Sonia Bajcz Diamond: After the Senkevychivka Ghetto Destruction (Part 5: 1942-1943)

This is the fifth in a series that summarize an interview of my grandmother, Sonia Bajcz/Beitch Diamond (then Sara Bajcz), from about 20 years ago.  This talks about how she survived after the Senkevychivka Ghetto's destruction.  Previous posts in this series are here, here, here, and here.

I took my mother, and I took her to a family that I knew--the son was communist, and the whole family was against the Nazi regime.  The son told me that since I spoke fluent Ukrainian and Russian, he could get me a passport so that I could live on "Irish Papers" which is what they called false papers.  You had to become an actor and lead someone else's life.  I told him I had a friend, and I needed a passport for him as well.  He said he could steal a set of papers for my friend (my future husband), and he would be able to get a blank set of papers for me.  I would have to use my thumbprint on the papers, and we picked a name--Marina Karamenko, from Zhitomir, Russia.  I had to only speak Russian and forget that I spoke Polish or Yiddish.  I tried to give him some of my fabric as payment.  He didn't want to take it, but I insisted.

Meanwhile, my mother told me about a Polish man who lived by himself in the forest.  She asked me to go and ask if we could hide there.  He was so isolated, it would be a good way to stay unnoticed.  He told me he had relatives in Poleshe, near Pinsk, which was far away.  He told me that we could go together and become his mistress, and I should let my mother get killed by the Germans because she was too old.  I told him I didn't come here for that, but I came to get him to help myself and my mother survive.

Sonia Bajcz Diamond: Senkevychivka Ghetto Destruction (Part 4: 1942)

This is the fourth in a series that summarize an interview of my grandmother, Sonia Bajcz/Beitch Diamond (then Sara Bajcz), from about 20 years ago.  This talks about surviving during and after Senkevychivka Ghetto's destruction.  Previous posts in this series are here, here, and here.

One morning, I was going to leave the ghetto to go to the village.  It was the second day of chol hamoed Sukkos in 1942.  My mother went outside to see where the guard was to see if I'd be able to sneak through.  She ran back and said, "You can't go--it's bad, they are running with trucks, and they are dragging people out of their homes.  They are shooting them.  Here are pieces of material, 2 rings that we have.  Maybe you can use them to get bread or a place to sleep.  Take your sister.  You're stronger and older, so take care of her."  We ran from our house.  We had to go through a ravine, across the main road, then the train tracks, and then another ravine, and then an open field.  Across the field were more villages.  We ran, and they spotted us.  They told us to come back.  We turned, and the Ukrainian guard started shooting.  A bullet touched my hair.

We ran, but not towards our house in the ghetto.  From the distance, we saw what used to be stores and homes for wealthy people but was now part of the ghetto.  I saw another friend from school with her parents and her brother (he survived and ended up in Haifa, Israel), and they were trying to figure out how to save the children.  The family name was Dreitzen; the brother changed the name in Israel to Doron.  The sister, Meita, had epilepsy.  She told me that she knew she couldn't run and hide, but I should survive for her.  I said to Meita, "How can I do this?"  She said that I had to.

Sonia Bajcz Diamond: Living in Shklyn and the Senkevychivka Ghetto (Part 3: 1936-1942)

This is the third in a series that summarize an interview of my grandmother, Sonia Bajcz/Beitch Diamond (then Sara Bajcz), from about 20 years ago.  This talks about the years leading up to WWII, living with her grandfather in the village of Shklyn.  Previous posts in this series are here and here.

When I was finishing seventh grade, we heard rumors of what was happening behind the borders.  We had been supposed to build a new house, and we already had all of the materials.  But with the rumors we were hearing, my father decided that it was not the right time to build.  So he called a Ukrainian man he knew from the nearby village of Bludoff, and the man came with a big long wagon, and he picked up (in several loads) our brick, cement, lumber, and other building materials.  Around then, my bubby (my mother's mother) had passed away in Shklyn.  My zaidy said to my mother that since you're not building a house now, and your current house's rent is very high, why don't you come to live with us.

My mother did not want to go back to the village.  But my father said we should just go for a short while until the situation calmed down.  So my parents went to Shklyn.  However, my sister and I remained in Horochov with my father's mother who had said that she wanted to stay in the city--she was born in the city, was raised in the city, and she did not want to go to a village.

Sonia Bajcz Diamond: Growing up in Horochov (1922-1935, part 2)

This is the second in a series that summarize an interview of my grandmother, Sonia Bajcz/Beitch Diamond (then Sara Bajcz), from about 20 years ago.  This talks about her growing up in Horochov, Volhynia, Ukraine (then Horochow, Wolyn, Poland), her family, friends, and how they celebrated holidays.  Part 1 can be read here.


My mother was one of the finest women--quiet, honest.  Her name was Batsheva Fine Bajcz.  She was born in Shklyn, a nearby village, and when she married my father she came to Horochov.  When my mother was born it was Russia, but by the time I was born it was Poland.  She worked very hard to make sure that we girls dressed like the richest girls in town.  She would buy fabrics and copy from the other girls.  We had a very close relationship.  She looked up to me because I went to school and could read and write.  She taught herself how to read and write, so she was very happy that I had the will to learn. 

Sonia Bajcz Diamond: Growing up in Horochov (1922-1935, part 1)

This is the first in a series that summarize an interview of my grandmother, Sonia Bajcz/Beitch Diamond (then Sara Bajcz), from about 20 years ago.  This talks about her growing up in Horochov, Volhynia, Ukraine (then Horochow, Wolyn, Poland), what the city was like, and her schooling.

I was born in the city Horochow (in Polish) or Gorochov (in Russian) in West Ukraine; in Yiddish it was Horochov.  Wolyn was the name of the state (Lara's note: it is now in Volhynia Oblast).  I lived on Pilsutski Street, I think number 120.  We led a normal life.  We lived between different nationalities-Ukrainian, German, Czechoslovakian.  In the street we spoke Polish; in the house we spoke Yiddish between ourselves.  I also learned to speak a bit of German and Czechoslovakian from friends in my class.  The city was not a big city like Warsaw or Krakow.  But we had a mayor and a governor, doctors, a hospital, some banks.  The city was very nice with wide paved streets and a variety of stores--food clothing, fabrics, pharmacies.  The gentiles would mostly live outside the city.  Near the park were mansions for the high officials (mayor and governor) so they would not live with the Jewish people.

Genealogy Blogs I Follow

Below are some of the genealogy-related blogs I follow.  If anyone has more that I've missed, please share!

Tracking Mira's Children: Meyer

This is the second in a series tracking the children of Mira Halperin Lefand Marienhoff.You can see everything in this series to this point here.

Meyer Lefand Birth Record, Nezhin, Ukraine, 1879

Meyer Lefand was born in Nezhin, Ukraine on September 9, 1879, to Yehoshua (son of Ber) and Mira (daughter of Yitzchak) Lefand.  He was at least their fourth child.

IAJGS Conference - Day 5

Day 5 of the International Conference on Jewish Genealogy.  My entire summary, day by day, can be seen here.

The day started by listening to Alex Denysenko talking about the destiny of deported Hungarian Jews (and Polish Jews) as seen in the Stanislawow 1941-1942 death records.  He has been working on this project for 3 years in conjunctiom with the Rabbi in Ivano Frankovic.

He found strange books (called IGW records) which were records of the kehila of Stanislow from 1938-1942. He indexed most of these records and hared some records with the rabbi and other friends. The information is all available online at http://jgaliciabukovina.net/142881/article/registration-books . There are also records for Nadworna and Podvolchyska. 

IAJGS2013 Conference - Day 4, Part 2

Day 4 of the International Conference on Jewish Genealogy.  My entire summary, day by day, here.  The first part of day 4 can be seen on that link as well.

I attended the Ukraine SIG meeting. This meeting marked the transition of the leadership of the SIG from Ron Doctor (who has done incredible work revitalizing the group) to Janette Silverman.

Ron covered some of the things the SIG has accomplished in the 2 years since he announced that they wanted to revitalize Ukraine SIG. They have made considerable progress towards that mission. 

They changed the culture of sig to otimism and helpfulness. The SIG has actively been seeking out new records and working on making them available. They also changed the leadership structure of the Sig and shifted from being Gubernia-focused to emphasizing specific towns and villages. They created a fabulous new website to help find data sets available for towns. 

There is still a lot more to do.  More and more datasets will be available over the next year.

People with interest in Ukraine should subscribe to the discussion list and Facebook page.  There is also their Ukraine database which has all data from the areas covered by Ukraine SIG.

They now have 214 Kehilalink websites 259 yizkor book translations, 33 Cemeteries, and more

An upcoming project will index names from yizkor books and from separate kehilalinks pages in a searchable database.

IAJGS2013 Conference - Day 4, Part 1

Day 4 of the International Conference on Jewish Genealogy.  My entire summary, day by day, here.

The day started with my listening to Alex Dunai talking about shtetl travel in the Ukraine.

Alex stresed that success depends on personal goals and interests of travel.

Planning a trip in advance helps to fully enjoy the trip. He recommends that people research ahead of the trip--this will save money and time. He also advised against doing research yourself on the trip rather than having someone else do it for you.  The time you will require, plus having to hire a translator will cost more than doing through researchers and may take more time than expected. Research may uncover more towns of interest, and it is hard to readjust to add more towns when you are already on the road.

Yehoshua Zev Lefand - Ancestor Deep Dive

Now time for a break from conference recaps--so back to the regularly scheduled blog!

My great-great-great grandfather Yehoshua Zev Lefand was born around 1851.  As his family was registered in Nezhin, Russian Empire (now Ukraine) and he was married there, he was likely born in Nezhin as well.  His father was named Ber; unfortunately there were several Ber Lefands living in Nezhin at this time, so other than a hypothesis, I'm not completely certain of Yehoshua Zev's mother's name.

On April 28, 1871, Yehoshua Zev married Mira Halperin.

Marriage Record for Yehoshua Zev and Mira (Halperin) Lefand, Nezhin, Ukraine, 1871

IAJGS2013 Conference - Day 3

Day 3 of the International Conference on Jewish Genealogy.  My entire summary, day by day, can be seen here.

I started out early with a Ukraine Breakfast with the Experts. Miriam Weiner and Olga M from the Ukraine archives answered questions. There were no huge insights, and much of what was asked had been answered at talks I attended yesterday. It was still goo to have it reinforced, and the hot breakfast was a nice start to another long day.

I then took full advantage of today's free access to ProQuest. I searched a lot of family names and downloaded a ton of articles to go through later. ProQuest has many newspapers which are searchable. While they didn't include Maryland- or Pittsburgh-based papers, those are available online elsewhere, and I've already searched through them. This helped me to pick up articles on other lines that lived elsewhere.

IAJGS2013 Day 2, Part 2

Day 2 of the International Conference on Jewish Genealogy continued.  As the conference progresses, you'll be able to see my entire summary, day by day, here.

Next I heard a speech by Alex Dunai, a Ukrainian research expert (who has helped trace my Zutelmans back to Muravitsa).  He spoke on records from the interwar years in Western Ukraine--the time and place in which both my paternal grandparents were born.

This talk was great. It covered records that exist from between 1918 and 1939.  Between 1918 and 1923 a Polish republic was created out of what had been the Russian and Austrian empires. The former Galicia and Volhynia became part of this republic.  Poland was divided into provinces. Lutsk was the Capitol of Wolyn province, which is the area covered by this talk.  The provinces were divided into counties; Wolyn had 11 counties.

IAJGS2013 Conference - Day 2, Part 1

Day 2 of the International Conference on Jewish Genealogy.  As the conference progresses, you'll be able to see my entire summary, day by day, here.

I started my morning in the conference hotel's presidential suite. Much better view than from my room!

IAJGS people brought together people from across the US and the world (including Japan and Brazil) with no local Jewish Genealogical Society (JGS). Baltimore doesn't have an active one, and three of us were at the (early) morning meeting.  We are going to try to reconstitute the society. Anyone from the Baltimore area interested?  Please let me know in the comments. 

Then I attended a very interesting (and applicable for me) talk by Olga Muzychuk who is the deputy director of the state archives in Ukraine.

IAJGS2013 Day 1, part 2

Day 4 of the International Conference on Jewish Genealogy.  (Note to bad people: no, my house is not empty, so don't bother.)  As the conference progresses, you'll be able to see my entire summary, day by day, here.

Last night was the opening session of the conference!  There are over 1200 people registered, and there are also people attending a selection of the presentations online!  It was announced that next year's conference will take place in Salt Lake City during the last week of July; then the 2015 conference will be in Israel beginning July 6; and the 2016 conference will take place on Seattle.

Aaron Lansky of the Yiddish Book Center gave the keynote address. I almost didn't go since the topic didn't sound very interesting, but I'm very glad I went.  Not only was he an entertaining speaker, but he has an important story to tell.

IAJGS2013 Conference - Day 1

I'm currently up in Boston at the International Conference on Jewish Genealogy.  (Note to bad people: no, my house is not empty, so don't bother.)  As the conference progresses, you'll be able to see my entire summary, day by day, here.

I arrived in Boston early this morning and went straight to the conference hotel, which is just across from Boston Public Gardens, a perfect place for lunch:

I then walked around the vendor area, which was an eclectic mix of DNA-testing companies, book sales, judaica, and online genealogy site organizations.