Sometime in 1920, about a year after being drafted into the Polish army during the Polish-Soviet war, my Zaide (grandfather) absconded and made his way to Germany. In this post I explore why and how he made this fateful decision to leave his family and native land and to enter, illegally, into Germany. When he …
Category: Explorations: family history
Explorations into the history of my Zambrow family, their journeys from Poland to Palestine, America and Auschwitz.
Escape from Poland: 1920
Sometime in 1920, my Zaide (grandfather) made a fateful decision. Having been drafted into the Polish army, he absconded from his unit and made his way to Germany, never to return to Poland. This post attempts to reconstruct the historical circumstances of that decision, one to which I owe my very existence. He was born …
Chone the Flax Oil Maker: In memory of Joe Guttman
This post is dedicated to the memory of Joseph Guttman, a dear friend and esteemed member of the Riverdale Jewish Community who recently passed away at the age of 93. It could not have been written without his kind assistance, rendered just about two months before his passing. My topic is flax. Yes, flax. It’s …
David: A family mystery
When I began my family history research, I know of six children born to my great grandparents in Zambrow: the eldest, my grandfather (Zaidy), his brother, Shmulke, and four sisters: Chanche (Chana), Paicha (Puah), Chaya Sara (Adele) and Hinde. I grew up near my grandfather and aunt Adele and knew of Shmulke, of all whom …
Searching for Chanche (Chana)
How can I memorialize the lives of my Polish ancestors who died in the Holocaust? The generation of my Zaidy (grandfather) is gone. So too are their children, my mother and her two sisters. But I am trying to recover as much of their lives as possible. In this post, I record the search for …
A trashed cemetery: Zambrow
Among our stops in my grandfather’s ancestral home town of Zambrow was the Jewish cemetery. I knew I would not find any graves of my ancestors as the cemetery has already been digitized, and no names of my ancestors appeared. I learned from my aunt, the last living connection I have between my generation and …
Treblinka or Auschwitz?
One of the biggest mysteries surrounding my Zambrow family’s fate is where they died. Actually, it only became a mystery to me when I started researching the Zambrow Yizkor book, whose translation into English I oversaw. The book states that the Jews of Zambrow met their end on January 16, 1943, in Auschwitz. This contradicts …
Introduction to the blog
I am writing this blog to chronicle my experience in finding out more about my ancestors and to connect with others who are engaging in a similar search. At this point, I am focusing mostly on my mother’s family, about whom I know the most. I am calling this blog Zambrow: A Jewish Roots Journey …