Monday, May 30, 2022

Giving Them Names - Finding Names of Holocaust Victims

My grandmother was able to tell me about her mother's first cousin, Chaim Fine.  Chaim was killed in the Holocaust--as were his wife and their daughters.  But my grandmother couldn't remember the names of Chaim's wife and girls.  And after watching the Shoah Foundation video of one of her other cousins, he also just mentioned "Uncle Chaim and his children."  For more than three decades, Chaim's wife and daughters have been listed on my family tree as "Wife of Chaim Fine" and "Daughter1 of Chaim Fine," etc.  I've been able to identify and memorialize more distant relatives who were killed in the Holocaust, but these Fine cousins' names were just a huge gap.  But now I am able to give them names.

Fajn Family, 1932

As I mentioned in a recent post, I got copies of my family's listing in a 1932 Jewish listing in Czaruków Gmina.  Among the surnames I requested was Fine/Fajn.

Chaim Fajn, who lived in the village of Szklin Kolonia, was a 32-year-old farmer.  His mother Ita-Leja lived with them (his father had died more than two decades earlier).  And look at what else we find out--the names of Chaim's wife and daughters.

Chaja Fajn was 33 year old in 1932.  And their three girls were Ester, Sara and Machla, ages 7, 5 and 3.  This year, for the first time, I was able to include their names on this year's Yom HaShoah posting listing my relatives who were murdered in the Holocaust.

A 1932 document doesn't seem like it would be all that useful.  But in this case, it gave names to Chaja, Ester, Sara and Machla.

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2 comments:

  1. Congratulations on this significant find!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for finding out and sharing as it really helps us who are still looking.

    ReplyDelete