Finding Chana and Fievel Boyarsky by
Ellie Roden
This is a story of how we should never give up searching for
lost relatives and how the miracle of the Internet can
help.
My
father, and two of his sisters, came to the USA from Michalishek
in the early part of the 20th century.
Remaining in Michalishek was their youngest sister, Chana.
I only knew that Chana was married to
a Fievel
Boyarsky,.
They lived in Lida and had a son and a daughter. The
Boyarsky family perished in the Holocaust. That was all
I knew.
I didn't know where, when or how they died. I didn't
even know my cousins' names. Sadly, my father and his
two sisters
passed away some years ago leaving so many unanswered
questions about this aunt and cousins that I never knew.
In recent years it became a bit of an obsession for me to find
out more about the Boyarskys. I wrote to Yad Vashem, the International
Tracing Bureau, The US Holocaust Museum, a Lida society in Israel
and many, many other agencies and organizations. Several Chana
Boyarskys were listed on Holocaust victims lists, but without
father's names, birth places, birth years, etc. there was no
way to know if any were MY Chana. As a last ditch effort I posted
some photos of Chana and her family some months ago on the Lida
page of Jewishgen - the Internet Jewish genealogy site. Well,
G-d bless the internet! On April 9th I checked my email at 6:00
am and found an Email message from Doris Cultraro stating that
she had seen the photos on the Lida page. Doris wrote that her
mother's uncle, Fievel Boyarsky, was married to a Chana and that
Chana had a sister in Wallingford, CT and another in Brooklyn.
My heart was pounding. This was definitely MY Chana, for one
of my father's sisters had lived in Brooklyn and the other in
Wallingford. I couldn't wait for that day at work to pass so
I could get home and call Doris's mother, Bella Wagner. I suspect
Bella was just as anxiously awaiting my call.
I learned from Bella that her family and the Boyarskys all lived
in the same house in Lida. This is a far closer connection than
I had ever dreamed of! I also learned for the first time that
afternoon that my cousins' names were Zelig and Rachel. I immediately
guessed that Zelig was named for our grandfather and Rachel was
named for Chana's older sister who died at a young age in Michalishek
of influenza. As Bella continued to tell me about Fievel, Chana,
Zelig and Rachel, these relatives were becoming real people to
me, not just nameless faces on an old photograph. I had always
known that the Boyarskys perished in the Holocaust, but now,
learning that they were murdered in the mass execution on May
8, 1942 it became a deeper and more personal loss.
I have spoken to Bella a few times since April 9th and sent
her the few photographs I have of the Boyarskys. I know that
this must be stirring up bittersweet memories for her too. I
plan to go to New York on May 18, 2003 to attend the Annual Lida
Memorial Meeting with my cousin, Ellie Kelman, (also Chana's
niece) to meet Bella and her family. We will say Kaddish for
our Aunt Chana, Fievel, Zelig and Rachel - the family we are
just getting to know.
Ellie Roden
Wilmington, Vermont
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