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March 26. 2005
Breaking News – Mitzvah for the New Year
by - Ina Levitt-Yanover

“Dear Mitzvah Makers!
On Sept. 2nd, I wrote our List in an effort to locate Bella Speier, (last seen just after the Holocaust). It was on the long, cold march from Stutthof that Bella saved Mildred Greenspoon in a hay wagon when Mildred became too ill to walk. Mildred is now elderly & ailing. She remembered that Bella married a Rogers & moved to Australia after the war. She is hoping to find this very special person & speak to her again. In my message to the Ukraine SIG, I mentioned how wonderful it would be if we could perform a new year's mitzvah, & reunite these women before Rosh Hashonah. I received a number of friendly suggestions, & to those writers, I say thank you for your responses.

** The exciting break-through came in a letter from Nigel Meinrath who forwarded a family tree that "possibly" had the right information. I sent it on to Mildred's daughter, my friend, & passed on the suggestion that she call the Melbourne Chevra Kadisha. I was pretty sure Bella's husband was in their records, & that we could pinpoint her whereabouts. Today, only FOUR days after beginning the search, I received an email from my friend. It read: "YES!!! I'm waiting to hear back from Bella's son Myron. He is a neuro-surgeon and currently in surgery. Hope I can talk to her as well! Will keep you posted."

It appears that we really have performed our mitzvah!! (Many, many thanks Nigel!!) I will follow up with an account of how their reunion proceeds from here.”

[This was sent out the following day.]

“It seems that Bella is now suffering from memory loss, so the two women won't be able to speak to each other. The positive side is that Mildred now knows about her friend, Bella & her family. What a shame this search wasn't conducted a year earlier.

Best regards,
Florence Elman
Ukraine SIG Coordinator”

To some of you, this search may not be a success. The result, like so many outcomes in life, is bittersweet. I believe, perhaps, somewhere, in the farthest reaches of Bella’s mind, when her son tells her, she will understand that her friend was able to find her after all these years.

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