Genealogy Chat

I took the first few steps this morning in researching a particular branch of my family and feel that I may have opened a can of worms that's too disturbing to look at.

I asked a male relative about his father's side of the family. He wasn't able to tell me anything. He said that his father had refused point-blank to talk about his family when he was alive. He'd always answer the same, "I have no family".

So, I rang the sister and she was a little more forth coming. She also said that her father never spoke about his family but her mother had told her something many years ago that has chilled her ever since. She was told that her father was liberated from Auschwitz as a 9 year old.

After hearing this, I just don't think I'm able to face what I suspect is coming. Emotionally, I'm not ready.

If their is anyone who has holocaust victims in their families and are willing to share their feelings, I'd really appreciate your imput. If you want to remain anonymous, please PM me.


Thank you.



Deb

Perhaps somebody else could do a bit of research to be able to say whether or not it is as bad as you feared. Sorry, I am not offering as I have too much on my plate at present.
I had a friend (she died this year) who was smuggled out of Poland to England, just in time. Her parents didnt make it out and she never saw them again. She would have been about 9 at the time I imagine.
Best of luck if you do research, or if somebody does it for you.
Huia.

Hi Huia,

We know that he came to Australia via England in the late 1950's. We're assuming that he was taken to England in 1945 and possibly fostered.

We believe that his family came from the Czech/Poland region due to the origin of his very unusual surname, and this also ties in with his ability to speak Czech.

There are a number of avenues that I can go down to try and trace his family, but as I said, I'm not prepared emotionally just yet.

Thank you for your thoughts/suggestions.


Deb:)

HI Deb

I have two great Aunts that were lost during the Holocaust.One of their brothers settled in Australlia,haven;t traced the rest of the family.
Yes i agree it is a very daunting idea as we all know what happened to most of these people,so if you aren''t ready emotionally just leave it for a while as the information is not going anywhere.

Sue

Hi Deb

I've not come across anything like this in my family, so I can't answer your main question.

Do you have access to the BBC series "Who do you think are?" This series has tackled it a number of times with celebrities, and each time they have focussed on their reactions to first the news and then the details. It verges on the "should they have done that?"

The latest series included a newsreader (Natasha Kaplinsky) who emphasised that her family were about survival and hope. It might be an idea to follow her story before deciding whether/when to tackle your own - I agree with Huia and Sue here.

All the very best

If you don't do the research you will be left wondering what happened and perhaps regretting that you never acted whilst there were still people alive who are able to provide the answers.
So many times I have heard researchers say
"If only I had asked when so-and-so was still alive"
Be strong and seek out the truth.
Sincere best wishes for this time of the year and for your searches
Dave

Hi Deb,

I think this book "I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors by Bernice Eisenstein" might be helpful to you at this stage. You could pick one up from the highstreet discount shop "The Works" or even from Amazon marketplace (67pence +p&p).

Here is a link to the publisher's comments about the book: http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/I-Was-Child-Holocaust-Survivors-Bernice-Eisenstein/9780771030635-item.html?pticket=cnwepgvfwibiodq1ftk3djzec9spuPFDzrty4KnfVaJt58mtriE%3d

Hope this helps,
Tracey

Thank you all so much for your imput. This is such a powerfully emotional search which I believe must be done. His "Family" have the right to be remembered.......................................Oh, but it's going to be so hard to look at.



Deb

It must be a really difficult decision, good luck either way you decide to go hun.

I would probably decide I had to find out, especially if there were people still alive who could help with details, but it will be a difficult process for you and other people involved, and one that will need to be handled delicately.

Laura

My dearest friend was a child in Vienna, of mixed parents, her mother Catholic, her father Jewish, her mother died, and her father remarried a Jewish woman.
My friend was smuggled out of her house by kind neighbours and placed in a Convent, her father and step mother put in a Camp. They managed to survive, but it left them badly scarred, and always lived with the fear that this would happen again.
She came to England, and married, and did manage to visit her father occasionally.
I often wonder what affect this had on her, but I think she was grateful for her good neighbours and the Nuns in the Convent.

Hi Deb, and first off, good luck and best wishes in starting this and going ahead with it
if you do.

My initial advice is: google google google.

You will be able to find information about every aspect of the situation you are
going to look into.

I started with just

Holocaust survivors genealogy

and reams of stuff came up immediately. Eventually you will be able to sort
and narrow down, so that you get information about the brass tacks of the search
and also things to read about the emotional impact such searches have on everyone affected.

One of the first sites to come up in the results was:

http://genealogy.about.com/od/jewish/a/holocaust.htm

-- basic info about the "how" of the search.

This might be your first stop:

http://www.jgsgb.org.uk/snshoa.shtml

-- Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain. It seems to have particular sections
for/about survivors who were children.

-----------------------------------------

The Jewish Genealogy Society of Great Britain - JGSGB - was founded in 1992
for beginners and experienced researchers:
* To help one another to learn and discover more about genealogy
* To encourage genealogical research
* To promote the preservation of Jewish genealogical records and resources
* To share information amongst members
The Society is open to all interested in Jewish genealogy and is constituted
on a secular basis.

------------------------------------

You might want to have personal contact with a group like that before starting
specific research or approaching family members who are reluctant to talk. There is
undoubtedly a large body of experience in the membership and support available
for people in your situation. I am sure you would find people willing to offer both
practical and personal advice.

You are very far from alone in this quest, and I would think that feeling connected
to others who have undertaken it and to the community to which it is important
would be a big help to you personally.

Best of luck.

This thread is doing that weird thing where it extends
beyond the boundaries of the window, no matter how
much one plays with the window - I wanted to edit mine
to insert line breaks to shorten the lines, but couldn't
get the "edit" link no matter how wide I made it.
(Managed to do it in IE; the weirdness is in Firefox.)

If you can edit your initial post to do that, it might stop
the rest of the thread from stretching off to the right.
Just so that it's readable, since it's a somewhat important
topic.

It's because the link Tracey posted above is very long, which causes some browsers to stretch the page. It's not giving me any problems with Opera.

It's a good idea to shorten very long links by going to www.tinyurl.com.

Thank you Kathryn for all the info you've provided. It's helpful to know where to start and also how to get in touch with others who have researched holocaust victims.

The feed-back that I'm getting on this thread and through PM's is supportive. It gives me the strength to start this search, regardless of the outcome.


Deb:)