Just this July, I headed to Eastern Europe on a trip that took me and a few friends, with help from a stick-shifting rental car, through seven countries, six currencies, 5000 kilometers and many cappuccinos from Poland down to Croatia--with special countryside visits to the ancestral villages of both my Bubba in Poland and my great grandfather in the Czech Republic. We had lots of adventures both physical and interpersonal, but visiting my own history in two locations was perhaps the most powerful.
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Finding Kosow Lacki and then exploring Treblinka, where we found the tombstone honoring the victims of my Bubba's hometown. |
Though there aren't a lot of Jews now in Eastern Europe, travel there is a constant reminder of that painful Jewish story, when in just a few decades from the 1920s to 1940s, Jews went from a thriving quarter of the population to complete phantoms in key cities we visited like Warsaw, Krakow, Prague, Vienna and Budapest. We were able to trace the path and some still-remaining train tracks that connected the short six kilometers from Treblinka to Kosow Lacki, and we spoke with villagers there who remembered the Jews and at least one synagogue and cemetery, both which were destroyed. We even spoke to the town's librarian and found some old books about past Jewish families, but nothing specific to my family and very little remaining of what had been a significant Jewish population there.
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The still-preserved synagogue in Kolin, Czech Republic, where an old Golem stood. |
This single synagogue in Kolin, at the site for centuries, was most likely the spiritual home of my great grandfather and his family in the latter half of the 19th century. According to the diligent genealogical research done by my father before he died, my great grandfather Henry Goldsmith and his five siblings were born and raised in Kolin in the 1870s but then Henry was married in New York City--evidently having moved there permanently--in 1895. Unlike my Bubba we so far do not know why the Goldsmith family chose to leave Czech.
According to a woman who worked there, Kolin had the second largest Jewish population in Bohemia after Prague and the Jews were well-integrated into the culture despite their forced exit around World War II, with the last remaining Jews leaving Kolin in 1953. The synagogue had become an historical and cultural site, still used for occasional concerts and events. When I told her my family had lived there in the late 1800s, she surprised me with a huge skeleton key to the old Jewish Cemetery just a few more blocks away. I was welcome to visit it.
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Exploring the old Jewish cemetery in Kolin. |
Henry did leave for the U.S., bringing my grandfather who brought my mother who brought me into this world. And now I am here, a traveler returned, able to consider the mysteries of history, place, family and memories, many forgotten but some living on in small but powerful ways.
Thanks for sharing your story Adam. I remember George introducing me to stories of Ancestors the day I met him, which was just after his ancestor travels. It often seems like a mixture of fascination and sadness. I hope to eventually visit mine in Eastern Europe/Ukraine as well. ~Andrea
ReplyDeleteThank you. Your writing is so beautiful...I am so glad you shared this and I want to pass it on to others. As time goes forward we lose our ties to our ancestors and also our understanding of their lives and their story of survival coming to the USA. I know this was an emotional trip for you because last year I also found our Eastern Europe journey to be quite jarring.
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Some facebook comments...
ReplyDeletea good write-up of an inspiring journey
September 20 at 1:55pm
Love this!
September 20 at 3:00pm
you are so fortunate you got to do this. i wouldn't even know how to start to track my ancestors in e. europe. how amazing.
September 20 at 3:09pm
very cool experience for you!!
September 20 at 9:02pm ·