My great grandmother Esther Rutner Joshowitz had a brother Mendel. I have his birth record--and then I had nothing else. I didn't know if he died young (but I had no death record) or moved elsewhere. I also didn't know what surname he used.
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| Birth record for Mendel Fuchs/Rutner |
Mendel's parents weren't legally married at the time of his 1900 birth (although
they did legally marry 18 years later), so his father (Shmuel Moshe Rutner) isn't even mentioned on this birth record. So as an adult, Mendel may have used either the Rutner or Fuchs surname.
But now I have discovered what happened to Mendel.
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| Dachau Concentration Camp Register |
Mendel Fuchs, who had been born in Dulfalva, was listed in a concentration camp register.
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| Mendel Fuchs in Dachau Concentration Camp Register |
Mendel Fuchs died on November16, 1944 in Dachau. He had been "taken into custody" on August 6, 1944. The one other bit of information here is his address before he was "in custody"--in Huszt (today's Khust, Ukraine--
where I was this September!). So now I know why I never saw him in any more Dulfava or Kolodne records--he likely was married and living in Khust. So once I get those records, hopefully I'll discover more about his life before WWII. And now we know how, where, and when he died.
Not quite the ending I was hoping for, but I kind of expected it.
Note: I'm on Twitter.
Follow me (@larasgenealogy).
I am so sorry. I know how awful it is every time we discover a relative who'd been murdered in the Holocaust, even though we never knew them or perhaps even knew of them.
ReplyDeleteExactly, although I'm learning to expect it and be pleasantly surprised if I find someone who survived. This area was decimated in a very short period of time.
DeleteWhat an incredibly sobering discovery. And so chilling to see the Dachau concentration camp register. It really was a meticulous killing machine.
ReplyDeleteI just blogged a very similar post yesterday having discovered the same fate for a sister of my 2x great grandfather. This was my 1st discovery of a family member. I am anxious to learn what you will discover about Mendel and a family.
ReplyDeleteWhere is your Fuchs family from?
ReplyDelete