New York: 'History of Ellis Island' author, Nov. 21

Vincent J. Cannato, author of  "American Passage: The History of Ellis Island," will speak at the next meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of New York, on Thursday, November 21.

The program, followed by a book-signing, begins at 2pm at the Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, in Manhattan.

Cannato tells the story of Ellis Island from the days when it hosted pirate hangings witnessed by thousands of 19th-century New Yorkers, to the turn of the 20th century when massive migration sparked fierce debate and new immigrants often encountered corruption, harsh conditions and political scheming.

"American Passage" captures a time and place unparalleled in American immigration and history, and articulates the dramatic and bittersweet accounts of the immigrants, officials, interpreters, and social reformers who all play an important role in Ellis Island’s chronicle.

The last immigrant was processed at Ellis Island omore than 50 years ago in 1954.

Cannato's book illustrates the port of entry’s legacy, from detention of WWII aliens to the rebirth of Ellis Island as a national monument.

As immigration policy, national security, and the war on terror remain at the forefront of national debate today, this timely history offers Americans an important perspective on how the nation addressed similar challenges a century ago.

Cannatto is an associate professor of history at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. He received his BA (Political Science, Williams College) and PhD (history, Columbia University) and teaches courses on New York City history, Boston history, immigration history and 20th-century American history. For more on the author and the book, click here.

The Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at CJH will be open from 11am for networking with  researchers and access to research materials and computers.

Fee: JGSNY members, free; others, $5.

For more information, click here.

Poland: Nowy Dwor Jewish Cemetery, Memorial Project

Ze'ev Shaked has provided an update for descendants and friends of the Nowy Dwor Mazowiecki Project.

At left, a broken tombstone excavated in 2009.

For more information and photos, click here.

-- Fence and gate construction is ongoing and will be completed next month. Rabbi Michael Schudrich (chief rabbi of Poland) and his assistant are working with the construction company to ensure work is conducted according to Jewish law and tradition. Photos are on the website above. http://www.nowydworjewishmemorial.com/

-- Ze'ev will be in Nowy Dwor in mid-October to view the completed fence and gates and distribute final payment.


-- During his visit, he'll meet with the contractor to discuss the scope and preliminary cost estimate for the memorial, meet with the mayor and the city of Nowy Dwor to discuss the project's second phase; additional tombstones will be excavated before and during his visit; and he will spend a day at the archives to look at more names and certificates. An idea for the memorial's design was received from an Israeli retired architect, and logistics and cost will also be discussed.

-- Beginning in October 2010, organizing committee members in Israel and the US will initiate a major fundraising campaign for the memorial and completion of the entire project.

-- The dedication ceremony in 2011 will be either Tuesday, July 26, or Wednesday, July 27. Ceremony details and other events will be discussed with Nowy Dwor's mayor. The plan is to commemorate the Jewish cemetery's restoration and the memorial, but to celebrate the town's Jewish heritage. Events being considered: Jewish pre-war klezmer music concert, a Sholom Aleichem play or "Fiddler on the Roof" (the play) in Polish/Yiddish performed by local high school students, guided tour to Modlin, boat sailing on the Narew, and other events. By next year, the town will have at least 200 rooms for visitors.

-- The committee plans to invite Polish government dignitaries, the Israeli Ambassador to Poland and possibly dignitaries from Israel, as well Jewish representatives in the US Congress. Some families to include to visit Auschwitz after the events. Ze'ev would like to see the participation of Israeli high school students.

-- The project was recently covered by two Jewish papers in the US; the articles are on the project website. Project members who reside in towns and cities with Jewish publications are asked to work with them to publish a similar article.

-- US Congressman Barney Frank sent a letter of support to Nowy Dwor's mayor.

For more information, to donate, to assist in some way, see surnames associated with the town, see the project website at the link above, and contact information with project leaders. Visit the project on Facebook.

Yizkor Book Project: Additions and updates during April

The dedicated volunteers at the Yizkor Book Project at JewishGen were busy in April. See below for the complete list of additions, new projects, updates and more.

Four new Translation Fund Projects have been organized for Debica and Grajewo (Poland), Leova (Romania) and Olkeniki (Lithuania). These projects collect funds to hire professional translators so these books can be made accessible online. Readers with roots in these geographical locations (and others) are invited to contribute to the Translation Fund.

The list, with links to each community, is organized by country:
(NP=New Project; N=New Entry; U=Updated)

AUSTRIA

NP -- Neunkirchen (The Holy Community of Neunkirchen: A story of Jews in their native land)

BELARUS

NP -- Disna (Disna; memorial book of the community)
U -- Antopol (Shards of Memory: Messages from the Lost Shtetl of Antopol)
U -- Ruzhany (Rozana; a memorial book to the Jewish community)
U -- Smarhon (Smorgon) (Smorgonie, District Vilna; memorial book and testimony)
U -- Voronovo (Voronovo: Memorial Book to the Martyrs of Voronovo)

LITHUANIA

N -- Backininkeliai (Pinkas Lita)
N -- Balsiai (Pinkas Lita)
N -- Baltiskis  (Pinkas Lita)
N -- Baltmiskis  (Pinkas Lita)
N -- Baltusova (Pinkas Lita)
N -- Baranas (Pinkas Lita)
N -- Bariunai (Pinkas Lita)
N -- Barova (Pinkas Lita)
N -- Barsenai (Pinkas Lita)
N -- Barstyciai (Pinkas Lita)
N -- Bartininkai (Pinkas Lita)

POLAND

NP -- Grojec (Grizer Scroll)
NP -- Grudki (Horodok; in memory of the Jewish community)
NP - Serock (The book of Serock)
N -- Baligrod (Memorial book; dedicated to the Jews of Linsk, Istrik and vicinity)
N -- Lutowiska (Memorial book; dedicated to the Jews of Linsk, Istrik and vicinity)
N -- Ustrzyki Dolne (Memorial book; dedicated to the Jews of Linsk, Istrik and vicinity)
U -- Bedzin (A Memorial to the Jewish Community of Bendin)
U -- Bialystok (The chronicle of Bialystok)
U -- Brzeziny (Brzeziny memorial book)
U -- Chelm (Commemoration book Chelm)
U -- Czyzew-Osada (Czyzewo Memorial Book)
U -- Dabrowa Gornicza (Book of the Jewish Community of Dabrowa Gornicza and its Destruction)
U -- Debica (The Book of Dembitz) - additions to Polish section
U -- Kaluszyn (The Memorial Book of Kaluszyn) - necrology
U -- Katowice (Katowice: the Rise and Decline of the Jewish community; Memorial Book)
U -- Kutno (Kutno and Surroundings Book)
U -- Lesko (Memorial book; dedicated to the Jews of Linsk, Istrik and vicinity)
U -- Miedzyrzec Podlaski (Mezritsh book, in memory of the martyrs of our city)
U -- Opoczno (The Book of Opoczno: memorial for the destroyed community)
U -- Piotrkow Trybunalski (A Tale of One City: Piotrkow Trybunalski)
U -- Ryki (A memorial to the community of Ryki, Poland) - additions to Polish section
U -- Zelechow (Memorial Book of the Community of Zelechow ) - added pictures to Polish section

UKRAINE

N -- Skhodnitsa (Memorial to the Jews of Drohobycz, Boryslaw and surroundings)
U -- Kolomyya (Memorial book of Kolomey and surroundings)
U -- Ivano-Frankivsk (Towns and Mother-cities in Israel: Memorial of the Jewish Communities which Perished)
U -- Vystosk (Our town, Visotsk; Memorial Book)

See all additions and updates flagged here.

Yom HaShoah: 2,000 memorials database, April 12

On April 12, Yom HaShoah - Shoah (Holocaust) Remembrance Day - commemorates Jewish communities that vanished all over Europe. It also marks the results of pogroms following the creation of Israel in Arab countries.

The Israel Genealogical Society has a database of nearly 2,000 memorials and monuments for such communities. They are in cemeteries and towns, synagogues, forests and also live in street names.

IGS invites readers to search the database and see if your ancestral towns have memorials in Israel, see photos of them and note their locations. Here's the search box:

Search parameters:

-- Select the "country" list to see all lands where Sephardim used to live. According to IGS, the project is dedicated to an Algerian Jew who perished in Auschwitz.

-- Search by town name, region name, or country; near town, country, or location of the monument in Israel.

-- Places may be listed with different spellings depending on pronunciation in native language or in Yiddish.

-- Search by "is exactly," "starts with" (three-letter minimum), "contains"(three-letter minimum).

-- Search by Hebrew name of the community.

-- If you can't find a memorial in Israel that you know is there, search by country (today) name of that location.

-- Use creative spelling.

Readers aware of memorials in Israel not found in the database are invited to send in photos and documentation so locations may be added.

ShtetlLinks: New, updated pages

JewishGen ShtetLinks has added new and updated pages that serve as memorials to the Jewish communities that once lived in those places. The sites also provide resources for future generations of descendants.

N =new page
U = updated page

UKRAINE

N - Chumal'ovo (Csmolif)
Helen Ganz Kastenbaum

N - Yurovshchina (Labun)
Emily Garber

AUSTRIA

N - Lackenbach (Lakompak)
Yohanan Loeffler

BELARUS

N - Lebedevo (Lebiedzieva)
Eilat Gordin Levitan, WebPage design, Judith Goldsmith

MOLDOVA

N - Leova
Rennie M. Salz

POLAND

N - Pultusk (Pultosk, Ostenburg)
Stanley Finkelstein

N - Radom
Susan Weinberg

N - Rawa Mazowiecka
Merav Shub

HUNGARY

N - Sarvar (Savar)
Anne-Marie Pollowy Toliver

U - Bodrogkeresztur

Readers who wish to create a ShtetLinks webpage for their ancestral shtetl or to adopt an orphaned shtetlpage should contact Susana Leistner Bloch, VP ShtetLinks. Volunteers are available to help create these webpages.

Yad Vashem: New film screened

Yad Vashem's blog today noted that a multi-media presentation, "The World that Was,"
was screened October 15 in the Valley of the Communities.

It depicts 2,000 years of Jewish life and culture before the Holocaust. The blog can be read here.

The 2.5-acre Valley of the Communities is a memorial to more than 5,000 Jewish communities decimated or destroyed. More than 100 stone walls are engraved with the names of these communities.

The British Friends for Yad Vashem were recognized at the screening for their fundraising project which endowed the film. Thousands of educators, soldiers and school children will view the film each year.

Read more at the link above, and see the photos.

Southern California: Remembering the victims, Oct. 5

Professor Dan Brown will examine his work with Stephen Spielberg's "Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Project" and the memorials to the memory of those slaughtered by the Nazis during World War II, at the next meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of the Conejo Valley and Ventura County (JGSCV).

Brown will also address the need to educate today's youth to the dangers of hate groups and their inclination to use violence against innocent people.

The meeting will begin at 7pm, Monday, October 5 at Temple Adat Elohim, 2420 E. Hillcrest Drive, Thousand Oaks. Note that the time and day of the week differ from the usual meeting time.

Author Daniel Patrick Brown is dean of Moorpark College's Social and Behavioral Science Division, a Holocaust instructor and a member of the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust Advisory Board. His books include: "The Beautiful Beast: The Life & Crimes of SS-Aufseherin Irma Grese," and "The Camp Women: The Female Auxiliaries Who Assisted the SS in Running the Nazi Concentration Camp System."

"The Beautiful Beast," will be available for sale ($20, including tax) at the meeting.

The meeting is free. For more information on this or future events, contact the JGSCV.

Lithuania: Panevezys conference, memorial, Sept. 24

An international conference and memorial dedication, dedicated to the thousand-year history of Lithuania, European Jewish heritage days and the Panevezys region Jewish community, will be held September 24 at the Panevezys Jewish Cemetery.

It begins at 10am with registration and talks will be held at the city's municipal building.

The program, in chronological order, includes:

- Simonas Gurevicius: Conference Opening
- Joana Viga Ciplyte: Fragments of Jewish history of the region
- Gennady Koffman: The history and fate of the Panevezys Jewish Cemetery
- A 1932 film about the Jews of Panevezys
- Israeli Ambassador Chen Ivri Apter and Panevezys Mayor Povilas Vadopolas: Award ceremony of the Righteous among the Nations
- Unveiling of the "Grieving Jewish Mother" memorial, Remembrance Square.
- Lunch at the Jewish community hall
- Tour of the city and its Jewish history
- Exhibit Opening: History of Panevezys Jews
- Book Presentation: J.V. Ciplytes, "Small Jerusalema: History of Panevezys Jews."

On the evening of September 25, there will be a play, "Always Yours, Anne Frank," based on the Goodrich/Hackett play, "Diary of Anne Frank," by the Juozo Miltinio Drama Theatre, along Jewish folk music.

Partners and sponsors include the city and regional municipalities, Jewish Community of Lithuania, Embassy of Israel, Embassy of Russian Federation, American Fund for the Jews of Lithuania and Latvia, Lithuania's departments of cultural heritage and national minorities and others.

Also listed are some 30 individuals, some of whom are familiar to Jewish genealogists, such as Howard Margol, Deborah R. Kaye, Dr. Charles B. Nam and many others.

Washington: First synagogue

The first synagogue in Washington state was Emanu-El in Spokane. Fellow geneablogger Miriam Robbins Midkiff let me know about this article in the Spokane-Review.

On June 25, a rededication was held and a plaque commemorates the original location of Temple Emanu-El, on Madison Street between Third and Fourth avenues. For those who know Spokane, it is at the back of the Downtown Lexus of Spokane dealership, next to a freeway onramp.

The ceremony carried special meaning just before Independence Day.

Jews were in evidence as early as the 1870s. He noted that in the late 1880s, Spokane’s Jewish community had no permanent house of worship, but a Christian man donated a lot at Third and Madison so a temple could be built.

Temple Emanu-El was dedicated at the site Sept. 14, 1892 – four days before Ohaveth Sholum Synagogue was opened in Seattle – making Spokane’s temple the first in the state. It was a frame building, 40 feet by 70 feet, with a stone foundation that cost $3,500, which was raised by donations. It stood at the site until 1934.

Temple Emanuel was a Reform congregation, and in 1901 the city’s Orthodox Jews formed their own congregation, Keneseth Israel, holding services at the Odd Fellows Hall until 1909, when they built their own structure at Fourth Avenue and Adams Street.

Dignitaries at the dedication included Spokane Mayor Mary Verner; Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich; Chabad House's Rabbi Yisroel Hahn; Temple Beth Shalom president Karrie Brown; Faith Bible Church's Rev. Dan Jarms; Hilary Bernstein of Seattle's Anti Defamation League, as well as representatives from congressional and city offices.

Also present, Jerry Klinger of Rockville, Md., president of the non-profit Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation which provided the plaque; and Emily Sue Pike, a 30-year history teacher at North Central High School, who conducted the background research for Klinger.

Klinger's group has done this before in 2004, but this spring the plaque was vandalized this spring; Klinger offered to repair and rededicate it.

His group has erected many such markers and constructed commemorative sites around the world, including Little Camp at Buchenwald.

Read the complete story at the link above and learn how this community event ties in to the July 4th celebration.

For more, click here and search for “Spokane’s Jewish Community."

Poland: Jewish heritage sites documentary

A new CD documentary on Polish Jewish heritage sites has been produced by Yad LeZehava (Israel) is free for the asking.

The group has helped to restore these sites to some extent during guided heritage trips. The CD documentary includes ruins of cemeteries and synagogues and mass grave memorial plaques.

Locations included:

Warszawa and Praga cemetery
Lodz
Chelm
Novy Korczyn
Josefow
Bialystok
Stawiski
Wasosz
Jedwabne
Rzeszow and Glogow forest
Jaroslaw
Krushliza Walanow
Brzozowie
Krasznik
Szydlowicz

The CD is free as part of the Eshel Project, which will continue reclamation and documentation work. Data collected will be shared with JewishGen in accordance with a cooperative agreement.

For more information, contact Meir Shilloh and Avigdor Ben-Dov.

Poland: Przemysl synagogue plaque unveiled

A memorial plaque was unveiled June 23, at a former synagogue building in Przemysl, Poland for the first time since the Holocaust.

The ceremony took place at the initiative of Shavei Israel chair Michael Freund, who challenged the city's deputy mayor to return the Old Jewish cemetery and another synagogue to the Jewish people.

The memorial plaque is in Polish, Hebrew and English. Attendees included Israel's Ambassador to Poland Zvi Rav-Ner; Shavei Israel chair Michael Freund; Monika Krawczyk, CEO, Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland; a representative of the US Consulate General in Krakow; and members of the local city council and other official organizations in Poland.

The building was the Przemysl New Synagogue, dedicated in 1910, also known as the Scheinbach synagogue. After the war, the Polish government confiscated it and the building became a library.

Said Freund:

“I am deeply moved that after so many decades, a sign has finally been posted here on the front of this Synagogue to remind everyone that Jews once prayed here, including my relatives. This is an important step towards ensuring that what happened to the Jews of Przemysl during the Holocaust will not be forgotten. I urge other Jews and Israelis whose families came from towns in Eastern Europe to become more involved in preserving what remains of the priceless Jewish heritage that once flourished there.”

He addressed Przemsyl Deputy-Mayor Wieslaw Jurkiewicz and urged him to return other city Jewish sites, including the Old Jewish cemetery and the grounds of the Old Synagogue, to the Jewish community.

"Mr. Jurkiewicz, I appeal to you in the name of the Jews who once lived here and played such a central role in the development of Przemysl: restore these holy places to their rightful owners. We can not change the past, but we can –and must – do it justice. The time has come for the city of Przemysl to return the Jewish communal property in its hands to the Jewish people."

Jewish history in the town dates to the 14th century, and Jews played a significant role in its economic and cultural development of the town. In 1939, the 20,000-strong Jewish community was about 30% of the population. Most of Przemysl's Jews were murdered during the Holocaust by the Germans and collaborators. A handful of Jews live today in Przemysl. There are few signs if its historical Jewish life except for the overgrown Jewish cemetery.

For more information, see these resources:

New Przemysl Synagogue
Przemysl Jewsh History
Przemysl Blog
Scheinbach Synagogue - Update

How do we remember?

NYU professor of American Jewish history Hasia R. Diner was troubled for a long time by the widely-held belief that, following the Holocaust, American Jews did little to memorialize the 6 million Jews murdered in Europe.

Her quest to investigate this for herself - over seven years - is the subject of a Forward interview by Jeri Zeder.

Based on research that took her seven years to complete, and fills 24 file cabinet drawers, Diner refutes the notion in her new book, “We Remember With Reverence and Love: American Jews and the Myth of Silence After the Holocaust, 1945–1962” (NYU Press).

The book details how, nationwide, Jews in those years memorialized the victims, documented the catastrophe, mobilized for survivors, sought justice from Germany, and used the Holocaust both to advance a political agenda and to build a Jewish future in America.

She spoke with Forward contributor Jeri Zeder about memory, truth and the ethical obligations of historians.

Zeder asks how people are receiving Diner's message that the myth of silence is a myth?

Hasia Diner: It flies in the face of what they know… they often will say, “But I don’t remember it that way.” I think certain narratives about the past get planted in the public consciousness, and people in essence re-remember their own experiences in light of what seems to be the dominant motif.

What made scholars and other writers perpetuate the myth and believe it?

... But from my point of view, the myth of silence began in the late 1960s and was pioneered by young Jews involved in a thoroughgoing critique of American culture generally, and American Jewish culture in particular. Many of them went on to become academics, rabbis and community leaders, and repeated the same message in their public writings. What they said remained part of the historical
record and was used as evidence by later historians. ...

Diner addresses the scope of memorials:

... Memorials come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, formats and flavors. For example, the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods worked very actively for the passage of the Genocide Convention. They would say, if this is passed, it will be a fitting memorial to the 6 million. How could one argue with that position? That’s how they saw it.

Diner accuses historians of a failure to take their own professional obligations seriously, and discusses American Jewry's complicated relationship with Israel.
Read the complete article at the link above.

Lithuania: Mazheik researchers need help

Tracing the Tribe received an email from Raymond Ravinsky, the contact person and co-webmaster for the Mazheik (Mazeikiai) Memorial Website.

There are two photographs on the Mazheik website and the group is trying to identify the individuals in them. View them here and perhaps you may be able to help them name the people. Here is one photo:


For more information on the northwest Lithuanian shtetl, click here. The town is known as Mazheik or Mozheik (Yiddish) and Mazeikiai (Lithuanian). Its inhabitants were murdered in August 1941. It is located on the Venta River, about 10 Km from the border with Latvia and is at the junction of the Libau (Liepaja)-Romny and Riga-Oriol train lines. See maps and much more information at the memorial site (link above).

Founded by the Duke of Zemaiciai Mazeika, it was a small village populated by farmers until the mid-19th century, when it grew with the 1868 construction of the Libau-Romny rail line and the 1872-4 construction of the Mazeikiai-Riga line. Jews began living there in the 1870s.

During the first world war in 1915, the town's Jews - along with most of the Jews who lived in Lithuania and Courland - were exiled to Russia and Ukraine. The town was set on fire and destroyed.

The Soviets invaded Lithuania in 1940. Some 1,000 Jews lived in Mazeikiai prior to the Germans arriving in June 25, 1941. Mass killings of the men took place on August 3, 1941, and of the women on August 9, 1941.

Along with the murdered Jews of Mazeikiai were some 3,000 others from the towns (Lithuanian/Yiddish names) of Sede (Siad), Vietshniai (Veckshna), Tirksliai (Tirkshla), Zidikai (Shidik), Pikeliai (Pikeln), Klykoliai (Klilul) and others.

The website is dedicated to presenting to the world everything known about Jewish life in the town before it was destroyed. Its purpose is to find out more, to explore hidden and forgotten records, and to encourage those with links to Old Mazheik to come forward.

Any one with information, comments, photographs, or stories to share is invited and encouraged to contribute to the site. Contact Raymond Ravinsky here.

Poland: A memorial in Dobra

Roni Seibel Liebowitz of the Lodz Area Research Group (LARG) informed Tracing the Tribe about a memorial in Dobra, Poland.

Last summer, a very special event took place in Dobra (near Turek), Poland. This project is the result of the dedication and perseverance of Dr. Leon Weintraub.

Over the past few years, he worked to have a "Place of Remembrance" at the old Jewish cemetery created that would honor the memory of all the Jews who lived in Dobra before the Holocaust.

He had the vision and did the fundraising for this Monument.

He arranged for the broken tombstones around town to be moved to the new location. It was his enthusiasm and commitment to create a Place of Remembrance in Dobra that led to the completion of this remarkable project.

The monument, Weintraub's speech, more photos and information about the process of creating this memorial - "The Place of Remembrance" is now on-line on the Lodz Area Research Group (LARG) page.

Weintraub is to be commended on the completion of this memorial.

Hungary: Memorial to Holocaust victims

The archives in Hegyeshalom, Hungary have revealed that 124 Jews were buried in mass graves in the town's Christian cemetery from November 1944-March 1945.

On April 21 - Holocaust Remembrance Day - survivor Shraga Shemer will return to unveil a monument to those souls, including his father.

The Jerusalem Post reported that the names and details of 84 victims were in the archives, which also revealed detailed descriptions of the 40 dead not identified by name.

Shemer has been visiting the town for several years to research his own history. This new discovery was announced, by Matan Barzilay, archive director of the Testimony House of Religious Zionism and the Holocaust, near Ashdod.

Many of the dead died in a typhus outbreak, as did Shemer's father. The town is located along the Nazi death march route from Budapest to Vienna, he said.

On his visits to the town, Shemer met the mayor who told him about the archive details.

Read the complete story at the link above.

Israel: Memorials to vanished communities

There are more than 350 monuments - representing more than 1,400 communities and countries - in Israel. The Israel Genealogical Society has announced that its online database of Memorials to Vanished Communities in Israel is now available here.

The project is in memory of Dr. Ludger Moyal and was prepared for the 2004 IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy in Jerusalem.

The database also includes memorials dedicated to certain towns where pogroms occured not related to the Holocaust.There are a few cases where memorials are dedicated to town Jews who suffered pogroms which were not related to the Shoah.

The memorials were built by associations of former residents (landsmanschaften) of communities in Europe annihilated during the Shoah. The immigrants arrived in Eretz Israel before, during or after the Shoah. Many but not all of the monuments are located in cemeteries in Israel, and contain soil brought from the killing fields in Europe . A large number of the memorials commemorate more than one community.

This project does not include every single memorial in Israel . In particular, we have not yet documented the Chamber of the Holocaust on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem , which we intend to carry out as an entire project.

The IGS appreciates hearing from readers who may have corrections, who have discovered an error of identification for a memorial, or know of additional cenotaphs not included. Please email the IGS webmaster.

Germany: Stumbling stones, stepping stones

Julie Ann Kodmur returned last month from a week in Luedinghausen, the Westphalian countryside town where her mother, Edith Strauss, was born. The two women were among several Jewish families returning to the town for a remembrance of those who died in the Holocaust. The story was published in the St. Helena (California) Star here.

Edith's father Ernest forsaw problems ahead and applied for visas for the family. She was 3 years old when they embarked on the SS Seattle in Bremen in July 1938 and went to a new life in San Francisco, leaving behind many Luedinghausen relatives, and some who would be hidden by non-Jews.

On a picture-postcard June day, in the quaint, tree-shaded town of Luedinghausen in northern Germany, my mother and I stood in front of 5 Bahnhoffstrasse where three brass-plated paving stones, known as Stolpersteine or stumbling stones, gleamed in the light. On them were the names of my great-grandmother and namesake Julie Strauss; my great-aunt Hildegard Strauss, and my cousin, Walter Strauss.

Three names, three stories out of an estimated 6 million - the number of Jews who died in the Holocaust.

My mother, Edith Strauss, was born in this pretty town along the Stever River in the Muensterland region of Germany known now as then for its horses, cattle, rolling meadows and moated castles. Her father was a livestock dealer whose family had a long, happy history in Luedinghausen. Little Edith, called “Edithlein” by her family, was the fifth generation of Strausses to be born here. Her grandfather had built the town’s first Art Nouveau home, complete with stylized crocodiles on the downspouts.

During Kristallnacht (November 9, 1938), the town's synagogue was destroyed. Great-grandmother Julie was deported to a Czecheslovakia camp where she died soon after.

Local high school teacher Baerbel Zimmer spent more than a decade researching the small community and locating descendants in a host of countries.She became part of a group of town residents trying to connect to the now dispersed Jewish families, exposing the past and also honoring their memories.

The same night the Gestapo arrested Hildegard Strauss and her husband, Siegfried, and took them to a jail in nearby Coesfeld where days later, Hildegard committed suicide. Their 7-year-old son, Walter, was sent to an orphanage in Cologne. (Four years later he was put on a train full of other Jewish children and in a forest near Riga, he and the others were taken off the train and mowed down by machine-gun fire while their Nazi captors turned up a phonograph to drown out the sounds of the slaughter.)

She organized the town’s high school students, some of whom cleaned the Jewish cemetery, others researched family trees and Zimmer wrote a series of articles for the local paper detailing each Jewish family.

Edith visited the town last fall to meet the teacher and others, who contacted German artist Guenter Demnig. His Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) project is a tribute to the Jews killed. He has installed some 15,000 stones and now expanding to the Netherlands, France, Italy and beyond.Further, he insists that the cost of making and installing the stones be paid by the townspeople and not the Jewish families. The brass-plated pavement stones are installed in the street or sidewalk in front of homes where people were sent to their deaths.

On June 2, families from around the world witnessed 22 stones installed in front of six homes. The event included speeches, music, prayers, Kaddish.

At each installation, old pavement stones had been removed and Demnig carefully inserted the Stolpersteine with their inscribed brass tops noting names and dates of birth and death. He poured dust, a binder and water around them and then, somewhat disconcertingly, pounded each into place, finally dusting them off so they gleamed.

An historic parade - the Brandprozession which dates to 1634 -commemorates fires which ravaged medieval Luedinghausen. This year,the event was dedicated to the Stolpersteine, with a memorial placed where the synagogue once was located.

But perhaps even more important, there were coffees and breakfasts and lunches and dinners where Luedinghauseners reached out to us, telling stories of the Strauss family or just talking about their own memories and feelings.

During these visits we spoke with the son of the man who built the three wooden trunks my grandparents used to take their belongings to America. He told how his father delivered them in the middle of the night so as not to be arrested by the Nazis for helping a Jewish family. The woman who today lives in the home of my great-uncle Adolph Strauss - a veterinarian who survived the war hidden in Luedinghausen - brought us the brass name plate of his business.

The townspeople shared their memories of the families in many emotional conversations.

“Seeing the names of my family on the shiny gold Stolpersteine tiles gave me a feeling of closure,” she added.“These poor souls who have no traditional ‘final resting place’ will now be remembered exactly where they spent their lives.”

Read the complete article at the link above, and to learn more about the Stolpersteine project, click here.