Samuel Mindel, my grandfather, was the seventh child of Schene and Yitzhak Mindel. His eldest brother Hymie (whom I never met) wrote an autobiography in his old age.
It contains just three sentences about the Holocaust:
After the war, when Jews everywhere tried to trace their relations in Europe, it was found that all our families in Poland, Lithuania and France had been annihilated. Only one cousin, Dina, out of 108 close Goldwasser relatives, survived and now lives in Israel, and many years after the War, cousin Hirsch, the brother of Yossel, contacted us after being released from a labor camp in Siberia. And so back to the Mindel life together.
After these three sentences, Hymie casually sidesteps to the story of his son’s bar mitzvah.
He gives a glimpse of the Holocaust’s impact on his family while also saying nothing meaningful about it.
The third sentence in particular feels haunting to me: “And so back to the Mindel life together.” It’s almost as if Hymie felt an obligation to write about the past – but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
As a result, his autobiography asks more questions about the Holocaust than it answers.
Samuel Mindel, my grandfather, was the seventh child of Schene and Yitzhak Mindel. His eldest brother Hymie (whom I never met) wrote an autobiography in his old age.
It contains just three sentences about the Holocaust:
After the war, when Jews everywhere tried to trace their relations in Europe, it was found that all our families in Poland, Lithuania and France had been annihilated. Only one cousin, Dina, out of 108 close Goldwasser relatives, survived and now lives in Israel, and many years after the War, cousin Hirsch, the brother of Yossel, contacted us after being released from a labor camp in Siberia. And so back to the Mindel life together.
After these three sentences, Hymie casually sidesteps to the story of his son’s bar mitzvah.
He gives a glimpse of the Holocaust’s impact on his family while also saying nothing meaningful about it.
The third sentence in particular feels haunting to me: “And so back to the Mindel life together.” It’s almost as if Hymie felt an obligation to write about the past – but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
As a result, his autobiography asks more questions about the Holocaust than it answers.
Hymie Mindel’s autobiography is a rare English-language record of Jewish life in Anyksciai before World War Two and the Holocaust.
Hymie Mindel’s autobiography is a rare English-language record of Jewish life in Anyksciai before World War Two and the Holocaust.
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Schene Mindel (nee Rogoff) was herself one of seven children. Of them, five left Anyksciai around the early 1900s. She and her brother William (born Israel Velvel Zev) went to South Africa. Three other brothers, Abraham, Michael, and Samuel, went to the United States.
Schene Mindel (nee Rogoff) was herself one of seven children. Of them, five left Anyksciai around the early 1900s. She and her brother William (born Israel Velvel Zev) went to South Africa. Three other brothers, Abraham, Michael, and Samuel, went to the United States.
Schene also had two sisters – Chaia and Riva – who stayed in Anyksciai. They and their families were murdered in the Holocaust, around 19 people altogether. They included Schmuel and Shlomo Rapoport, Shifra and Wolf Niedzwiecki, and Cyvia Ferdynant, all of whom were children – as well as a baby born to Etel and Rachmiel Apriarski just as the War began.
And this is only the maternal side of my grandfather’s family. To date, I haven’t been able to find out anything about Yitzhak Mindel’s family, although I know from Hymie’s memoir that he had at least one sister, Dina, who presumably lived in or near Anyksciai.
Below is a simplified family tree of Shifra and Joseph Berman (my grandfather’s maternal grandparents). It’s a visual guide to show what happened to their descendants. The highlighted names are those who were murdered.
Schene also had two sisters – Chaia and Riva – who stayed in Anyksciai. They and their families were murdered in the Holocaust, around 19 people altogether. They included Schmuel and Shlomo Rapoport, Shifra and Wolf Niedzwiecki, and Cyvia Ferdynant, all of whom were children – as well as a baby born to Etel and Rachmiel Apriarski just as the War began.
And this is only the maternal side of my grandfather’s family. To date, I haven’t been able to find out anything about Yitzhak Mindel’s family, although I know from Hymie’s memoir that he had at least one sister, Dina, who presumably lived in or near Anyksciai.
Below is a simplified family tree of Shifra and Joseph Berman (my grandfather’s maternal grandparents). It’s a visual guide to show what happened to their descendants. The highlighted names are those who were murdered.
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In the introduction to Resisting Nazism, I mention two pages of a lost autobiography by my grandfather. You can see them below.
Most likely he wrote the autobiography in Oxford, England, which is where he and my grandmother Merle lived in retirement from 1997 until their deaths in 2006 and 2022 respectively.
In the introduction to Resisting Nazism, I mention two pages of a lost autobiography by my grandfather. You can see them below.
Most likely he wrote the autobiography in Oxford, England, which is where he and my grandmother Merle lived in retirement from 1997 until their deaths in 2006 and 2022 respectively.
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Samuel and Merle left South Africa for England in 1966 with their three young children in tow. Samuel went on to work as a radiologist at hospitals in London, including the Royal Free and Ashford. He lived to be a grandfather of six.
Samuel and Merle left South Africa for England in 1966 with their three young children in tow. Samuel went on to work as a radiologist at hospitals in London, including the Royal Free and Ashford. He lived to be a grandfather of six.