Autobiography of Frances Dworecki
Chapter 1
Wednesday, April 10, 2002
I was born June 7,1920 in a small town Lida. A Lithuanian Grand Duke Gedimin
(1316-1341) established the town. The ruins of Gedimin's castle are still there.
In 1386 Lithuanian Duke Jagiello became a king of Poland by marriage to Jadwiga.
She was a daughter of Louis the king of Poland. The Lithuanian aristocracy and
burghers accepted the Polish language and Lithuania did not exist as a country
until 1918. In 1918 Lithuania became an independent republic. In the 18th
century Poland was divided into three parts (1772, 1793, 1795). Eastern Poland
passed to Russia. It reverted to Poland in 1919. By the time I was born Lida
was
a Polish town. My parent s' generation was educated in Russia and Russian was
the culture and the language they were comfortable with. My generation was
brought up in Polish culture. We were bilingual and we were comfortable in the
use of Polish and Russian. My sister Ella was born on April 23, 1923. Is it
possible that a person maintains recollection of the events that occurred at
the
early age? Apparently yes. I remember walking with father to visit mother in
the
hospital when Ella was born. Our parents met and married in Lida. Mother came
to Lida after graduation from the Dental School. She was born in Vilnius (Wilno)
in December 1892 as Maria Stokliski. Her father, Abram, was a Jewish teacher.
There was a family of six children. Maria had two brothers and four sisters.
The
eldest, Eva, married and immigrated to USA before the WWI. I was told that she
changed her name to Powell .They had two children . It is all I knew. I did not
try to find them. It is possible that our paths crossed and we were not aware
of this.
My father Michel Dworecki was born in Lida in November 1892 He was the first
born of seven children. My parents met when Michel came to Maria as a patient.
They fell in love and married in a short time. My paternal grandparents, Paul
Dworecki and Frieda Epstein were owners of a small hotel. Grandfather Paul's
business was in lumber. It was a very popular business in this part of the
country. Mother's parents died before I was old enough to have any recollections
of them. Maria became integrated into the clan of the Dworecki family. Grandma
Frieda was pretty, blond with blue eyes. Grandpa Paul was tall, slim and
handsome. I was told that he had a temper and had quarrels with the police about
sweeping the front of their property. It was understood that the children
should visit grandparents almost daily. I would drop in to say hello and to get
a hug and a kiss and a candy. Grandma had always candies in the pocket of her
apron. She wore an apron except when she would dress up. On this occasion it
was
a black lace shawl. Grandma Frieda was not only pretty, but she was a gentle
and
sweet person. She kept kosher kitchen and, when visiting with us, had her own
dishes. I adored Grandpa Paul. He liked to have a drink. He was a heavy smoker.
He managed the lumber business, while grandma was in charge of the hotel. Their
children were an interesting, well-educated group. The eldest, Michel, my
father, attended the Medical School in Dorpat (now in Estonia). He interrupted
the study of medicine to become a teacher of mathematics and Latin. In 1919 he
became the owner of a private Gymnasium. It closed in 1927. It was not able to
survive in the competition caused by two schools, a city school and a Hebrew
School, both with lower tuition. His sister Fanya, two years younger, married
early. She married Aaron Glazman. He was an insurance broker. Fanya was
involved in supporting a Jewish orphanage. They were killed in 1942 in the
liquidation of the ghetto in Lida. Their two children survived as non-Jews. The
survival of Sophie and Edek under German occupation was one of the few
miraculous Holocaust stories. Father's brother Jack married Molly Dworecki and
they left Lida for the USA. Jack graduated from a Dental School in New York and
practiced dentistry in Brooklyn. Jack was the first president of the Lida
Society. He was a talented musician and a performer. Michel and Jack were very
close. I met Uncle Jack when he and Molly came to visit Lida in 1936. He was
a
real charmer. Aunt Liza was very attractive and very sexy woman. She graduated
the Dental School following the footsteps of my mother Maria. Her husband Lowa,
was a handsome and elegant man, always well dressed. His nickname was "makes
a
million, loses a million". His business in the lumber was very volatile.
Liza
was the steady financial base with a regular income, practicing dentistry. It
was well known that she had many admirers and she had always a man following
her. When Lowa complained to my father about the flirtations of his wife, Liza's
answer was that it is none of her fault that men feel attracted to her. Even,
when the Soviet forces occupied the Eastern Poland, she had admirers among the
Soviet officers. It did not work with Germans. She perished in Majdanek with
her
two children age 9 and 11. Aunt Tanya did not attend university. She married
Mietek Golembikier a student of the Academy of Stomatology. He graduated in
1935. Their son Olek was born on December 16, 1937. They survived the war. In
the beginning they were helped by the family of a Russian Orthodox priest. At
some point they had to leave the hiding place. The Germans caught them. They
were sent to a small local concentration camp. A few days later there was an
organized and successful outbreak from the camp. It was helped by the Jewish
Partisan Brigade. At that point they joined the Jewish fighter's outfit in the
forests of Belarus. They survived. Eventually the family went to Australia. Olek
graduated from Medical School. He married an Australian girl. They had three
children. Olek was killed in an accident while riding a bicycle. He was 42. His
father's death preceded his. His mother Tanya died few years later. Father's
brother, Leon fell in love with his high school teacher. They eloped and got
married. In 1928 Leon entered Engineering School in Grenoble, France. He
graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering. His wife Bella Tunis Dworecki
graduated from the Academy of Stomatology in 1933. They moved to a small town,
Bychava Lubelska. When the Germans invaded eastern Poland, the family went east
and eventually reached Tashkent. Bella, who was an insulin-dependent diabetic,
died in a hospital in Tashkent. Leon and their little daughter Ruth joined the
Polish Army. It became possible, because on 30 July 1941 the Polish Government
in London signed the Polish-Soviet Agreement. The release of all Polish
prisoners followed. The Polish Army was organized in Krasnodar, and eventually
was given permission to leave the Soviet Union. Leon and his 7-year-old daughter
Ruth reached Palestine. Their travel took them through Persia and Pakistan. The
youngest sister Paula married Zalmen Plotkin, a physician. They left Poland for
Australia in 1938. In 1940, with the help of Paula's brother Jack, they
immigrated to the USA. Each of father's siblings could write a book about their
life. Now, they are gone. Only Zalmen and Paula are alive and living in New
York. I feel, right or wrong that it is my obligation to tell what I remember.
The next generation should know the members of the family. Some of them
disappeared during the German occupation of Poland 1941 to 1945.
Since I described the members of the family, I am ready to write about my
parents Maria and Michel. Both were intelligent, attractive and educated. While
my father was a ladies' man and a charmer, mother was an energetic, no-nonsense
woman, able to support her husband and their children during the very difficult
situations in the life of our family. She was the tower of strength. But she
was
not able to save her own life and she was killed by the Germans in the
liquidation of the Lida Ghetto on May 6,1942. . My father was very popular.
He always loved having the recognition and admiration of others. He organized and
he was a chief of the Jewish Fire Fighters brigade, all voluntary and the only
one serving the town of Lida and surrounding communities. He left the
Firefighters in 1927. Michel loved horses and he was a very fine horseman. When
we were small children we had a horse named Fink, and later another named Maly,
which in translation means "Small"." Maly" was a temperamental
and horse to
handle, but in my father's hands he was sweet and cooperative. My father, Michel
loved to ride in a horse sled in the winter and an elegant two-wheel carriage
in
the summer. It is so much alive in my memory. The trips to the country were fun.
Father would take my younger sister Ella and me riding into the fields. He liked
to sing and to whistle and we sang along. We would stop in the fields to collect
poppies, ripe green peas, and whatever was ready for harvesting. The fields did
not belong to us. The owners were farmers in the nearby villages. Most of them
knew our parents. Michel was a real show off. When the occasion called, he led
the firefighters on a parade, splendid on a horse with our Belgian Shepherd dog
Alpha following in his footsteps. Michel enjoyed hunting. Hunting was not a
sport that Jews were involved in. November comes we had a lot of venison, and
wild birds. We did not have wild turkey in Poland . It was the time when my
parents were successful owners of a Gymnasium and a large property with an
orchard and a vegetable garden. Ella and I had a governess. Her name was Maria.
Her family belonged to a poor Polish aristocracy. It was socially accepted that
young women from so-called good homes were employed as governesses. Maria was
pretty and loving. She read us stories. We went for walks. She taught us how
to
behave in different circumstances. She was a disciplinarian, but my sister and
I
loved her very much. She left our family in very unusual circumstances. As I
wrote before, she belonged to a family with noble ancestry, but no money . It
was accepted that a young lady with her background becomes a governess in a
prominent family. Maria was very pretty. She fell in love with an aviator, an
officer in the Polish Aviation. They had an affair. He was not permitted to
marry her. An officer was permitted to marry a young lady with money and a good
family background. While the family was acceptable, there was no money .One day
Maria developed a sore in her throat. The medical diagnosis was syphilis. Ella
and I were moved to our grandparent's house. Maria stayed in the apartment until
ready to leave. One day on my way to school I saw her standing in the door of
our apartment. I ran to her crying. She refused to hug me. I was hurt. Years
later mother told me about venereal disease, the prevention and the treatment.
I
was 14 years old. Our parents had only compassion for Maria. She visited us
years later. She underwent treatment. She was well. She never married. In 1927
the bubble burst. Father was not able to compete with two new schools with lower
tuition. The Gymnasium had to close. The property was sold on auction. And the
family went from rich to poor. I was 7 years old, but I remember the
auctioneer's stamps on the piano and valuables. While we lost a lot, the piano
and other valuables remained in the family until the tragedy of the WWII, when
all was gone and mother was murdered.
My happy childhood ended right there.
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