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May 30. 2005
Sad Findings
by - Ina Levitt-Yanover

Before the ceremonies commemorating the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz started, a survivor who now lives in Canada lit a pair of Yahrzeit candles for his mother and his sister. He said a prayer. The candles were on a brick ledge. When he finished reciting his prayer, the camera panned down as he placed the candles in the oven of the crematorium. He wanted to shine a light in the face of the darkest chapter of both Jewish and human history. He was reaching out and back to the memory of his family.

He talked about how he found comfort in the midst of all the horror because his father was there. He was in the "bed" in his bunker in the camp and he reached for his father's hand. He was surprised to feel how soft it was. His mother and sister had been separated from them. He ached for those who were alone in the camp.

This is what we, as genealogists, do when we try to find an ancestor who died in the Holocaust. It is not always a joyful experience. There is often pain and heartache, along with a feeling that, at the very least, our ancestor will be remembered as a part of our family tree.

When we do our research and unearth our ancestors who perished in the Holocaust, we illuminate their memory. We add their name to our family tree so that they are not forgotten. Thursday, January 27, 2005, was the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. I just happened to flip by the ceremonies and decided that I should not only record it, but that I should watch it. By watching the ceremonies, I felt that in some small way I was honouring the memories of those who perished in the Holocaust.

Often when there is a show about the Holocaust, I tape it, but I don't watch it. Years ago, we were at my maternal grandparents. There was a show on television about the camps that showed actual footage. My sisters and I were watching it. My grandfather came into the room and I asked him if he wanted to watch. I have never forgotten his answer. He said, "No. I'm afraid I might see someone that I know." I didn't really understand it then, but I think that I do now. Now, as an adult and a novice genealogist, I wish that I had asked him what he meant and who he was afraid of seeing. In many cases, it takes all the skills and intuitions of the genealogist to find family who perished.

It is very important to me to find these relatives. I do not know exactly who I am looking for or how many people I may find; I only know that I want to find them. I had been looking for my SZNIFER (my maternal grandfather) relatives on Yad Vashem. (It came online on Monday, November 22, 2004.) Instead, I found a LEVITT (my paternal grandfather) relative.

One of my grandfatherﾒs sisters, Jenny ZICK had three sons. All of them are gone now. I never knew about the third son until my father gave me a LEVITT/ZICK family tree that had been put together in 1978. Unfortunately, there are no dates or countries of origin on it and there are blank spaces beside many names.

The youngest son was named Mendel. He was born in Libau, (Liepaja) Latvia. I did not know that Mendel existed until I saw the LEVITT/ZICK family tree. I did not know that he had been murdered during the Holocaust at the age of 25. That is only a few months older than my daughter. His wife was only 21.

I met Mendel's two brothers. Both of them had immigrated to South Africa. They were both charming and delightful gentlemen. I wonder what Mendel was like and what his life would have been like if he had been allowed to live. How many branches of our family trees have been prematurely cut off? How would our lives and the lives of our families be different if the Holocaust had not happened? Would some of us still be living in Poland or Hungary or Germany?

I had hoped that finding a relative on Yad Vashem would bring some closure, answer some questions about family members who perished in the Holocaust and perhaps, give me some leads about our familyﾒs past and present.

What I didn't know was that I would feel so incredibly sad. No triumph. No elation. No "aha, I found a relative". Just a feeling of overwhelming sadness that life was so unfair to him.

For some reason, when I read that Mendel was shot, I thought about an ITV British series called "Wish Me Luck". It was about the British Resistance in France during World War II. In the last episode, the survivors from the resistance were to meet at a café in Paris. A young couple, who were part of the Resistance, was walking down an alley, not far from the rendezvous point, when an SS Officer rounded them up. They were just two of the many people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were told to stand against a wall in an alley just a heartbeat away from the rendezvous point. As the officers started shooting, the young couple looked at each other. The young woman was smiling. I was never sure if she was thinking about how unfair it was that they were so close to surviving or that if they were going to be shot, she was glad that they were together and understood their fate.

I wonder if those who perished in the Holocaust really understand their fate. I wonder if they knew how important it would be for those who came after them to search for them so that they could be remembered. It is even more important now while there are still a few survivors left to try to find out what we can about our ancestors who perished in the Holocaust.

The horror of the Holocaust is unimaginable to those of us who did not live through it. We can never know what really happened and what the victims of this terror experienced. We can reach out and back to the memory of our families. We can honour them by adding them to our family trees and by doing so, shine a little bit of light in that darkness of those horrific times. We can remember their lives and by remembering, we can shine a light in the face of the darkest chapter of both Jewish and human history.