germany

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They were each married with a family, lost their families, and started over after the war. They were my brother-in-law's parents, and he was born in a displaced persons' camp. They went to Israel, where he grew up. He became an Israeli shot-putter, and held the Israeli record for several years. He had planned to be in Munich at the Olympics the year the Israeli team was murdered. Very fortunately, he didn't go.

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Grossman, Czyzyk, Kalmanowsky, and Pokorsky families (our parents, grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles)

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Grossman, Czyzyk, Kalmanowsky, and Pokorsky families (our parents, grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles)

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I'm only just learning about her story. She is in a hospital in Baltimore, and we at the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library are working on potentially creating a program where she will display her art in July in the fire station that Baltimore gave to her for $1 to show her art. I'm learning more about all of this.

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I don’t know the names of my relatives who perished on the shoah

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I don’t know the names of my relatives who perished on the shoah

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A part of Poland that is now Ukraine , Lutsk or lvov

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Russian Ukraine

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My parents, Josef and Nadja Schonthal and members of the Katz, Lamm, and Schonthal families.

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My parents, Josef and Nadja Schonthal and members of the Katz, Lamm, and Schonthal families.

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Poland -- My parents were childhood sweethearts who found each other at the end of the war in Bergen-Belsen.  Married in 1946 & came to the US in 1950.

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Poland

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Poland -- She was the only sister in a family of six children. She had 5 older brothers. She stayed with her mother when the war began and the two of them were murdered together in Chelmno.

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Latvia

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Łódź Poland ---  He survived to see another generation, and I will always honor his legacy and share his story with others in the spirit of remembrance and love.

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Born in Lodz, Poland. Survived the Lodz Ghetto, Bergen-Belsen, Auschwitz. Was never able to speak about her experience in the war without incurring nightmares. The stories we have are in pieces. She lost her parents, 5 siblings, husband. Survived by Ariele Mortkowitz

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Poland

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Austria -- Murdered by the Nazis in the middle of the street in Vienna.

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My paternal grandfathers extended family, names unknown

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My paternal grandfathers extended family, names unknown

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Austria

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Rivka Gitel Blander Leitzes and family, Yankel Blander and family - Poland/Ukraine

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Rivka Gitel Blander Leitzes and family, Yankel Blander and family - Poland/Ukraine

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They and their families did not survive. Younger siblings of Ephraim Blander (immigrated to US) and Bluma Blander Sobol (immigrated to Israel). Ephraim was father (bio maternal grandfather) of my spouse, he never could speak of their stories.

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Czechoslavakia

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Berthe VALAIX and Claude Valaix murdered in Auschwitz 1943, France

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Berthe VALAIX and Claude Valaix murdered in Auschwitz 1943, France

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יהי זכרם ברוך

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Ruth was 15 years old when she survived Auschwitz. She had been selected to go to the gas chambers, but she was daydreaming about eating breakfast at home and didn’t realize it. The guards were so certain prisoners would follow directions, they never counted. Even though she lost her family, she became a vibrant role model with a message of meeting evil with forgiveness. The week before she died in her 80s, she was talking to 8th graders about her message of hope.

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Rozsi Braun Bressler (Rachel bat Esther v’Shmuel Chaim)

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Rozsi Braun Bressler (Rachel bat Esther v’Shmuel Chaim)

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My Grandmother, Rozsi Bressler (nee Braun) a’h, was know affectionately by her friends as “Tachika”. We called her “Babi Rozsi”.

Babi Rozsi was born to Esther & Shmuel Haim Braun in the town of Beregsas in 1914 in Hungary.

They were wine producers and dealers.

They had 5 children, Babi was the 4th.  They were prosperous and she grew up

in a loving family and had a very happy childhood.

She liked to swim in the river Verke. Her father Shmuel Haim was a generous person helping the poor; he was a well respected and cultured gentleman.

Her Aunt, Dr. Amalia Braun was the first Female Physician in Carpathia.

Her beloved brother Andy was a student  in Prague and her sister Margit was talented and beautiful

and respected by all who knew her. Both perished in the death camps.

Life was good until the Nazis came into Beregsas.

At the point that when it was decreed for all Jews to wear the yellow stars  on their clothing, rumors spread that the Jews are going to be rounded up for the camps. Babi Rozsi, together with her

cousin, Margit (Malka) Feldman, a’h, decided to hide the community’s Torah scrolls from the Nazis.

They made arrangements with the catholic priest who was a neighbour.

He agreed to hide the scrolls in the church. Thus my Babi and Margit carried 6 Torah scrolls from Rabbi Hirsh’s Shul in a large duffle bag, risking their lives in the process. The priest hid the Torahs and protected them throughout the war.
After the war he returned them to the surviving Jews that returned home.

Many friends feel that's one reason why Hashem granted her a long life.

Of the 5 siblings only her Brother Hershu and my Babi returned from the

concentration camps.

After the war, Babi Rozsi married my Zeidy Shimi Bressler, a’h, in 1952, gave birth to my mother, Erica. They built a life together under the Soviet regime.

In 1977, the family emmigrated to the US.

Babi Rozsi was a happy person, a loving Mother, Babi & community member. She helped to raise us. She was always available and helped graciously and selflessly.

She always put family first, she cared and took great pride in all of our accomplishments.

Her life was her family.

Her two passions were reading and swimming.

She read books in 3 languages:

Hungarian, English and Russian.

My mother was swimming in the Boro Park Y for 25 years, she swam 2-3 times a week rain or shine, she made many good friends there. She taught me to swim & the value of physical fitness.

She loved her grandchildren and great grandchildren dearly. She never missed an opportunity to surprise us with gifts; she cared with all of her heart and

soul for our accomplishments and successes; she had faith in us; she attended all of their graduations from kindergarten through college and took great pride in us always.

She cooked delicious meals & hosted us every Sunday night for family dinners that we all enjoyed together.

She played Rummy & Rumikub with us.

She taught us great values by example.

She generously donated funds to the poor and to the blind.

Babi Rozsi was a truly extraordinary person. I feel privileged to be her granddaughter & to have the opportunity to name my daughter in her memory & to share her story.

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I don't have their names, but I'd like to honor the "Saloniki women" who came to my grandmother's shiva in 1997. 

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I don't have their names, but I'd like to honor the "Saloniki women" who came to my grandmother's shiva in 1997. 

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When my Ladino grandmother died, I was shocked to see the numbered tattoos on the forearms of her friends who came to sit shiva with us. My father's side was populated by survivors, but on my mother's side--the Ladino side--it was jarring, sobering, and humbling to see.  These were  women of Salonica (Thessaloniki), who populated an rich, vibrant and ancient Jewish culture before the war.  Adiyo karidas.