The Family (48 page)

Michael Turner watched SS guards
:
USC Shoah Foundation testimony.

“The hunger was unbelievable”
:
Tola Urbach, USC Shoah Foundation testimony.

The food ration was “neither enough to live on nor to die on”
:
This quote and details about camp life are from Kruk,
The Last Days
, pp. 685–687, 690.

Occasionally the slaves sang Hebrew songs
:
Kruk,
The Last Days
, p. 678.

Some of the men smuggled prayer shawls
:
Balberyszski,
Stronger Than Iron
, p. 301.

A few written traces
:
These traces were located by research wizards Leah Teichthal and Rita Margolin at Yad Vashem and William Connelly at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Mr. Connelly helped me translate the German and interpret the various terms on the forms.

One hundred were shot after three prisoners succeeded in escaping
:
Balberyszski,
Stronger Than Iron
, p. 306.

In June 1944, Klooga had 2,122
:
Statistics for Jewish forced-labor camps in Estonia, September 1943–June 1944, based on monthly reports by camp chief physician Franz von Bodman, archived at Yad Vashem.

“Everything is being liberated
 . 
. .”:
Kruk,
The Last Days
, p. 698.

Itel was also doing her bit
:
Information on the pigeon vest from Maidenform Collection and Evans,
They Made America
, p. 314.

“mighty explosions and bombardments,” “Soon you will be liberated,” and “You can sense the front . . .”
:
Kruk,
The Last Days
, pp. 699, 694, 702, respectively.

transferred to Danzig
:
Weiss-Wendt,
Murder Without Hatred
, p. 307.

The 301 healthy men
:
My description of the last hours of Klooga comes from Weiss-Wendt,
Murder Without Hatred
, pp. 311–313; testimony of Tola Urbach, Adele Jochelson, and Michael Turner, USC Shoah Foundation. Also Kruk,
The Last Days
, p. 685, and Balberyszski,
Stronger Than Iron
, pp. 314–315. For the appearance of the funeral pyres, I relied on the extensive photo archive at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

491 could be identified
:
Weiss-Wendt,
Murder Without Hatred
, p. 318.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: POSTWAR

For Future Generations
:
Kruk,
The Last Days
, epigraph.

Shalom Tvi booked the first available passage
:
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, File Series A-File, File Number A-2958053, records relating to Sholom Kahanowicz.

hundreds of thousands of Arabs
:
The exact number is a source of heated controversy—with estimates ranging from 335,000 to nearly a million depending on the source.

In 1998, an estimated 15,672 refugees
:
www.palestineremembered.com/Tulkarm/Wadi-al-Hawarith/index.html.

the Jewish population of Israel almost doubled
:
Kramer,
A History of Palestine
, p. 320.

print ads crafted by Mary Fillius
:
Reichert,
The Erotic History of Advertising
, p. 145, and Evans,
They Made America
, p. 315. Material at Maidenform Collection, Series 1: Company History, 1922–1990, states that Kitty D'Alessio “worked extensively” on the Dream Campaign and may have originated the idea.

The tagline was so catchy
:
Evans,
They Made America
, p. 315.

“
The edge of Vilna Street stayed intact”
:
Zelig Kost in Rakov Yizkor book. Additional information from telephone interview with Estelle Trooskin, December 2011, and interview with Inda Epstein Goldfarb, Freehold, New Jersey, July 26, 2010.

Hyman includes one paragraph
:
Cohen,
As I Recall
, p. 82.

“Auschwitz,” writes Yale historian Timothy Snyder
:
Timothy Snyder, “Holocaust: The Ignored Reality,”
The New York Review of Books
, July 16, 2009, www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2009/jul/16/holocaust-the-ignored-reality/.

“First, I can't afford it”
:
Maidenform Collection.

EPILOGUE

So Shimon Dov is my great-great-grandfather
:
Technically I am not a Kohain because membership in the priestly caste passes from father to son.

The page numbers in this index refer to the printed version of this book. The link provided will take you to the beginning of that print page. You may need to scroll forward from that location to find the corresponding reference on your e-reader.

A. Cohen & Sons,
66
–69,
70
,
86
,
90
,
92
,
130
–31,
149
–50,
205
,
221
,
224
,
278
,
281
–82,
283
,
318
–19,
322

Agnon, S. Y.,
9
,
10

Aktion
(roundup and slaughter),
249
,
250
–52,
255
–56,
279
–80

Albert Einstein College of Medicine,
276
–77

Aleichem, Sholem,
37

Alexander II, Tsar of Russia,
20

Alexander III, Tsar of Russia,
29
,
119

Alien Property Custodian,
282

aliyah (“ascent”),
118
,
120
,
124
,
140
,
154
,
268

“Aliyah Bet” (human smuggling campaign),
182
,
185

Alperovich, Tsipora,
191
,
285
–86,
293
,
295

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (“the Joint”,
213

Amir, Yisrael,
142

Anna (cook),
260

Anolik, Ben,
299

anti-Semitism,
94
–95,
168
–69,
185
,
213
,
242

in Poland,
189

Arafat, Yasser,
324

Aragon, Louis,
238

Army Graves Registration Service, U.S.,
102

Army Signal Corps, U.S.,
302
–3

Armstrong, Louis,
314

As I Recall
(Cohen),
322

Auschwitz-Birkenau camp,
273
,
301
,
317

Austria, German invasion of,
185

Avedon, Richard,
314

Babel, Isaac,
45
,
119

Baker, Josephine,
117

Balfour, Arthur James,
111
–12

Balfour Declaration,
111
–12

Barewitz, Harry,
61

Baruch, Bernard,
112

Battle of Britain,
227

Beautiful and Damned, The
(Fitzgerald),
117

Bellow, Saul,
6

Belzec camp,
273

Ben-Gurion, David,
123
,
140

Ben Yehuda,
180

Berlin, Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehudah,
15

Betar youth movement,
143
,
154

Beth David Anshei Rakov,
59

Beyle (Shimon Dov's wife),
36

Bialik, Hayyim,
14
,
31
–32

Bissett, Enid,
114
–15,
116
,
117
,
118
,
131
,
133
,
138
,
152

Bissett, Joe,
117
–18,
133
,
138
,
152

Black Hundreds (tsarist group),
44
–45,
48

“Bloody Sunday,”
40
–41

Boguslav, Isidor,
149

Bolshevism and Bolsheviks,
91
–92,
97
,
98
,
171

Black Monday,
145
,
146

Botwinik, Esther,
191
,
199
,
202

Botwinik, Hayim Yehoshua,
191
,
192
,
195
,
196
–97,
199
,
202
,
206

Brassiere Workers Union,
263

Brest-Litovsk, treaty of,
97

British Mandate in Palestine,
176
,
177
,
184
–85,
268
–69,
312
–13

Bund socialist workers' party,
33
–35,
38
,
41
–42,
44
,
45

Burke, Billie,
117

Cahan, Abe,
74

Chadman, Chana,
55

Chadman, Sam,
55

Chekhov, Anton,
156
,
194

Chelmno extermination camp,
272
–73

Churchill, Winston,
227
,
283

Cohen, Abraham (Avram Akiva),
11
,
23
–25,
29
,
35
,
42
,
45
,
46
–47,
51
,
78
,
84
–85,
88
,
139
,
148
,
151
,
173
,
174
,
199
,
202
,
204
,
221
,
222
–23,
225
,
260
,
283
,
327

A. Cohen & Sons and,
66
–67,
130
–31,
224

emigration to America of,
49
–51

in Manhattan,
57
–60,
61
,
66
–67,
68

in Rakov,
20
–22

in Volozhin,
14
–16

Cohen, Anna (Chana),
49
,
55
,
61
,
84

Cohen, Anna Raskin,
90
,
95
,
101
,
109
,
131
,
149
,
151
,
319
–20

Cohen, Bernard,
139

Cohen, Celia Zimmerman,
89
,
131

Cohen, David,
139

Cohen, Dorothy,
95
,
139
,
271
,
282

Cohen, Ethel (Ettel),
28
,
29
,
49
,
50
,
55
,
56
,
57
,
61
,
139
,
151
,
173
,
226
,
260
,
261
,
278
,
325

Cohen, Gary,
322

Cohen, Gladys,
2
,
139
,
151
,
204
,
282
,
322
,
325
,
326

Cohen, Harry (Hersch),
45
–46,
48
,
49
,
55
,
61
,
78
,
84
,
88
–89,
90
,
92
,
131
,
151
,
226
,
260
,
271
,
278
,
318
,
325

in family business,
64
–65,
66
,
67
,
68
,
75
,
93
,
130
,
142
–43,
146
,
281

Cohen, Hyman (Chaim Jasef),
37
,
45
–48,
49
,
50
,
55
,
61
,
65
,
66
,
75
,
78
,
86
,
88
,
89
,
90
–91,
92
–94,
131
,
132
,
145
,
149
,
151
,
180
,
225
,
260
,
271
,
317
,
322
,
325

as American soldier,
94
–96,
101
–110,
279

in family business,
67
,
68
,
69
,
130
,
142
–43,
146
,
281
,
282
,
318

in Palestine,
319
–20

Cohen, Inda,
139

Cohen, Leah,
134
–35,
137

Cohen, Leona,
139
,
282
,
325

Cohen, Lester,
139
,
282

Cohen, Lillie (Leie),
55
,
61
,
151
,
325

Cohen, Marvin,
131
,
139
,
282
,
319

Cohen, Melvin,
318
–19

Cohen, Sallie,
131
,
151

Cohen, Sam (Shmuel),
2
–3,
45
,
47
,
49
,
55
,
61
–2,
89
,
90
,
131
,
139
,
151
,
173
,
204
,
223
,
224
,
260
,
271
,
278
,
282
–83,
322

Americanization of,
69

in family business,
65
–69,
75
,
130
,
142
–43,
145
–46,
281
–83,
318
–19

memories of,
325
,
326
,
330

Cohen, Sarah (Gishe Sore),
21
–22,
23
–24,
26
–27,
28
,
29
,
35
,
42
,
84
,
88
,
110
,
139
,
148
,
151
,
194
,
199
,
204
,
234

emigration to America of,
49
–51

in Manhattan,
52
–55,
57
,
58
,
60
–62

Cohen, Sidney,
95
,
139
,
282
,
302

Cohen, Yizhak,
134
–35,
137

Cohen-Hatfield Industries,
322

Cohn, Ethel (Joseph Cohn's wife),
29

Cohn, Herman,
22
,
29
,
78
206
,
278
279

Cohn, Joseph (Yasef Bear),
22
,
29
,
56
,
78
,
278
,
279

Cohn, Leonard,
278
–79,
289
–90,
291
,
317

Cohn, Rachel (Joseph and Ethel Cohn's daughter),
29

Cohn, Sarah (Joseph and Ethel Cohn's daughter),
29

Columbia College,
138
,
147

Consolidated Gas Company,
145
,
146
,
150

Cooper, James Fenimore,
37

Cozzolina, Miss (Inspector Kaba's colleague),
200

Crosby, Bing,
314

Dachau concentration camp,
185

“Days of Freedom,”
44
,
48

Dead Sea Scrolls,
9

Debs, Eugene,
72
,
263

Depression, Great,
146
,
147
–53,
187

Dos Passos, John,
7

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor,
37

Druskininkai mineral baths,
208
–9

Dubinsky, David,
262
,
263

Duma,
48

Educational Alliance,
66

Eidelman, Hillel,
310
–11

Einstein, Albert,
203

Enid Frocks, Inc.,
114
–16,
145

Enid Manufacturing Company,
132
–33,
138

Epstein, Sam,
139
,
173
,
226

Ethical Culture Society,
148
,
188

Etl (Chaim's beloved),
129
–30

Etz Chaim Anshei Volozhin,
59

Fayve (tailor),
77

Feller, Joe,
133

Feytzeh (Sonia's travel companion),
168
–69

Fibe family,
55

Filbert, Albert,
245

Fillius, Mary,
314

“Final Solution,”
272
–73

Finger, Chana HaKohen,
191
,
233
,
279

Finger, Meir,
191
,
233
,
280

Finkel, Uri,
265

First Agricultural School for Women,
163
,
164

“First Call, The” (Kovner),
288

Fitzgerald, F. Scott,
117

Fitzgerald, Zelda,
117

Foehrenwald DP camp,
315
,
316

Ford, Henry,
134

“For Future Generations” (Kruk),
309

Fortune
magazine,
314

FPO (Fareynegte Partizaner Organizatsye-United Partisan Organization),
288
–89,
291
,
295

Frank, Anne,
253
–54

Franz Ferdinand, Archduke,
76

Gapon, Father,
38
,
40

Garber, Jacob,
270

Garden Cafeteria,
66

garment industry,
63
–64

Gelbschein
Aktion,
285

Gelperin, Gisri (Gladys),
131

General Stuart
(ship),
316

Gens, Jacob,
288
–89,
291
,
292
,
293

Genth, Wilhelm,
301

German Afrika Korps,
236
,
289

Gershwin, George,
117

Gershwin, Ira,
117

Gestapo,
291
–92,
293
,
294

Ghetto Fighters' Kibbutz,
328

Gill, Robert S.,
107

Glucksman, Fred,
225