THIS BOOK, THE life story of Eli G. Rochelson (1907–1984), takes as its starting point the story as he told it himself in interviews forty years ago with his son, my brother, Burton L. Rochelson. Since then, a great many interviews have been done by Holocaust survivors, and a great many books have been written. Each narrative adds something to the historical record and keeps the details of experience alive. Eli’s Story begins long before the Holocaust and ends long after, telling of a life that was more than suffering and survival. In the Introduction that follows, I describe the reasons for some of the choices I have made. Here, I wish to thank all those who made the book itself possible. This was a very large group, and I hope that anyone I may have omitted will forgive me.
This book was many years in the making, beginning with the interviews done by Burt. Indeed, Burt has been a partner in this enterprise from the start, and it is not only because of the interviews that I could not have done the book without him. My work on the manuscript began in earnest in 2010, after our mother died and Burt and I went through the many papers that she, our father, and other relatives had amassed. Thus, I owe a deep debt of gratitude to Pearl and Eli Rochelson themselves, and to Ida and David Robinson, Eli’s sister-in-law and brother in the United States, who recognized that photographs and documents needed to be preserved. In the seven years I have been at work on Eli’s Story, Burt and I have gone through and shared many of those items together; he has reviewed drafts; and we have discussed and occasionally argued. Most importantly, Burt has encouraged me throughout this lengthy and complex task. The book belongs to us both.
Of course, the book would not have appeared without valued support from institutions and other individuals. I am grateful to Targum Shlishi, a Raquel and Aryeh Rubin Foundation, for a grant that enabled me to travel to do research at libraries and archives. I am also indebted to the extraordinary librarians, archivists, and other staff at those institutions. These include Gunnar Berg, archivist at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research; Megan Lewis, Vincent Slatt, Elliott Wrenn, and Ron Coleman, librarians at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM); Anne-Marie Belinfante, specialist in the Dorot Division of the New York Public Library; the staff of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) Archives in New York; the librarians and staff in the research division of Yad Vashem; and Galina Baranova, director of the Lithuanian State Archives. Sara-joelle Clark of the Survivors Registry at the USHMM long ago sent me copies of documents from the International Tracing Service held at the museum. Robert Ehrenreich had suggested not only that I get those but also that I visit and search the archives myself. He was right on both counts. I am also grateful to the staff at the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, Germany, who replied to my very earliest requests for information in 1989. My warmest thanks, as well, to Robin Harp of the USHMM Photo Archives, to Emanuel Saunders of the Yad Vashem Photo Archive, to Charlotte Bonelli of the American Jewish Committee, and to Yedida Kanfer of the Jewish Family and Children’s Services Holocaust Center in San Francisco for permission to reproduce or quote from materials in their collections.
I owe enormous thanks to a number of Holocaust survivors who gave of their time to talk with me personally and to give me information about their own experiences, as well as their connections to my father. These include Masha Zulzberg Lidor, Shalom Eilati, and Moshe Kravetz in Israel, and Josef Griliches, Nissan Krakinowski, Sol Lurie, Tonia Rotkopf Blair, and Rabbi Laszlo Berkowits in the United States. I also learned a great deal in conversation with family members: Nissan Krakinowski’s daughters Pessie and the late Shayndee Krakinowski Altman, and Sharon Caspi and Meirav Furth, daughter and granddaughter of Masha Lidor. I have learned, too, from the families of people that my father knew in Kovno: Lily Perry, Thelma Silber, and Janina Pace, widows of three of Eli’s doctor friends, and Bella and Benny Pace; Sharon Silber, Joanne Silber Ronay, and Bobbie Silber Lamont; Cindy, Ken, and Jeff Perry; Paulina Rosenstein; and Dan A. Nabriski, children of several of the Kovno doctors.
Family genealogists, in particular Eric M. Bloch and the late George Rockson, both building upon the work of the late Francis R. (Bob) Wilson, as well as Deana Sanditen Maloney, have helped me enormously in this project. Bette Stoop Mas, a member of the LitvakSIG listserv, was exceptionally helpful in enabling me to discover a previously unknown branch of my paternal grandmother’s family, and in the process she introduced me to the outstanding assistance provided by the Family History Library of Salt Lake City, operated by the Church of the Latter Day Saints. LitvakSIG, itself, has been a treasure, and I have learned an enormous amount through discussion posts and connections made through them, as well as through the Kaunas and Suwalki District Research Groups. The tireless researchers in these groups, headed by Dorothy Lievers, Eden Joachim, and Ralph Salinger, post a wealth of data to contributors before it is available on JewishGen.org, another outstanding resource of which I made extensive use. My cousin Greta Minsky expanded my knowledge of Tulsa family history and explained important connections I had not been aware of between my Rochelson family and the Fenster branch. Cousin Debi Sanditen helped me with Sanditen connections, while Nathan Bloch, grandson of Ben Bloch, helped me understand the history of the Midwestern branch of the family. On the Lubovsky side, Pierre Pizzochero provided a wealth of information on European cousins, and Bill and Sandy Esner introduced me—in a few cases, literally—to American cousins I had not known existed before. Gerald Stern, an Englishman who replied to my e-mailed request about a name in his online family tree, set in motion my reconnecting with Masha Lidor and her family.
I have gained extremely valuable scholarly advice and support from Marsha Rozenblit, as well as from Natalia Aleksiun, Oren Stier, Kenneth Waltzer, Deborah Lipstadt, Ellen Cassedy, Margaret Stetz, and a number of other scholars whose papers I have heard or whose work I have read; comments from the anonymous readers for Wayne State University Press helped me to make this a better book than it might have been. Ralph Berger, a dear friend and the coauthor of his own parents’ memoir, With Courage We Shall Fight, inspired and encouraged me throughout this project. Renée Kaufman generously shared with me her family’s story, in conversation and in the published history written by Rebecca Boehling and Uta Larkey.
Many of my colleagues at Florida International University read and commented on early versions of the narrative or assisted me in other important ways: my thanks go to Lynne Barrett, Heather Blatt, Nathaniel Cadle, Peter Craumer, Yesim Darici, Debra Dean, Vernon Dickson, Bruce Harvey, Marilyn Hoder-Salmon, Kathleen McCormack, Carmela McIntire, Asher Milbauer, Joyce Peterson, Heather Russell, Heidi Scott, Richard Sugg, James Sutton, and Donna Aza Weir-Soley. Kai Weir-Soley, to whom I told the story as he worked on a school project, reminded me of how valuable such a story can be to young people, especially to one as kind and sensitive as he. Térèse Campbell and Marta Lee, as always, provided outstanding staff support along with the care and interest that comes from years of friendship and working together. I am grateful to the English department and the university for awarding me emerita status, and to the College of Arts, Sciences, and Education for giving me a well-equipped office after my retirement, all of which enabled me to complete this book without distractions and with maximum access to university library resources.
Translators were essential to this project. I am grateful to Roland Pabst for translations from German, and to Olga Skarlat—my former student, now an attorney—for translations from Russian. Nissan Krakinowski helped translate the article in Der Tog, and Pearl Tucker assisted with Yiddish, as well, in early stages of the project. For the most part, my Yiddish translator was Rivka Schiller, an outstanding professional translator and researcher, whose expertise extended from published documents and handwritten letters to an important postcard, the scrawled Yiddish of which was nearly indecipherable. My dear friend Nurit Nahmani produced the simultaneous English translation of Moshe Kravetz’s in-person Hebrew interview. All of them helped me hear my lost family speak.
Almost finally, I extend enormous gratitude to my editors at Wayne State University Press—Kristin Harpster, Rachel Ross, Ceylan Akturk, Kristina Stonehill, Emily Nowak, and Jamie Jones—for giving me outstanding guidance and support at every stage and in every dimension of this project. Sandra Judd was a thorough, intelligent, and understanding copyeditor, helping to make my writing and documentation in this book the best they can be. Kathryn Peterson Wildfong was my initial editor on Eli’s Story and is now, deservedly, the director of the press. She was the editor on my last book, and she encouraged me to submit the proposal for this one. I am grateful to have been able to work with Kathy for so many years, and to have had the benefit of her wisdom for so long and in so many ways.
My nephew Ellis Rochelson keyed in an early draft of part of the transcript, and my son, Daniel Mintz, digitized the audiotapes so that I could transcribe them all as easily as possible. But, of course, beyond technical assistance, all of my family, as well as my friends, have brought joy to my life while I worked on a story that was often less than joyful. Robyn Armon Rochelson and Burt’s family—Dave, Ebonie, and Jack; Ellis and Emily; Jordan and Julianne; Jesse; Jenna and Jared, Lily and Brody—have kept me and Burt going with encouragement and inspiration. My mother-in-law, Eleanor Mintz, exemplifies all that is good in a very long life, and I am grateful to her as well as to my late father-in-law, Samuel I. Mintz. Joel Mintz shares my life and has shared this story, and, in this project as always, has buoyed me with his love and support. My son and daughter, Daniel and Serafima Mintz; my daughter-in-law, Sarah Allison; and my grandchildren, Sam and Karl, are my greatest blessings. With them, I know I can achieve anything.
I dedicate this book to the youngest descendants of Eli G. Rochelson and to those who will follow.
So I end where I began, with Pearl and Eli, whose love and whose own determination created and nurtured a new family, and who gave me the strength and the skills to complete this book.
And with Burt, who has been by my side throughout, and who shares Eli’s story.