Photograph
titles:
top left: Rose Horowitz and children with Chil Serko, May 1930, on way
to Zembrove railroad station
top right: Aaron Hurwitz, cir early 1930s
From Grace Ittleman:
"My mother, my sister and I left Czyzewo in
1930 when I was only seven years old. My father had already left and came to the
States in 1925. Most of my mother's family had already immigrated by the early
1930s. My maternal grandmother had already immigrated to Palestine in 1911. She
was very religious, and even though she was still young, she wanted to be buried
there. My grandfather came here to the States because he already had two sons
and his sister here.
My great grandparents were still alive at the
time we left there and they were living in Czyzewo. I remember them so vividly.
All of my father's family perished during the massacre in Czyzewo that occurred
on August 21, 1941 when all the Jews were marched into the forest of Szulborze
and forced to dig their own graves. My cousin was the only one to survive. He
fell on the bodies and pretended that he was dead. After the war, he told my
father not to bother to look for any survivors because there weren't any. He was
the eyewitness and told my parents that all the relatives were killed.
My sister and I both have vivid memories. My
grandparents had a bakery in Czyzewo. There were two floors in the building. The
bottom floor was the bakery, and there was another floor over the bakery where
they lived. They had wooden stairs in front of the bakery. My sister and I used
to sit there on Sunday morning when the Christians were going to church. My
grandmother used to say, "Now you have to be very quiet and sit very still so
that you don't show any disrespect for these Gentiles that are going to church."
Imagine that.
My sister keeps telling me about our great
grandparents. My bubbe--my great grandmother--she was very short and had no
teeth. When someone would give my sister and I candy, our bubbe would come along
and take the candy away from us, because she loved candy. My sister and I, to
this day, still talk about that!"
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