At the age of 17,
Shaul my father had joined the Polish army.

When the war broke out,
Shaul was in Western Poland, near the border with Germany.
A soldier fighting the Nazi Germans as they invaded Poland.
Wounded by German fire.

Back in his hometown of Lukow,
As the Nazi Germans were approaching,
Shaul had crossed the border,
Into the Soviet Union.
Detained by the Soviets, he had been sent to the Pechora Gulag,
In the Siberian Arctic Circle.

At the end of the war, Shaul returned to his hometown,
And found out that his family had been largely destroyed.
At the Miedzyrzec Ghetto.
In Majdanek.
In Treblinka.

His mother Esther Malka.

His grandmother Reyzla.

His grandmother Dvora.

His grandfather Haim Yoel.

His aunt Sheindel.

His aunt Hana.

His aunt Golda.

His uncle Shimon.

His uncle Israel.

His uncle Yosef.

His aunt Rivka.

His aunt Yosefa.

His aunt Haya.

His uncle Haim.

His uncle Yechiel.

His uncle Wolf.

His aunt Rachel.

His uncle Yaacov.

His aunt Elka.

His cousin Dov Berl.

His cousin in law Rivka.

His cousin 4 years old Yenta.

His cousin 2 years old Sara.

His cousin 16 years old Isar.

His cousin Dvora.

His cousin Sara.

 

Shaul went on to build a new family.

Together with Lily our mother,
They gave my brother Dov and me
The gift of life.

And just before Shaul my father bid farewell for good,
He gave us the gift of an identity with the family stories.
To carry onward,
For new generations.