In a previous post, I explored the efforts of my great grandfather, Chone Weirzbowicz, to get a visa to immigrate to the United States. He tried for more than four years, from mid-1934 to late 1938. His task was not easy, because he was from Poland, and the law at that time—the Immigration Act of …
Tag: Jewish immigration
Narrow escape: my Great Grandfather’s immigration story
It wasn’t easy to immigrate from Poland to the United States in the 1930s. My maternal great grandfather, after whom I am named, was one of the lucky few. He made it out less than a year before the Nazis invaded Poland and exterminated most of Polish Jewry, including his own family. He was born …
My Great Uncle Shmulke: Mysteries Revealed and Remaining
Everyone it seems has an ancestor whose life is a mystery. Someone who lived on the margins of family, whose behavior was both excused and inexplicable. The black sheep, part of the family yet seldom spoken of. Perhaps a loner. Perhaps inflicted with a disability about which no one dared speak. These qualities describe my …