Thursday, November 20, 2008

Yad Vashem Page for My Paternal Grandmother

Pages of Testimony

Last Name
ADLER

First Name
CHAJA

First Name
KHAIA

Father's First Name
YAAKOV

Father's First Name
LEIB

Mother's First Name
HANI

Mother's First Name
HENI

Sex
Female

Place of Birth
TARNOGROD,BILGORAJ,LUBLIN,POLAND

Citizenship
POLAND

Marital Status
MARRIED

Spouse's First Name
MEIR

Permanent residence
TARNOGROD,BILGORAJ,LUBLIN,POLAND

Profession
HOUSEWIFE

Place during the war
TARNOGROD,BILGORAJ,LUBLIN,POLAND

Place of Death
TARNOGROD,BILGORAJ,LUBLIN,POLAND

Date of Death
1942

Type of material
Page of Testimony

Submitter's Last Name
STRUZER

Submitter's First Name
GITEL

Submitter's First Name*
GIZELA

Relationship to victim
NEIGHBOUR

Registration date
01/01/1956



When my father was in Israel for the first time some years ago, he and my mother went to visit Yad Vashem. Upon entering his mother's name, he came across this listing, to his utmost surprise. A former neighbor had thought to list my grandmother in the Yad Vashem records and my father was overwhelmed and grateful. Unfortunately, when he tried to contact that neighbor who'd given my grandmother's name, he learned from her daugher that she'd already passed away. He had wanted to thank her....for remembering and for giving my grandmother some kind of final resting place.

5 comments:

Neil said...

We need more neighbors like that in the world.

torontopearl said...

I didn't know when I posted this today, but coincidentally, tonight I spoke to my mom and she mentioned that today is the Yahrzeit date for my paternal grandmother, specifically for the numerous people who were murdered in Tarnogrod on a particular day in November 1942. We don't actually know the details of my grandmother and her fifteen-year-old daughter's death but it is assumed they died that day and weren't sent to Belzec.
A communal Yahrzeit...

G. Harrison said...

pages of remembrance are a powerful form. a columnist in London recently listed the names of all Canadian soldiers lost in the Afghan war after only a few words of intro. a half page of names. timely and not easily forgotten.

your grandmother's neighbour knew perhaps the power of the pen.

gord h. @ It Strikes

via written inc.

carmilevy said...

I'm definitely with Gord: the power of the pen is immense. Your sharing this here is yet another step toward ensuring these memories remain indelible.

Those who would use hatred as a tool underestimate the power of the human spirit. It was everpresent in that neighbour's soul.

Wanted to thank you for your kind comment over on my blog earlier this week. Wonderful to meet you, too. I look forward to learning more from someone who's very clearly a gutteh neshumeh.

Anonymous said...

hello my father's family I was told was from Bilgoraya, Poland...but I realize that it was Bilgoraj!

Touching blog! Blessings.

t.