Dooved, my maternal Grandfather. His "civilian" name was Ignac. When the cattle wagon train transporting the Vac community arrived at Auschwitz, there was a selection (to the left, to the right). Dr Mengele sent him directly to the gas chamber. I never met him.
3 comments:
Quite the dapper gentleman. What did he do for a living?
My father was fortunate - Dr. M pointed in the right direction or else there would be no me. Thank you, Herr Docktor M.
K
He was a grain merchant and supplier of agricultural inputs to the area's farmers. Later he owned several large apartment buildings and shops that were rented out. After the fall of Communism, my mother received compensation for the real estate that had been expropiated - in almost worthless Hungarian forint certificates. I visited Vac and it is a typical German town.
He reminds me a little of my maternal grandfather who was also a soicher. My grandfather was "lucky" enough to be arrested by Stalin so he survived in a Soviet prison instead of being shot when the Germans arrived later. He died just a month before I was born so I never knew him. But he was not the man he was before once he emerged from the prison and he arrived in America too old and sick to resume in business.
My family received nothing for their grain mill or house, both of which still stand in what is today Ukraine. But we had the last laugh - the family is much richer and more educated here in America than we ever were in Galicia. It is a mistake to linger on the past - those Palestinians who carry the keys to their grandfather's houses in Haifa around with them and who obsess about their lost olive trees do themselves a disservice. Kadima!
K
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